Vaughn, Carrie: Kitty's Big Trouble
Kitty's Big Trouble (2011)
Written by: Carrie Vaughn
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Pages: 307 (Mass Market Paperback)
Series: Book Nine (Kitty Norville)
Why I Read It: If you've followed this blog for any length of time, you know that Carrie Vaughn is a must-read author for me, and since the Kitty series was what introduced me to the urban fantasy genre in the first place, it should come as no surprise that I'm still nabbing and reading the books the instant they're released.
The premise: ganked from BN.com: Kitty Norville is back and in more trouble than ever. Her recent run-in with werewolves traumatized by the horrors of war has made her start wondering how long the US government might have been covertly using werewolves in combat. Have any famous names in our own history might have actually been supernatural? She's got suspicions about William Tecumseh Sherman. Then an interview with the right vampire puts her on the trail of Wyatt Earp, vampire hunter.
But her investigations lead her to a clue about enigmatic vampire Roman and the mysterious Long Game played by vampires through the millennia. That, plus a call for help from a powerful vampire ally in San Francisco, suddenly puts Kitty and her friends on the supernatural chessboard, pieces in dangerously active play. And Kitty Norville is never content to be a pawn. . . .
Spoilers, yay or nay?: Nay. Or, I should say that whatever spoilers there are, they're rather vague, so I wouldn't worry. However, I will talk abut the evolution of this series and how it compares to when it first came out, as well as the series arc, so if you aren't caught up, you may want to skip to "My Rating" to stay safe. Everyone else, onward!
For a while, I've been worried about the quality of the Kitty books. I don't say that lightly, because just, what, a year ago? Two years ago? I was claiming that of all the series I was reading in urban fantasy (at the time), the Kitty Norville books were my favorite. I worry I may have jinxed my own enjoyment, because ever since making that claim (which included my favorite paranormal romance series and my favorite paranormal YA), my favorites have taken a nose-dive in terms of engagement.
In Carrie Vaughn's case, it's this: the first four books of the series were tight. Focused. Guaranteed to give you at least one major surprise that would leave your jaw hanging, unable to believe Vaughn would do something like that. By time the fourth book came around, Kitty's story had rather come full circle, and the stakes were high. Kitty had so much to lose, and it was easy to imagine that she wouldn't leave that fight unscathed.
The first four Kitty books I would recommend whole-heartedly for their character growth and full-circle story arc. I really would.
But what happened afterwards was somewhat disappointing: the Kitty books starting reading a little more generic, a little more standard urban fantasy fare. Monster of the week kind of thing, except in this case, monster of the book. Erm, okay. It's not to say the books following haven't been GOOD. Book six, Kitty Raises Hell, was indeed entertaining and raised the stakes for the characters, truly making me worry about their safety, and while book seven, Kitty's House of Horrors was a monster of the week kind of thing, it was an interesting and excellent departure in tone, more of a horror feel than we were used to seeing, which made for a really compelling read. Again, the stakes were high.
Book five, Kitty and the Dead Man's Hand was the weakest in the series for me. It read like a bad Sookie Stackhouse novel in that suddenly every male Kitty ran into was INTO HER and wanted in her pants. Book eight, Kitty Goes to War, was a bit misleading in terms of how the title reflected the overall arc, when the story was quite stand alone. A nice read, but nothing special.
A nice read, but nothing special, is a good way to describe book nine, Kitty's Big Trouble. And it's easy to explain why.
1) While Kitty's Big Trouble focuses more on the overall arc of The Long Game, and Roman is heavily involved, I never once truly worried for the characters' safety. That sense of surprise and fear that drove every page of the first four books has utterly vanished, and it's never been so clear as it was in this book. I'll admit that part of the problem may very well be the fact I read the author's blog and I know for a fact more books are on the way (so I'm not worried for Kitty's life), and in the past, Vaughn has answered the fans' question about whether or not she'll kill Ben so that Kitty and Cormac can hook up. Vaughn's response, in short, was no. That things were far more interesting with Ben around. Okay, fine, fair enough. But I don't fear for his life, and that sucks the tension right out of a book where I should be very concerned about Ben dying.
2) The supernatural world has gotten too big. If you ever hear someone say a writer has overspent his/her strangeness budget, what they mean is that for every book (or series), there's only a certain amount of strange that the writer can pack into the book before the reader goes, "Okay, forget it. I'll buy THIS and THIS, but not THAT." And the tricky thing is that there's no definite line between strange and TOO much strange. It depends on the author combined with the reader. So a reader for Catherynne Valente should have a very high strangeness budget, whereas a reader for Carrie Vaughn might not have a high one at all. And in my case, I'm the same reader for both authors.
Don't get me wrong: Vaughn isn't doing what other urban fantasy writers aren't doing. You have a supernatural world, you explore it, you find new things, and you hope it all fits together. The problem is that, for me, the world had gotten too big and as a result, out of control. One of the things I loved about the first four books is that there was a tight focus, a sense of realism within the world Vaughn had created. Now, it's gotten stretched and expanded to the point where I'm getting frustrated, and it's not because it's overwhelming, per se, but because the world started out so tight, and there seem to be no boundaries. At this point, Vaughn can throw in pretty much anything from any fairy tale/folklore/horror story and let it wander loose in her stories. In a way, I feel a little bit like Kitty in this book when she learns about the true nature of Sun Wukong and Xiwangmu: it's hard to swallow in context of how you live your day to day life, but really, the real problem for me is that once you reveal THAT card, you can't get BIGGER. You can add MORE, but you can't add something bigger.
Or to be more precise: just because chocolate is delicious doesn't mean you need to add MORE of it when baking a cake. Too much will ruin the flavor and make you ill after eating.
