Book Review: Storm Cursed by Patricia Briggs

*Trigger warning - animal abuse.

I stopped reading this book some time last year, but didn't remember why. When I saw the next book in the series was coming out, I though, "ooh, I need to catch up before starting Smoke Bitten (which came out last month). I got the book at a neighboring library and settled back into the Urban Fantasy world of coyote walker/mechanic Mercy Thompson, and all the characters I've gotten to know over the years I've been reading the series.

Not too far into the book, I remembered why I stopped. There is a very graphic scene of animal abuse (puppies and kittens) which is done by some evil/bad witches to increase their powers.

Authors: if you decide to add animal torture to a book in a series, you are going to risk losing new fans and alienating old ones. I realize that it must be hard to come up with new plot points and conflict/tensions in a long-running series. But this is not the way to do it.

I skimmed that part of the book, and will say that, for the most part I enjoyed the rest of it. I have read this series since the first book came out, and if you are an Urban Fantasy fan, you will love it. I have recommended it to men and women both at the library, and never heard a negative comment about it. If you want to know more about the series, please see my review of Moon Called here: https://kellywellread.blogspot.com/search?q=mercy



In this latest book, Mercy and her pack discover that someone has been raising zombie animals, and proceed to investigate this unusual state of affairs. Which is when we get to the evil bad witches and their black magic with baby animals. After moving on from that part of the book, it proceeds fairly smoothly in the same manner of the rest in the series. Great dialogue, action scenes, and family dynamics among the pack.

I have the next book in the series, and do look forward to reading it. I don't give up on an author or series just because I'm disappointed with both, one or two times in 10 years. But, as I said, this is not the best way to add shock value to your story. I don't really know of anyone who would enjoy reading such extreme animal abuse - if they did, I'd run in the opposite direction, for sure.

Hoping the next book will be better.