Vaughn, Carrie: Kitty's House of Horrors
Kitty's House of Horrors (2010)
Written by: Carrie Vaughn
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Pages: 292 (Mass Market Paperback)
Series: Book Seven (ongoing)
You all already know that Carrie Vaughn's on my "must list" when it comes to new releases. When I learned that my local Barnes & Noble had Kitty's House of Horrors before its release date, I pounced, and trust me, when your local Barnes & Noble is forty-five minutes away, pouncing is not easy. But pounce I did. I also wanted to read this one right away. Reasons are obvious, but in 2009, I had the odd experience of reading negative reviews of the first few books. I won't say those dampened my enthusiasm for the series (while I liked it, Kitty and the Dead Man's Hand kind of did that), but I was curious to see if I could apply those criticisms to the newest release. Yeah, I'm weird like that.
The premise: ganked from BN.com, and it also happens to be the back cover blurb: Talk radio host and werewolf Kitty Norville has agreed to appear on TV's first all-supernatural reality show. She's expecting cheesy competitions and manufactured drama starring shapeshifters, vampires, and psychics. But what begins as a publicity stunt will turn into a fight for her life.
The cast members, including Kitty, arrive at the remote mountain lodge where the show is set. As soon as filming starts, violence erupts and Kitty suspects that the show is a cover for a nefarious plot. Then the cameras stop rolling, cast members start dying, and Kitty realizes she and her monster housemates are ironically the ultimate prize in a very different game. Stranded with no power, no phones, and no way to know who can be trusted, she must find a way to defeat the evil closing in ... before it kills them all.
Review Style: spoilers yes, but I want to talk about how this book fits into the series as a whole, how it works as a stand-alone (and if, for that matter), and then I want to focus on the character of Kitty in general. If you haven't read this book yet, I don't encourage you to read this review, because this is the kind of story you don't want to spoil, due to its central mystery, but once you've read this book, I highly encourage you to come back and read the whole kit and caboodle. :) For now, if you haven't read it, just skip to the "My Rating" section at the end of the review.
Let's talk about this book as a stand-alone, which is something I rarely do in a series. It's worth doing so in this case because of the premise: Kitty's agrees to appear on a reality tv show, and once all the supernaturals are thrown in together in the middle of no where, the story then takes a surprising turn for the series itself: it turns into a horror story.
I mean, the set-up is obvious, isn't it? A bunch of people, most whom are suspicious of each other, trapped at a resort in the middle of nowhere. People are bound to start dying, and they do. I have to say that I really liked how Vaughn switched gears: there's the build-up of whether or not what's happening is related to Roman and the Long Game (more on that in a minute), and once Kitty confronts one of the producers about it and learns he's got nothing to do with it, the horror starts to happen. Literally, like the next day, the power's out, the production crew is gone (murdered), and the plane out of there is disabled. If that's not enough, the perimeter's been enclosed with silver wire.
I really liked this turn. Vaughn showed an acute awareness to how her fictional characters relate to the real world and how the real world relates to fiction. There's a moment where Kitty starts comparing what's happening to a horror movie, and she goes on a rant about why characters in such movies die: they don't follow the rules of a horror movie! Kitty starts ticking them off (don't go out by yourself, don't have sex), and yet even with this awareness, those rules are still broken (or where already broken). I was sorry to see certain people die, especially Jeffrey, because Jeffrey and Tina did make a sympathetic and adorable couple. And Jerome Macy too. I liked the differences between him and Kitty as wolves, and it was a heroic thing he did, taking another arrow just so Kitty could get free (though, one could argue he was already poisoned by silver, so he was going to die anyway).
I also liked the moments where Kitty changed into wolf, and I was more impressed that she inadvertently turned someone. On one hand, it was unintentional and I almost wish she'd had to deal with the fallout of eating a man alive instead. On the other, that sort of paves the way for Kitty to be able to turn someone intentionally. Someone like her mother, who's suffering from cancer. That subplot isn't dead, not by a long shot, so we'll see what happens now that Kitty's turned someone once. Then there's the wish that Provost had survived just so Kitty had to deal a little longer with the fallout, but on the other hand, I'm glad he's gone. I suspect that would've been an annoying distraction to the overall story.
