Kitty's Big Trouble, by Carrie Vaughn

I want to catch up on some of the books I've read during the last four months. I won't be able to write in depth about most of these books because it's been too long. This may be more of a series where I talk about what I think about when I think about these books. If that makes sense.

This is the third in that series of posts.

I read Kitty's Big Trouble back in July. I've been reading Carrie Vaughn for the last five years and Vaughn has maintained my interest and excitement from the first book. Kitty's Big Trouble is the ninth novel in the series and continues Vaughn's expansion of the scope of Kitty's world.

Kitty's Big Trouble opens with Kitty's belief that William Tecumseh Sherman was really a werewolf and her investigation into that, but it extends into San Francisco to get deeper into the looming war with Roman and is minions. Vaughn explores the depth of what Kitty (and the reader) knows of the supernatural in this world.

After all these months, what I most want to convey about Kitty's Big Trouble is that there is no drop in quality in this ninth Kitty Norville novel. Vaughn continues to deliver a fast paced, entertaining story which builds what the reader knows of the world while not neglecting the ever developing characterization of all the recurring characters.

When I stop to think about it, Kitty's Big Trouble reads as an episode in a television series. The novel itself is a singular episode which tells a particular story and has a beginning, middle, and end. Carrie Vaughn puts the story first and doesn't fail to tell a good one. But, the novel also succeeds in the context of the larger Kitty Norville series. Kitty Norville is not a static character, but rather develops based on experience. The Kitty readers met back in Kitty and the Midnight Hour is not the same Kitty in these more recent novels, though the journey is clear. Bit by bit, Carrie Vaughn explores this world which seems so similar to our own, if not for the presence of the supernatural. Kitty, like the readers, have only scratched the surface of what all is out there. This is the heart of the sense of discovery in the Kitty Norville series. Through the “Adventure of the Week” stories, Vaughn works the larger thematic, character, and overall series arcs to deliver a multi-layered experience.

Or: It's just good, y'all.

Kitty Steals the show is due out in Spring 2012.


Previous Reviews
Kitty and the Midnight Hour
Kitty Goes to Washington
Kitty Takes a Holiday
Kitty and the Silver Bullet
Kitty and the Dead Man's Hand
Kitty Raises Hell
Kitty's House of Horrors
Kitty Goes to War

Kitty Goes to War, by Carrie Vaughn

Kitty Goes to War
Carrie Vaughn
Tor: 2010


Set within a framing device of one of those conspiracy theories that can be spun out from those late night radio talk shows (one of which Kitty Norville is the host of), Kitty Goes to War is, at its heart, about exploring a different aspect of lycanthropes and what the human impact is.

First, the framing device. On one night of her radio show Kitty explores the theory and rumor that “something weird is going on at the Speedy Mart” and asks for her listeners to call in and report what they know and what they have heard. This leads to a variety of reports of weirdness and also leads to Kitty and the radio station being sued for libel by the CEO of Speedy Mart (he was also mentioned by name on the show). The framing device is the investigation into Speedy Mart and the conflicts which ensue. This ties into a larger conflict and story arc which Carrie Vaughn has been dancing around for several books now. It’s the hint that there is something much bigger out there and that Denver is only a small part of that something which goes far beyond the personal conflicts.

Carrie Vaughn’s slow build of this larger conflict is well done and where she really succeeds is keeping her focus on the smaller personal stories. Framing device notwithstanding, Kitty Goes to War answers the question that has surely been asked over thousands of years or longer: Is there a military application to using werewolves in combat? Given that lycanthropy enhances strength, speed, and endurance, and also bestows an almost magic-like self-healing ability, the answer is assuredly yes. Of course there is.

Please note that Vaughn does not answer whether there *should* be, only whether there is.

Dr. Shumacher, originally introduced in Kitty Goes to Washington and still working for the National Institutes of Health’s Center for the Study of Paranormal Biology, contacts Kitty because there are three soldiers just returned from Afghanistan who need help. The soldiers are, one may have guessed, werewolves and to say that they are not coping well would be a drastic understatement.

Here Vaughn shines. The depiction of Kitty fighting to allow these soldiers a chance at true rehabilitation is touching, as is the varying brokenness of these men turned soldier turned werewolf who have given nearly all to serve their country. Vaughn’s portrayal of the soldiers each suffering from the same trauma but being broken in different ways is important. Vaughn handles this very delicately, but with assurance that she knows what she is doing and what she is writing about.

