My Problem With Moon Called

[a_sporking_rat]

As promised, here is a post on Moon Called, the first installment of the Mercy Thompson series by Patricia Briggs. The protagonist, Mercedes “Mercy” Thompson, is a coyote shifter who was raised in a werewolf pack. Besides werewolves and other types of shifters, her world contains vampires, witches, and various types of fae. Only the fae, however, have been publicly revealed. The worldbuilding and plot is decent to good, and while her versions of supernatural beings are not, just from what I can tell from the first book, the most original takes on them, there are still some unique enough aspects to them. There was sufficient action, the villain did terrible things but for a very understandable reason (both of which I count as good things for a bad guy), and Mercy’s involvement was a choice, she didn’t just get thrown/forced into it, which is also something I always prefer (I mean, she was sort of thrown into it with the body being tossed on her doorstep, but she still chose to get involved in finding the culprit). As far as the romance goes…well, romance is always the part of books I enjoy least just because it interests me the least, but I feel like it’s not just that putting me off the love interests in this novel. I really think they both do suck, both for her and in general. Overall though, it was alright and I found it worth my time to read. There's only one big thing I had a problem with, and, this LJ being the type it is, I am going to wax on that one problem extensively. This is a snark LJ, folks, not a praise LJ. Good things may get mentioned, but only bad things warrant their own posts.

The one thing I really have a problem is the women. It’s not Anita Blake levels of bad, but it’s enough that I noticed and got tired of it. Probably the best part to start is that female werewolves are really rare because far fewer females than males survive the Change and become “moon called”. No reason is ever given for this, and it’s something that I think really needs a reason that isn’t It Just Is. If a reason is given later in the series, I really hope that it isn’t because men are generally physically stronger, as that actually wouldn’t make sense for a lot of reason, both in-universe and in-general. Women who are werewolves cannot have babies; they miscarry due to shape shifting, and human women who are pregnant by a werewolf will miscarry half the time as well because their baby is either a human like them or a werewolf like the father and they can only carry the former. This is why all the women in the pack that Mercy was raised in, both the ones who are werewolves themselves and the ones who are married to the male werewolves, hate Mercy. Yes, all of them, according to her. Every single one. And we don’t meet one who proves her wrong in this. Because Mercy isn’t a werewolf, she’s a walker, so she could successfully carry a baby, even one fathered by a werewolf.

The pack she was raised in is a huge community. There’s SEVENTY werewolves plus their families. Are you seriously telling me that every single woman decided to despise Mercy since childhood because she can have babies and they can’t. I could buy that from one. Maybe even a few. But all of them? ALL OF THEM? Including the human wives, who make up the bulk of the women in the pack, who can have kids they just miscarry half the time? Well, not “just” miscarriage, there’s nothing “just” about a miscarriage, but you know what I mean. They’re hostile to the point that one of them tries to physically hurt her in wolf form just because there’s an opportunity to do so, and it’s implied she’d kill Mercy if she could get away with it. All over her reproductive ability being better than theirs. Do I really need to spell out what’s offensive about that?

No werewolf and/or pack women are important in any way either. None add anything to the story, and none get much more than a moment onscreen, usually in the context of being hostile to Mercy. This holds true for women in general in the book; they’re not all hostile, but they’re all only onscreen once each (except for one, Jesse, and I’ll get to her shortly) and most are either forgettable and inconsequential, or, if important and powerful like the vampire leader or Eliveta the witch, don’t ever actually do anything important or powerful on-screen, we’re just TOLD that they’re big cheeses with major magical mojo, but we never see them in action, and the vampire lady actually ends up being entirely ineffective and is driven off by Mercy’s holy item easily enough.

While she has female enemies, Mercy doesn’t seem to have female friends, unless you count Jesse, but she’s a teenager, not a peer. We get to meet FIVE male friends of Mercy (Stefan, Zee, Warren, Kyle, Tony) as well as her father figure (Bran) and two love interests (Adam and Samuel). After the plot gets rolling, at least one of four men (Adam, Samuel, Stefan, Zee) are always onscreen alongside Mercy and in important roles. The only other female who appears more than once and could truly be called important to the plot is Jesse, Adam’s human fifteen year old daughter from his previous marriage, and that’s because she gets kidnapped. Yup, Jesse shows up long enough for her to have a face and personality for the reader, then spends the rest of the book kidnapped until at the end when Mercy rescues her. There’s even a bunch of creepy sexual vibes towards the helpless tied-up Jesse from the men guarding her that Mercy observes while spying on her captors, because no UF novel is complete without at least the threat of rape.

