Carey, Jacqueline: Santa Olivia
Santa Olivia (2009)
Written by: Jacqueline Carey
Genre: Science Fiction/Superhero
Pages: 341
I've read Jacqueline Carey before. I loved Kushiel's Dart, but being the odd duck I am, I never continued with the series, even though I have the next three books waiting for me on my shelf. Part of that oddness comes from the fact that I read Kushiel's Dart while I was a grad student, and at the time, I was trying to read as many new-to-me authors as possible, so even if I loved someone, I didn't always devour the rest of that person's work right away.
But that doesn't mean I don't want to. Sure, I've never been interested in Carey's Tales of the Sundering series, but I definitely want to catch up on the Kushiel series and its spin-offs. However, when I learned that she was doing something different, something potentially urban fantasy/superhero-ish, I had to get it. I had to read it. And oh boy, I think this is the first book that's really, REALLY got me excited this year.
The premise: based on the cover and the backcover blurb, you might think this is a superhero story involving werewolves. But oh, you'd be mistaken. It's much more than that, and if you're looking to satisfy a werewolf fetish by reading this, then look elsewhere. This is futuristic fiction, science fiction, a kind of dystopia. Loup (pronounced Lou) Garron's father was the product of a genetic experiment that was supposed to render him sterile, but surprise! He wasn't. He meets and falls in love with a woman confined in the Texas city formerly known as Santa Olivia, which is now barricaded and separate from the rest of the United States and Mexico. Loup, like her father, has inherited some of his seemingly super-human strengths, but more interestingly, she's inherited his ability to feel no fear. One might think she's just another kick-ass, bad-ass heroine, but she's not. Instead, this is a coming of age story that includes vigilante justice, boxing, and the hard, hard choice of doing the right thing, even if it means losing your freedom and getting yourself killed.
Review style: this will be another stream-of-conscious review, and yes, there will be spoilers. Sorry. But I loved this book too much not to be allowed to ramble some. If spoilers bother you, then skip the cut and start reading again at the section labeled "My Rating".
Save for the hiccup of the first couple of pages, where I didn't know if places or people were being described, this made for an amazingly smooth read. It's not like it's an action-packed text, with cliff-hangers at every chapter. But the chapters are well-paced, and almost always the length they need to be. The writing itself flows, so much so that put the book down and suddenly realize you're a third of the way through. I was kind of worried at first when we got Carmen's story first, of the soldiers she loved and her relationship with Martin, the "Wolf-Man," but that soon became a part of the beauty of the story. Loup's background came to us in a natural way, and you really rooted for her parents and her brother, even though you intuit that anything this happy won't last.
And it doesn't. Martin has to leave Santa Olivia to prevent getting turned in to the army (and therefore experimented upon and possibly killed), Carmen never recovers from one of the many waves of sickness that rolls through the town and dies, and Tommy, Loup's beloved older brother, you just know is going to die. And he does. And even though you know it's coming, it still breaks your heart.
You root for Loup because she's such an honest character, and because her desires are so straight-forward. A character without fear would, in the hands of another writer, become annoying and irritating because the entire book would be about that character doing really, really stupid shit and not being afraid. But Carey works on a much more subtle level. Loup can't feel fear, but she can feel everything else, even if it bottlenecks to the point of no release (like her tears) and you feel for her while you understand her, and in some cases, fear for her.
But the trick is, while Loup feels no fear, so the reader becomes a little complacent. Oh, you recognize that what she does during her appearances as Santa Olivia is dangerous and maybe a little stupid, but you don't care. You know that when she gets in the boxing ring and fights the man who killed her brother, she's going to be taken into custody and then god only knows what'll happen. But Loup feels no fear, so she accepts her fate as it is what it is. It's a beautiful kind of bravery, so the reader accepts it because Loup handles it with so much blunt honesty.
This works because Carey is a subtle writer. I remember feeling frustrated sometimes while reading Kushiel's Dart when Carey would be coy about describing (or rather, not describing) certain sex scenes, but here, in the third person POV, that ability to step back and let the reader imagine what's there as well as let the reader feel through the character, it just works.
