Crimson Veil (Otherworld #15) by Yasmine Galenorn

The war continues to rage in Otherworld with the D’Artigo sisters hearing more and more stressful news as the world hangs in the balance

But the D’Artigo sisters cannot focus on the tragedy and devastation in Otherworld. A Daemon cult is trafficking slaves and attempting to invoke a demigod of vice and corruption capable of unleashing utter devastation across the city. With vampire businesses targeted as well, the D’Artigo sisters have to act – they have no time to mourn; not for their father, not for the dead of Elqaneve and not for those who died in Menolly’s bar.

This book is pretty much a continuation of Autumn Whispers, the last book. So much so that they almost feel like one book especially since Autumn Whispers ended without any real ending

A lot of what I said in the last book pretty much applies to this as well – it feels like a distraction and a frustrating one at that. We have Shadowwing and his demon army trying to invade Earth. His allies are launching a huge invasion cross Otherworld. An alliance is forming to try and push them back and one of the major nations of the Otherworld has fallen. Many of the spirit seals have been lost and now need to be quickly reclaimed for fear of Shadowwing getting his hands on them, ripping over the portals and invading Earth.

And the sisters are focused on… something else entirely. There’s a possible daemon plot (daemons are different from demons), the raising of a demi-god and a kidnapping/trafficking/slavery ring as well as threats against vampire businesses and… this is all unrelated to Shadowwing and I have to ask why it is here and why are the sisters involved?

I’m not saying these events are important but they’re literally in the middle of world destroying invasion against both the Otherworld and Earth. So why is this on the sister’s to handle who already have way too much on their plate? We have Carter, the half-demon, half-titan why doesn’t he step up? Vampire businesses are being targeted, why can’t Roman take this over, since he’s the major vampire authority? Fae and other supernaturals are being kidnapped so can’t the Earthside far queens step forwards? The shapehifters?

Why aren’t the sisters trying to form their alliances against the invasion – or hunting down the spirit seals or calling on the dragonflights to honour their commitment and fly to battle. The sisters have enough on their plate without being the first responders to every single issue everywhere

Coyote's Creed (Broken Mirrors #1) by Vaughn R. Demont

Spencer Cain is barely making it through high school but it's not for lack of intelligence. With his mother battling mental illness, Spencer as no choice but to run cons to keep food on the table.  This all would have been so much easier if his deadbeat father hadn't decided to walk out one day.  When Spencer gets word that his long absent father has died, he believes that at least the man can do him and his mother no more harm, at least until he finds out the truth about who his father really was.  It seems that Spencer is half human and half Coyote.  This knowledge quickly launches Spencer into a supernatural world that he is scarce prepared to deal with despite the fact that he has spent his eighteen years running cons.

This book is pretty action and plot driven – we hit the ground running. Spencer learns he is supernatural and almost immediate begins charging through the plot at great speed. We quickly get him running head first into this world, pulling of tricks and learning as fast as he can do. We get some decent stories and history from Rourke and some entertaining hints of the nature of the competition between the three races, the sneaky, fun, yet sometimes lethal and serious nature of these prankster races constantly battling for bragging rights against each other.

It’s fun, it’s fast, it’s funny. Did I mention fun? Because that’s the main tone I have from this book, certainly to begin, Spencer is out of his depth but while so many protagonists would mope and despair, Spencer ran with it. I found myself reading this book extremely quickly because it happily pulled me in. It was one of those books where I blink and then see the book has finished.

The downside to this fun rocking charge through the plot is that the story doesn’t get into much depth with the world. Which is a real shame because I really really want to know. I want to know more about the powers of a Bard, the power of stories, I want to know more about the three races of tricksters, their histories, their powers, their natures, I want to know more about the curses

I love the idea that then Kitsune are meticulous planners while the Coyotes wing it and have a lot of luck to various degrees of success and stability. I like the idea that the three races of trickster have very different ways of being tricksters – this is great but I want to know far more about this. We only touch on it in passing and then leap forward to the next part of the plot. It generally works – I can still easily follow the book (though more information about the Sorcerers would have helped) but more would have helped a lot

I find Spencer to be a fun protagonist. He’s a rogue – but he’s not malicious with it. He’s fun, doesn’t take anything too seriously but isn’t so light hearted to be frustrating. His relationship with his mother is also utterly, painfully poignant – having to navigate around his mother’s mental illness, respecting her, loving her but deeply strained trying to support and help her. This really does bring out a part of Spencer’s character that is touching, caring and hurting that adds a lot of humanisation to the character. It’s powerful but there is a problem with mental illness basically being used as character development for another character. But it is extremely powerful – we don’t undermined his mother’s authority as his mother, nor the emotional bond between them and minors having to support parents with mental illnesses. It’s very real, very raw and very powerful

Spencer is bisexual – which is definitely a rare find in this genre. We hardly ever see LGBTQ protagonists in this genre and less bisexual male protagonists, so this definitely interests me

I also really like the way the sex is portrayed, being much more graphic than we often see, but also much less formulaic without unnecessary gender roles or patterns I see a lot

What I’m much less a fan of is Spencer’s sexual partner – Rourke. Rourke is an older bisexual man – and I’m quite happy to see an LGBTQ character be older and be portrayed as sexual and sexy (and not older in an “is thousand years old but looks 20” kind of way). This is definitely a plus. What isn’t so much is that Spencer at least begins the book referring to Rourke as “uncle” and clearly sees him in some level of, if not parental then certainly something close to it. No he’s not family, but he was a close friend of his parents and has clearly watched Spencer grow up. Further, some mojo between them makes Spencer and him especially horny. I’m not saying that it removed his consent but it likely increased the amount of sex they had. Finally Rourke announces his love for Spencer very quickly and tries to pressure Spencer into becoming his consort.

Teen Wolf, Season 5, Episode 20: Apotheosis

 It is time for the Teen Wolf season finale, with the Beast running amok as Sebastian and everyone plotting to find a way to defeat him. Actually, it’s a little confused since it seems to bring together every plot line from every direction and I’m not super sure they all make sense, but hold on and we’ll try to grab them all.