And I just downright sighed and rolled my eyes when we find out in the wrap-up that apparently Adam’s ex-wife is this terrible woman who hurts him on purpose and tries to make him feel like an animal and guilts him with her miscarriages that she suffered from carrying werewolf babies, and also she’s an awful mother to Jesse because she left her all alone at home one time to go to Vegas without telling her where she was going and one of her boyfriends tried to climb into Jesse’s bed with her when she was twelve…which is somehow the ex-wife’s fault, because, as we know, child molesters always announce to a woman on the first date what they are and that their motive for going out with her is to get at her kid. I really, really hate the ‘ex of the love interest is a horrible harpy’ trope, okay?

This, however, is really the only big flaw of the novel for me and is the only thing that really bothered me that wasn’t some small nitpicky thing that was isolated to one page. If you can enjoy the book in spite of this and you liked the basic concept of the Anita Blake books (supernaturals are real, protagonist with supernatural abilities that is still low on the food chain in the supernatural world, mystery and action) I would definitely recommend picking it up. I admittedly don’t plan to read the rest of the series, not because of the gender issues but because Mercy and her world just didn’t engage me enough (I really like what we saw of the vampires, though, they were creepy). However, if you give them a try, you may well find a chord struck with you that didn’t hit for me.

Comments

[grackles.livejournal.com]

Good analysis. Yeah I couldn't read those books either, and for the same reasons.

[rodentfanatic.livejournal.com]

Oh good, I'm glad I'm not the only one that had this issue. I know this is a pretty popular series and it came well-recommended, so I'm a bit worried this might raise a few more hackles than sporking Anita Blake does. Still, I felt it had to be said.

[wanderingworlds.livejournal.com]

I've read all of the Mercy books (through Rivermarked) and the Alpha and Omega spin-off series (need to read Fair Game). It does come out that most of Mercy's "all the women hate me" is mostly because she felt like a freak in the pack, and even if Bran did what he could to help with that (and in effect, Samuel, too), the rest of the werewolves only could after Mercy accepted their dominance. (Because wolf > coyote in the wild, bigger.) The only female I remember legitimately hating on Mercy is Bran's mate, Leah. But that's because Leah pretty much has tons of issues and hates all females? Bran's original mate was a Salish woman (Charles' mother) who died giving birth to him. And after several hundred years (or something) his wolf decided he needed a new mate, but Bran doesn't want one. So Leah is the wolf's mate, and technically Bran's wife, but Bran doesn't love her. He just respects her. So she's got issues.

Considering most urban paranormal series, I loved Briggs' version because the romance--while it's there, and plays a part--it's at least subdued. Not as much as Kat Richardson's in the Greywalker series, but lots more than others I've read. (I also appreciate that she always "fades to black" when it comes to sex scenes. I end up skimming those anyway, because they don't interest me.)

As for the whole Change, and why there aren't a lot of women. The Change has to pretty much kill them in the first place, so even a lot of men don't make it. But after that, the wolf/human side of the two souls have to come together and agree, and be compatible. And if that doesn't happen, they go crazy. And their pack leader (or Bran in the Aspen Creek pack, or Charles if it doesn't happen in outside packs) has to "put them down" before they endanger the rest of the pack family. So it's less physical strength, as a combination of physical/mental. And a lot of werewolf men are just hesitant to change women anyway because of the lack of being able to have children, and most women don't want that anyway. So it just doesn't happen often.

Mercy gets along better with the female in Adam's pack (Honey) in later novels, as well as a fae that comes in. But generally, there aren't a lot of females in her life, no. But she does get a older sister/younger sister thing going with Jessie which is nice to see. Mercy's mother did just dump her on Bran's pack because she couldn't deal with the coyote-shifting (which is semi-legit), and then her surrogate step-mother hated her (Leah). So that would color any kid's idea of female relationships.

/Devil's Advocate role

[a-sporking-rat.livejournal.com]

It is good to know this, actually! I still probably won't read the rest of the series because, as I said, nothing really grabbed me about it, but I think it's a pretty neat subversion for the all-too-common All other Women Suck/Hate Me gig to turn out to be the result of the protagonist's own flawed perceptions versus the reality, not to mention way more realistic. A pity it didn't come out (to me, though I can be thick) in this first novel, I feel like the fact it came off as for real in this one could put a lot of readers off.