Despite the title, Kitty Goes to War is not The Great Werewolf War (though that story may come later) and it is not about werewolf soldiers in combat. Werewolf or not, it is a story about soldiers coming home and dealing with their trauma. It is about belonging and healing and hope. The heart of the Kitty Norville novels has always been the small personal stories and, typically, Kitty dealing with a situation that is almost out of her presumed skillset – except that each situation forces Kitty to struggle and grow and overcome. Kitty Goes to War continues Carrie Vaughn’s streak of writing excellent Kitty Norville novels and only leaves the reader wanting More Kitty Now. Alas. The reader must wait.


Reading copy provided courtesy of Tor Books.


Previous Reviews
Kitty and the Midnight Hour
Kitty Goes to Washington
Kitty Takes a Holiday
Kitty and the Silver Bullet
Kitty and the Dead Man's Hand
Kitty Raises Hell
Kitty's House of Horrors

Kitty's House of Horrors, by Carrie Vaughn

Kitty’s House of Horrors
Carrie Vaughn
Grand Central Publishing: 2010

What does a popular radio show host and the most famous lycanthrope in America do after she gets married in Las Vegas? If you are Kitty Norville, you accept an invitation to be on a supernatural themed reality show filmed at a palatial resort cabin in the wilderness of Montana. If you are Kitty Norville, this won’t be the two week vacation you anticipated. This is Kitty’s House of Horrors, the seventh novel from Carrie Vaughn featuring the midnight radio show host and werewolf.

By this point in the series Carrie Vaughn should be running short on ideas and Kitty’s welcome should be wearing thin. It is entirely to the credit of Carrie Vaughn that Kitty’s House of Horrors feels as fresh and new as the first volume, Kitty and the Midnight Hour. Through each volume and each “adventure”, Kitty Norville has grown in confidence and grown as a character, much as anybody might if put through similar circumstances. Kitty is recognizably herself, but the Kitty Norville of Kitty’s House of Horrors is much stronger and self-assured than the Kitty Norville of Kitty and the Midnight Hour. It is maturity and it is part of the success of Vaughn’s fiction. There is character development and Kitty is not Super-Wolf-Girl. She fears and she perseveres.

Where previous volumes had varying levels of conflict, violence, and deadly risk to Kitty’s life, Kitty’s House of Horrors takes the story to full-on survival horror mode. Suggesting that things do not go “well” in Montana would be a vast understatement. Kitty and the other participants in the reality show Supernatural Insider think they are going to Montana to convince a skeptic that the supernatural is real, but end up hunted to the death.

Carrie Vaughn does well with her entry into the survival horror genre. Kitty Norville brings humor and personality to a grim situation, but Vaughn doesn’t relent on the grim. Kitty is in a bad place and Vaughn gets that across.

Something of particular note about the series is that Carrie Vaughn took one of the more interesting characters of the first three novels and, because of his actions, took him out of commission for the next four books. I’m referring to Cormac, the bounty hunter of the supernatural and friend to Kitty. Next to Kitty, Cormac was the most compelling character of the first three novels and he’s been out of the picture ever since. In Kitty’s House of Horrors, Kitty’s husband Ben mentions that Cormac is up for a parole hearing. So, in the midst of Kitty fighting for his life, readers know that life in Denver hasn’t stopped.

Also, Carrie Vaughn continues to tease a larger storyline of a bigger supernatural conflict, one which Kitty may only be a small player in, whether she wants to or not. Vaughn has been slowly unspooling the nature of this threat while telling personal stories for Kitty. It is well done. Carrie Vaughn continues to impress and improve with her Kitty Norville novels. That there are three more planned is good news.


Reading copy provided courtesy of the Hachette Book Group.


Previous Reviews
Kitty and the Midnight Hour
Kitty Goes to Washington
Kitty Takes a Holiday
Kitty and the Silver Bullet
Kitty and the Dead Man's Hand
Kitty Raises Hell

Kitty and the Dead Man's Hand, by Carrie Vaughn

Kitty and the Dead Man's Hand
Carrie Vaughn
Grand Central Publishing: 2009


Kitty and the Dead Man’s Hand opens with Kitty Norville in a good place in her life. For a change. She, along with her boyfriend / fiancé Ben, are the alpha pack-leaders of Denver’s werewolf pack. Kitty runs things differently than her predecessor. She has a good thing going with Ben. Her radio show continues to be a success.