The Argents have found the pike that Marie-Jeanne used to kill the Beast the first time (owned by one of the Dread Doctors who turns out to have been Marcus, Sebastian’s long lost friend which, I suppose, finally gives them a motivation for what they’ve done), now in nifty and portable sword-cane form. They have all their bags of tricks to stalk the Beast and give it a good stabbing

Scott & co are less willing to just murder Mason and want to bring him back – which they think they can do because they’ve dragged up some werewolf lore where you can make a werewolf turn human by saying it’s given name (wouldn’t that have been useful at some point in the last five seasons? Or this season). The only snag is a banshee has to do it. This out is brought to you from the department of ideas-pulled-out-of-writer’s-arses-at-the-11^th-hour.

The downside to that is one of Beastie Sebastien’s attacks hit Lydia and badly hurt her throat. No banshee powers for you! He also mauled Hayden’s abdomen because why not?

So they’re down one Lydia, but luckily Melissa steps up with cortisone which, in Beacon Hills, magically cures gaping neck wounds! Yay, Banshee is dragged out of her near death bed to be a weapon! Go Lydia! You already spent most of the season locked in Eichen House, we can’t bench you for the season finale as well.

So good plan? No, because Theo. Theo has decided to try and be relevant by killing Vicky, one of his extra-chimeras with chimera powers, to steal her abilities while Deucalion snarks on. Now powered up by all his chimera’s, Theo decides to interfere – his getting involved gets Scott Kanima’d (only the venom only lasts a few minutes which I’ll out down to Scott getting more powerful), Lydia gets dropped in a pit and Parrish the Hellhound, distracted by Lydia, gets knocked aside by the Beast

Which promptly slaps Theo aside – turns out Deucalion has been working for Scott all along and isn’t really blind (because of course the one actual disabled character in this show is going to be magically cured) and totally lied to Theo about stealing beast powers. He snaps Theo’s neck. No-one was sad.

Can we have a screeching halt here to examine this? Deucalion has been working with Scott all along? Since when? I mean, did he really recruit Deucalion (who has no reason at all to like Scott) to infiltrate Theo’s gang (remembering he didn’t even know Theo was an enemy for a long time) to lie to him about Belasco’s talons not working before Scott even knew they were a thing?

Teen Wolf, Season 5, Episode 15: Amplification

We have the Beastie running amok and attacking the hospital and generally causing havoc with only one thing stopping him. Parrish. Ok Parrish doesn’t exactly WIN but since he apparently wounds the monster and turns it back human I think a case can be made for a strong draw.

The pack’s plan is to finally unite by rescuing their missing member – Lydia. She’s locked up in Eichmen house being tormented by Dr. Valack

Recap on Valack – Valack is the guy who was once imprisoned in Eichmen House with a hole drilled in his head who tended to terrify people by making them stare at the hole in his head. He now runs the place and he loves drilling holes in lots of skulls. This isn’t just a fun hobby, he does this to try and enhance the power of supernaturals. The weird part is that it actually works – yes supernatural beings all get super charged with a hole in their heads; now there’s a weird quirk, Of course that usually goes wrong (beyond, y’know, the whole hole in their head) and will go super wrong with Lydia – since she’s already damn powerful already. Supercharging Lydia will mean she hears all the deaths ever – which will be agonisingly painful causing her to unleash her Banshee scream at Adele-eclipsing volumes and melt everyone’s brain.

So it’s rescue time – which leads to a nifty plan involving the whole pack with little gems like Melissa still hating Liam because of the whole trying to kill Scott thing (hah, in line Melissa, I hated Liam before it was cool) and Malia’s awesome/terrible encouragement of Kira. I do like Malia’s complete social ineptitude and ferocious dedication.

I also have to kind of smile at the lampshading of Kira getting all her skills just magically dropped on her. Self-awareness like that can really work for a show’s cheese

They also get Parrish to play driver for both his authority and because he’s the only one who can actually go toe-on-toe with the beast.

The plan pretty much works out… sort of – except Theo and his Chimera gang also move in and they’re not stopped by Black Ash. They reach Lydia first – not that they care about Lydia but because they want Parrish and want to lure him in. Well... it works. And burny hellhounds also don’t care about Black ash. Or walls. Or doors. Now, Theo’s lured him I do wonder what he intends to do with him.

Teen Wolf, Season 5, Episode 14: The Sword and the Spirit

Gerard and Chris are still around (and Gerard hasn’t been killed) exploring the tunnels under the town because that’s what everyone here seems to do when they have some down time. At least the Dread Doctors are there so they’re not just randomly exploring for funsies. They makes lots of foreboding noises about the Beast not being killable (except, apparently, by a young woman with a spear). I think Chris is supposed to be impressed and intimidated by this family story but, instead, he manages to convey “my granddad was really stoned if he believed that”

They don’t find the Beast. Gerard is not horribly horribly murdered – but they do find a whooooollllle lot of bodies: the Dread Doctors have been hiding the Beast’s kills.

Those bodies are brought to the hospital where it worries Parrish who has had ominous dreams about said bodies. It also has the Sheriff dish out the REALLY BIG GUNS to the police and then send them wandering around school (the police actually look no older than the students and this generally looks like a really really bad idea. Besides, isn’t like half the student body werekanimawendigos now?)

Liam and Scott also investigate the tunnels because this town just has nothing else fun to do on a weekend (and Malia told Liam to tell Scott to go there – and Liam being Liam he decided to go alone. AND STILL DIDN’T DIE! Really, a damn fool teenager goes into spooky tunnels alone, I demand they get brutally murdered for the sake of the gene pool!). Scott and Liam kinda sorta reconcile except Liam still has all kind of guilt. Which he totally should. Shaaaaame on the baby wolf! Shame!

They also run into Gerard and Chris (how does ANYTHING hide down these tunnels? Down a side passage they find the cheerleading squad and the chess club is meeting past the third storm drain) and Scott is every bit as much a fan of Gerard still being alive as I am. Still he apparently knows useful things. Except “useful” means “the beast is dangerous and kills people and also makes ominous murals!” which is not exactly news. One of those murals also indicates the big bad enemy of the Beast – a Hellhound

Yes, that would be Parrish. They decide to test his hellhoundness by trying to burn out his eye with a blowtorch (because Gerard is awful). I though his houndiness had already been confirmed before the break? This also comes with a story of Parrish as a soldier in Afghanistan (reminding us, again, that he’s far too old for Lydia) and how a bomb blew off all his clothes except the curiously resistant army shorts. They should make tanks out of that stuff.

