Jenny Reviews: Moon Called by Patricia Briggs

The Vitals

Moon Called by Patricia Briggs
Release Date: 31 January 2006
Page Count: 288
Genre: Paranormal Fantasy
Target Audience: Adult
Series: Mercy Thompson #1
Source and Format: Purchased; e-book

Summary (From Goodreads)
Mercedes "Mercy" Thompson is a talented Volkswagen mechanic living in the Tri-Cities area of Washington. She also happens to be a walker, a magical being with the power to shift into a coyote at will. Mercy's next-door neighbor is a werewolf. Her former boss is a gremlin. And she's fixing a bus for a vampire. This is the world of Mercy Thompson, one that looks a lot like ours but is populated by those things that go bump in the night. And Mercy's connection to those things is about to get her into some serious hot water...

Notes on Moon Called
(This review is actually going to focus on the series as a whole, rather than me reviewing all 8 books that are currently out. You're welcome.)

This series is so refreshing. I am a big fantasy fan and I enjoy paranormal fantasy, but it is so blasted hard to find stories that don't rely on sex and foul language and characters who think very highly of themselves to capture your attention. Patricia Briggs is a breath of fresh air. Mercy & Co. are down to earth and relatable. I mean, think about it for a minute- it's a bit difficult to make werewolves relatable while still retaining their other-ness. Mercy is a mechanic who does not really care what she looks like. She is comfortable in her own (and her coyote) skin. She does not like cursing and often gets onto the other characters when they slip up. Speaking of other characters, secondary characters are fabulous. As a matter of fact, the secondary characters are actually my favorite part of the later books in the series. If you do not want to be best friends with Warren after the first book then something is wrong in with your head. As I've said before, I am a big fan of solid, well-written characters and this series delivers.

The world building and conflicts are also well planned. Most of the otherworldly creatures coexist with humanity just fine, so Briggs had to focus on culture building rather than world building. She balances the line between too much information and not enough information nicely. There are no rambling info dumps in an effort to tell a lot about the culture in a short amount of time. You are also not left to wonder how the heck these creatures work. The conflict she lays out in the first book has consequences that reverberate through the other books, which gives the series a sense of continuity that is sometimes lacking in long running series. You don't feel like each book is a vignette in a character's life; the events of one book carry over into the other books, as our decisions and circumstances do in our own lives. Briggs has another series- Alpha & Omega- which is also set in the Mercy Thompson world and ties into the plot at large nicely. (I love it too, though the first book was not my fave. I'm glad I stuck with the series though!)

Chief Complaint

I have two complaints and both are relatively minor. The first is that the covers of the books are a bit misleading. It makes the heroine out to be a bit more... flamboyant than she really is. The Mercy in the books does not dress like the Mercy on the covers of the books and does not want to dress like that. The second complaint is that the series is starting to drag. Some of the conflict in the later books is a bit flat, though I believe she is setting up plot lines for later books. Don't get me wrong. I like all of the books, I just don't like them all equally well. Where (for me) Alpha & Omega starts out slow and gets better and better, Mercy Thompson starts out good, slows down, hits a high note with #5, and then slows back down again.

 
Memorable Quotes
“Love thy enemies, it says in the scriptures. My foster mother always added, "At the very least, you will be polite to them.”

“Happiness is German engineering, Italian cooking, and Belgian chocolate.”

“I have a degree in history, which is one of the reasons I’m an auto mechanic.”

Overall Diagnosis
                        

Get a Second Opinion

• Jess from Gone with the Words - "Mercy, a strong heroine. Adam, the alpha who completely intrigued me from the get go. The world building, which I’m guessing we’ve only seen a bit of, was totally magical. The plot was mysterious and exciting. The secondary characters had so much character, they completely cemented my feelings on how much I will enjoy the rest of this series." 
• Daniela at Lit Snit- "At times, I forgot I was reading fiction and caught myself thinking how cool it would be if the History Channel did a doc on these werewolves."