Review: Stray by Rachel Vincent

Stray by Rachel Vincent
(Shifters #1)

2.5 out of 5 stars

Published by Mira

Stray really was one big meh for me. There was nothing that really stood out. Yes, I know, I haven't read about werecats before. Yet, these cats live together in a system that reminds a lot of the werewolf hierarchy like in Bitten. Main character Faythe was a little bit too ignorant for my taste. She has one hell of a strange view on the world. She constantly boasts around that she's so tough, she's not weak, she can handle anything! Yet when anyone tells her bad news (yes, it was horrible news, but still) she faints. Yeah. You're so tough.

The romance was more lust than love. I know they were supposed to have this history together, but I don't see the attraction. He is so idiotically possessive, while Faythe seems to rebel against anyone that wants to protect her. I have no idea how she can love Mr. I-beat-the-crap-out-of-a-guy-because-he-touched-you-once.

Except that this book lends itself well for ranting, I don't really see how this book stands out from the gigantic amount of urban-fantasy books out there. It's way too long (a massive 600+ pages) for a story that starts to pick up around halfway. When the action finally arrived I did like it though. The writing in itself is not bad at all, and it was quite enjoyable.

There are some scenes that crossed the fine line of my comfort zone. There was sexual assault and graphic torture. What stung me most was that the torture was performed by the "good guys". I'm sorry, I just can't live with that. I feel like we should be warned or something. You can't see from the cover or the blurb that this book has such violent aspects.

Not a big fan of this one, especially because I couldn't agree with the heroine at all. I have heard that the series does get better with every book, and though Faythe won't win a science quiz, she does gain some more common sense. I think I will read the next book in the series, but I definitely won't be rushing to get it.

Blurb

There are only eight breeding female werecats left...

And I'm one of them.

I look like an all-American grad student. But I am a werecat, a shape-shifter, and I live in two worlds.
Despite reservations from my family and my Pride, I escaped the pressure to continue my species and carved out a normal life for myself. Until the night a Stray attacked.
I'd been warned about Strays -- werecats without a Pride, constantly on the lookout for someone like me: attractive, female, and fertile. I fought him off, but then learned two of my fellow tabbies had disappeared. 

This brush with danger was all my Pride needed to summon me back... for my own protection. Yeah, right. But I'm no meek kitty. I'll take on whatever -- and whoever -- I have to in order to find my friends. Watch out, Strays -- 'cause I got claws, and I'm not afraid to use them...

Making The Unbelievable Believable

Today, I feel like writing a rant. Just to get something off my mind that annoys me. Skip this post if you're looking for a thoughtful review.

Yesterday night, when I was reading Stray by Rachel Vincent, I was mentally slapping my forehead at how oblivious this heroine could be. Yes, you have to attend every council meeting since you were a mere ten years old, yet it never occurred to you that one day, you might were supposed to actually be in said council? Then, when I started to think about it, there were quite some more things that don't make sense. Main character Faythe (I quite like her name by the way) starts the book with saying goodbye to Mr. Human Boyfriend. She comes home and within two or three chapters she ends up with Mr. Childhood Friend on top of her (no, not having sex, but still, not in a platonic way). And nowhere, in the entire dissertation of her feelings, not one single thought is directed at Mr. Human Boyfriend she left behind. And as far as he knows, they're still together. Weird. I wonder if Mr. Human Boyfriend will show up somewhere or somehow in the rest of the book.

And this is not a problem that I have with only this book. I only use Stray as an example of how there are inconsistencies in so many books. Maybe some of those are intentional, but I'm sure not all of them are. And I can certainly understand that, as a writer, you've seen countless versions of your book, and maybe in one of those versions there was a Mr. Human Boyfriend that made sense, and in another you didn't really like him anyway so you removed him again, but I can't see why no one (like an editor or proof reader) asked Ms. Vincent, "Hey, what's up with that human dude?". There are countless examples where characters are suddenly (conveniently?) forgotten, then after some time come back again with no logical explanation what happened with them in the mean while. Even if there are werewolves and vampires and demons in your book, I want to believe your story. I want to feel like the actions of your characters make sense in your world. And yes, I'm a person that zooms in on every little detail that you write. If you bring up a Mr. Human Boyfriend, I want to know what happens to him, or at least have his apparently not so faithful girlfriend remember him once in a while.

Then, a common problem in fantasy genres, the gaps in world building. Often, authors try to be original and implement certain new things into the standard fantasy world to make it stand out. More often than not, this works, readers are surprised, and everyone is happy. The downside of this is that you're creating new lore. And with new lore, we need explanations. Why do your werewolves sparkle? An easy way out is to say hey, well, no body knows why we sparkle, but we think it looks pretty so we stick with it. Okay, so they don't know, then I will be fine with that, because in a way that makes sense. There are also those brave authors that venture into explanation-land and, well, fail. To illustrate this I want to take a very well-known book called Breaking Dawn (spoilers ahead for the 3 people on this world that haven't heard about it yet). We hear a lot about how these vampires are marble-like creatures. They feel like marble, they make marble sounds, the colour of marble, you name it. They don't have bodily fluids. They're not living things, so I accept all this 'cause it sounds pretty plausible. Now comes the fun part. When Mr. Vampire has sex with Ms. Human, they get a baby. Wait, what? Yes. As everything is marble, I guess having sex is possible. But ehh.. Ms. Author, you know babies aren't brought by the stork, right? You really need some kind of bodily fluids for that. I would love to hear you explain that.

My point is, readers aren't stupid. You can't fool us all. When you write a story, please make sure your story makes sense. Just keep away from those abyssal holes in logic. And I guess not every plot is perfect, but sometimes I get tired of seeing those inconsistencies.

End of ranting.


Note: this is not a personal attack on any of the authors mentioned. This isn't an attack on authors in general, because I know that if you stand so close to your story you probably miss a lot of things. This also isn't a review on what I think about the book Stray, I'm actually quite enjoying it, apart from my little irritations. And I really respect you if you read through that whole thing.