Malia is still working with Braeden to find her mother, the Desert Wolf, and Deaton her belatedly remembered captive. She decides to accept Theo’s help

Teen Wolf, Season 5, Episode 13 Co-dominance

Last episode Kira was confronted by a group of Skinwalkers – or, as she pits half naked women with spears wearing animal pelts (to which I have to give kudos to Noshiko for her rejoinder “You wear a leather jacket and carry a sword”. Excellent come back – though the half naked animal pelts also come with camera upskirt shots – really Teen Wolf?).

They’re here to save Kira – or have her joint them as one of them – which, since we have little explanation for what, exactly, they are means she will get an echo-reverb voice, a mud facepack and the aforementioned animal skins. Except curing her may take months or years – which Noshiko doesn’t see as a problem since she’s live for 900 years and Kira can expect the same. Kira is not nearly as blasé but it may be the only chance to resist her overwhelming fox possession

I’m not quite sure how the Skinwalkers are supposed to fix this – but it seems to involve a lot of dramatic storms and Kira fighting a shadowy Oni. Every time she cuts it, it wounds her instead which is not winning strategy. After a few slices her inner Fox decides and to do an epic Fuck This Shit and completely overwhelm the oni with really shiny effects

Which isn’t good – because it shows how little control she has over her inner fox and how the foxy one is in control. Kira’s failed the test

I was loking for a storyline for Kira for a very long time – and one with Noshiko as well was an awesome bonus. So I find myself disappointed by this. We have Skinwalkers – beings from Native American mythology, dropped in with little or no development or explanation. We don’t even know how they were supposed to be saving Kira. They’re just there to be half naked and creepy. And Kira’s storyline hasn’t actually progressed. She left Beacon Hills because she had no control of her fox-nature and now she… still has no control of her fox nature. What have we learned? How has she grown? What has changed? Without any POINT to this diversion it feels like just a convoluted way to get Kira out of the picture for a few episodes.

Back in Beacon Hills, Scott and Stiles are developing, talking more and beginning to put their pack together. That doesn’t start with Liam because Scott still has ISSUES with the werepuppy. Stiles, who was always the smart one, does advise Scott he really needs to get over this, especially if they’re going to put the pack back together. After all, the werepuppy is the only other werewolf they actually have.

Teen Wolf, Season 5, Episode 8: Ouroboros

Ominous abandoned dangerous nuclear facility is ominous… for some reason Deacon’s decided to explore with someone else who speaks Russian in tow. The place is deserted and has signs saying “they come for all of us” which is when I’d be gone so fast you’d think I invented teleportation. “They” are terrible masked people which are pretty clearly the Dread Doctors – but with an Ouroboros symbol.

They find a spooky spooky lab full of bottled foetus and dead kiddies – and Deacon finds a tooth. Which is apparently what’s looking for. He then decides it’s time to leave when he is confronted by a woman with a gun.

The Desert Wolf. Malia’s mother.

Back in Beacon Hills, everyone’s looking for Liam and Hayden

And Melissa wants to explain something to the sheriff, something the requires he not be sheriff while listening. Sheriff is all worried because he seems to keep doing it while Melissa is “this is what our kids do. Deal with it.”

She shows him the clawed body on her table – and Sheriff asks after Kira. The sheriff reports the body – against Melissa’s wishes. She slaps him, furious he’s going to accuse Kira while the sheriff certainly isn’t going to cover up the murder of a teenager. Melissa throws back that their kids are constantly dealing with stuff outside the law. But “not above the law” is the counter.

Worryingly, Kira is wandering down the road in a trance before a deputy (Hayden’s sister, Clarke) finds her and snaps her out of it – and arrests her.

News of the arrest is heard on the police radio by Stiles and Theo. Parrish also learns as he washes off more soot and looks all troubled by another murder while he blacked out

At the police station the sheriff is still a good guy and is assuming Kira acted in self-defence if she was involved when Kira’s parents arrive. Kira’s father, Ken Yakimura, quickly lies and makes up a story blaming himself.

Since Melissa found the body she also has to give a statement. Melissa is Not Happy and gives him a wonderful statement, describing the claws on the bodies as well as chimera, werewolves, banshees and everything else she can think of. This is not helpful. Clarke also interrupts about more information about the 911 “prank call” that Stiles made to try and report Donovan’s death – and it implicated Stiles. Sheriff declares no more bending the rules for anyone

Melissa: “maybe you should bend before someone breaks.”

Teen Wolf, Season 5, Episode 7: Strange Frequencies

We pick up where we left off – with Theo demanding Stiles’s silence in exchange for not telling everyone about Stiles killing Donovan. Theo explains how he knows (which, even more than the fact he was harassing a werewolf) convince Stiles to stop trying to manhandle a werewolf.

After some doubt and questioning, Stiles agrees to lie and hide the body (he’s wry, slightly sad note that he has a lot of practice lying to his dad is sad but true.

They take the body to Deacon’s vets and lie to Scott about what killed him – the plan is for Theo to stay with the body to see who is stealing them.

He stands vigil alone and a Dread Doctor checks in – the Dread Doctors don’t care who is taking the bodies and they don’t feel any special need to keep Theo informed, much to his irritation. Anyway, Stiles has a new plan – product placement cell phone cameras (and his new iWatch. Really? Stiles can afford that?)

Meanwhile, baby wolf Liam has just decided to tell Hayden everything and, to the surprise of no-one, she doesn’t take it well and thinks he’s the freakiest freak ever. He doesn’t exactly make things better by showing glowing eyes and fangs and growling at her. She has a good punch though. She drives off – and her fist magically heals. Then the Dread Doctors arrive – being horrendously menacing, communicating through her radio and stopping her car working.

Liam pulls her free from the car and they run.

