Reviews with content warning for Miscarriage - Moon Called

Mercy is half Native American, and a walker, she transforms into a coyote and was partly raised by a werewolf pack. This puts her in an odd position relative to the werewolves, as she’s somewhat entangled in their hierarchy but isn’t trying to be part of it.

As the first book in the series, MOON CALLED establishes the presence of various supernatural factions such as werewolves, vampires, witches, fey, and Native American people like Mercy. It focuses on the current precarious position in which the werewolves find themselves; many of the lesser fae came out in a controlled manner several years ago, but the werewolves are an open secret in military circles. This sets up those groups and some of the relationships between them, including between Adam’s pack and the Marrok’s pack in the mountains. It also establishes Mercy’s history with Sam and her current position relative to Adam (living nearby and taking joy in simple pleasures, like annoying him with the car in her yard).

The plot revolves around a strange werewolf who shows up in town and then is attacked in Mercy’s presence, setting off a string of conflicts which involve kidnappings and an elaborate plan. It has some twists and turns but is pretty easy to follow. The meeting with the vampires has always felt a bit out of place in this story, but it’s serving to set up some things that’ll come into play later on. It’s a solid story with a lot of ground to cover, and it does it well. MOON CALLED is a great start to the series.

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misterwisp's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

The strong points are that it's a fast paced read and has a well written main character. The setting is straightforward urban fantasy where supernatural creatures are real and in the modern world etc. This version of that has the supernatural world only being partially publicly known. Only one type of creature is known openly in regular human society but others are not.
The big focus is on werewolves and their society. There is much ado about pack dominance structure that felt like it took itself too seriously and came across a bit dated and boring. There is all this stuff about how the Alpha can't show weakness around his pack and there are all sorts of hierarchy dynamics that play out. Only the men can be alphas and so on. The main character is outside of all of this and has to navigate through it, so I think it's maybe meant to be an analogy for regular real world society, but it felt a bit too cliche to really be something to like reading about. The main character is fun but all the werewolf ones seemed kind of obnoxious and I didn't understand what Mercy Thompson saw in them. In real life the whole idea of an "alpha" wolf leading others through dominance is being debunked, so maybe I brought that into the book more than I should have.
The ending felt a bit convoluted and too easy.
It was good to read and I think well written in terms of the main character and world. I think one's enjoyment depends on how much you're willing to tolerate stereotypes of "alpha" men. Despite the cringey parts I was left somewhat still wanting to try the sequel which I think shows the writing has strong points.

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