Faythe is on trial for infecting and killing her human
boyfriend – trying to convince a council of Alphas that something happened when
they don’t only not believe her - but don’t even believe that what she claims
is even possible
But the trial cannot happen in solitude – a whole army of
strays have moved into the area and have to be dealt with
I expected this book to be a lot worse than it was.
Admittedly after the last two books, the book could literally be possessed by a
serial killing ghost that tried to attack me with a claw hammer and it would
still be a better book than I expected. Still, my low expectations meant I was
definitely pleasantly surprised.
In this book, the misogynist Alphas questioned Faythe on
whether or not she intended to marry and how many kids she’d have – and if she
didn’t have any immediate plans she was simply useless to werecat society:
because what’s the point of a werecat female who isn’t pushing out the young ‘uns?
Honestly, I expected Faythe to grab Marc’s engagement ring, suddenly become
pregnant and problem solved! So, kudos, Pride
for not doing this
In fact, in general Pride
wasn’t nearly as offensively awful as the previous books, not even close.
Partly this is due to the complete lack of spicy South American werecats (and
general POC. You wouldn’t even know Marc was Latino if you didn’t know from
previous books). Normally I would complain about lack of POC, but like the lack
of LGBTQ characters I find myself slightly grateful simply because it means we
won’t have to endure he representation (though we do have a ridiculous moment
where 3 people share a single bed and leave another empty because a) the 2 men
won’t let the other share a bed with Faythe and b) two men sharing a bed is terribad
icky.)
The main issues I have with this book is that it
completely ignores the context of the books that have come before. Like we have
Greg, Faythe’s father who is pretty much cast as the Good One in this book. He
is the reasonable Alpha. He is the nice Alpha. And he’s just being terribly
trapped by the Alpha council who is totally awful and old fashioned and
misogynist.
Except this completely brushes over the last two books
where, if you recall, Faythe was locked in a cage for not being perfectly
obedient. She was under such a level of house arrest that she worried she
wouldn’t be able to use the bathroom without being watched. She has been set up
almost from birth to be with a certain guy and no other choice was considered.
Now this guy who imposed all this on Faythe is the “good one.”
Just as this book Faythe spends so much time pining over
Marc who rejected her last book because she wouldn’t walk down the aisle with
him. She is sasd, desperate to get him back and completely brushing over his
violent, furniture destroying temper. And making light of him menacing other men
for looking at her (remembering HE broke up with HER) – claiming he wouldn’t take
it too far, despite the fact in previous books he half killed a man for daring
to flirt with her. We’re just ignoring all that – now her saying no to him was
totally a mistake she regrets
And that, that right there, is why this book annoys me so
much. It’s not what is in this book that is the problem, it’s the fact that the
shifting
narrative excuses or ignores what has gone before because the antagonist
has shifted. Greg is the good Alpha and kind father while Malone is the
misogynist ruthless arsehole and Blackwell is the old fashioned misogynist arsehole.
Marc is the perfect lover Faythe was a fool to let go – not the
all-but-arranged marriage she was being forced into.
When we introduce Kaci (really, what is with the spelling
of these names?!) it gets worse. See, Kaci, a new 13 year old female werecat
all alone and vulnerable. Now, she’s a child so a lot of the narrative about
how she needs sheltering and protecting could relate to her age: but ultimately
her situation is based far more on her being female. She is being hunted for
being female. Even Faythe is outraged that her father and brothers aren’t
protecting her since she’s female – she repeatedly makes comments about them
dropping the ball with her. But the entire first book was about Faythe wanting
to be free from this stifling “protection.” This whole narrative, while not
terrible in and of itself, serves as a complete justification for how Faythe
has been treated in the first 2 books.
In short, this whole book, while not awful in itself,
serves as an attempt to wash all the terribleness that has preceded this book.
This kind of happens within the book as well – like we have an apparent innocent
being grossly and unnecessarily abused. It could have been a call out of the
abusive culture of the werecats. It could have been a challenge of this torture
and violence… but instead the book ends when
To top this off, Faythe would be one of the Spunkiest of Spunky
Agents (I would say the most, but this is a genre that has Sookie
Stackhouse, Clary
Fairchild and Elena
Michaels… so hard competition there). This woman literally cannot sit still
and not mouth off for 5 minutes in her own trial. She’s pathologically
incapable of thinking, of planning, of even the slightest shred of self control.
Basically her whole personality is practically DESIGNED to convince me, and the
reader in general, that she is a child-figure in need of a keeper. I think even
the choice of having her refer to Greg as “daddy” is to emphasise how childlike
she is.
Yes I hated the character. But, more, I hated the
character because of how she was used. Her terribleness is another
justification, another excuse for the misogynist bullshit she faces. Her
child-like tantrums are there expressly to STOP me routing for her overturning
the prejudiced limits she faces.
I
also loathe the whole world building that magically makes
women super-duper rare snowflakes who need to be protected. It’s tired, is
repeated far too often and it’s another excuse to have a nearly all male cast
which just needs to die.
Once we step past this we also have an issue with the
clumsy writing. In particular, I don’t think the author has a lot of respect
for their readers’ intelligence with a lot of scenes being unnecessarily
explained and bogged down with excessive repetition and exposition just to make
sure we’ve really got it. One particularly amusing scene has someone explain
basic genetic theory to a room full of Alphas in such painful unnecessary
detail that I’m convinced that the Alpha council doesn’t have three brain cells
to rub together
Putting aside all this, it’s not an appalling book. The
plotting of the alpha council, the introduction of the Bruin’s, the political maneuvering
are not terrible storylines (albeit just a little bit simplistic – the other
Alphas are pretty much caricatures of unreasonableness) and in general the book
didn’t remotely infuriate me as much as the previous ones. It didn’t exactly
engage me either, but it could have been a whole lot worse. Maybe there’s hope
for this series? (hah, I doubt it).