And let's talk characters: Carey does a fantastic job with Loup, though I wish Loup had been physically described more often (I saw her as half Hispanic and half African American). I loved Loup's intensity, and I loved her relationship with Pilar, which was handled very well, very realistically, and was subtly erotic without being pornographic. Here, Carey's ability to be coy worked wonders, because the sex scenes we did get (and don't think for a moment this book is a romance. It's not, not by a long shot) told us everything we needed to know about the relationship and the characters. Tommy, as I already mentioned, was fantastically awesome and it broke my heart when he didn't believe Loup before he fought the ringer that was supposed to be Ron Johnson.
But the real masterpiece of characterization was Miguel Garza. I swear, when we met the older brother Danny, I thought this family was going to be nothing but trouble, that Tommy was going to die in the middle of a gang fight or something, and that it'd be Miguel who'd rat Loup out to the military.
But now. Carey develops his character beautifully, and his friendship with Loup is one of my absolute most favorite things about the book, hands down.
I loved the orphans and their plots to bring hope to the city of Santa Olivia. I loved their interactions with each other and Loup, and how amazingly devoted they were to each other. I loved Father Ramon and Sister Martha--the priest who wasn't really a priest and the nun who really wasn't a nun--the details of these characters were perfect.
And let's talk the setting. Santa Olivia is barricaded from the rest of North America because of plague scares, and the people inside stay inside and the soldiers keep it as a garrison because of the constant attacks from the Mexican rebel El Segundo. The people of Santa Olivia have lost their identity, their heritage, and it's because of that the vigilante scheme, as brief as it is, works so well. It's also the driving force behind the boxing plot, because the General has promised two tickets to the North to anyone who can beat his army prizefighters.
We get a few details that makes this book SF, and not in a OMG-SHINY-TECHNOLOGY!!! way. Hints that it's the future when we see the orphans working with stuff from our present that's old in theirs. The whole fact that Loup's father and his brothers are genetically engineered, and that Loup's a product of that engineering. It's odd, because I spent a while trying to classify this book in a genre that would best describe it, and it's hard. It's not urban fantasy, not by a long shot. There's nothing magical or fantastic about this book: everything has a logical explanation, and the Wolf-Man is a rumor spun out of fact. Loup doesn't fur out every full moon and go crazy. She's just superhuman due to genetic engineering and needs huge amounts of food to replenish her energy when she expends too much. See, simple? It's SF, but maybe a label that fits it better is Futuristic Fiction. That label doesn't demand too much from the reader in terms of expectations. It's fiction that takes place in our future (I always read that as immediate future, but that's me), and it's as simple as that.
I hope to hell this is the start of a series, or a trilogy at least. The end implies as much while also wrapping up the immediate story. I'd love to come back to this world, to see what Loup becomes as she learns more about her genetic heritage, as well as see what the characters back in Santa Olivia do, especially Miguel Garza. Oh please, bring back Miguel Garza.
My Rating
Keeper Shelf: I absolutely loved, loved, loved this book. It's an absolute must for any fan of Jacquline Carey's work, and for those of you who aren't fans because you're wary of any explicit violence or sex, don't fear. This book is ENTIRELY DIFFERENT from the Kushiel series, so take note. It's not urban fantasy or paranormal romance or even superhero-fiction. It's a dystopic SF (or futuristic fiction if you prefer) that has a splash of vigilantism and a whole lot of boxing and a story that'll sweep you right off your feet. The characters are fantastic, people you really want to root for, and the relationships--romantic, platonic, and fraternal--really make this book a winner. It's a fantastic read, and I really hope Carey continues with this series. This is my favorite read of the year by far.
Cover Commentary: it's simple and beautiful, if not a little misleading. It looks like a typical urban fantasy with the chick on the cover, but then, when you consider the superhero angle that's being marketed, you have to appreciate the effect of the trench-coat that looks like a cape. But really, once you get into the boxing angle and get to the end, you can easily look at it in a new light. The blue coloring is perfect, both from an aesthetic aspect as well as how it ties into the book itself. It's the cover that got my attention first, followed quickly by Jacquline Carey's name.