This is a collection of four short stories largely from
the early days of Jane Yellowrock’s history – and it does a great job of
filling in a lot of Jane’s history and relationships that were already established
before the series began – particularly with Molly
The series pretty much began with Jane and Molly as great
friends – especially with Molly providing a lot of magical expertise and
support for Jane since Molly is a witch. Now the series has never treated Molly
as a servant and help has gone both ways, but it’s still nice to see the
foundation of this relationship and what made these two highly secretive,
careful women who are very wary of revealing their supernatural nature to
others came to share so much together.
Haints the
second story in the book does a good job of showing some of the initial
overtures – we hear how Jane and Molly first met (with Jane protecting Molly
from witch haters) and we see Jane helping Molly deal with a ghostly problem –
and getting Molly a good income stream, preventing people taking advantage of
her. It also excellently showed off Molly’s power and skill as a witch which I
really liked.
This is increased further with Signature of the Death with Jane riding to the rescue of Molly’s
family facing down rogue vampires. This is also an event that is frequently
referred to throughout the main series, Jane facing down a while nest of
vicious rogue vampires and taking them down while being terribly injured in the
process. Again we see the foundation of this excellent relationship between the
two and the respective strengths of each of them. It’s also a nice expansion of
an event
There is one problem with this – while I love reading
this story of how Jane and Molly came together, how they fought together and
how this put them in such a solid place together by the beginning of the
series, it also boggles me that Evan, Molly’s husband, has been so hostile to
Jane for so long. Ok there are events later in the series that explain the
rift, but given the events in this book my gods the Everhart family owes Jane
some more consideration. She has done a lot for that family and really, she has
earned a damn site more respect and patience from them. Really really she has.
It kind of has damaged the way I look at the Everhearts now because their
expanded history really makes them look terrible. I’m saddened that my opinion
of these characters has now been badly shattered.
Cajun with Fangs
is something of a “day in the life of Jane Yellowrock” story. Which is odd
because she doesn’t quite have that level of consistency in her life. Here we
have the story of a witch/vampire feud in the middle of rural Louisiana with an
added Romeo and Juliett touch. I like it, I especially like the whole Cajun
feel that is really present and there genuinely feels like there is a decent
level of research which is then used. It also draws on Jane’s team which has a
number of POC, and throws in a capable female sniper which is a bonus and some
local POC. However, it also comes with a hefty touch of vagina policing
We Sa and the
Lumberking was another short story that expanded on Jane’s back story but
in a way we already knew. When Jane was living as little more than a voice in
Beast’s mind during the times when the environment was devastated by
colonisation and industrialisation. I’m glad it’s there because one thing the Jane Yellowrock series has always been
good about is not romanticising Jane’s past or her history and managing to try
and stop the series treating Jane’s Native American ancestry as just a source
for shiny woo-woo as so many managed. That includes her history, including some
of the more devastating parts of it. Yes, this doesn’t add anything to the
story we didn’t need already but it’s still important.
Obviously Jane is a POC protagonist, a Cherokee she also
has a number of POC in her closest team. Her closest female friend is, as I
mentioned, a woman, Molly and this really does a great job of expanding on this
fundamental relationship. Unfortunately there are still no LGBT characters –
while the book commonly appropriates the closet over and over again in relation
to supernaturals – a trope I am really tired of.
In all, I think this is an excellent addition to the Jane
Yellowrock series