Later Liam calls in the gang to report another chimera. She heard the Dread Doctors say “your condition improves” and is juuuuust a little freaked out. She’s tried to hide in a bathroom – because she’s getting steadily more feral, complete with fangs and glowing eyes.

When they’re alone, Liam tries to be all reassuring so we can get this love interest thing moving.

Kira is generously and gracefully helping her dad at school on a Saturday morning. And her mother decides to attack her with a katana before giving her a sword so they can duel. She keeps yelling at Kira in Japanese, asking who she is, demanding she show herself, until Kira gets her flamy Kitsune aura – and almost kills her mother. Something Noshiko blames on the fox inside her.

 The gang brainstorm a place to keep Hayden safe and due to woo-woo decide the best place is the school. They think up defences, including something involving frequencies (which has Parrish and Lydia continuing to be the Do Not Want couple). We also have awkwardness with Scott clearly being leery of entirely trusting the new foxy Kira and Kira herself having “lost” her belt – which feels like she’s deliberately leaving her sword behind. They quickly stop dancing around it and Kira honestly says that last time her Kitune-ness made things worse and she needs to understand what is happening with her before she can help, we then get a nice romance montage.

Teen Wolf, Season 5, Episode 6: Required Reading

Scott is attacked by one of the Dread Doctors while in the middle of an asthma attack (I think Scott did have Asthma before he became a werewolf) to be rescued by Malia and Melissa (might an medical care) before they run to a lift.

Apparently this is a consequence of reading that book.

Now to the night-time sports ground full of holes. Either they’ve been attacked by weremoles or lots more chimera have been buried.

And Stiles and Malia tell Sheriff Stilinski about the Chimera. Poor Sheriff Stilinski. Stiles is also feeling 8 kinds of fugly about Donovan who they realise is also a Chimera. Who they also realise was a Chimera. Sheriff Stilinski also disapproves of the terrible name “dread doctors.”

Stiles realises the Dread Doctors went to a whole lot of effort to get these teenagers –including a jailbreak, so why these kids?

Parrish continues to train Lydia how to fight. And flirting, of course. Interrupted by Lydia having Dread Doctor’s memories.

Theo and Scott are on the look out for more mysterious chimera – people acting strange (remember Theo is the bad guy. Also they’re looking for people acting strange in Beacon Hills). And the whole gang gathers for a Dread Doctor’s book club though side effects may include hallucinations and killing sprees. Still an easier book to read than some I have

We also learn that Lydia’s mother doesn’t remember her Kanima experience because of the Dread Doctor’s memory shenanigans. Lydia also tell them she thinks the Doctors may have messed with her.

The read, it doesn’t seem to be very riveting read. 0.5 fang I think. Stiles is also still trying to hide the whole Donovan death thing from super-sensed Malia. But then she’s trying to hide her recent Desert Wolf vision as well.

In the end they all end up falling asleep rather than reading (0.5 fangs, definitely), except Theo who is evil. Kira also talks in Japanese in her sleep – which Theo records.

School the next day for more paranoia, memory musings and electricity shenanigans. And a whole lot of worry about random students being chimera. I don’t think evil teachers openly revelling in their students leaving their oh-so-difficult course are Chimera but she should be eaten anyway.

Teen Wolf, Season 5, Episode 5: A Novel Approach

Donovan, despite the nasty lamprey hands, isn’t doing that good a job of kidnapping Stiles and ends up chasing him (neck toothy maw may have sense organs for extra disturbing). Donavon decides to tell the story of how his dad was disabled in a gun fight which he totally blames on sheriff Stilinski. Donovan keeps trying and Stiles responds by throwing every damn thing he can at guy until he finally ends up brutally impaled.

Whatever he was, impaling kills it. Though, to be fair, impaling is a pretty all round killer – kind of like decapitation or burning (Parrish excepted). Donovan’s body oozes silver goo

Stiles calls 911 to get the police sent, but plans to leave the scene after some of his excellent disturbed acting over leaving a body behind him. Personally I think it would have been wiser to stay – everyone heard Donovan’s death threats, self-defence would not have been a hard sell. But Stiles really sells horrified and disturbed. His hands are shaking too much to drive away and the cops arrive, search the school… and find nothing. Stiles hurries into the school where he killed Donovan and finds none of the destruction – just a tiny spec of blood.

He goes home to his mystery wall to have a well-deserved freak out while logically considering the options – Donovan not dead and walked out – or dead and someone took the body.

To Scott and Kira and Kira is taking in her sleep in Japanese. Scott gets an alarm that there is a break in at the animal clinic and, after investigating, calls Stiles to tell him someone is stealing the bodies of the chimera.

That stealing person appears to be Parrish who, in his probably-a-phoenix-trance, carries Donovan’s body into the woods, probably to the Nemeton.

To school and Malia brings in her discovery of the Dread Doctors book – the synopsis is teenagers are taken, buried alive and emerge as monsters. And there is no sequel to this unfinished story. But Stiles has realised it’s not the Dread Doctors (I wish to go on record as saying “Bioshock villains” was a much cooler sobriquet) taking the bodies because they’ve just walked away from their failures (which makes their success something to fear). Scott also briefly smells Donovan’s blood – but kind of ignores it because it was only a drop (and how many people get minor injuries in a school?)

They also bring in Theo to their little book brainstorm and both Scott and Lydia hit on the book being dedicated to a Dr. Gabriel Valack. That would be a patient locked in Eichen House. The man with the freaky third eye.

Teen Wolf, season 5, Episode 4: Condition Terminal

Parrish has playing cards that are painted to look like Lydia. Why is this not considered intensely creepy? Why is this adult police man being so creepy over a high school student? Can someone please stop him?

Over to Lydia and Parrish testing his abilities by burning him. Which actually burns. Oh and flirting to distract him. Distracted flirty Parrish doesn’t feel pain from the flame at all, even though he has a layer of soot on his palm. He also had a strange dream – of carrying a burned body to the Nemeton. Which he doesn’t even know about (Lydia fills him in on it and how it’s making Beacon Hills super freaky and magical). Parrish puts the body on the tree and his dream ends before the good stuff happens.

