Joanne is getting used to her Shaman powers and taking
the lead more and more – though she still has plenty to learn and some
surprising ambushes, especially on when her “warrior path” will or will not
permit violence. Usually not.
Her plate is full this book – a domestic violence case
that puts her in a very conflicted position, a Native American dance troop
being preyed on metaphysically, her boss becoming a wolf and a series of dead
and missing homeless people all vie for her attention. And at least some of it
is linked to the dark thing that has been stirring in the books for so long.
And on top of that, her relationship with Morrison
finally breaks that barrier – after so much denial and awkwardness, who knows
where it will lead?
I found the plot interesting in a different way than I
usually find the plot of this series interesting – they’re always fun detective
stories with lots of magic and interesting twists that always end with a
surprise – always. Not that all of that didn’t apply here – we had an excellent
detective story that was immense fun – and an ending that was completely
unexpected. I can’t really comment more beyond lots of positive there, the plot
was fun, interesting, character driven and with a twist end – classic Walker Papers really. If you liked the
plots of the previous books, you’ll like this one
No, the difference was the amount of things that were
brought in from the past – like Cyrano and Rita and Thunderbird Falls – into this
book. Previously, each book had felt at least semi-standalone, this book was
still fairly stand alone but had a lot more connections to previous events in
the series. In addition, the plot was much more directly related to the lurking
big bad. I feel the series is shifting more towards the meta, I am intrigued
Early in the series I had a problem with the metaphysical
descriptions completely overwhelming the plot and leaving me lost confused and
with a pretty massive headache. That’s nearly entirely gone – but there are
still moments of confusion, especially when the metaphysical is involved in one
of the fight or action scenes. There are moments towards the end of the book,
at the wickerman, where I became rather hopelessly lost in magic and memory and
completely lost track of the actual fight that was happening.
I think more than the plot, the main strength of this
book is Joanne’s character development. She is reaching a new plateau in her
power, settling into her role and into her relationships – both with her
friends and finally, oh finally, with Morrison. They are just so awfully
awkward and clumsy and fumbling together that they just had to get together. It
has been on the cards for so long now and it’s excellent to see them finally
pass that barrier. Even if the book didn’t have Gary in it.
One of the elements I love about this series is how
Joanna has evolved as a character. I’ve complained before how Joanne seems to
spend a lot of her time desperately trying to fix the messes she has made. And
yes, she makes mistakes in this book and they cost her, she also acknowledges
the mistakes she’s made. But she also has an epic scene where she stares down
Coyote – big Coyote not Cyrano - and makes it clear if he doesn’t like the job
she’s doing he can take the power off her and have done with it because she’s
doing the best she can with the limited experience and knowledge at her
disposal.
I love that – she’s not denying responsibility or
shirking her task or trying to escape the consequences of her actions. But she
is refusing to collapse with guilt because she makes mistakes, especially given
how little she knows. She both gives herself permission to make mistakes and
draws a line before the powers that be about how guilty she is going to feel
and refusing to beat herself up – or accept criticism she deems unfair. Joanne’s
growing confidence both as a shaman and as someone who is doing good in the
world is wonderful to watch (especially when surrounded by people who are far
more believing than she ever was).
But there’s also the counter message to the pride. She
cannot act alone all the time – and the rituals of healing she invokes are
supposed to be enacted as a group. We see the consequences when she acts alone
and the benefits when she works with other practitioners as well as seeing the
power of people like Billy and Melinda. Joanne isn’t in it alone - even her
most intimate magic is reliant on her spirit guides.
Her confidence has also changed her as a leader and in
making tough decisions – decisions even Billy doesn’t always agree with, but we
can’t argue are the wrong ones. She has grown really well into her role
Joanne is a mixed-race protagonist – and for many books
that generally means the mixed-race element is used as an excuse for the
woo-woo (because brown people have woo-woo, it is known) and maybe one, subtle,
“exotic” feature (like black hair). Joanne’s being half Native American is very
much a part of her however, and not just woo-woo, there’s a lot of inclusion of
Native American beliefs, her past and conflicts stemming from that. She’s
certainly one of the better – perhaps even the best – representations I have
seen.
The homeless were a strong element in this story and they’re
handled really well. Not demonised, but not pitied and patronised either. Rita
is capable, the homeless people she recruits are similarly so. They’re not
helpless, they’re not useless and they’re not bizarre freak shows as we so
often see presented. They are in desperate circumstances and that is shown
starkly – but not in a way that reduces them as people.
There are a number of POC, especially Native Americans
including Joanne herself, Melinda and the Dance Troop. All have a nice element
of culture and tradition which they’re all deeply involved in without resorting
to gross stereotyping that makes you want to cringe and look away from the
book. It’s nice that Joanne isn’t the only one and that that sense of reality
is very much present.
I thought that one of the characters may have been a
lesbian, but that seemed to be contradicted later in the book – even if she
were, it would have been a problematic portrayal. It’s a sad lack in the book.
It’s hard to write reviews for long series that just keep
being consistently good in the same way you’ve come to expect. I feel sometimes
like I’m writing “it was good, of course it was good, what do you expect?” over
and over. Because it’s true – I went to this book excited and happy because I knew
it was going to be excellent – and lo, I was right. It was.
