Moon Called Book Review

Welcome to my second book review!

I intended to do more book reviews when I started my blog, but things didn’t go as planned. My reading schedule went to hell about two months ago when I overwhelmed myself by reading three books at the same time, including this one, and then my short break turned into a hiatus.

When I bought another book this past week, I realized I had to go backwards and picked back up Moon Called (2006) by Patricia Briggs. Two months ago, I was at the halfway point of the book, but retained my knowledge of the first half.

Having a day off from work, I powered through the second half and finished this afternoon.

The story revolves around Mercedes Thompson, a coyote shape-shifter, who works as an auto mechanic in the Tri-Cities area of Washington. It is urban fantasy and the first book of the “Mercy Thompson series”. I have the next two books too and will likely buy the entire series as I progress through them.

In this first book, Mercedes “Mercy” Thompson is roped into a mystery surrounding a new werewolf named Mac, who is murdered, and the subsequent attack on the local Alpha Werewolf Adam, who was taking the young boy under his care.

This was a well-crafted mystery, but I ended up not liking how everything resolved. There were a couple of red herrings to throw us off as readers, but the end result was not satisfying, but the characters are definitely worth investing in.

The werewolf society is structured fairly well, and it is clear that Briggs did extensive research into pack laws, norms, and behavioral patterns. This was the main reason the book came my way. A good friend of mine recommended it during one of our writing group sessions to help better my writing on werewolves. This ended up being the best part of the book.

Strangely, the one part I didn’t like about the book was the “vampire chapter”. It was too predictable and none of the vampires were interesting characters except Stefan.

On that note, I enjoyed that there is another vampire named Stefan in this book series with a Scooby-Doo designed van. I just keep picturing Stefan Salvatore from The Vampire Diaries, ignoring the physical description Briggs wrote.

The pacing was good with no boring moments, characters were compelling, and Mercy is a great protagonist. She does not take crap from anyone and ends up in a developing love triangle by the book’s end. Yay for love triangles!

I’d recommend it if you’re into werewolf lore and want to learn more about them.