Except we see him playing with his cards again – and this time one side of the Lydia-Queen’s head is burned. And in the unedited vision we clearly see Parrish place Lydia’s burned body on the Nemeton – and it’s not the only body there – the Nemeton is surrounded by bodies and they all burn in flames that surround Parrish.

Now back to the police station where Donovan is stuck in prison until the Bioshock villains rescue him. Everyone else is recovering from fighting the Kanima – and Lydia is badly injured, Theo stepping in to provide emergency first aid. And Natalie now has one hell of an introduction into the supernatural world. They go looking for Tracy and find her body with Malia (who quickly protests innocence) who tells them about the bioshock villain. Deaton points out they have to move Tracy’s body since she’s not returning to human form which Sheriff Stilinski objects to! It’s a crime scene! There are rules! Procedures! Deaton wants to know if the Sheriff is ready to hold a press conference announcing the presence of the supernatural.

Deacon and Stiles both talk sense into the poor out-of-his-depth sherriff. Covering up a teenager’s death is just too much for him

Donovan is now on the experimenting table of the bioshock villains who rip out his teeth… nasty – to have them replaced with newer sharper ones. Wendigo teeth

To the hospital with Lydia desperately trying to beg her mother not to tell anyone about the supernatural (Natalie seems to be at least a little in denial) and Liam joins Scott to tell him about the whole crawling-out-of-graves revelation from last week.

Melissa is just so much calmer around the Supernatural than Sheriff Stilinski – just asking if there’s anything medically relevant before diving into surgery. Unfortunately Lydia begins to see this villains as she succumbs to the anaesthetic (you’d think Melissa would be suspicious of the extra doctors – she is, after all, the only medical professional in Beacon Hills)

Teen Wolf, Season 5, Episode 3: Dreamcatcher

Random guy, Donovan who was arrested is being all ominously led around in chains which is apparently relevant. He’s all upset because he’s facing prison and blaming it all on the Sherriff because he has a shaky idea of how the legal system works. Can someone eat him already? His lawyer is so not impressed by his elaborate death threats (every lawyer at some point wishes to file for permission to beat their client about the head and shoulders with a rusty club for being too stupid to live). Stiles also fines it quite amusing

Far more relevant is Sheriff Stilinski going on a date with a woman he will not discuss with Stiles or Scott

Oh please, like there’s any choice but Melissa. (we also get a tease of stiles saying he can date men or women, oh Stiles, Sherriff Stilinski is far too important for him to be LGBT on this show, they could hardly keep him in the plot box all season)

No Back to Donavon and the driver of the prison transport he’s in has a sudden painful seizure which causes them to speed and careen out of control before the driver dies. There’s something on the roof that hisses and snarls and drops ooze – it’s wolfy!Tracy (the lawyer’s daughter). She slaughters lots of people including her dad – alas, Donavon is not eaten. He’s captured by the Bioshock guys who drill into his ear and install nifty contacts.

Stiles has also been investigating the Desert Wolf (Malia’s father), and by investigating we mean Braeden has been sending him text messages from distant lands keeping her off screen

Malia is being taught to drive by Kira and Lydia – though she’s not very good at it – and she’s still afraid of cars because of her past history of a car crash. Then Lydia’s banshee instincts kick in and she gives new directions –leading them to the van wreck where Tracy slaughtered everyone

Crime scene – Stiles and Scott show up and absolutely no-one questions it any more, though the Sherriff does check if Donavan is a werewolf. Scott says no – unless he can hide his scent. He wants Scott to hunt Donovan down all wolfy style. Stiles is still suspicious of Theo (who is in the background watching) but since Donovan isn’t a werewolf it takes Scott 5 seconds to track him down and subdue him – where he keeps saying “Tracy” over and over again. Lydia knows who that is.

They have a conflab the next day at school and Mason actually joins in (dare I get my hopes up?! Will he live to see the end of the season?) and fanpoodles at all the woo-woo. Anyway they’re planning to hunt down Tracy.

Donovan is in prison and would quite like a lawyer though the Sherriff ignores this and, instead, wants to question him about what happened. Donovan insists on a new lawyer and gets nasty headaches. Parrish also has more news – Tracy just mauled her psychiatrist which also needs passing on to Scott. Parrish snarks about putting Scott on the payroll which I like so much (it’s a good lampshade – how often in this genre do we have civilians in police cases who have no place there but no-one talks about it?)

Teen Wolf, Season 5, Episode 1: Creatures of the Night

Eichen House asylum – who’s even in here any more? A lady apparently with a bruise on her hip who is showering watched by a very unsympathetic nurse. The woman turns out to be Lydia, and catatonic.

She’s led through the grimmest of grim tunnels  and drugged to the eyeballs, encouraged by evil nurse who is joined by super super creepy nurse who likes needles. Thankfully she unleashes a banshee scream and comes to herself, kicking the arses of the orderlies with a whole new lot of fighting skills and some awesome new banshee powers. But before she can leave she is overwhelmed when she pauses because surprise Aiden arrives to say her treatment isn’t finished. Not bad when you consider he’s actually dead

Before she falls unconscious she says all her friends are going to die.

Scott and Stiles are talking college, in particular Stiles’s desperate hope that they can all go to college in the same place and stick together. Scott is fretting that everything has gone fairly well for 6 months which means pretty soon someone’s going to try to kill them. They also have Liam tied up in case he loses control (again) on full moon but he seems to have it fairly together and isn’t trying to run through the streets naked. Except he’s clenching his fists so hard that he’s actually bloodying his hands.

At the police station, Parrish (our apparently immortal police officer who has no idea what he is) and Sheriff Stilinski (who, after 5 seasons, still does not have a first name but is still awesome and long suffering) are dealing with power outages due to a storm. Parrish is also kind of annoyed because, for some reason, Sheriff Stilinski has benched him. So he gets a case… a noise complaint.

During a thunder storm. Really? Who can even make enough noise to be registered during a thunderstorm

Parrish checks it out but it involves the creepiest of creepy houses (and this is in a town with Eichmen House, a building where the architect sat down and tried to make the damn place as creepy as possible) which is all creepy and dark and abandoned. Having never watched a horror movie in his life, he goes into the basement and DOESN’T run when he hears creepy noises of someone bricked up behind the walls. No he decides to rescue them.