Of course, following a recipe is one thing. Knowing how much chocolate is TOO much chocolate is different for every person. But I've reached the point where I'm no longer enchanted. I'm just waiting for Vaughn to break out the zombies (for the love of God, don't bring out zombies!).
3) I'm really not into this whole Long Game business. Like Kitty, I don't really know what it is, I don't know what's at stake, and I don't know how it effects these characters and the world at large. It's just too big, too broad, too vague. In this case, it kind of hurts that we're forced to stay in Kitty's POV, because we only learn what she learns, and no one wants to tell her anything. But while I do understand that if Roman wins and all the vampires are under his control, the werewolf population would be nothing but slaves, I can't really fear yet for Kitty and her pack because it just doesn't feel like a tangible threat to me. Too big, too far away a consequence, despite what we saw in Kitty Raises Hell.
4) Kitty did not turn into a werewolf. The last time this happened was Kitty and the Dead Man's Hand, I believe (actually, she only turned once). I didn't like it then, and I don't like it now. Also, for a character that seems to abhor violence (at least gun violence), it seemed difficult to swallow that she was so ready to jump into an actual fight. Not as a wolf, which makes sense, but in human form. There were a lot of scenes that were difficult for me to picture and/or hard to swallow, because Kitty's not a fighter by nature, and for all of her growth, seeing her actions in these scenes just didn't click with me. Some of the wolf-isms displayed while she was human (not all) were also a little too weird for me.
5) Kitty as a character is starting to grate on me. Maybe this is par for the course, because after seven books into the Sookie Stackhouse series, I was rather tied of Sookie too. But in Kitty's case, her constant need for information and stories, regardless of what it costs someone else and what it means for it to stay secret, is grating. And then there's the fact that more and more, I see more of the author's personality in Kitty, like when she gets distracted by tourist attractions she'd like to do. Suddenly, it's not Kitty saying it, it's the author. To be fair, I may feel that way because I read the author's blog, and trust me, I am very well aware that all authors should remain separate from their characters, but still. It's hard not to hear Vaughn's personal voice while reading Kitty's voice. At times. And then there's the fact that sometimes, Kitty just acts juvenile (see page 147).
"That's a pretty big dog," Sun said.
"It's not a dog, it's my husband!"
"Huh. That's progressive."
"Shut up, he's a werewolf, too."
Maybe it's the combo of exclamation point and the use of "shut up" that scream juvenile, but you might as well have switch out Kitty for a teen girl in that scene, for the all the maturity she displays.
It's ironic: Carrie Vaughn has some great advice to give to authors regarding writing a series and how it applies to her own work (you can read the posts here (part one) and here (part two). What's more ironic is how I feel in light of Vaughn's discussion of how her series has evolved: I once said that I imagined 4-5 Kitty books and no more. The trouble is, I keep getting ideas.
It's telling that I feel the strongest part of the series is those first four books. I've got nothing against authors getting more and more ideas, and in Vaughn's case, some of those ideas have paid off (see Kitty's House of Horrors). But generally speaking, the books after those first four have been weaker as a whole, at least to my eye.
Reinforcing my notion that the first four books were stronger is the author's very own words***:
Some things I’m noticing: the books feel more episodic, in that I’m dealing with several smaller stories in each one instead of one big story. The earlier books feel more cohesive to me, because they had such a strong, single arc; but that may just be my perception. At this point, I have dozens of secondary characters and lots of past stories I can revisit, and those are always on the table. It’s a blessing and a curse - if I need a temporary ally or villain, chances are I already have one set up. At the same time, I can’t touch on all the possibilities in every book. I really can tell that I’m juggling more balls than I was when I wrote #3.
I've been pretty harsh on this book so far, but that's not to say there's not good points. The dynamic between Kitty, Cormac, and Ben is pretty interesting, and I enjoyed the new characters introduced here as well as getting some background info on a few vampires. The whole bit with Sherman being a werewolf was cute but ultimately throw-away, because while adding color to Kitty's world, it adds nothing to the story. Ooops, there I go back to being harsh again. I should quit while I'm ahead.
*** = everything quoted comes from Vaughn's Genreality post, "Evolution of an Ongoing Series Part 1: The Kitty Books," found here.
My Rating: Worth Reading, with Reservations
If you've been following this series from the start, I think it's obvious that the series lacks the tight, emotional tension of the first four books. While exploring horizons and boundaries can be a good thing, Kitty's world has suddenly gotten too large and too unwieldy for my tastes. Characters, voice, and tone aside, it doesn't feel like the same set of books any more. While Kitty's Big Trouble does further the overall story arc by giving the readers more information about Roman's Long Game, as well as some juicy tidbits about vampire history, I've found that I just can't get excited about this part of the plot. The stakes don't feel very high at all, which sucks tension right out of any life-threatening situation the characters find themselves in. Oddly, I wonder if perhaps this Long Game arc should've been written from the POV of a different character in Kitty's world, creating a spin-off series, with Kitty popping up as a secondary character. Ah, if wishes were fishes… at any rate, the book reads fast and is relatively enjoyable for what it is, but I'm getting really grumpy with the direction of the series, and that could easily be a personal thing. But in Kitty's Big Trouble, she doesn't even turn into a werewolf, and that always, always makes for a less-engaging Kitty book. At least it does for me.
Cover Commentary: I think this is one of my favorite Kitty covers to date (see all of them here). It's nice to see Kitty kind of crouched, in a relaxed pose, and of course, she's not dressed up in stereotypical UF heroine gear. Also, no tattoos! Most excellent. Something interesting to note: every Kitty cover published by Tor (starting with Kitty Goes to War and including the short story collection) features Kitty with a braid. Actually, most of the Kitty covers features her sporting a braid, but it's a fun observation. :)
Next up: All the Windwracked Stars by Elizabeth Bear