My Problem With Moon Called
Feb. 5th, 2013 01:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
a_sporking_ratAs 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.
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.
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no subject
Date: 2013-02-06 08:56 am (UTC)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.)
no subject
Date: 2013-02-06 03:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-02-06 08:52 pm (UTC)*Not that rape can't/doesn't happen to men as well, but the fact it's a social problem that happens so overwhelmingly to women that for most men it's more 'something I intellectually know can happen to me but don't think about' whereas for women it tends to be 'something that I *have* to think about whenever I leave my house alone, go somewhere 'bad' at night, am at a party with uncovered drinks, etc.'
no subject
Date: 2013-02-06 10:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-02-06 10:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-02-06 11:06 pm (UTC)You win.
no subject
Date: 2013-02-07 12:14 am (UTC)....And I take it back. I'd read that book at least three times and recommend it to friends.
no subject
Date: 2013-02-07 12:10 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-02-07 11:49 am (UTC)(I've actually toyed with the idea of writing a high fantasy story where the heroine is a badass tax collector. It seems only fair. Everyone is all for castles and armies, but what of the unsung heroes who make sure that there's money to pay for those things? ;) )
no subject
Date: 2013-02-07 12:10 am (UTC)I'm torn on the issue of rape in fantasy. On the one hand, it's everywhere and done poorly. And yeah, you'd think it'd be less likely in a mostly non-human environment. But as part of someone's story, it could be done well, thoughtfully, and compellingly. It just isn't done that way, though, so I'd rather most authors stay the hell away from it. (And, honestly, when I say that it could be done well, thoughtfully, and compelling, I'm thinking about fanfiction. And even there, that's the exception rather than the norm. So take that opinion with a canister of salt.)
no subject
Date: 2013-02-07 11:06 pm (UTC)I agree. The frequent and gratuitous use of rape in fantasy book just drives that nail in deeper. It says to readers, “It doesn’t matter if this story takes place in a fantasy world. The female (and it’s mostly female) characters will always have to worry about rape, will always have to watch out for it, just like women in the real world have to, because of REALISM. Because rape is something that happens to a lot of women, therefore *every* single fictional female character should encounter it at some point.” Even though there are countless women in the real world who have *never* been raped or threatened with rape or suffered any kind of molestation or sexual assault. No, for some reason, in a lot of fantasy, rape is the quintessential female experience, is just “something that happens to women.”
Strangely, I’ve never seen anybody clamor for countless scenes of urination in fantasy books despite the fact that urination is even more true to real life than rape is, because literally every person does it and on a daily basis, no less. If an author repeatedly wrote scenes of urination in graphic detail just to be realistic, I doubt that many people would be as willing to defend him/her. Why? Because urination, along with defecation, is widely viewed as disgusting and gross. Well, guess what, rape is also disgusting and gross. But for some reason, many authors just can’t stop themselves from describing it in lurid detail or using it as a plot device.
no subject
Date: 2013-02-08 09:54 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-02-07 11:59 pm (UTC)Nothing can strike fear and terror into a supernatural community quite like an IRS audit. "Oh you've been collecting revenues from procuring young runaways as vampire food? I hope you have all your receipts in order because you are late on your taxes for the past 50 years. At least. I'm going to need my calculator."