Parrish! This is Beacon Hills! If someone is walled up you leave them there. If they are making noises you BUILD A THICKER WALL.

He hits the wall a couple of time and the wall bleeds. Whyyyy is he not running?! Whyyyyy? The wall explodes outwards and he is grabbed by a bloody, fanged monster that promptly stabs him with big claws. Well that’ll teach you Parrish, next time you’ll just burn down the creepy house (it’s a good thing he has immortality). Parrish’s eyes gleam gold while said toughness kicks in – and so do the eyes of the creature holding him. The bloodied guy is surprised – he says that Parrish isn’t a werewolf, not an ordinary creature – but then nor is he given his blue glowing claws. He wants to find Scott – and Parrish naturally denies all knowledge and gets mauled.

This may be why eerily close lightning strikes and spooky electrical shenanigans affect the jeep with Scott, Stiles and Liam in it. It doesn’t stop them so they pick up Malia (who, with her dad, is moving whole trees out of the road with her super duper strength). Stiles kissing Malie means her dad has to threaten him with firearms. Can we not? They also discuss Malia going to summer school to try and drag her grades up.

Melissa has to work extra shifts at the hospital because, she remains, the only medical professional in that place. I love Melissa as she yells out several failed instructions to an absent Scott (there’s a big senior party thing at the highschool) – but electro-wolf is there and hears Melissa talk about the senior party thing.

Year of the Tiger (Changeling Sisters #2) By Heather Heffner

The war between the weres and the vampires grows in intensity and Citlalli is torn in how to proceed – does she obediently follow the were alpha’s plans, even as he keeps her in the dark? Does she join Rafael on his destructive quest for vengeance- but how many will die following his path? Or does she take a chance and run for her own priority – saving her sisters – even if it means meeting the vampire queen on her own turf?

While Raina continues her precarious existence in the vampire court. She has few – and decreasing – allies and an ever growing amount of enemies. She has forged an alliance with Khyber, the queen’s oldest son, but how sure can she be that she can trust him? But her own awareness of herself and her past may be giving her a whole new weapon to fight with

I don’t know whether it’s because of the gap between reading this book and the last book, but I found some elements of this book lost me. It’s just so huge, we have the supernatural world, the back story of the vampires, the nature of Citlalli’s many divided soul, different shapeshifter groups, magic and spirits and Uma and dark spirits and the Fox and the man’s lantern… it’s rare for me to want a recap but I would have appreciated here  - a recap or more detailed explanation. Or maybe just a slightly slower pace

Because while the first book took a long time to get started, this book felt like we were plunged into the deep end and expected to run. In almost no time we go from reeling and adapting to the last book to throwing ourselves into the action of this one. The war is here, the plot against the vampires is coming to a head. Fights! Drama! High emotion! Conflict! It’s an excellent roller coaster of action and tension which just doesn’t give me much time to catch my breath and get my bearing as we’re pulled along. Just little things like the nature of spirit world, the identity of various ghosts, a reminder of the shapeshifter hierarchy, the nature of Maya’s many forms, Una’s role, maybe even a little time to get used to Raina and Citlalli’s differing POVs since Rain is changing so much.

At the same time there are elements of the plot that are distracted. Citlalli takes some time to spend with the lantern seller and I,m not entirely sure what it achieves (or how she’s able to magically divine his cure after such a brief meeting). We have the fox running around causing chaos that could probably be better served in a series of short stories – though it does serve to remind us that just because the vampires and Maya are the main enemy doesn’t mean they’re the only problem.

I think this rapid pacing, large number of characters and lots of action confuses me a little because the world is so wide and rich. There’s a lot of research, a lot of legends and a lot of work gone into building this world and incorporating so many different elements of mythology that we so rarely see incorporated into Urban Fantasy stories, making it very different from anything I’ve read before

I did like to see some humanising of Citlali’s mother – she’s often the harsh authority figure to be railed against and blamed. It’s nice to see more of her – her strictness covers her concern and genuine love. And her compassion – refusing to let Una live alone when she realises she has no parents. She’s strict, she has rules, but she also has a lot of love and a lot of hard history behind her

Teen Wolf, Season 4, Episode 8: Time of Death

I want to give a prize to Teen Wolf for being one of the few shows on television to show romantic going to sleep with the person you love as awkward, uncomfortable and with arms going to sleep. Stiles and Malia struggle until finally getting comfy  - but alas, it’s all a dream of sad Stiles since he upset Malia by lying to her

Also, he could sleep better if he didn’t wear enough clothes to go on an arctic expedition.

Rafe McCall (who still isn’t dead) prepares his notes on having shot someone last week to save Stiles’s life. Scott hears it all with his super wolfy hearing. Rafe also has to go back to San Francisco for the review and he and Scott talk about him having to kill and how hard it is; Scott looks for advice on how to deal with it since he’s been in a few life and death situations. Speaking of, Rafe would like to talk to him like that since Scott et al seem to deal with all of the life and death stuff quite casually- because they’re a bit used to it by now. He wants to know their secrets

Personally I want him to be eaten by a weremarmot. We don’t always get what we want

Scot gathers Stiles, Kira and Liam to make a dangerous and reckless plan – the Benefactor always wants visual confirmation someone is dead to prove they’re dead. So when a supernatural on the list dies without that proof, they assume he will come and collect his own visual proof.

How do they do this? Scott is brought into the hospital, not breathing. Liam’s father works on him (behold, another medical professional in Beacon Hills) before declaring Scott… dead.

Yeah turn off that dramatic music, there’s no way Scott is dead. You already played the “zomg this character is going to die” card 11 billion times last episode.

They call Melissa and her grief is… incredible. Whatever this plan involves it is so not nearly enough to justify doing that to Melissa. Even if the whole world rests in the balance, if he didn’t at least give Melissa a heads up ther’es not enough mother’s day gifts in the world to make this up.

Flashback to Noshiko (Kira’s mother) guiding Kira how to use stormy kitsune magic to stop Scott’s heart (Scott having to reassure Liam to stop wolfy freak out).