Kitty’s original plan was to eschew the big wedding that her mother might have wanted and just elope to Vegas. This is where the complications begin. The vampire Master of Denver requests that Kitty deliver a letter to the Master of Las Vegas. Kitty’s boss at the radio station comes up with the grand idea of doing a live / televised radio show direct from Vegas. All while she is supposed to get married. To make matters worse there is a gun show in town, in the same hotel Kitty and Ben are staying at. They run into bounty hunters (like Cormac is / was), vampires, a magician who might just do real magic, and a stage show which might just be lycanthropic in nature. Kitty and the Dead Man’s Hand is chock full of fantastical goodness.

Carrie Vaughn is not content to rest on her laurels with this series and just tell the same story over and over. Thus far she continually shakes things up and puts Kitty into situations she can barely handle on her own. That’s the thing about Kitty Norville – she is not a one woman wrecking crew. She struggles and gets in over her head. But, she is loyal to her friends and tries to do the best she can. There are also generally consequences to Kitty’s actions which affect and shape the world around her. Despite her lycanthropic nature Kitty isn't Supergirl. The series in general and Kitty and the Dead Man's Hand is stronger because of it.

What is really important, though, is that Kitty and the Dead Man's Hand is another fast paced novel which keeps the reader interested from the word "go". "Go", in this case, is Kitty looking at wedding dresses. Okay. Yeah. Not normally something that would interest me, but this is Kitty freaking Norville and it isn't like even looking at wedding dresses would possibly go smoothly. That's what I come back for. Things not running smoothly. If our heroine had things easy the reader would have a boring book.

The reader has anything but a boring book. The reader has another solid effort from Carrie Vaughn and in a series which maintains a high standard of excellence while taking risks. The threats here are varied and increase in scope.

Thus far in the series the scope of the danger has been fairly small and personal. There are threats to Kitty, her family, her friends. The stakes are big for Kitty, but would otherwise be considered small. This begins to change in Kitty and the Dead Man’s Hand. Near the end of the novel the stakes are quite dramatically increased as Carry Vaughn introduces something much bigger than anything in the previous four novels. A character asks Kitty if she's read any Lovecraft. It's not a casual question, though it is played off as such at the time.

I suspect the next volume, Kitty Raises Hell, will raise the stakes even farther. If the previous five volumes are any gauge (and they should be), it should be a good one. Kitty and the Dead Man's Hand sure was. It's a book you don't want to put down.

I'll confess it. I'm a fan of this series and of Miss Vaughn's work.


Reading copy provided courtesy of the Hatchette Book Group.

Previous Reviews
Kitty and the Midnight Hour
Kitty Goes to Washington
Kitty Takes a Holiday
Kitty and the Silver Bullet

Kitty and the Silver Bullet, by Carrie Vaughn

Kitty and the Silver Bullet
Carrie Vaughn
2008


Now with her fourth offering Carrie Vaughn is about to bring Kitty Norville full circle. Once a timid and abused werewolf who was exiled from her hometown of Denver for standing up for herself; Kitty Norville is a successful radio host who (over the course of the last three books) has found herself some confidence and a way to live. Now Kitty’s mother is sick and Kitty must return to Denver. Denver means facing her former pack leader Carl.

What follows is a novel showing the transformation of Kitty Norville in the face of threats to her life and her family. What follows is Carrie Vaughn telling a damn good story while never once relenting and letting her characters off the hook. All of Vaughn’s characters pay for their actions and nothing is as simple as a “yes” or “no” decision. There are consequences to coming back to Denver, and not all of them involve werewolves. There are consequences for Kitty’s behavior towards her family, for having left Denver in the first place, for her romantic relationship with Ben, for Cormac being in prison, for standing up to Carl in the first place, for involving the police way back in the first book.

One thing is perfectly clear. The actions in Kitty and the Silver Bullet will have consequences in the next book and again they won’t be simple solutions. Carrie Vaughn has put Kitty in a very different place by the end of this book and while it feels like an ending (on one hand), it is only a beginning and Vaughn is sure to complicate Kitty’s life again.

I’ll be along for the ride.