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Stray
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Rachel Vincent Grade: D Sensuality: Warm I've enjoyed many of the urban fantasies I've read, and am a fan in general of shapeshifting novels. |
But, when I saw that Stray weighed in at more than 600 pages, I silently groaned. Had an editorial hand prevailed and two hundred pages been trimmed, there might have been a good book here.
Faythe Sanders is one of a small number of werecat "tabbies", and after two others go missing, her father, who is also the Pride Alpha, orders her to return to the family compound from the North Texas campus where she is a graduate student trying to make it on her own. Charged with the task is Marc, a "stray" (a human male turned into a werecat after being bitten by one) who was once to have been her husband, that is, until she left him right before the wedding five years earlier. Faythe is involved with a normal guy now, and manages to hide her true nature, but Marc still "loves" her and is convinced they are meant to be together.
The Marc issue illustrates my problem with the book and the author's world building: the main point seems to be that jungle feline nature is all about territorial instinct...and nothing more. The author tells us that Marc is a sensitive guy because he cries, but then shows us differently; he behaves like a cat in a manger where Faythe is concerned. It's likely that Faythe really does love him as he believes she does, but he has no legitimate way of knowing this, so his bad behavior grew old very quickly.
Which isn't helped by the fact that Faythe is more stubborn than strong, something many authors get wrong. Between Marc's stalker-like jealousy, Faythe's almost perverse unyieldingness, so many secondary characters you need a cheat sheet to keep count, and all those extra pages signifying nothing, it's hard to work up, let alone sustain, much interest in the story's happenings. Most of the urban fantasy novels I've read are far shorter than this one, and I imagine there's a good reason for it. I can't imagine this author succeeding unless she cuts out the slog.
me too. That's what I have to say. I wrote my review up last night but
essentially I had the same amount of problems. Book too long and the main
character was so dislikeable. She reminded me of a rebellious teenage girl
and then I thought, no that gives teenage girls a bad name.
Jane -
I read it a while ago as a galley and had much the same reaction. I ended
up skimming to the end. I agree that Faythe was often foolish and stubborn
and the 'love story' was a bit too forced (pun intended). I even got
annoyed with how she portrayed this were-feline culture. It felt like
she'd taken werewolf culture and changed the species. Felines are
different then lupine in their behavior and I didn't believe her
world-building because of it. All of that being said, how crazy am I that
I'll probably still pick up the second book? I guess I blame much of this
on first bookitis and the need to introduce the world. If book two is
equally annoying, I'll be done.
Jane #2 -