In the hospital it turns out Melissa wasn’t devastated – she’s just a great actor and maybe Scott will not spend the rest of his life buying diamonds for mother’s day. She’s in on the plan – she hates it, but she’s in on it. Noshiko shows her that his low, quiet heartbeat is enough to keep an alpha wolf alive for 45 mins – but he needs to be brought back before then or he dies. Something they didn’t tell Melissa.

Stiles and Chris Argent send out their little message to the Benefactor saying that Scott is dead (Stiles is adorkable of course). The Benefactor won’t pay without confirmation so Chris plays hard ball – he gets his money or he, who killed no.1 on the list, goes after Chris.

Teen Wolf, Season 4, Episode 7: Weaponised

So we have a creepy scientist doing creepy things to a captured werewolf that apparently causes him to die. He plays a sound file which recites how to claim money from the Benefactor for kills

The same file that Scott and Stiles listen to on the tape they found in the money last week. Scott starts to pack up the money to give to Derek – it is, after all, Derek’s money. And Stiles kind of agrees, of course they should tell Derek about his money; but some of that money is Peter’s. Homicidal killer, Peter. Peter to whom they owe nothing. Not that he’s saying they should keep the money, buutttt…

Malia arrives to tell them about her and Derek finding Satome’s pack before Stiles has to complete that thought. She says the entire pack is dead – but the survivor Derek found?

That’s Braeden – he carries her to the hospital. She’s been shot.

Outside the vet clinic, at night, in the dark – someone attacks Deaton. Who draws an asp and pulls out some pretty awesome fight moves. Deaton, where have you been hiding these skills?! His attacker, with all the martial arts skills, is Satome (of course). This appears to be how she says hello.

To school where there’s an exam and Scott actually makes a really great point that yes they have to do tests because they’re fighting to survive so they can live and have actual lives – he does want to go to college et al; it can’t all be about surviving day to day.

They fingerprint tests in the US? Anyway, before the exam can start they need 2 teachers – Natalie (Lydia’s mother) and Coach. Who is unconscious in his office; she thinks he’s fallen off the wagon after 15 years sober and has a great sad/disappointed/frustrated voice.

The exam isn’t fun for anyone, least of all Malia (Lydia isn’t taking it because she already took it being awesome and all) and one of the girls, Sidney, falls out of her chair. Natalie helps her up and notices a rash on her wrist – though they both set it aside to get back into the test. Natalie hurries out the room and checks the unconscious coach – he has a similar horrible rash all over his back.

Natalie acts promptly, chases out new students arriving and locks the door. She settles down the people in the exam attracted by her screaming, then calls the CDC (overheard by Scott’s super-ears) Whoa whoa, shouldn’t she call a doctor first? She sees two people who are ill and she calls the CDC? Isn’t that… excessive? If four people sneeze she’s going to call on the WHO! And can a non-medical professional just do that? Call in the CDC? I would think that would be vulnerable to crank calling

The CDC arrive and set up big plastic things with lots of lock down and quarantine and people looking all worried. Sheriff Stilinski is set up outside the perimeter to help keep people leaving and stop new people arriving. Creepy exam operator says they can’t call out because the CDC will block all outside communication to stop a panic…

Seriously? That’s ridiculous. Like the CDC could make such a dramatic quarantine and not have it splashed all over the news anyway!

Teen Wolf, Season 4, Episode 5: I.E.D

A girl runs, clearly being chased, to the school. The school?! This is Beacon Hills, girl, you may as well run into a mine field filled with angry honey badgers – you’d be more safe than the school! She’s already had one hand cut off by something hot enough to burn – probably Violet’s garrotte

Sure enough, Violet is hunting her – and the girl’s eyes glow gold. She’s a werewolf. What’s with these werewolves who are running from 1-on-1 fights with hunters? Even the Argents loaded up for those fights (especially since a garrotte is a good ambush tool and a crap weapon). The girl chants “the sun the moon the truth”, the same chant the dead werewolf used last episode to stay calm and stop from changing.

Violet finds her hiding place and the girl knocks her down and runs – right to be rescued by Violet’s boyfriend Garrett who finishes her off.

Time for Stiles to recap the deaths and the killers with added tit-bits: the werewolf who delivered the keg was part of a pack (per Scott’s nose) and Parrish can disarm claymore mines. The dead werewolves are DeMarco and Carey. And Sheriff Stilinksi is still awesome when presented with the Supernatural and adding banshee weirdness to a murder investigation. They also only have a third of the list – there are 2 more names that will reveal the rest (along with Allison so far). Lydia is desperately trying to push her banshee powers and getting nowhere.

The Sheriff also points out the elephant in the room – the gang didn’t know these werewolves. We’re reminded that the Nemeton is pulling supernaturals to the area (or has been) but the Sheriff wonders what the “area” is –the city is 30,000 people, but the county is 500,000; so the list could have hundreds of names.

Back to the numbers on the list – they will add up to 117, since $117 million is how much was stolen from the Hale vault and, they think, is being used to finance all the deaths; this gives a limit on how long the list can be. (this also upgrades the gang who had low numbers – since they’re assumed to be $15 and $20 million rather than $250,000). They also realise that to know Demarco was going to be at the party, the killer had to be a student.

So to the school! Where Violet is hiding scratch marks from fighting Carey – and she and Garrett are planning on going for the high ticket items on the list.

Mr. Yakimura corners his daughter because he knows she’s been keeping a secret. She crumbles completely within seconds (never ever trust Kira with secrets! She’ll fold the minute the Sheriff turns his confused eyes on her). She spills about assassins and deadpools (wait, she didn’t want to tell her supernatural mother about this?) and all that. Which is somewhat of a surprise to Mr. Yakimura who was actually wondering about her joining the lacrosse team without telling him.

In the gym, Liam is finding being a werewolf allows him lift bigger and bigger and bigger weights while Mason tells us that Garret doesn’t live where he claims to – and throws in a little passive aggressive poke at how weird Liam has been acting lately. He’s worried about Liam, especially since they’re playing against the school Liam was kicked out from.