[subtle-shades.livejournal.com]

*arches eyebrow* To play the alternate Devil's Advocate...

1.) It does come out that most of Mercy's "all the women hate me" is mostly because she felt like a freak in the pack, and even if Bran did what he could to help with that (and in effect, Samuel, too), the rest of the werewolves only could after Mercy accepted their dominance. (Because wolf > coyote in the wild, bigger.)

That sounds & smells like a ret-con to me. Like someone told the author "Hey, this ALL women hate Marcy thing is Just Not On. Also, it's offensive. Also, you'll lose readers if you keep it up. So mitigate it, somehow."

And she did via the It Was All In Her Head trope. Which is a near cousin to the She Dream It All trope. It's a quick, easy way to fix a corner that you've written yourself into.

2.) The only female I remember legitimately hating on Mercy is Bran's mate, Leah. But that's because Leah pretty much has tons of issues and hates all females?

...Yeah, that's not an evil stepmother stereotype, at all. *is studiously not looking at the Wicked Witch in every fairytale ever or Adam's ex*

3.) Bran's original mate was a Salish woman (Charles' mother) who died giving birth to him. And after several hundred years (or something) his wolf decided he needed a new mate, but Bran doesn't want one. So Leah is the wolf's mate, and technically Bran's wife, but Bran doesn't love her. He just respects her. So she's got issues.

How does this possibly work with your who wolf & human soul must come together and be one thing later on?

And did Leah get a say in this mating crap? I mean, is this dub-con like Dragon Riders of Pern series or non-con as in, what Leah wants doesn't matter because the Wolves Made Them Do It. Can she even say no? And how does forcing a woman to marry you, have sex with you, raise your adoptive kid (and maybe your real one?) somehow equate to 'respecting her'?

And if Leah DID give some form of consent to the 'marriage' did she know going in that Bran subscribed to the One True Love model of relationships? Did he tell her up front that his dick needs a hole and his kids need a maternal figure and that's all she'll ever be to him?

Either way, that sounds offensive as hell. I hope she eats him.

4.) The only think I really solidly remember about the book I read was that there seemed to be a love quadrilateral in play. That spells 'romance' to me. (But yeah, the fade-to-black approach is one that I can firmly stand behind.)

[subtle-shades.livejournal.com]

5.) But after that, the wolf/human side of the two souls have to come together and agree, and be compatible. And if that doesn't happen, they go crazy.... So it's less physical strength, as a combination of physical/mental.

That seems to imply that women lack the mental/spiritual/emotional fortitude to deal with being a werewolf and thus go crazy and have to be killed. Like if ten men and ten women are infected and four of each gender survive, the narrative's rules postulate that the four men are more likely to survive the, uh, meshing period because women generally don't have the capacity. I could be misunderstanding the rules you've posted but, if I'm correct in my understanding, it's offensive.

6.) And a lot of werewolf men are just hesitant to change women anyway because of the lack of being able to have children, and most women don't want that anyway. So it just doesn't happen often.

So, here's the thing. Being a werewolf in this 'verse seems to come with a form of immortality. And who wouldn't want their loved ones to live with them forever and ever?

And, issues of antiquated chivalry aside, it makes no sense for werewolf women to be less fertile than human women. Both you and aratfanatic seem to agree that human women have a lot of miscarriages because they can't carry a changing werewolf baby to term. Human women = human babies carried to term. So why wouldn't werewolf women be able to carry changing werewolf babies to term? It's the same concept, but in reverse. Werewolf women = werewolf babies carried to term. Therefore, regardless of whether or not you're a human woman or a werewolf woman, your chances of carrying a child to term should be roughly equal. (This assumes that neither the humans or the werewolves are mating with their own kind. That would obviously drastically increase the chances of a successful pregnancy.)

So women are theoretically being denied the opportunity to become werewolves and live practically forever because it would inhibit their ability to procreate. (Again with the state of a woman's fertility being all important.) But, logically, becoming a werewolf-woman should improve their chances of carrying a werewolf man's child to term or, if they're married to a human man, at least not reduce them beyond the chances of a human woman carrying a werewolf man's child to term.

