Summers, Jordan: Red
Red
Writer: Jordan Summers
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Pages: 356
I want to say a word of, well, warning before I continue. TOR labels this book as paranormal romance. Fair enough. Because of that, and because the author has previously written books that qualify in the romance category, Border's shelved this sucker in the romance section. Well, mine did, and I don't know if any of the other major booksellers have done the same. I say this as a warning because 1) if you're interested in this book and can't find it in the SF/F section, where I personally feel it should be shelved, then look in romance. And don't get squeamish about it either: the book's nice and gritty and gory. Don't believe me? Read the first chapter. 2) if you're a romance reader and you're interested in this book, um, READ THE FIRST CHAPTER. I'm not saying romance readers WON'T like this kind of detail, but if you aren't expecting it, I'd say it's off-putting to find in the romance section of all places, because it reads like horror.
Red, in many ways, is a nice little hybrid of genres. There's SF, as it takes place in the future and your paranormal creatures have actually been created in a science lab (and with that in mind, does that no longer make them paranormal, thereby refuting the "paranormal romance" label? Discuss). It's romance, because there's definitely a major LUST going on and in terms of that relationship, it qualifies for the romance section (think of sex and endings). It's also a mystery, as all good UF and some SF books contain: there's a serial killer on the loose and he's set his sights on the main character. Only, the main character might be the serial killer, and that's where the plot messes with your head.
I stumbled on this title thanks to Tor's newsletter and the lovely cover art done by Chris McGrath (though I could do without the shirtless guy in the moon). As an added bonus, the edges of the pages of this little mass-market are dyed red. Cute, huh?
The premise: the original seed for this book (soon to be trilogy) came from the author asking herself: "What if Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf turned out to be the same person?" That's a wee bit misleading, and really revealing if you think about it, but basically, there's a serial killer mauling women. Gina can't believe her tactical team is writing it off as an animal attack, so she goes on vacation to investigate for herself. What she finds is more bodies, a very odd small town, and a Sheriff who knows more than he's telling. Then of course, there's the blackouts, where she wakes up from a sound sleep covered in blood, and not all of it her own.
Spoilers!
I want to say first I really enjoyed this, and this is another one of those books where I enjoyed it enough to nitpick. Sorry!
Let's start with the world-building: in an effort to create super-soldiers, the government ended up creating vampires and werewolves (and who knows what else) instead. These soldiers are collectively known as the Others (LOST!) and are believed to be nothing more than an urban legend. However, they're not: they (the weres, anyway) are mostly gathered in the small town of Nuria (which is an odd name for a post-United States city. I kept wanting to say Narnia). Okay, that's fine. But let's get into the actual dynamics of the werewolf culture.
I get that the experiments would give them the ability to shape-shift into wolves. And not just WOLVES either, but man-wolves, which is a little disconcerting while reading the first chapter when you're expecting the transformation to bring you a four-legged furry creature. Not so much, but appropriate for this world, and it emphasizes the fact that yes, some of these guys are monsters.
Okay, so they have to shift. But why is it these wolves ALSO carry the same characteristics of a supernatural werewolf pack? Why do these super-soldiers HAVE to shift on the full moon (or really, really WANT to)? Why do they adhere to the alpha-dominant culture? The wolf submissive culture? These are HUMANS with enhanced abilities, not true wolves, so I have trouble believing the wolf DNA would influence these people THAT much. Make them more aggressive? Sure. But the whole alpha-male thing? Unless this is a former regiment with whose "alpha" was actually in charge of said regiment, I'm having trouble believing it.
And then there's the marking of the mates. That's new in my werewolf reading, but it sounds like wanting your cake and eating it too, especially when the marking isn't a scratch so much as it's a MAJOR BITE out of the neck/shoulder area that allows the male to feast on blood. Oh sure, the female heals just fine (especially if she's a wolf), but really? REALLY? And the female, in this case Gina, doesn't NOTICE it? Biting might be surprisingly erotic, Gina, but I can't believe you didn't notice he was tearing your shoulder.
Or maybe I read more into that description than I should.
But the same truth goes for the vampires, and questioning the use of vampires really pushes the suspense of disbelief: why create vampires? I can understand wolf-men, but vampires? These guys don't burn to a crisp in the sun, but some of them will explode. Okay, human bomb, that's useful, but sucking blood? I guess I'm lacking the creativity to see how that'd be useful in a soldier, especially when soldiers, in theory, would want to keep as much distance from their enemy as possible. Or not. Werewolves are very physical creatures too, and the point of super-soldiers is to break the enemy lines and tear them to pieces while being impervious to things like gunshots and whatnot.
Maybe Summers will explore and explain more in her later books. I feel she needs to, given Gina's heritage, because while I might buy the blackouts when she changes (it's so horrible that she represses it), I don't buy that she just HAPPENS to change on the night of the murder and finds the dead victim just AFTER the killer is done and just HAPPENS to avoid the killer's notice. Do you know how hard that would be? That takes more than a good sniffer too--it takes some kind of weird psychic connection, or at the very least a note from the killer with the notice, "FREE FOOD!" and an address. It's obviously not the latter, so I wonder how or if Summers is going to explain how Gina just happened upon the last two victims and what on EARTH compelled her to feed (she's a half-wolf anyway).
See, I told you I'd nitpick. :)
What'd I like? The entire future set-up was interesting, though a bit confusing trying to imagine where all the borders were, because when the fences were first described, it sounded like the US was divided. That may be the case, but other descriptions suggested otherwise, so I don't know. It's a fast read, even with the shifting points of view from multiple third to the first-person killer. The killer's POV was VERY well done, though I figured out who he was pretty fast, and I really, really could've done without the POVs of Roark and Mike. It just wasn't necessary, and SPEAKING of Roark, how'd he happen to be at the woods the night when Morgan and Kane fought? The last I remember, Roark sent Mike to take care of the problem, so why'd he magically show up? I could be forgetting a scene, admittedly, but still.
Okay, back to stuff I like: the transformation. That's wonderfully gross, particularly the spewing of blood all over your surroundings. Most excellent.
The lust between Morgan and Gina was good, and I was glad when they finally hit the sack because I was tired of seeing them both avoid the issue. Morgan's a bit too ALPHA-MALE for my tastes, and I'm not liking the idea that Gina doesn't share his power as his alpha, but hey, maybe that'll get explored in later books. Let's see... what else can I babble about/nitpick?
I think I'm good. Although, I do hope we'll see more of Christine/Chaos in later books, or maybe her own series, and I'm also curious whether or not we'll see more of Bannon. I loved it when Gina finally got to kick his ass!
My Rating
Worth the Cash: part horror, part romance, and part SF. Technically, there's no paranormal or fantasy involved, but that's an easy thing to forget since the werewolves are familiar. Not my favorite set of weres, not yet, but the book's an enjoyable, fast read with some really gritty, gory scenes and some solid lust and sex thrown in to balance it out. Gina's a heroine worth cheering for, and it's likely I'll pick up the sequel when it's released. Just remember, if you're interested in this and can't find it in the SF/F section, it may be in romance. If you're not a romance reader, don't let that scare you. ;) But if you are a romance reader, read the first chapter and make sure you can handle it before going forward. Trust me.
Next up:
Engines of God by Jack McDevitt