Teen Wolf, Season 4, Episode 4: The Benefactor

It’s a full moon and the police are doing the crime scene thing on the hospital roof around the body of the Wendigo, Sean. Sheriff calls in Derek to be his expert – he knows nothing more about Wendigo but he smells Liam; Scott had only told the Sheriff about the Wendigo and the mouthless axe-murderer (the Muted he’s referred to on the credits) which is something else Derek knows nothing about.

Liam is currently tied up in duct tape and in Scott’s bathtub. Stiles is not impressed. I have to say this isn’t Scott’s best idea ever. Stiles asks if they’re going to end up burying pieces of his body in the desert – he is very very very good at pointing out how bad a plan is. But it could be worse Scott, Lydia could be the one telling you how wrong you are. She is very very good at that. Stile points out this is why he makes the plans, Scott’s plans are bad plans. So they drag Liam out and try to ineptly explain becoming a werewolf which goes terribly wrong with Liam escaping.

Awful awful plans. And the werewolf can’t hold onto a guy with a bad leg.

Over to Peter in the wolf loft – and the Muted throwing a tomahawk into his chest. And declaring that Derek is next.

It’s Full Moon night so Stiles chains up Malia – and the Sheriff walks in on his son chaining up his girlfriend. Poor Sheriff.

To Kira and Lydia looking through Lydia’s notes and seeing the pages of code she’s written without realising. Lydia decides they should probably figure it out before it kills them, after all her drawing of a tree led them to the Nemeton. Lydia is awesome, as ever. Facing supernatural weirdness with snark and class! Also, Lydia’s mother gives her the key to the lakehouse which is apparently where they’ve been chaining Malia

To Derek and Peter – who isn’t dead. He was stabbed with a wolfsbane axe which can now, apparently be cured with fire. Well that’s new. The blowtorch is not fun. Derek goes to tell the Sheriff (and Derek’s getting snarky! I approve) and takes the little wrist communicator the Muted used. Parrish recognises the device – and the tomahawk – from the military from when he was in Afghanistan. Derek and the Sheriff seem to agree to bring him into the big dark secret. Or at least into the investigation

He does some computer stuff and comes up with message in the device – from someone called Benefactor who is sending the Muted money (I assume). He’s a paid assassin.

New characters! Garret, Violet and Mason. They’re freshmen. Liam arrives because he ran to the school to escape Scott. Mason has questions and Liam has few answers. Liam begins to sweat and half wolfy issues – but sees Scott across the grass and hurries off. Scott and Stiles corner Liam to try and talk to him again

Oh gods it’s awful. Scott tries to talk about being brothers now, which is really convoluted and really awful. Really really awful. Scot you are fired as alpha. Certainly Alpha of any pack animals.

Teen Wolf, Season 4, Episode 2: 117

Flashback opener! And a young Derek did exactly what Scott did – tried to use his werewolfness to be really good at sports despite his fraying control. Someone (a young Peter Hale) has him take out an amulet with the triskele and chant “alpha beta omega” over and over, whatever that does.

In the present at a petrol station, a man hears some terrible animal noises coming from the bathroom and goes to check if the person inside – Kate – is ok. Nah, whatever you hear coming from a bathroom, you close your ears and pretend it’s all ok. Because if it isn’t, you don’t want to be involved. Frankly, him continuing means he thoroughly deserves the vicious mauling to death he gets

The gang gets Baby!Derek (that’s modern Baby!Derek, not past Baby!Derek) to Dr. Deaton (perhaps labouring under the strange delusion that for once, in 4 seasons, Deaton will actually give the clear information at the beginning of the season rather than dishing out crypticness until the end. Hey, he has to dole out his wisdom in chunks, if he doesn’t get to play Magical Black person he doesn’t exist) who, despite his usual oracleness, reacts with “wow” (I like to think he’s imagining how much money he can make marketing this). Stiles hopes Deaton knows something – and no, no he does not (it is episode 2 Stiles, no way Deaton is dishing out the sweet sweet knowledge so easy! You’ve got to work for it).

Still, Baby!Derek isn’t dying so he gets to stay with Deaton in his warded office where he’s safe from Kate the evil kitty – besides, school night guys (oh please, like any of these cast need sleep!), reminding them that they do actually have their own lives. Lydia decides to stay (Stiles says no, everyone ignores him and Scott drags him out).

With Baby!Derek’s body being all weird, Lydia and Deaton do some tests and find that Derek now has Wolverine-like healing power. He wakes up while they’re distracted – and he’s very disoriented, hearing echoes and seeing red shapes – he slashes Deaton’s arm and runs.

Scott returns home and kicks over a tool box – hey, he’s a werewolf not a werecat. He and his dad have an awkward parental moment – yes, Rafe is hanging around, no, he’s not dead, no he hasn’t been eaten. Yes this saddens me. Someone call Kate, her dinner’s waiting.

To school and Stiles tells Scott how Malia sneaks into his bed several times a night and the sex they have leaves his back all clawed up (there is no indication if this is either complaining or boasting or both). But the secret of Peter being her father is still all looming.

To class, and Mr. Yakimura is still teaching! Malia, alas, is very very behind and even Mr. Yakimura’s patience frays by the beeping of many phones – though the last one is his – a message sent to Mr. Yakimura to make Scott answer his phone

In My Time of Dying (Salt Lake After Dark #2.5) by J.K Walker

David died when a serial killer came to his home. His pregnant wife survived the attack

Now he’s a ghost and driven by his desperate devotion to her to follow her, watch her and do whatever he can to protect her. It’s a compulsion that grows the longer he is dead

A compulsion that is not only unhealthy – but can lead a ghost down a very dark path.

In the first book of this series that was a fun,interesting, helpful character who helped Jasmine assimilate into thesupernatural world, David.

He was a werewolf and he pretty much defeated most of the werewolf tropes we’ve come to know and loathe. He was kind, he was patient, he was funny, he was wonderfully loving to his wife, Angel, and generally had all the hallmarks of being a pretty decent character and an excellent counterpoint to the werewolf Alpha who was a much more “traditional” werewolf depiction.

He was also one of Jasmine’s friends – one of the things these books have been so good at showing is Jasmine’s friendship with the other characters, actually spending social time together and doing silly things like bad movie nights. It’s one thing I’ve always liked

And he died.