Skinwalker

A strong start to a new series, Skinwalker just became a favourite. Interesting lore that was well thought out, with intriguing back story and strong storyline. There is a great mix of magic, vamp, and other that builds a solid reality. Jane is a complex character, its obvious we will learn more about her as the series progresses which I am looking forward to. She is kickass but not invulnerable, I like the slipping into POV of the Beast - it adds another dimension to the story and is handled well.A great addition to the UF genre, I had to go an buy the next one before I'd even finished this

I’m not sure why I took so long to start this long and recommended series, but when I was gifted the first e-book by a Goodreads member who surprised me with the sweet gesture (thank you Layla!), I read and became majorly hooked. Majorly – which is perfect for a series junkie like me. It meant weeks of binge reading a series with over ten books published in it. Not much that I enjoy more in my reading life.

Jane is an unusual specimen – she’s a shapeshifter but not a were, someone hired to help vampires in New Orleans when she usually kills them instead. Her business card and website humorously read “Have Stake, Will Travel.” While investigating the rogue and solving that particular mystery, she’s meeting the fascinating show more characters – supernatural and non – that make up the cultural town. In between this she finds out hidden mysteries about herself, especially long-hidden mysteries that revealed she once did a twisted version of dark magic.

Jane is humorous – she’s tough, she’s different, she’s special, and no one knows what she is – I love when the Main Characters have secrets that everyone wants to know, and when they are pursued by complex and powerful characters who she’s shying away from. A classic game of cat and mouse hunt. Between the local police department, Rick on the bike, Leo as the Master of the City and his determined bodyguard, Katie with her twisted family, and meeting a few other people thrown in – there are plenty of intrigued AND intriguing people popping up all over the place. Between exploring the town in lion form, exploring the streets in human form, spying on secret rituals by other paranormal races and awkward but enlightening vamp soirees, the book takes one addictive turn after another.

Jane is downright intriguing after all, although I prefer the books later when she’s more at peace with Beast and knows more. The Native American Folklore history and meeting Aggie with the ritual was interesting enough, although it didn’t grab me as much as the modern-day happenings did. She’s a funny main character, she’s tough and has secrets, she’s compassionate and driven and protective. Can’t complain.

Leo is yummy and fascinating, but there is a tragic turning point at the end of the book that ties into the heart of the mystery. Watching their back and forth argumentive banter is fun stuff. “Bruisier” – AKA George – doesn’t have quite a huge presence yet but he’s a well-done supporting character. Ah, those dance scenes!

Rick never made an impression on me much but he still holds some promise in the first story sometimes, even though it’s clearly he’s not fully trustworthy. Having the main character having to interact with others who are so different from her – from Katie’s ladies to the unusual and formal vamp world – makes the book even better. And of course Beast is fascinating, being in her head over Janes or seeing them debate stuff.

Mystery wise its rich enough to earn it’s high start rating too. There are plenty of twists and turns and misleading leads, a shocking culprit, several battles, and large fight at the end that is a series changer.

Since I’ve read the rest of the series in a row before writing this review, I will point out the series improves much and keeps getting better. I enjoyed this first book quite a bit, but if there were a few things that bugged you about it, most of the things improve. In this first book the shifting seems a bit too hard on her, and I don't like so many dependent crutches being needed, but this becomes a non-issue later.

Jane’s bond with Beast grows more secure, the personalities of both emerge fully, more layers pop up on all the characters you meet in the first book that may seem slightly one-dimensional right now, and the politics and twist-turns get even more focused and twisted as the stories go on. show less

I'm on a UF kick again. I'm trying out a bunch of titles to see what grabs me. Or hunts me. Or toys with me, or makes me play buddy-buddy with the cops, vamps, and trolls.

One could say that most of these UFs are somewhat formulaic. And it's true. But it's also equally true for the entire genre of mystery which this so closely resembles. AND THAT'S OKAY. What matters is that we have fun.

And I definitely had fun. More fun than I've had in quite some time.

