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Book Review: Family Pack by Kali Metis

Cover art for Family Pack by Kali Metis

Family Pack by Kali Metis

Running Wild Press, 2024

ISBN: 9781960018878

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition

Buy:  Bookshop.org | Amazon.com

 

Family Pack is the second novel in this werewolf series, the first being Cure, previously reviewed here.  This is one sequel that matches up to the original and actually improves on it..

 

This time, the story runs three plotlines concurrently, with each chapter changing to a different thread.  The main thread still concerns Luna, the baker who happens to be a werewolf.  Her story involves her training to harness her powers, as well as working with members of the TLG (a werewolf advocacy group) to ensure that werewolves treat others as they would like to be treated, and find a place for themselves among humankind without bloodshed.  Of the other two plotlines, one is a straight history that explains how the werewolves came to be in their present situation, and the other is similar, but told from one person’s perspective, adding more of a personal element.  Surprisingly, in the story context the different plots and perspective changes are not confusing. One reason might be that, unlike in the last book, many of the chapters are longer, making the timeline shifts much less annoying.  The chapters in the previous book were all very short, only a couple pages or so.  Here, they are usually at least five pages or more, and it makes the shifts of perspective between chapters much less jarring.  You have time to get interested and involved in a section before moving onto another one.  Of the three plotlines, the overall history one might be the best, with Luna’s thread running a close second.  The third one, the personal history one, doesn’t match up quite as well, but it’s still decent.

 

The biggest change from book one to book two is that the first one was written in the third person perspective, while here, two of the plotlines (Luna’s and the personal history one) are written in the first person.  For some reason, it works MUCH better for the story.  Allowing the reader access to Luna’s thoughts and feelings makes her a much more interesting and readable character, and fits better with the overall tale.  It also helps explain some of her questionable decisions in a way the first book failed to do.  It feels like the author really hit her stride on this one.

 

I would have liked to see more dialogue to flesh out some of the lesser characters.  As noted in the prior review, this is a bit of a political book, with the two factions maneuvering back and forth for power.  But, on the TLG side, the reader mainly gets conversations between Luna and Birger, her instructor, while the members of the TLG council get shortchanged in dialogue and character development.  Much of the dialogue is reported secondhand, written along the lines of “I spoke to them, and they said that they…”  Considering how important this part is to the story, it would be great to have the other council members actually voice their opinions, as opposed to being told what they said in a synopsis.  The reader knows that there is dissent among the council members: we need to have them voice, in their own words, why they think the way they do.

 

Bottom line: a nice improvement on a story that was already pretty good to begin with.  Recommended.

 

 

Reviewed by Murray Samuelson

 

Posted on December 31, 2024 by , Reply

Book Review: Cure by Kali Metis

Cure by Kali Metis

Running Wild Press, 2022

ISBN: 9781955062312

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition

Buy:  Bookshop.org  | Amazon.com

 

Cure is an entertaining, fresh take on werewolves in today’s world.  It isn’t the standard “bite and claw” wolf-fest, but focuses more on their place in the present.

 

The plot is the best part, due to the nature and overall scope.  Luna Auber is an expert confectioner at a specialty bakery.  She has a normal life, except for the nerve problems and shaking she occasionally experiences.  Her brother’s suicide and last request lead her to Sweden, where she learns of her lycanthropic heritage, which explains her shakes– they’re the first step of her transformation.

 

The tale expands into a country-wide story involving two different werewolf societies, and that’s a big part of the book’s appeal.  This isn’t just one wolf or pack running wild, decimating an area.  Instead, the focus is the competing philosophies of the two groups, and how they believe werewolves should behave in the modern age.  Luna is the lens the reader sees both groups through as she learns more about them, and she  eventually has to choose a path.  This is a bit like a political thriller: it’s an unusual and intriguing way to write a werewolf story.

 

Luna’s character, with her unpredictability and her own doubts, drives the story effectively, She isn’t an anti-hero, but isn’t a fighter for justice either– at least not all the time.  She is emotional, impulsive, and makes some stupid decisions with her newfound abilities, like most people would probably do.  She sometimes uses her powers for her own benefit, without respecting the gift (or curse) she has been given.  This goes a long way towards making her a realistic character, and fits well with the overall narrative.

 

Some minor quibbles: the chapters are VERY short, and there is a lot of back and forth between two timelines in the first half of the book.  That might be good for the short attention span that so many younger people seem to have, but I found it frustrating.  There are also times where the sentences seem fragmented.  Tweaking that would have helped the flow of the reading.

 

Cure is a good story that takes the old  ‘howl at the moon’ model of werewolves and does something different with it. It’s worth reading. Recommended.

 

Reviewed by Murray Samuelson

 

 

 

 

Posted on December 22, 2024 by , Reply

Book Review: Saint Death’s Daughter by C.S.E. Cooney

Cover art fo Saint Death's Daughter by C.S.E. Cooney

Saint Death’s Daughter by C.S.E Cooney.

Solaris, 2022

ISBN-13: 978-1786184702

Available: Hardcover, paperback, Kindle edition, audiobook. ( Bookshop.org  |   Amazon.com )

 

 

Miscellaneous Stones, born into a family known for its violence in service to the crown of Liriat, is a teenage necromancer with an allergy to violence that opens “echo wounds” when violence is done or described. When her parents die, her family is left indebted to a banker’s family with connections to Liriat’s enemy, the Blackbird Bride.

 

Lanie’s sister Nita returns to renegotiate the debt, and does so by agreeing to work for the Queen of Liriat to kill all 24 of the Bride’s consorts. Nita has returned with an unwilling fiance, a gyrgard, who can shapeshift into a falcon and usually has a soul-bonded partner. The gyrgard, renamed Mak, attempts to poison himself rather than stay with Nita, but Lanie, unwilling to experience the echo wound that would be caused by his suicide, brings him back by calling on Saint Death, one of the 12 Lirian gods.

 

In order to prevent having his memories wiped, Mak swears loyalty to Nita, and they have a child, Datu, who is raised primarily by Lanie and Mak, while Nita assassinates the members of the Bride’s parliament. Finally, the Bride kills Nita, pronounces a death sentence on Datu, and tries to seduce Lanie into joining her court. Lanie, Mak, and Datu, along with the family revenant and the entrapped ghost of Lanie’s necromancer grandfather, flee to hide in the city of Liriat Proper to protect Datu.

 

In the city, Lanie, Mak, and Datu make truly good friends willing to help with their problems. Lanie also has a romance with Canon Lir, second son of the queen, and a priest to the many-gendered god of fire. Then Lanie has a serious echo wound in public that reveals their location to the Blackbird Bride, and Mak and Datu flee. Lanie has made a promise to her family’s revenant she must follow through, protect Datu, and bring down the Bride.

 

I know Harrow the Ninth is the big name in literary necromancers right now, and she’s a much more horror-tinged character, but Lanie is my favorite necromancer character ever. Compassionate and loving to the living, dead, and undead, sometimes unwise, she honors her goddess.The allergy to violence and refusal to enthrall others, and her relationship with Lir, make her unusual.

 

This is a long book, but with surprising twists, fascinating world building, great character development, and beautiful prose. Highly recommended.

 

Reviewed by Kirsten Kowalewski

 

Posted on February 25, 2023 by , Reply
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