Carrie Vaughn

"Kitty Saves The World", the last Kitty Norville book, reflects my experience of the series as a whole, strong on good guys, albeit sometimes flawed and haunted good guys, but weak on really evil villains who are a terrifying threat to the world.

Still, if you enjoyed the first thirteen books, the lack of palpable evil will neither surprise nor disappoint you.

The book read like a fond farewell, bringing back some of my favourite characters, having Kitty give another great performance on "The show more Midnight Hour", showing Kitty and Ben as a strong and loving couple and finally resolving the conflict with Roman so that Kitty can indeed, save the world.

I liked Kitty in this book. She continued to be strong and brave and witty, even when deeply afraid, but she was also willing to lead and to accept her right to take the help offered by her friends.

The resolution with Roman was clever, original and plausible, within the context of the series. It was drama rather than melodrama. I enjoyed it partly because it felt like something that Carrie Vaughn had been carefully leading up to for some time, rather than a "how am I gonna end this so I don't have to write any more of them?" ending.

It seems to me that Carrie Vaughn has never quite known what to do with the pack that Kitty and Ben lead. She had one book, after Kitty took over, where the pack dynamics were important but mostly, Kitty's pack have been passive elements in the story. Sadly, this remained true for the final book, although there was a good explanation for it.

I ended the book and the series very glad to have spent time with Kitty and watched her grow from a frightened victim of terrible abuse into a strong and compassionate leader who inspired loyalty and created hope.

I think the final book honored Kitty and her readers by staying true to the spirit of the series and by bringing many story arcs to satisfying conclusions without closing everything off so neatly that it became too "happily ever after".

I'm sure the Kitty books are over but I have a suspicion that Carrie Vaughn isn't quite done with Cormac yet. Which is a very fine way to end a series. show less

In "Kitty Steals The Show", Kitty accepts an invitation to be the keynote speaker at a scientific conference on the supernatural. The conference is in London which, of course, makes Kitty A Werewolf In London, a line the novel wouldn't have been complete without and which provided me with a soundtrack as I listened to the audiobook.


The book starts with a welcome return to the familiar as we get to listen to more of Kitty's talk show and experience the space she's created where the isolated show more can feel mainstream. I love Kitty's shows because I like who she is on the show.

I also liked that we saw Kitty with her pack for once. She and Ben are settling into their roles as alphas and starting to enjoy themselves and plan for the future rather than feeling that leadership is a task thrust on them by circumstance.


Moving the action to London provides a new setting and introduces new characters. London, through the eyes of an American in Europe for the first time, is reasonably well drawn. I liked the way Carrie Vaughn picked up on themes in British and European history and politics and used them to shape the supernatural word. The leading British vampires are aristocratic, entitled, and manipulative in a polite, highly cultured and slightly dispassionate way. Their European counterparts are decadent, old-school vampires who keep werewolves as slaves. The British werewolves, it turns out, have not accepted slavery. Nor have they remained in small packs, each with their own territory. Instead they have come together under a single, charismatic but decidedly working class, leader.


We revisit the Long Game and Kitty finds herself up against familiar enemies. There is a strong sense of the gravitational pull from the coming war dragging Kitty into a role she may not be equipped for, has little desire to occupy but is unable to walk away from.

At the end of the book, we return to Kitty's talk show, which she is using as a platform to warn the world of the menace of the Long Game. One of Kitty's listeners asks her to remember why she set up the show: to help those who had nowhere else to go. That's the Kitty who hooked me into this series, not the uber-alpha werewolf leader. That's the Kitty I hope to see more of in the next books. show less

“Kitty Goes To Washington” rolls straight on from “Kitty And The Midnight Hour” but with a change in pace and tone. Kitty seems a little more certain of herself than she did in the first book. She has left her home and her pack and taken her radio show, “The Midnight Hour” on the road across America. She is starting to build a life for herself in the human and the supernatural world.

The plot revolves around what happens to Kitty when the Christian Fundamentalist, show more supernaturals-are-an-offence-againt-God Senator that we met in the last book, summons her to testify at a Senate Committee which is allegedly investigating state-sponsored research into the super-natural.

Of course, all is not what it seems. The Senator has an evil plan and Kitty is at its centre. This plot premise could have produced a political thriller with Kitty cast as the heroine, saving the world with her awesome werewolf powers. Thankfully, Carrie Vaughan avoids this and continues to present Kitty as a young woman, recovering from a trauma but becoming reconciled with who and what she is and is gaining confidence from the popularity of her show. Kitty goes to Washington with no political or social agenda and does not see herself as leading anything.