I continue to LOVE Grant. Man, I hope this guy sticks around. I loved his interactions with Kitty and the way he knew to calm her when she's a wolf. It was good to see other characters return too, even though some appeared so early in the series that I'd forgotten them. Tina's a yay though, and I hope she returns.
Speaking of the series as a whole, the Long Game stuff bored me, to be honest. I mean, we've gotten bits and pieces about it since book four, Kitty and the Silver Bullet, but I'm not so invested in it that I care when it becomes the topic of conversation or conspiracy. I feel like Vaughn's moving closer to bringing it to the forefront, but there's a part of me that wishes she'd hurry up and do so. Not that I mind stand-alone stories like this: it's one of the stronger books in the series. I just don't like the way the Long Game is being teased or built up, because it's doing nothing to make me want to know more, so therefore, there's no tension for me. I have no doubt that when the Long Game IS in the forefront, it's going to be epic, but until then, meh.
More interesting was the subplot of Cormac getting out on parole. First off, I loved how Kitty forced herself to calm down and think like Cormac when they were all stuck at the lodge (Dear Carrie Vaughn: if you read this review, could you please find a way to have some bracelets made that say. W.W.C.D.? on them? Thank you!), and I was thrilled that Cormac got released and is now back in action for future books. Thrilled, but worried: Kitty's relationship with Ben has developed minus Cormac, and Kitty (and I'm sure Cormac) is well-aware of the what-ifs. That said, I always did say there'd come a point where I thought Ben would bite the dust and Kitty would turn to the obvious, but we'll see. Carrie rarely does the obvious in her UF books, and if there's one thing that's NOT obvious, it's how she treats romantic relationships. When you look at the whole of the seven books, Kitty's had three partners: first, the asshole in the debut whose name I refuse to remember, then Lois the werejaguar in the second book, and then the third book forward, Ben. How many urban fantasy have that kind of track record? Not Sookie Stackhouse, and certainly not Anita Blake.
I'm also not saying I want Kitty to end up with Cormac. He's the obvious love interest in this type of series, and I think it'd be more interesting to keep him around as a friend. I don't mind the question of "what-if" hanging in the air, provided that it does turn Ben into a jealous monster and provided it doesn't push Kitty into an affair (which could work if handled well, but such things are rarely handled well). We'll see. Like I said, I'm glad Cormac's back in action, and I can't wait to see what comes of it.
But let's talk about Kitty. In 2009, I've read three negative reviews involving the debut of the series, Kitty and the Midnight Hour and one or two involving the sequel, Kitty Goes to Washington. I can honestly understand the complaints: Kitty is at her weakest and most passive in this book, and she's not the type of character that anyone wants to live vicariously through either. She doesn't have a healthy attitude about herself or her relationships, and the book is the starting point of her healing (which sounds corny, but it's true: she's been in an abusive situation for a long time). By the end of the first book, she knows that she can't be that kind of submissive follower anymore and she has to do what makes her happy. She's also learned an important lesson about men and what to stay away from. Books two through four really complete this psychological journey in which Kitty becomes her own woman, becomes alpha of her own pack (even though she started out so submissively) and learns what it means to be in a healthy romantic relationship.
Now, focusing on the details of psychological healing alone, I can see why some people don't dig the debut. If you're coming to urban fantasy as a means of fun escape, Kitty and the Midnight Hour gives you anything but, and let's face it, who really wants to be in Kitty's shoes? I remember one friend of mine, back when the book first debuted, called it all "wish-fulfillment," and I had to laugh: seriously, short of turning into a werewolf and having your own radio talkshow, what is so wish-fullfilling about Kitty's life in that book? It's not like she ever WANTED to be a werewolf, and the radio talkshow was an accident.
If you're not coming to this series as a means of escape, but rather from the POV of a seasoned UF reader, I can see how the book will make people feel icky. Again, it focuses on the type of character Kitty is at that time and what kind of situation she's in at that point in her life. It's not pretty, and when you're used to heroines taking the bull by the horns (in more ways than one), Kitty just isn't appealing.
