Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Review: Skinwalker by Faith Hunter

Skinwalker: A Jane Yellowrock Novel
Faith Hunter
Penguin
July 7, 2009
ISBN: 9780451462800

Jane Yellowrock is a skinwalker. She can turn into any animal she wants, which comes in handy for her career choice: hunting vampires for a living. She's just been hired by the Katherine Fonteneau, the madam of Katie's Ladies and one of the oldest vampires in New Orleans. Her assignment is to hunt a rogue who's been murdering humans and other vamps, as well.

And when a hot Cajun guy shows up saying he wants to help, or when she meets Leo, the vampire master of the whole city, Jane soon found out is that things are not as nearly as they seem.

Skinwalker is a brand new addition to a genre of strong heroines who can take care of themselves. Jane shares her body with animal who she's nicknamed Beast. While she's not sure how that came to be, as the story progresses, she founds out some hard truths about her past. The dynamic between Jane and Beast was something completely different and very interesting to read. I found myself liking Beast. She, in her own way, was clever and very smart.

The plot pretty much kept me guessing until the very end. Jane has to hunt a rogue vamp, but it's not as simple as that. She also has to deal with what she calls "sane vamps" Until now, all she's known has been the crazy vampires who have gone rogue and she's had to kill. The thought that there's sane ones is a hard one to swallow for her. The secondary characters were just as wonderful as the main one. One of my favorites is Leo. He's the master vampire of New Orleans and apart from being drop-dead gorgeous (pun intended) he's very clever and interested in Jane.

The plot is fresh, the characters very well-developed and the writing so descriptive, I could image every single bloodied scene in my head. And the fact that Ms. Hunter titles every chapter is pretty cool, from "Stick a dollar in your garter?" to "I'm psychic." It's a nice chance to the old numeric chapters. Skinwalker is a perfect mixed of urban fantasy, mystery and a hint of romance thrown in for good measure. It has the potential to become a fantastic series, and I'm so looking forward to reading more about Jane Yellowrock.

Original review posted on Night Owl Romance.

2 comments:

Kimberly Swan said...

I loved Skinwalker as well! If you haven't gotten a chance to read it yet, you should check out the Strange Brew anthology because there's a story set in the Jane Yellowrock world. (also a lot of other fav. authors in it!) :)

Wendy said...

Hey Kimberly!

I have Strange Brew on my TBR pile and I can't wait to read it! :)

He can Chapter-32 me anytime!

Bones is Mine