She quickly discovers that this I’m-just-a-talkshow-host stance is not credible in Washington, where everyone expects something of her. This shows the nature of Washington but it also makes Kitty reflect on what role she should play and what it means to be a supernatural.

In Washington, Kitty finds a club that offers a haven for shape-shifters, allowing association without the restrictions of a Pack and promoting good music, good food and good company. Although the freedom and the pleasures this affords, especially in the form a Brazilian were-panther who becomes Kitty’s lover for a while, initially appeals to Kitty, as the book progresses she finds that she cannot adopt the passive, don’t-get-involved, live-for-moment way of life. Her loyalties, sense of duty and belief in doing what she can to make things better, pull her in a different direction.

While at the club, she meets with, solitary, taciturn, old werewolf that everyone believes is an ex-Nazi. When he finally shares his bleak story with her, Kitty is pushed further along the road of thinking that being a werewolf does not obviate the need for choosing how you will live but perhaps makes the choice more pressing.

One of the things I liked most in the book was the new vampire that Kitty meets. It was refreshing, almost startling, to meet a vampire who is not a narcissist but rather has a desire to protect and nurture. Kitty’s relationship with the vampire, testing limits, earning respect, building a mutual loyalty and obligation, speaks to many of the things that Kitty needs that the shapeshifter club does not provide.

“Kitty Goes To Washington” continues with a number of the characters from the previous book: we discover the true nature of the mysterious cult-leader who claims to be able to “cure” supernaturals, we meet Kitty’s “Deep Throat” research scientist and understand what he wants from Kitty, we see how far the Senator is willing to go for his cause and we see Kitty starting to build a network of friends and supporters.

Although more thoughtful than the first book, “Kitty Goes To Washington” has a least three strong action scenes that have major plot consequences. The political aspects of the book a credible and all the more threatening for that. Like politics in real-life, the day-to-day can seem a little anti-climatic but the issues are real and the stakes are high.

As with the first book, I enjoyed Kitty’s talkshow. It opens up the book, adds some humour, but also shows how these shows can take on a life of their own when they provide a space for the voiceless to be heard.

By the end of this book, it is clear, even to Kitty, that she cannot be just a talkshow host any more. She is a symbol, an ambassador, a target and may become a leader. show less

Kitty'a House of Horrors"Kitty's House Of Horrors" restored my interest in this series. This is a solid Urban Fantasy novel in its own right and it moves the series along in interesting directions.

Kitty's participation in a Reality TV show, filmed in a remote mountain lodge, inhabited by various supernaturals who have gone public and a sceptic who believes they're all faking it, provides an opportunity to bring some interesting people together. When things go wrong and people start to die, show more we move quickly from "Big Brother - the supernatural edition" to "Supernatural Hunger Games."

I liked the plot in this book. It was more thought-through than having Kitty antagonise a bunch of powerful people in situations that she barely understand and then having to cope with the consequences. In "Kitty's House Of Horror" there are plots within plots and Kitty has to think as well as act.

The Reality TV show brings together just about every supernatural and psychic that Kitty has befriended in the series and adds some new weres and some intriguing vampires. Many of these people are present because of Kitty although she seems not to understand the impact that she has and the trust she's created.

I was pleased to see the return of two of my favourite characters, Tina the psychic ghost hunter and the mysterious magician, Odysseus Grant, who is there for the third book in a row. I was also glad to see that Cormac will be returning to us. He will add some grit to future books.

I was also pleased to see that Kitty's sense of humour is back. She takes some fun swipes at the lack of reality in Reality TV and, when the situation starts to feel more like a classic horror movie, she reminds her friends that "The reason most people in horror movies get killed is because they haven't watched enough horror movies."

During the "Real Worldish" section of the book, Kitty positions herself as talk-show host in residence, bouncing off the people around her and pressing to get at their secrets but once the killings start, she automatically starts to take on the mantel of leader.

This is one of the darkest books in the series so far. The death toll is high and characters I like die. Kitty is in the shadow of The Long Game and is being pressured to take sides in a conflict where she doesn't know the game or even all of the players.

For the third book in a row, both Ben, Kitty's husband, and her Pack, are mostly absent from the story but this time with more justification. Still. I'd like to see more of both in future books.

"Kitty's House Of Horror" is a fast-paced, witty, entertainment wrapped around a dark core that takes an uncomfortable look at violence produced by hating someone and classifying them as not human. It was a fun read and I'm back on board for the rest of the series. show less