I've had a so-so relationship with werewolves in UF. I tolerate them or hope they just... go away... in a gore-strewn mess.

Happily, the Skinwalker in this one isn't really a were! She's a Shapechanger! Wooo! And I was very pleased with how she was handled. All the page-time devoted to show more smells?

Delightful.

And as for the rest of the mystery, vamp, and snark elements? They're all familiar, fun, and several of these elements definitely KICK ASS.

Let's not forget the most important element: it must flow. It has to have spirit and spunk and it should never get boring. Ever.

I think it's safe to say this succeeds very, very nicely. :) show less

Well Faith Hunter, you have my attention. In my quest for new Urban Fantasy to read, I stumbled across Jane Yellowrock's series. It sat on my to-be-read pile for ages, and now I fully regret not getting to this book sooner. Skinwalker is the whole package. A shapeshifting, half-Cherokee, snarky and kick-ass heroine? Yes please! For the love of all things bookish, yes please.

I'm totally a Jane Yellowrock fan now. Her character somehow manages to walk that line between being too cocky, and being just sarcastic enough to keep things fresh. Jane is intelligent. She's funny. She doesn't let any man tell her what to do. In fact, that's what I loved most of all! A lot of UF has a heavy focus on romance. This book fights those rules. Jane is show more single, and she's not looking to change that anytime soon. Oh, and did I mention she rides a motorcycle? My kind of girl!

Jane shares her body with Beast, the main form she shifts into. Beast is a predator. A big cat who, while her mind is more simplistic than Jane's, is extremely intelligent and therefore just as dangerous. I liked being in Beast's head. Her thoughts were clear, and the perfect way to see further into the mystery of the rogue vampire that Jane was hunting. I will say that after finishing this book, I think I'll read the next one rather than listen to the audio book. I feel like Beast's thoughts would be better on paper.

I loved that this book was set against the vibrant backdrop of New Orleans. What better place for ages old magic than a city who pulses with the stuff? Good music, good food, and vampires. Who needs anything more? Jane's story flew by as I watched her navigate the city, meet the locals, and hunt down the rogue. This was a great start to a new series! I'm eager for the next book to be in my hands. show less

Jane Yellowrock, a shape-shifting bounty hunter, is hired to hunt down a rogue vampire in New Orleans. I have no idea how successful she is in the end, or who the vamp is, because 161 pages in (more than halfway into the book!) basically nothing plot related has happened. Jane describes her outfits. Jane describes her beeeeeautiful flowing hair. Jane bemoans how much she has to eat all the time because shape-shifting takes mad calories, and makes fun of women who eat salad. Jane just puts on a little lipstick and she's the prettiest lady in the room and everyone checks Jane out and all the other ladies are jealous. Jane beats up her bosses' various bodyguards, I guess so the audience knows how tough she is. (Although maybe not beating show more up your fellow employees is a good idea? Maybe? Given that the worse anyone does is check out her irresistably hot legs?) Jane goes to an authentic New Orleans cafe and is more mystical than the Magical Negro behind the counter. Jane is a better tracker than any tracker and a better fighter than any cop/soldier/mercenary and blah blah blah.

Jane is apparently so splendiferous that it takes 161 pages just to describe two-and-a-half days of her splendiferous life. She ignores numerous really obvious clues and several really obvious leads, and instead focuses her time on dressing up for vampire parties, shopping, and going on dates. I wish I were exagerating!

Jane Yellowrock is the most annoying try-hard version of Anita Blake I have ever read. In fact, even Anita Blake is not as annoying as Jane. Even Anita Blake's lack-of-plot books have more plot than this book did. And even Laurell K Hamilton can describe mystical crap in a less annoying way than Jane's "Beast" pov, which is as cheesy as it is unbelievable.

