Kitty and the Midnight Hour: A Denver DJ with a little extra bite

Kitty and the Midnight Hour by Carrie Vaughn

Kitty Norville is a radio DJ that hosts a late night talk show about various paranormal topics. She often gets strange calls from the very subjects she talks about. She usually ends up giving out advice to these callers since they have very few options for advice available to them. As a werewolf herself, Kitty is in a unique position to dispense helpful information to those that need it. Her show became popular and that did not sit too well with some key players in her life. Her own pack was made jealous of her success and that created tension in the ranks that she is forced to deal with. Not to mention the vampires, werewolf hunters, and other denizens of the night she has managed to irritate with her openness of sensitive topics. All of these things make Kitty Norville’s life complicated and scary.

I’m a big fan of the Mercedes Thompson series by Patricia Briggs, and it was too easy for me to draw comparisons between Kitty and Mercedes. Both series have a strong “werewolf” female protagonists, and both use inter-pack politics as significant plot points. Their characters in both series make it a point to defy their stereotypical societal roles as both werewolves and women.  As similar as they seem on the surface, the surface is where the similarities end. To put in simply, there is a lot less magic in Kitty’s world, and the overall tone of the book is heavier.

Kitty and the Midnight Hour is a much darker book than I was expecting. While still a fun read, it had an edge to it. Nothing overly graphic, but it certainly didn’t shy away from a little gore, sex, and violence. I viewed this as a good thing. Werewolves and vampires are supposed to be gritty, dangerous, and violent. I liked the world Carrie Vaughn created, and must say that I wished I had found it before I had already been overexposed to sparkling vampires, hunky werewolves, and other Urban Fantasy tropes that are so prevalent now.

The Kitty Norville books draw their inspiration from your typical werewolf Urban Fantasy stories, and at this point I wouldn’t recommend them to anyone who is a fan of the genre and is desperate for something different. However, I would recommend it to anyone looking for an introduction into werewolf-themed fantasy, or you simply can’t get enough ass-kicking werewolves. The books are well written, intense, and chock full of great characters. I may not be running to the bookstore to pick up the sequel tomorrow, but Kitty Norville has definitely found a permanent home on my To-Be-Read list.

I listened to Kitty and the Midnight Hour on audio. The audio book is published by Tantor Audio and read by Marguerite Gavin. Marguerite is a professional narrator, and has read tons of books and received many awards for her work. Marguerite was such an awesome choice for reading Kitty Norville because she sounds exactly how you would imagine Kitty would sound. The Kitty Norville character is a professional DJ who talks down some very scary creatures. Marguerite’s power of voice lends great credibility to the character. Not to mention that, when I pulled up her bio on the Tantor site, she is a dead ringer for Kitty as well. A really good audio experience from Marguerite and Tantor.