But she gets better. And that is what I want to focus on, because while getting better, she's not without flaws. For starters, there's the constant duality between Kitty and her Wolf. Kitty's the kind of person I'd gladly want to have lunch with and just chat. She's not a violent person by nature, and leadership is something she's come into, something that's starting to become more natural. But her wolf is still suffering, her wolf still wants to run. It's the combo between Kitty and the Wolf that makes her the character she is, and I'd like to think it makes her more balanced than Kitty would be without the Wolf. I've heard people criticize Kitty for being whiny, but I maintain that's mostly wolf bringing out the side of her that just doesn't want to deal with serious problems. That Kitty DOES tackle the serious issues in the end speaks highly of her character, and I don't interpret any thoughts along the line of "I wish I wasn't here, I wish I was home" as whiny: instead, I think that's what a person in Kitty's shoes would really be thinking.
Then there's Kitty's sense of humor and her rabid curiosity: she's always asking questions, wanting to know more about other people and other supernaturals, and this book was the first time I could see how that might rub readers the wrong way. Don't get me wrong, it's perfect for her character because she is the host of a radio talkshow, but yeah: if this element of her character annoys readers, I can see why. Kitty's House of Horrors kind of makes fun of this too: Kitty's in a house full of supernaturals, constantly asking questions, and some of them make a point of not answering her and commenting on her curious nature (curiosity kills the cat, or in this case, the Kitty, as she's constantly getting into trouble).
One thing I did pick up on this time around was how I'm starting to have trouble separating Kitty's voice from the author's. No, I'm not saying that Kitty is a Mary Sue. NOT AT ALL. However, sometimes I think Vaughn's voice and likes/dislikes bleed into Kitty too much. A good example is when Kitty mutters at one point, "Yo Joe" or something like that, when there's no character named Joe in the book. It took me a moment, and then I remembered that Vaughn absolutely loves G.I.Joe. I would've never have known this if I didn't read Vaughn's blog, but it made me step back and wonder. Sure, Carrie Vaughn, a self-professed military brat, loves G.I. Joe, but how many other girls of the time watched and loved it as well? I'm not saying you'd have to be a military brat to enjoy the cartoon or the movie, but while Kitty channels pop culture, this was more geek culture than pop, and I questioned the reference simply because I knew of Vaughn's own preferences. There's that and the fact that had I not already know of Vaughn's preferences, I would've been very, very confused.
There's that, and the fact I'm having trouble seeing Kitty as Kitty and not the author, who looks very much like her heroine. Maybe that's where my friend's remark came from, that obvious similarity. Seriously, look at the covers of the Kitty books and pull up a picture of Carrie Vaughn (especially the author photo in the back of this book), and you're going to have the same trouble. Which is why I've decided that if I EVER write an urban fantasy story/series, the heroine will look NOTHING LIKE ME AT ALL. Just to avoid such comparisons. :)
It's not saying I don't like Kitty as a character, but it's interesting to pay attention to certain elements of her personality now that I've heard some criticism. I can see how she'd rub people the wrong way, with her curiosity and her humor. It's funny, because I've never though of the Kitty books as being humorous ( Dead Witch Walking by Kim Harrison, on the other hand, is DEFINITELY humorous), but this one, at least until the horror really starts, is does have its moment of humor and snark. Fun to be aware of it, for a change.
My Rating
Must Have: for any Kitty fan. This book is unique in the series in that, while it refers to and discusses various elements in the overall plot, it's pretty much a stand-alone story (no, that's not a recommendation for anyone who HASN'T read the series to start with this one, don't be silly). I was worried about the premise at first, given the whole reality show angle, but this works really well, especially in how it transforms into a horror story, the first of the Kitty books that firmly places its foot in the horror genre (not to say there's not dark and scary stuff in the books before). I really liked this one, and I really liked seeing how the characters handled the situation they were given. So if you're a fan of this series, get your paws on this installment ASAP (especially since there's rumors that Vaughn's having trouble with her publishing house and they're not promoting the book--how true that is, I don't know, but you know, give the girl some love). I read this in less than a day, so that's saying something. :) Not sure when the next Kitty book will be released, as there's no info or sneak peek in this one, but I know I look forward to getting it.
Cover Commentary: while I don't imagine that Kitty would EVER wear a corset out of the bedroom (not that I imagine Kitty wearing a corset in the bedroom, but if she does wear one, that's where it's gonna be), I have to say I love this cover. I love the model's pose, and I love the overall coloring. Also, no tattoos! Woot!