Title: Moon Called
Author: Patricia Briggs
Series: Mercedes Thompson #1, Mercy-verse #6
Rating Out of 5: 5 (I will read this again and again and again)
My Bookshelves: Paranormal fantasy, Strong women, Werewolves
Pace: Medium
Format: Novel
Publisher: Ace fantasy
Year: 2006
5th sentence, 74th page: Bran didn’t have a telephone at his home – or hadn’t when I left.

Werewolves can be dangerous if you get in their way, but they’ll leave you alone if you are careful. They are very good at hiding their natures from the human population, but I’m not human. I know them when I meet them, and they know me, too.

Mercy Thompson’s sexy next-door neighbour is a werewolf.

She’s tinkering with a VW bus at her mechanic shop that happens to belong to a vampire.

But then, Mercy Thompson is not exactly normal herself… and her connection to the world of things that go bump in the night is about to get her into a whole lot of trouble.

Mercedes Thompson is one of my all-time, all-time favourite literary characters. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve read Moon Called since I first bought it – it’s a great book to pick up when I don’t know what to read and every time I pick it up, I discover a new aspect of the story that I had previously missed. Mercy is a great mix of intrinsic toughness and independence, with a caring and compassionate centre.

The amount of detail that Briggs puts into her storyline and world is amazing. Mercy’s unique voice and way of explaining the world of werewolves slowly unfolds the complex social rituals of another species. The sass with which this information is delivered adds to the amusement and delight of this new world. The gradual unfolding of the world of werewolves alongside the greater story of death, mayhem and conspiracies was a great technique to impart a lot of knowledge without completely overloading my brain.

There are a lot of vampire and werewolf books out there these days – the literary world of paranormal fantasy and romance seems to have seriously expanded recently. So, finding a really independent voice and unique character is rare. So is finding a series that portrays vampires and werewolves as dangerous predators worthy of respect, instead of romanticised, misunderstood creatures.

<- Fairy Gifts Review

Star of David Review ->

Image source: Patricia Briggs