Kitty Goes to War by Carrie Vaughn
Several months have passed since Kitty Norville, “celebrity” werewolf and supernatural talk radio host, had her traumatic experiences with reality television in Montana, though the memories still haunt her. Back in the comfort zone of Denver, Kitty has her show and her pack to occupy her, and more distractions looming on the horizon than she really needs—or wants.
After Kitty does a feature program on the strange, ongoing supernatural occurrences at Speedy Marts, a chain of convenience stores, she finds herself facing a libel suit lodged by their mystically-shady CEO. While Cormac, former werewolf-hunter and Kitty’s longtime source on the paranormal, investigates the CEO for proof that her claims were not libelous, Kitty has her own situation to sort out…of the lupine kind.
Three werewolves, once part of Special Forces and now rogue, run loose through her pack’s territory, and the Army calls her in to help in handling the situation. But the wolves are not just dangerous targets to be taken out—they are also veterans and untrained in the ways that werewolf and human life can coexist. Rehabilitating the men might be difficult, but Kitty has to try.
Carrie Vaughn has absolutely outdone herself with this book. The two plotlines are fantastic and work together really well. She is also very good at never letting the action lag during the course of her books, and Kitty Goes to War is a prime example of this—the audience’s interest is never going to wane during a Kitty book.
Her “werewolf soldier” idea is one of the best I have come across in paranormal fiction recently; not only does it let her tackle some tricky, painful issues among real veterans and soldiers, it also lets her pay a lot of respect and homage to the soldiers suffering from post-traumatic stress and the other issues they face “coming home”, even if lycanthropy is not among them. She handles it tastefully and with a lot of care—this is fine writing, and a tribute to the men in uniform.
This series excites me, and every book probes just a little deeper into the paranormal world that Vaughn has created, gives a little more of the “what’s really going on behind the story”. For any other author, I would have to say that the artful crafting of her universe is what makes the books fantastic; in the case of the Kitty series, the plotlines and character development match the incredible world-building that Vaughn works into her books. These need to go on the “must read” list for any urban fantasy reader.
Book Stats:
- Mass Market Paperback: 352 pages
- Publisher: Tor Books; 1 edition (June 29, 2010)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0765365618
- ISBN-13: 978-0765365613
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Books in the Kitty Norville series in the order they should be read:
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’s Big Trouble
Kitty rocks! I love this series.
I would have actually preferred this one without the dual storylines, I thought neither were developed enough and would have liked to have had them fleshed out over 2 books. Still, I’m looking forward to the next release this summer.
I loved the book too. But I agree it could have probably been two books.