So not turning women, letting them wither and die, seems like a cheap source of angst for the eternal youthful (and presumably somewhat handsome) men and an easy way to make Mercy Super Special... on biological grounds, rather than personal ones.

/alternate Devil's Advocate

[rodentfanatic.livejournal.com]

No problem! I hope you enjoy catching up! ;D

Yeah, I think that's definitely a worthy idea there. Though the above commenter says Mercy gets better/turns out not to be right about all the pack women hating her at least! Which is a relief to me, since the Other Girls Suck Syndrome is pretty common to UF from what I hear, as well as just fantasy in general, which blows because multiple diverse relationships between women is a huge FAVORITE THING for me...I was clearly spoiled by Sailor Moon in elementary school.

[subtle-shades.livejournal.com]

This explains so much. So, so much. And it's literally a new thought to me since I'd not mapped romances onto UF at all.

I mean, I still loathe the trope but I really enjoy knowing where it came from.

[mocha-latta.livejournal.com]

I think that the internalized misogyny of most UF protagonists definitely comes from trying to build a strong female character, which unfortunately instead creates a 'Strong Female Character'.

Female writers see a plethora of weak women in fantasy who just serve to support the manly male character, and so they don't want to produce yet another weak willed woman. In order to give their character authenticity as powerful, they have them reject their femininity, and since femininity is often tied with this, their femaleness. This all ignores that you can be a badass in heels; that you can be soft and gentle (if you choose to be), and still be powerful (but that's harder, because you have to navigate around 'traditional women's strength roles that reenforce stereotypes).

In short weakness= feminine= female= my character is better than those stupid guuurls, nyeah.

[a-sporking-rat.livejournal.com]

Yup, that's the feel I've always gotten, unfortunately.

[the-mome-wrath.livejournal.com]

A lot of UF authors seem to think that there can only be one Strong Female Character per book. This isn't Highlander. There can be more than one!

I wish authors would realize that there are ways to show strength other than by kicking all the other women down. Knocking over a straw man is not an impressive feat. There's plenty of ways to show inner strength, but that also requires being a skilled writer. Authors in many genres seem to think that the only way to make a female character strong is by making her reject that which is traditionally feminine (e.g. she doesn't wear dresses therefore she is tough). These characters are then praised for this. While it's fantastic to see more diversity in female characters, the problem is this also reinforces the idea that feminine = weak and the only way to become strong is by rejecting the feminine. It would be nice to see female characters carrying weapons or wearing jeans because their practical for the activity she's doing, not because she's trying to be the Special One.

[a-sporking-rat.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's how I explained the different between a feminist show and a show with a strong female lead to my dad, more or less---whether or not there's more than one strong female character and/or female character who is important, interesting, and fleshed-out. Especially if she's not pitted against the female lead.

And yes, ditto. I long for a UF heroine who is all about cutesy frilly outfits and it's wearing jeans while monster-fighting instead that she complains about!

[subtle-shades.livejournal.com]

I totally agree with all of this!

...And, as a side note, I never understood why hundreds of immortals all bought into the Kill People Because An Unknown Force Said To. But then, obedience has never been a strong suit of mine...

[nic echo (from livejournal.com)]

Reading all these comments made me start picturing this dolled up 50's style girl (in a dress even) holding a kick ass gun (or some sort of wicked weapon), and well, holding her own and kicking ass.

[a-sporking-rat.livejournal.com]

Write this.

[subtle-shades.livejournal.com]

I'd read this.

[subtle-shades.livejournal.com]

I read one of these books a few years ago... but I don't think it was the first one. It was like the third or fourth one. Also, I hated it with the strength of an exploding sun.

I HATED, LOATHED, and VEHEMENTLY DISLIKED the love interest and the way significant others were treated, especially the aggressive blonde one. (She was an alpha who had 'mated' (*pause while I hate on that term so, so much*) an omega werewolf and, because apparently all women are merely extensions of their men-folk, she was reduced not only to omega status, no she also had to obey her weak, weak husband without question or volition of her own for reasons. Reasons that were never, ever given save for BECAUSE IT IS SO! FEEL THE AUTHORIAL FIAT!)

Also, she hated Mercy. Mercy felt that was unjust. I felt that Mercy was being smug and unpleasant and really, really enjoying the blonde's suffering as a forced-to-be-obedient-to-everyone-omega, especially her husband. I felt that Mercy deserved the blonde werewolf's loathing.

