Author: Patricia Briggs
Series: Mercy Thompson #3
Genre: Paranormal/Mystery
Publisher: Ace
Publication Date: January 2, 2008
Edition: Digital
Source: Library
Purchase: Amazon US | Barnes & Noble | Books-A-Million | Bookshop | Kobo | Powell's |
Synopsis:
Though Mercy can shift her shape into that of a coyote, her loyalty never wavers. So when her former boss and mentor, Zee, asks for her help, she’s there for him. A series of murders has rocked a fae reservation, and Zee needs her unique gifts, namely her coyote sense of smell, to sniff out the killer.
But when Zee is accused of murdering the suspect Mercy outed, he’s left to rot behind bars by his own kind. Now it’s up to Mercy to clear his name, whether he wants her to or not.
Mercy’s loyalty is under pressure from other directions, too. Werewolves are not known for their patience, and if Mercy can’t decide between the two she cares for, Sam and Adam may make the choice for her.
But when Zee is accused of murdering the suspect Mercy outed, he’s left to rot behind bars by his own kind. Now it’s up to Mercy to clear his name, whether he wants her to or not.
Mercy’s loyalty is under pressure from other directions, too. Werewolves are not known for their patience, and if Mercy can’t decide between the two she cares for, Sam and Adam may make the choice for her.
******************
This one leaves me conflicted. On one hand, I really enjoyed learning more about the fae of this world, the mystery. I am really glad the love triangle was resolved in this book, it was getting out of hand and I was tired of it and it's only been three books. But on the other there were some narrative choices that I didn't care for in this book
This book is all the more evident as being a of a product of it's time. There are elements to this book that did not age well for me. 2008 was a very different time. The mystery surrounding who and why someone was murdering fae was over shadowed, for me, by all the violence that happened to not only Mercy, but also a teenaged girl in this book.
Jesse, Adam's daughter, being beat up by a group of MALE students from her school, and nothing happens to them. Like nobody gets arrested, and it was assault. Full-stop, and they more or less get away with it because Mercy has a talk with one of them with one of Adam's wolves present. That didn't sit right with me. And this was all after Mercy raped. A scene that was really hard to read because it wasn't all that clear what had happened until afterwards.
And I don't think that subject matter was handled very well, even for the time it was written. Yes, they did make a point to repeatedly say that it wasn't her fault. But I don't really like how it kept being pushed that "she wasn't a victim", thing. I know this is a contentious subject even now, but it feels like it's shaming a woman for stating "I'm a victim of rape" over "I'm a rape survivor"... both are valid and correct statements, but it felt like the book was saying one over the other was better.
There was also a mention of Mercy's foster father taking his own life, and how that made him selfish.... that is also something that, again how much this book is a product of it's time, wasn't handled well. We know so little about his character from before Mercy started living with him but it still undermines mental health struggles.
And with all that, I also have to question Brigg's heritage, I have found nothing that mentions anything about whether she is or isn't Native. She made a decision to have Mercy be a Native Woman... and some of the decisions she made writing this into her character leave me wondering why she chose to write it that way. Again, I have to keep reminding myself that this series is about 20 years old. Yet, there's things she didn't have to write that way, that I can't help but think she wouldn't write that way had the character just been white. Namely, having her character state multiple times that she wasn't pretty or beautiful because her features didn't match her coloring (Mercy states at one point that she has her white mother's features, but her native father's coloring and that some how makes her not pretty/beautiful...?) just seems like an odd thing to write.
This book is all the more evident as being a of a product of it's time. There are elements to this book that did not age well for me. 2008 was a very different time. The mystery surrounding who and why someone was murdering fae was over shadowed, for me, by all the violence that happened to not only Mercy, but also a teenaged girl in this book.
Jesse, Adam's daughter, being beat up by a group of MALE students from her school, and nothing happens to them. Like nobody gets arrested, and it was assault. Full-stop, and they more or less get away with it because Mercy has a talk with one of them with one of Adam's wolves present. That didn't sit right with me. And this was all after Mercy raped. A scene that was really hard to read because it wasn't all that clear what had happened until afterwards.
And I don't think that subject matter was handled very well, even for the time it was written. Yes, they did make a point to repeatedly say that it wasn't her fault. But I don't really like how it kept being pushed that "she wasn't a victim", thing. I know this is a contentious subject even now, but it feels like it's shaming a woman for stating "I'm a victim of rape" over "I'm a rape survivor"... both are valid and correct statements, but it felt like the book was saying one over the other was better.
There was also a mention of Mercy's foster father taking his own life, and how that made him selfish.... that is also something that, again how much this book is a product of it's time, wasn't handled well. We know so little about his character from before Mercy started living with him but it still undermines mental health struggles.
And with all that, I also have to question Brigg's heritage, I have found nothing that mentions anything about whether she is or isn't Native. She made a decision to have Mercy be a Native Woman... and some of the decisions she made writing this into her character leave me wondering why she chose to write it that way. Again, I have to keep reminding myself that this series is about 20 years old. Yet, there's things she didn't have to write that way, that I can't help but think she wouldn't write that way had the character just been white. Namely, having her character state multiple times that she wasn't pretty or beautiful because her features didn't match her coloring (Mercy states at one point that she has her white mother's features, but her native father's coloring and that some how makes her not pretty/beautiful...?) just seems like an odd thing to write.
I do want to keep reading this series, I'm just going to take a small break. I have a bunch of NetGalley books to get to, and I want to, and need to, read my owned books.
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