happy
paranormal universe inhabited by werewolves, vampires, and radio DJs. To be honest, I was kind of nervous about picking it up, as my experience with the latest Kitty novel, Kitty's Big Trouble, was less than positive. Fortunately, Kitty's Greatest Hits is a solid collection. It's worth mentioning that most of the stories in this collection do not star Kitty herself. Some of them focus on secondary characters, and some focus on characters that never appear in the series. It can be a little confusing at first, but these stories often end being the strongest in the collection. For a brief review of each story, click on the cut.Il Est Ne, the first story in the book, is not one of my favorites. In this story, Kitty helps a fledgling werewolf accept his new identity, while solving a murder around Christmas time. This is something we've already seen in the series with the character of Ben, so it feels like it's just treading familiar territory. I realize I'm being a little unfair in judging the story this way, as it was published before Kitty Takes a Holiday, but as this is where I've first encountered it, I can't help but feel that way. I enjoyed the murder mystery elements. 3.5 stars
The second story, A Princess of Spain, was a little surprising as it stars Catherine of Aragon, a historical figure. It doesn't appear to have any connection to the Kitty series at first, but soon supernatural forces rear their head. I really enjoyed the story because I have some interest in Catherine as a historical figure. The paranormal elements felt like a fresh twist of her story. 4.5 stars
Conquistador de la Noche- There's always an element of mystery to Carrie Vaugh's vampire characters. This story shows us the history of the vampire Rick. As he's always a character I've wanted to learn more about, I found the story to be very satisfying. It also shows how Rick has been a bit different from other vampires vampire from the start. 4.5 stars
The Book of Daniel is another story that appears to have no connection to the Kitty series at first, as it's a retelling of the story of Daniel in the Lion's Den with a supernatural twist. I appreciated how Vaughn managed to insert paranormal elements without robbing the story of its spiritual significance. This was another nice surprise. 4.5 stars
The next story, The Temptation of Robin Green, takes place before the Kitty series and focuses on the Center for the Study of Paratnatural Biology. The main character, Robin Green, is responsible for watching over caged supernatural individuals, including a familiar face. I really enjoyed this take on the selkie tale, and thought Vaughn handled the sensual elements quite well. This was one of my favorites in the collection. 5 stars.
Looking After Family is pretty much Ben and Cormac's origin story. I found learning about Ben and Cormac's roots to be very satisfying. It was also nice to see how their relationship was before Kitty became an issue, as there's a weird tension between the two as a result now. This was another strong addition to the collection. 4.5 stars
God's Creatures is a satisfying story that focuses on Cormac as a character, as he hunts down a werewolf that's attacking livestock. I didn't enjoy this story as much as when I first encountered it in the anthology, Dark and Stormy Knights, but I still felt it was a solid Cormac tale. 4 stars.
Wild Ride is basically TJ's origin story, telling about how he became a werewolf. One thing I enjoyed about this story, was the parallel made between lycanthropy and AIDS. Similar to God's Creatures, I didn't enjoy the story quite as much as when first read it (this was previous published in Running with the Pack), but I still felt that this was a good way to get to know TJ better. 4 stars
Winnowing the Herd- To be honest, I enjoyed all of the short story in the collection on some level or another with the exception of this one. It tells about Kitty at an office party, and that's pretty much it. Apparently this is one attempt to write a more literary story within the Kitty universe, but it seems to me that Vaughn's interpreting “literary” as pointless. It felt as if it was a piece of a larger story, and the unfinished feeling made the whole story feel very random. 1 Star.
In Kitty and the Most Pit of the Damned, Kitty encounters a rock group with a dark secret. This is one of the shakier stories in the anthology, although I ultimately ended up enjoying the take on the sell your soul to the devil story. It just felt like she'd stuck Kitty in a random supernatural situation. Any other paranormal character could have appeared here and it wouldn't have made any differences. 3.5 stars
Kitty's Zombie New Year brings zombies to the Kitty universe. I like how Vaughn didn't feature stereotypical slow or fast zombies, and did her own thing. It's only weakness is that the zombie storyline felt a little too much like the Buffy episode" I Robot you Jane", if you replace robot with zombies. 4 stars
Life is the Teacher is my other favorite story in this book. One of the benefits of short story collections like this is you can take these sort of one-shot character that only appear in a single book and really expand on them. This story, which focuses on a side character from Kitty goes to Washington, does just that. I enjoyed the fact that this feels almost like an origin story, even though we've encountered this character before. I also felt that Carrie Vaughn once again does quite a good job of incorporating sensual elements into the story. Perhaps if the whole urban fantasy best-selling author thing doesn't work out for her, she could write erotica. 5 stars
You're on the Air - One of my favorite parts of the Kitty series are the moments when she interacts with callers on her radio show. You're on the Air shows the experience from the caller's perspective. The result is a fun little story, albiet not the most important one in the collection. 4 stars
Long Time Waiting- This is a story that everyone will pick up this collection for. Long Time Waiting tells about Cormac's time in prison, his encounters with the wizard Amelia, and how the two ended up joined together. More novella the a short story, Long Time Waiting is the longest addition to the collection. I like the fact that that story also gives us more insight into the character of Cormac himself, as well as prison life. I was happy with how this story filled in the blanks for us. 4.5 stars.
Kitty's Greatest Hits is enjoyable short story collection. Although I like some stories more than others, and there was one that I just didn't like at all, I was pretty happy with this book. It makes me want to try out more short stories by Carrie Vaughn.
Rating: four stars
Length: 318 pages
Source: Lewiston Publc Library
Other books I've read by this author: Kitty and the Midnight Hour, Kitty goes to Washington, Kitty takes a Holiday, Kitty and the Silver Bullet, Kitty and the Dead Man’s Hand, Kitty Raises Hell, Kitty's House of Horrors, Kitty Goes to War, Kitty's Big Trouble, Voices of Dragons, Discord's Apple, Steel, After the Golden Age
Next I will be reviewing The Crowfield Curse by Pat Walsh and Xenocide by Orson Scott Card
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