Thankfully, this book is so blandly mediocre that within a week I'll have forgotten it and every way in which it annoyed me. show less

Vampire hunters don't get to pick their employers, but it doesn't get much weirder than being hired by the vampires to hunt down one of their own. When Jane Yellowrock gets a call from one of the top vamps in New Orleans, she isn't sure what to think. Apparently, there's a rogue vampire loose, and Jane's new employer hopes that a human like Jane will somehow succeed where a bunch of bloodsucking superhumans have failed. Fortunately for the vamps, Jane is quite far from human herself: not only is she one of the last skinwalkers still walking around in their skins, but she also gains additional hunter instincts from a predatory spirit who shares her consciousness. Jane speeds down to New Orleans on her motorcycle (its name is "Bitsa," as show more it is "bits of" various other defunct bikes) only to discover that her job won't be as easy as she first thought: not only does the rogue vamp have powers that she's never seen before, but she quickly finds herself embroiled in the glutinous gumbo of vampire politics.

One of my favourite aspects of the book was the worldbuilding. Hunter creates a magical system that is far from slapdash while deftly avoiding the infamous infodump. She parcels out tiny chunks of information about the rules of the world--always enough that the reader understands what is going on, but never quite so much to stifle curiosity. The vampires have some of the standard sexy/dangerous vibes (what is with the UF obsession with vampire spit, anyway?), but they also have an intriguing and mainly unrevealed mythology--for example, I'm still dying to know why vamps in the world react only to Christian symbols, independent of the user's faith. Other magic rules are equally satisfying; for example, magic obeys the law of conservation of mass, leading to some unexpected consequences. I also enjoyed the way that magic was integrated into the world. About half a century before the story starts, the vampires accidentally outed themselves (it's all Marilyn Monroe's fault) and witches were discovered soon after. While this opened the possibility for other magical creatures, most are still only unproven legend--including skinwalkers like Jane herself. I found laws of the vamp-infiltrated US interesting; apparently, vamps can take "blood-slaves," but killing them is perfectly legal and not considered murder. The narrative is told from Jane's humorous and extremely snarky perspective, with brief interludes provided by "Beast," the animal spirit living inside Jane. Both Jane and Beast tend to talk in short, staccato, and often incomplete sentences; while I had some difficulty reconstructing the often-absent phrasal subjects, I think it did help to give Jane a unique voice. One of the other unexpected pleasures of the book was the mystery itself. Not only is the story internally consistent--a rare enough trait that it deserves special mention--but the mystery is also quite well-imagined. While I did manage to guess eventually, it took me a surprisingly long time, and there were several twists I completely failed to catch.

Yet despite all of these positives, the book didn't really grab me. Jane and the other characters should feel rounded, dimensional, and alive, yet somehow I couldn't connect with them. Maybe it's actually because they are all larger than life: every character is supermodel-beautiful and superhero-strong, and Jane is sure to remind the readers of the general super-ness of all and sundry. Jane Yellowrock has all of the enviable feminine characteristics one could wish for: "exotic" beauty, a gorgeous, athletic body, raven-black hair down past her hips, and an ability to catch and hold the eye of every man who sees her. She's apparently the last of her kind, unique both in her soul-sharing with Beast and with her skinwalker abilities. She is a risk-taker who tends to act first and think never, yet her incredible luck is always there to pull her out of trouble. Jane also has all of the "power chick" characteristics: even as a human, she's incredibly athletic, superhumanly fast, able to take down men larger and tougher than her without breaking a sweat, tends to challenge--and beat--more vampires than a batallion of men can face off, and, to top it all off, she rides a badass motorcycle. (Yep, that got "You Shook Me All Night Long" stuck in my head, but since it's the 2Cellos version, I'm not complaining.)

