Review of Night Broken by Patricia Briggs

 

Review of “Night Broken” A Mercy Thompson novel by Patricia Briggs

The 8th book in the series manages to find fresh new ideas without losing track of the stories that came before. This book touches on storylines that were introduced in the previous books without losing focus of the main plot line and even ties them together. After hating the fifth book, I was nervous returning to the series. But I loved book 6, really liked the first half of book seven, and book 8 has been really enjoyable to read. This book introduces new characters, new supernatural threats and makes it feel natural to the stories already told with these characters.

In previous books we’ve heard mention of Adam’s ex-wife Christy, but this book finally lets us see Mercy and Christy go head-to-head for Adams affection. In the 6th book, we met a version of Mercy’s father in Coyote, and he returns in this book along with a new half-brother named Gary Laughingdog. Gary is also a coyote shapeshifter, like Mercy, but he also has powers of premonitions that looks like seizures. This book also gives some more character development to Honey, who at the end of the last book lost her husband. Honey has been a side-side character since the second or third book, a member of Adams wolf pack. Mercy and Honey never really liked each other, but with the presence of Christy and the loss of her husband, Honey and Mercy bond a bit. Honey even catches the eye of Gary, because like Mercy he can see the ghost of her dead husband. As a reader, it’s nice to get to know more of the wolf pack members.

One of the things that I like about this book, is that the narrative stays focused on the main storyline. Christy comes into town because she has a dangerous stalker that turns out to be an ancient God from the Canary Islands. Mercy and the pack need to find this man and figure out how to defeat a lava God. The only side plot is the fairy Grey Lord confronts Mercy, demanding the return of the walking stick artifact. At first this plot seems a bit weird, but it ties in with the main storyline, because Mercy gave the walking stick to Coyote, and she meets Gary to find Coyote. At the end Coyote helps them defeat the lava god. And the walking stick returns to Mercy. It was an interesting way to introduce the son of the creator of the fae walking stick, since he’s a grey Lord, while staying connected to the plot.

We also meet a couple that breed dogs and help Mercy to find the villain because he has a rare dog breed. They’re a cute couple but sadly at the end of the book the man gets turned into lava dog that the villain uses to attack Mercy and the pack. While a permanent change to poor Joel, there is hope that he can shift back to human form.

As a woman, I kind of enjoyed the bickering and struggle of Adam’s attention between Mercy and Christy. Mercy seems a bit petty and childish, but deservingly so based on Christy’s annoying behavior. I enjoy the relationship drama and love that Adam never once thinks about leaving Mercy for Christy, and she knows it. It finally shows some trust in their relationship. Christy is a fun character; you sort of hate her for coming in to be a homewrecker, but you also have sympathy for her. The lava god stalker named Juan Flores or his true name of Goyota, was an interesting villain with cool powers and demon dogs, but never gets any characterization. His main motive is that he believes Christy is the reincarnation of his true love, wife from centuries ago. Juan Flores proves to be a formidable threat, but ultimately is kind of lame in terms of characterization.

Other than the villain, the only other flaw is that this book sort of shoehorns in the vampire ongoing drama. The last book ended, needlessly, with the vampires fighting and this book sort of continues it. It’s only a few brief scenes, but that makes it feel even more useless. The vampire Wolf, calls Mercy up to meet him at his house, and he plays coy with her and Adam, almost trying to seduce them into a threesome, when Stefan shows up. Wolf then poaches Stefan about joining Marsilia, Mistress of the vampires. The information about Goyota lava god, could have been obtained without needing to involve the vampires, something I feel the author thinks she’s obligated to add in each book. We had two books early on that focuses on the vampires, we can leave them alone for one book, or do something big with Stefan again, but having him pop in for a scene or two feels obligatory and gratuitous.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book, I’d probably rank it towards the top of the series so far. I’m hoping that the books continue to stay good, and we never get a repeat of the wandering narrative that was book 5. Night Broken is a solid entry and provides new characters to use going forward. I hope Gary Laughingdog comes back. The book had more comedy and investigation than action, which I enjoyed. Goyota is a powerful and scary villain, so the comedy is a good way to keep the tone balanced. I love exploring new supernatural beings and creatures. I love when the books expand the world, and we learn more information about the fae and the rules of supernatural beings and Mercy’s father Coyote. Hopefully, the series will continue to expand, these books are at their best when Mercy is interacting with characters that we enjoy.