Kitty and the Silver Bullet

Kitty Norville, Book 4

By: Carrie Vaughn

Narrated by: Marguerite Gavin

Length: 9 hrs and 1 min

Publisher's summary

Kitty's radio show is as popular as ever, and she has a boyfriend who actually seems to understand her. Can she finally settle down to a normal life? Not if this is just the calm before the storm.

When her mother falls ill, Kitty rushes back to Denver - and right back to the abusive pack of werewolves she escaped a year ago. To make matters worse, a war is brewing between the city's two oldest vampires, threatening the whole supernatural community.

Though she wants to stay neutral, Kitty is again drawn into a world of politics and violence. To protect her family, her lover, and herself, she'll have to choose sides. And maybe become what she hates - a killer.

©2009 Carrie Vaughn, LLC (P)2009 Tantor

I normally don't write reviews but...

This series has pulled me. Hook, line, and sinker. The varied plots gives you enough seperation between character styles and issues, while still pulling together the over all story. And there is a story. The development of the series thus far has been great and I look forward to the next release in audio format.
Marguerite is a FANTASTIC reader and I love her voice in this series.

never fails

The Kitty series gets better with every book - never fails to capture and keep you reading (listening)

Best Book Yet!!

Kitty books are so well done, they are on my auto-buy list. Love the writing, the characters, AND the narration. As a fan of the series, I must point out--these books definitely have a story arc going, so read them in order. In this book, there were hard decisions made, and some very emotional scenes. Lots of action, Kitty humor, and a satisfying resolution made a nice balance. This may be the best Kitty book yet!

Kitty becomes an Alpha

“Kitty And The Silver Bullet” was fun from the first page to the last. Carrie Vaughn’s writing is deceptively easy to read: I found myself sliding right into the story, like returning to a favourite reading chair, yet what Carrie Vaughn writes is not light-weight. It works because she loads her books with serious, difficult issues and drives Kitty’s development by her responses to them. Carrie Vaughn is never heavy-handedly didactic but her characters are always made to choose between right and wrong and to take the consequences of their actions.

Kitty, now the Alpha of a two werewolf pack, is forced by family circumstances to return home, even though the Alphas of her previous pack has banished her on pain of death.

This means that Kitty finally has to confront the abuse she received from the Alpha of her first pack and the scars that it left. The confrontation becomes wrapped up in the Byzantine complexities of Vampire politics: a hierarchy enforced by violence and changed only by challenge but which turns out not to be entirely in the hands of the local Vampires.

Kitty befriends a young pack member who occupies the bottom-of-the-heap, abuse-toy for the Alpha role that Kitty held. This meeting, together with the reaction of some of her former pack-mates, makes Kitty realise that the experiences of the past year have changed her from a defenseless follower into a strong leader.

I enjoyed Kitty’s reluctance to become an Alpha and her struggles to try and avoid violent conflict. Perhaps it’s true that power should only be given to those who don’t desire it and the force is a last resource.

I was also fascinated to see Kitty trying to sort out whether she becomes more as werewolf by embracing the human or the wolf. Her reactions to abuse and murder are decidedly human. Her need to protect her pack and her pack’s expectations of her are mainly wolf. Until this novel, Kitty has tended to see herself as a human who has contracted a disease that turns her into a wolf on the full moon. In this novel she accepts that that is not the whole truth. She is no longer who she was and she has now to decide who she will become.

Lovely!

Kitty and the Silver Bullet is the climax in the story arc about Kitty taking control of her life, moving from submissive to alpha. When she returns to Denver to help care for her mother, diagnosed with cancer, she has to decide if her previous alpha and vampire politics will force her to run again, or if she'll stay and fight for the life she wants.

As always, Marguerite Gavin is a delight. I think she has a good "radio" voice, which is probably what makes her a great narrator for Kitty.

Kitty is an interesting heroine. She's not your typical kick-ass urban fantasy protagonist. She's strong, but she can also be whiny, self-doubting, and conflict-avoiding. Several reviews I've read call her "weak" or a reluctant heroine, one that can drive some folks crazy with her waffling. In her blog, Vaughn describes Kitty as "a chatty idealist. She wants to think the best of everyone and everything, she believes it is possible to make the world a better place. And she talks. A lot."

In any case, I don't think there are a lot of heroines quite like Kitty in urban fantasy, which is maybe why Kitty comes off as being too weak for some folks. I've enjoyed her, though, and I'm happy that, in Silver Bullet, she finally decides what she wants, fights for it, and wins.

Purchased. Review courtesy of onebooktwo | one book, two reviews.

Very good addition to the series :D

4 stars

This was a very good story and addition to the series. Kitty is still a great heroine but she is confronted with some issues from her past that make her doubt herself a bit. So Kitty and Ben are living life and doing alright. Cormic is in jail and they go to visit him when they can. Things are pretty normal until they get a visit from Rick, a vampire that Kitty knew from back in Denver. Rick indicates that the city's master vamp, Arturo, has gotten weak and lost control of his city. Rick feels it's time for him to take control of the situation before a vamp from the outside decides to come and try to take over. Rick wants Kitty to take over the Denver werewolf pack because the current alphas, Carl and Meg, support Arturo and use their wolves to fight for Arturo. Kitty has gotten strong while away but she's still a bit cowed by Carl's strength and isn't prepared to go back to try to instigate a civil war.

Regardless of Kitty's misgivings, fate takes a hand and she gets involved even though she doesn't want to. Kitty's mom ends up getting seriously sick and Kitty has to go back to Denver in order to be there for her. Carl and Meg see her being back in town as a sign that she doesn't respect their power and are determined to take her out to protect their power within the pack. Kitty still doesn't want to get involved but it seems like the multiple vampire power players (in addition to the pack alphas) seem determined to see her and Ben as a threat and allies of Ricks. There ends up being some major goings on and Kitty and Ben are a bit over their heads. Fortunately, Ben steps up from being second to Kitty to being a more equal partner and they're able to function more as a alpha pair. This is a great help for Kitty, who feels a bit overwhelmed by the whole thing. She realizes that something has to be done but it's not that easy to be the one to do it. With Ben's support, they're able to take control of the local pack as well as help Rick out and bring some peace to Denver. The story ends with a very nice start to a HEA for Ben and Kitty.

This was a very enjoyable story. I liked Kitty and Ben better in this story. In the previous book their relationship seemed a bit off...maybe because their wolves fell into a relationship together but their human halves were a bit slower on the uptake. In this story, Ben and Kitty's human sides catch up. They have a few fights as they're working their way through things but I also think that some of the disagreements were caused by growing pains as Ben moved from a more subordinate role to a more equal role. By the end of the story they come to terms with each other better on all levels and their relationship was working better for me. Overall, I liked this story very much so I'd recommend this book (and series). :D

A really great series to listen too!

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

With this series, the performance is so entertaining and the story so well written that you actually might forget about the whole fantasy of werewolves and vampires. Carrie Vaughn makes the world she created seem totally plausible!

What did you like best about this story?

The story is really entertaining.

What about Marguerite Gavin’s performance did you like?

Ms. Gavin's voice is simply perfect for Kitty! She has the ability to sound just like a late night DJ. Her inflection and tone is perfect.

Must read

Kitty Norvell does it again with the help of a great narrator. Worth every minute.

A surprise

I bought this book because I had read everything on my list. I took a chance and bought the book. What fun. I now own four of the series.

Another great listen

As usual I was not let down. Already have read the books, I am happy that Marguerite Gavin was narrating the book. Great job!