Also, Mercy's boyfriend was all 'I must treat you like I am an abusive abuser' and 'You are my love interest! Also! My property!' and 'Once I start I cannot stop! Even though that is a myth, it is ALL TRUE for my werewolf instincts!' And Mercy, of course, was all 'He is sooo big and strong and hot! And being owned property, not as a kink thing but as a warning flag to a future abusive relationship, is so ridiculously hot.'

...and then I vomited in my mouth and skipped ahead a few pages.

Also, returning to the point at hand...

The author probably doesn't mean to do it, but it seems to me that Mercy is objectified by her author which strikes me as strange. I mean, it's unpleasant when it happens to second and tertiary characters and, yeah, I've read books where the authorial gaze was icky *II am looking at you George R.R. Martin and Piers Anthony. Also, I'm judging you.* but I've rarely read books where the main character is objectified by her same gender author. Points in fact:

1.) You said that EVERY woman in that pack hated Mercy for her ability to bear children... Thus reducing Mercys worth in teh narrative/that pack to her ability to successfully procreate.That's it. They don't hate her for being a clever, prank-puller. They don't hate her for her agency or for being the leader's bratty kid. They don't hate her for being an outsider accorded the status of the pack-master's kid. They hate her for being a (potentially) better breeder than they are. She is literally reduced to the usefulness of her uterus.

...that's a very empowered lens. And quite modern.

...Also, I have just read that you noted that in your sporking. So, uh, yeah! What you said!

[mocha-latta.livejournal.com]

"I HATED, LOATHED, and VEHEMENTLY DISLIKED the love interest and the way significant others were treated, especially the aggressive blonde one.... Reasons that were never, ever given save for BECAUSE IT IS SO! FEEL THE AUTHORIAL FIAT!)"
I was able to stomach this (and many other, similar things) by justifying it away as an issue of perspective.

"Okay, lady werewolves aren't REALLY inherently less than the male ones, that's just the pack applying their b.s. human social rules that are made even worse by the elders who come from a history with worse views of women AND have the strength to back up whatever the hell they want"

"Okay, Mercy only thinks she's an up-starter and troublemaker despite actually being really subservient to everyone because that's been drilled into her head since childhood."

"Okay, the book isn't glorifying abusive relationships, Mercy just thinks this way because of her upbringing"

"Wait, what? Female werewolves are expected to be raped if they don't have a mate? Even the children?... Maybe that's just Honey's experience"

I could do that until the author just came out and said in the book (the equivalent of) "LOL, NOPE! THIS IS THE WAY!" with the B.S. *magical obedience* thing that Adam could do from out of no where.

I'm not even going to BEGIN to get into the race relations of EVERY WEREWOLF being stronger and more dominant than the pesky Native shapechanger.

[a-sporking-rat.livejournal.com]

I didn’t cover it in this post because this one was just focused on the Other Women Suck issue, but I couldn’t stand how the love interests behaved here either. They fought over her like an object, one touched her in front of the other when he was wounded and couldn’t do anything just to piss him off, and neither seemed to respect her voice or agency at all.

Her past with Samuel was CREEPY. He was actually like 90 or something when she was fourteen and necking with him in the woods. I don’t care if he didn’t look that old, I don’t care if she swears he doesn’t act that old, that is MESSED UP. And her present with Adam isn’t much better. She finds out that he claimed her as his mate before his pack…and never asked her permission on this, nor told her about it later. Apparently he ‘had’ to do it because otherwise the werewolves would kill her for being a coyote in their territory, but that doesn’t excuse not TALKING to her about it. And at the end, when they’re on a date, he orders her dessert for her and she says normally she’d hate that but it’s okay because it’s something she likes. Uh, yeah. Normally the desert thing would seem petty to mention but considering how he spends the rest of the novel not giving a shit about her input, it’s telling to me.

[subtle-shades.livejournal.com]

2.) Female werewolves are extensions of their mates. (Again, I hate that word.) They lose their standing and gain/are reduced to his standing. (See above rant for a refresher on this point.) This is spelled out in the one Mercy book that I read.