So, we've established that Jane is a badass who can out-badass all of her badass male counterparts with her generalized badassed badassery. I don't mind a little girl power; I suppose what actually frustrated me was that Jane also surpassed her peers in another traditional characteristic of the male urban fantasy protag (MUF). When I run out of things to complain about in my MUF reviews, I usually fall back on the Male Gaze. In this ubiquitous MUF trope, the narrator's casual descriptions sexualize and objectify all female characters, lingering on every curve and the fit of every piece of clothing before eventually (if ever) drifting up to faces. In my limited experience with FLUF (Female-Lead Urban Fantasy), I've recently discovered that there is indeed a Female Gaze. Jane has the most acute case of Female Gaze that I have yet encountered. She describes the abs, shoulders, and tightness of the pants of each man she meets in the same voyeuristic, predatory manner as her MUF peers. She openly imagines being in bed with at least six of the men that she meets and routinely undresses each one with her eyes. This attitude is fitting for her personality, and Jane's frankness may be appealing to some readers. Personally, however, I found her tendency to work double time on the seduction line as irritating and unappealing as I find it in the MUFS. I think I find Jane problematic because Hunter's efforts to weld Badass and Beauty together creates a host of awkward contradictions. I think Jane (and Hunter) just try too hard to have it both ways. There's too much hypocrisy in spending pages vivaciously detailing party outfits and the male stares received during a seductive dance, then in the next line asserting that she'd rather be swillin' beer with the boys. The plot consists of bouts of actions liberally broken by "feminine" moments such as buying dresses and going to parties. I had trouble reconciling the time-critical life-and-death situations with descriptions of dresses and makeup. I think Hunter tried so hard to force Jane into being an everywoman that she became an implausible nonentity. Despite all this, it was something of a pleasant change to have the female see herself as the assertive, self-confident, dominant one in her relationships. As always in FLUF, we have the dance of dominance and submission hover for spoiler, Even if I don't necessarily agree with her self-assessment, Jane certainly sees herself as independent and in control.

Skinwalker is a creative and imaginative introduction to a well-built world and a spunky protagonist. Although I spent a lot of time in this review [whining and complaining] trying to pin down precisely what bothered me about the book, overall, I really did enjoy the ride. Even with the surfeit of UF out there, it is rare to find a story with some new ideas and new twists. Recommended for anyone interested in a FLUF with an interesting twist.

~3.5 show less

This is the first book in the Jane Yellowrock series by Faith Hunter. Currently Hunter has three books sold in this series. The second book "Blood Cross" is due out on Jan 5 of 2010. I really, really loved this book. It was fast-paced action with a great world, great characters, and an interesting mythos behind Jane's character.

Jane Yellowrock is a Skinwalker, at least she thinks she is. She doesn't remember anything before her twelfth birthday and was raised in an Orphanage from that point on. She carries the Beast inside her and they dwell in harmony in one body. Her specific talents have lead her to hunting rogue vampires as a way to make a living. Her current assignment leads her to New Orleans to hunt a rogue that is taking out show more both humans and vampries alike. This time though, she may be in over her head, this vampire rogue is more than it seems. During the chase things get strange as she begins to regain memories from her past.

This is one fast paced novel. Jane is always on the go and there is a ton of action. The action scenes are very well done and, paired with Jane's humourous and sarcastic tone of voice, this book is a very fun read. All of the characters are very well-developed. There is a hint of sexual tension between both Jane and Leo (head vampire) as well as between Jane and Rick (a bad-boy who wanted the job that Jane got). Jane's a good girl at heart though and never lets things get out of hand with the boys. Really the things that made this book shine were Jane's unflappable personality and the tightly written action scenes; then there were the guns, the bikes, the dancing...all of those things made the book a fun and exciting read.

The plot was very well executed and very gripping. Definitely a page turner. I like the world that Hunter has created and hope that it is clarified better in the next novel. The writing style itself is very dense. If you miss a word you could miss something important; despite this it was a very quick read and hard to put down. If I have any complaints with this book it is a small gripe; I didn't like the writing style that Hunter used for the parts where Jane is Beast. I understood that she was trying to give Beast a distinct voice, but well, Beast sounded a bit like a savage or Barbarian and the halting writing style was tough to read at first. By the end of the book I got used to it, so I can't complain too much.

Will I read the next book? You betcha' I will. I am eager to learn the mystery behind Jane's past and to watch her further interactions with the residents of New Orleans. I think if you liked the early Anita Blake books, Jaz Parks, or Kate Daniels series you will get into this series. It focuses on the action and the mystery, not the romance, and was my type of book! show less