Briggs, Patricia: Cry Wolf
Cry Wolf
Writer: Patricia Briggs
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Pages: 294
When I heard about this book, I put off getting it. I'd only read one of Briggs's books, Moon Called, and while I really enjoyed it, I wasn't keen on picking up the start of a new series, a spin-off one at that, before reading the rest of the Mercy Thompson books to make sure I'd still like Briggs when it was all said and done.
But as usual, curiosity won over caution, and I picked it up. I did wait until I finished Blood Bound and Iron Kissed before picking up On the Prowl, which sets up Cry Wolf. I'm nothing if not a completionist.
The premise: picking up RIGHT WHERE the novella "Alpha and Omega" left off, Anna returns to Montana with Charles in an effort to start a new life away from her abusive pack in Chicago and to explore what it means to be Charles's mate. Her wolf accepts him, but her human half has been so traumatized that she second-guesses everything, even her importance as an Omega werewolf. But there's bigger problems at large: a rogue werewolf has been killing near the Marrok's territory, and it's up to Charles to take care of it. Only, Charles is still recovering from his own ordeal in Chicago, which means he has to rely on Anna for help. What they discover is something they never thought was possible, and something that, if left loose, could destroy threaten the entire pack.
Yes, there will be spoilers. :)
So I've heard from SOME people that they could read Cry Wolf just fine without the novella "Alpha and Omega" introducing it. I, personally, don't recommend it. I was shocked to see where Briggs started the novel, and while it's probably safe enough to say you get all the backstory you need in the book, it's still an abrupt start. The novella really, really, REALLY is the beginning of this book, so I highly, highly, HIGHLY recommend you read the novella first.
What's different about this book compared to the Mercy Thompson series is that we've got third person POV. Multiple at that. We've got Anna, Charles, Bran, and a couple of new characters who are both part of the pack and part of the conflict. So that's neat. We also learn a lot more about what makes Briggs's werewolves different, and even though I've read all three Mercy Thompson books, I don't think it clicked that what the Alphas have with their packs is an actual kind of magic. So it's really, really neat to learn more about it, about the pack structure, and all of that. Though I will say on a personal level, I appreciate more the realism (if you could call it that) of Carrie Vaughn's werewolves, but maybe I'm just biased.
We learn more about Bran's history, and that was a bit of a shock. He's such a mild-tempered character that it was a jolt to learn about his past, how Samuel fits into it, and to see what witches really mean in this world, particularly witches that practice black magic.
I'll be honest: this is the second book of Briggs's I've read that's depended heavily on actual magic for the story to work itself out. And there's something fishy about the way she portrays magic. I know what I'm SUPPOSED to believe for the story to work out the way it does, but if I think about it too hard, I keep stumbling over the limitations and rules. On one hand, Briggs sort of writes off what Mariposa is able to do in clever, sarcastic remarks, like how Bran hates witches and this is why, yada, yada, yada, but I guess I want a little more to ground myself. I like Charles's magic, how it relates back to his Native American mother. That's something I can relate to, mostly because it's a little more well known. But Mariposa's magic, like the faeries from Iron Kissed, took a great deal of convincing myself in order for me to move on and accept it.
Anna: I like her. She's not one of those bad-ass heroines of UF, and it makes sense that she's not. After all, she was raped and brutalized by her other pack, and she still sees what she is as a monster. This book is about healing for her, and I like that, and I like how her wolf could come to the surface to protect her, to give her strength (kind of like an alternate personality). What I didn't like was the moment where Charles and Anna finally bonded in the book (again, Briggs's writes it off with a quip), because not only did it feel a wee bit too convenient, but I just couldn't make it make sense in my mind why it happened at that moment. Maybe Anna finally found her peace, but it's an odd time to find peace right after you've twisted a witch's head off.
I've seen some grumblings about Anna being too close to a Mary Sue for comfort, and that I think is pure crap. So what if Anna's one of the rare Omega werewolves? For starters, she's not the only one in this book. We get a history with this ability, and it greatly effects events of the story on multiple levels. There's also the fact that Anna isn't particularly strong (her old pack pretty much let her starve), and she's not particularly beautiful. I feel the relationship she has with Charles is more of a symptom of needing a hook-up in the novella (and needing that hook-up to happen fast) more than it is that everyone's in love with her, which is a symptom of Mary Sue-ness. Sure, Asil has his eye on her, but that starts out purely to goad Charles, and then morphs into something else when he discovers Anna's an Omega, which is what his deceased mate Sarai was. So that makes sense. The other wolves like/protect her because of her ability as an Omega. She brings peace, and I'm sorry, but that's not worth calling a character a Mary Sue over. It's really not. If you wanted to pluck a Mary Sue out of Briggs's world, I'd suggest Mercy Thompson herself, but really, it's not necessary. Anna's a rounded character with conflicts to get over, and her hot and cold personality doesn't make her perfect by any means.
The book's got a happy ending, which is fun and nice, though I'm curious whether or not Briggs intends to write more books from this particular POV. Amazon advertises this as "book one" so I can only assume so, but I'm not sure how I feel about that. Mostly because I feel Anna and Charles's story is done, and I'd much rather see them show up in later books with Mercy, because that'd be fun, and I'd like to see how Anna and Mercy get along. But we'll see. I enjoyed this enough to keep reading what Briggs publishes, for now.
My Rating
Worth the Cash: but do yourself a favor and read "Alpha and Omega" first. I don't care how you do it, but do it. People say you don't need to, but I think you're doing yourself a disservice if you don't. The book's enjoyable, but in my mind, it was more enjoyable because I was already familiar with the world and characters. No, the voice isn't as strong as the Mercy Thompson books, as it's written in multiple-third, but it's still enjoyable, and again, I really liked learning more about Briggs's werewolves.
A side note: there's an excerpt from the upcoming Mercy Thompson book, Bone Crossed, and I'll go ahead and say this: it picks up IMMEDIATELY (as in, it overlaps) with the final chapter of Iron Kissed, and what you think happens at the end of that IK turns out is not what actually happens in the beginning of BC. Not that I'll get much more besides that first chapter, since the darn book's gonna be in hardback instead of paper, but at least I have a rather interesting resolution to the end of book three. :)
Next up:
Book: Passage by Connie Willis
Graphic Novel: V for Vendetta by Alan Moore