3.) This imputed standing is also applied to female human mates... and to human men who 'take the female role' in a same-sex relationship with a male werewolf. While I am not a gay man, I strongly suspect that no gay man wants to be accorded the social standing of X's wife... especially when that role is considered lesser/subservient to the set of genitals that he was born with. And by the way, none of the werewolves or Mercy thought to tell the guy that he was his boyfriend's wife and thus subject to all of their weird cultural bullshit. Nor did they bother telling him that he was ranked a Second Class Packmate: Female. What about the humans that don't want in on their significant others' gang? I mean, they say there's a tithe to the packmaster to be in his special group but you know who else pays a 'tithe'? All those people in old time mobster movies who pay not to have their businesses burnt down. Yeah, through that lens, Bran/Adam is less of a strong leader and more of a murderous werewolf-godfather.

4.) And there's also this bullshit (in the novel I read) about how one of the gay guys is a lawyer who dresses like a flamboyant eyesore and how it's short-sighted of his clients/other attorneys to judge him for being so brightly colored and out of the closet. And I'm stuck thinking, "A, don't bring your sexual orientation's stereotypes to work. No one wants to know. You aren't that interesting. B, if they're judging him, it's NOT on the gay thing so much as the Dressed Inappropriately thing. By the narrative's descriptions, he's dressed inappropriately for his surroundings, meeting with clients, the office, and going to court. Of course, they're judging him and finding him wanting." And, despite what Mercy and the author seem to think, it's not discrimination when the people judging a gay man are completely uninterested in his desire to kiss men but vehemently opposed to (& judging him for) his hideous pink fetish-wear cowboy outfit.

5.) While I'm thinking about it, aside from the hostile blonde werewolf, there were no other women in the book that I read. None that I can remember, at any rate. I distinctly remember that the Creepy Sexy Timez between Mercy and Adam took place while Adam's daughter was away for the night... mostly because it seemed weird to me in the context of the narrative. (And I don't really remember why. Just that the entire date night struck me as weirdness that veered into creepy as hell.)

[nic echo (from livejournal.com)]

In reply to point #3: First off, I have not read any of these books. I plan to, but something tells me it will be a while as I am getting a bit bored of all the female led urban fantasy books. Anyway, about the gay thing. Um ... wtf?Excuse me while I get my rage in check. First off, most gay men I know would both consider themselves to be the HUSBAND. In fact, more than often when the word wife is used in a gay relationship, it is being used as a joke. It reminds me of when my room mate and I had been dating. Okay, we are not gay men, but she is genderqueer, and I am a transman. I guess according to Mercy Thompson rules, I would be the dom since I am a bloke while she doesn't see herself as either gender, but then again, we always said that I was the wife. Wonder how that would fit in MT's werewolf society? Okay, a little off track, but seriously, men rarely see one of them as the wife, and it's disgusting to make them choose, and it's also disgusting that the author is showing that is how gay couples work.

ETA: Now, you have me wanting to read these books more for the rage factor. I may still like the books though.

[subtle-shades.livejournal.com]

6.) Also, I disagree with you about Mercy being low on the food chain. I mean, yeah, SHE HERSELF lacks the power/ability/personality to rise through the ranks but you're failing to account for her status as an extension of her powerful men-folk!

For example, in the book I read Mercy stomps around and is a bitch to the only other woman that I remember her interacting with. She justifies that as being In Charge of her life and Being Better Than That Skank Over There... Except, she makes a point of mentioning that she is a small, lone coyote among giant wolves. They might want to hurt/kill her - and the blonde I ranted about earlier certain seemed to want to hurt her for being an unsympathetic bitch - but Mercy was raised as the adoptive daughter of the alpha (of the United States, I think). And, since women are extensions of their men-folk in this series, hurting her wold be like challenging them. Mercy doesn't have to rely on her own strengths or personality or cunning for her standing among the werewolves. She lives in the happy shadow of her adoptive father who will KILL anyone who lays a hand/paw/whatever on her. Something that the poor, blonde werewolf must take into account.

7.) Mercy's boyfriend, in the one I read, was also the leader of a smaller werewolf pack. Again, she got all access passes to werewolf stuff and to run her mouth & be threatening because, again, she is an extension of him and thus, he will KILL people who are mean to her.

8.) There is something about a vampire in a Scooby Doo mystery machine. Since the author doesn't seem to view/present him as a nutter, I dislike him on general principle. At the climax of the book I read, he shows up out of the blue and in the nick of time to help her... and KILL the meanies who were mean to her. (Is this a theme? I think so.)

9.) Also, as a matter of full disclosure, I *hate* the bastards getting away with murder because they're the Good Guys trope. HATE IT WITH THE STRENGTH OF A THOUSAND EXPLODING SUNS!

10.) What's UF without the threat of rape? It's not like men are ever not in the mood. Or decent-to-awesome human beings. Or not predatory sex machines. /snark

11.) I HATE the sounds of the ex-wife. It's awful that every ex ever has to be unpleasant and unreasonable and the WORST MOTHER EVER. Never mind that if she was really the worst, most evil thing to walk the earth, the courts wouldn't let her have custody, especially since Jess sounds old enough to have a say in who she lives with. If Jess is spending so much time at her mom's it's because she expressed some interest in being there.

12.) But if the Ex wasn't an Evil and Vindictive Harpy Who Doesn't Understand the (male) love interest's manpain where would the author shove the hurt/comfort? And the healing sex? And the magical cock/vagina? *tisks at you* You've got to think these things through, Rat-Lady!

13.) I have to admit, the narrative voice and the creepiness seeping in around the edges of it didn't appeal to me either.

....I'm still going to stand by my assessment, however.

(And yes, I had all the feels while reading your sporking. Possibly because you're the first person I've run across who read a Mercy book and *also* didn't like it. I was beginning to suspect that I was a minority of one.)

[a-sporking-rat.livejournal.com]

You’re right, she actually very much does have social power, which unfortunately does all come via attachment to men. :/

[nic echo (from livejournal.com)]

What's UF without the threat of rape?
You know, I am actually working on an UF series right now. Okay, I misplaced some of my notes so I'll be back to it once I tidy up my car. Anyway, I would be surprised if there isn't nods to rape and the like in my books, but I will also be working with demons, and sometimes it is in their nature. However, I have no intention of threatening my protagonist with it. I have to agree that is is very overdone.

[subtle-shades.livejournal.com]

Anyway, I would be surprised if there isn't nods to rape and the like in my books, but I will also be working with demons, and sometimes it is in their nature.

...I'm not sure why everyone and their cousin seems to think that. One of the schools that I attended as a child required us to read and discuss passages from an actual Bible. The text never shied away from who was raped and who was merely 'laid with.' Interestingly, the fall angels 'laid with' human women and produced offspring. Which is not necessarily the same thing as 'taken by force' at all.

[amiedoll.livejournal.com]

I remember having similar problems with moon called when I read it. I kept reading the series though and I actually enjoyed them, especially after the third one (the first two were a bit ordinary). Its been a few years now, but I do remember several really terrible things being depicted as actually terrible, and they had long lasting consequences for Mercy which I felt was realistic and well handled (I don't want to add spoilers in case you continue on with the series).
I think its really hard to write about werewolves (especially those with a dominance hierarchy) and not tread all over sexual stereotypes. I'd like to see it done right though :)

[rodentfanatic.livejournal.com]

but I do remember several really terrible things being depicted as actually terrible, and they had long lasting consequences for Mercy which I felt was realistic

That is good to hear, thank you! I love terrible things and consequences very much.

I too would like to see werewolves with a dominance hierarchy done...I don't know if right is the word, more like 'the way I would enjoy it' perhaps. Which I guess leaves it to me to write it one day since only I know what that is really XD

[wanderingworlds.livejournal.com]

I feel like 95% of the issues had with these books would've been cleared up if more than one of the books had been read. I think it's a little overwhelming to be the only source of knowledge.

My advice for someone reading these after going through this, is to go in as open minded as possible. Keep in mind that Briggs tried to incorporate as much wolf behavior into her werewolves as possible, too. She spent a while on a wolf reservation getting pack dynamics right before writing them. The power-plays and dominant/submissive issues are majorly taken from the wild. As is the fact that wolves are a predator of coyotes. (Which is why Mercy is looked down on.)

If you really don't like them, you could try to Greywalker series by Kat Richardson.

[rodentfanatic.livejournal.com]

I was actually going to ask you about that--you said that the werewolves are actually wolfish, so I was wondering just what you knew about wolves and what parts of these werewolves were specifically wolfish since I know...pretty much nothing about wolves at all beyond some very basic stuff.

...now I want to put my knowledge about rats to use and write all about wererats. Which will all behave absurdly like my fat, spoiled, domestic rats from living too much too long in human society.