#CBR11 Book 74: "Locke & Key, vol 6: Alpha & Omega" by Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez

Page count: 192 pages
Rating: 4 stars

#CBR11 Bingo: Not My Wheelhouse (horror)

Spoiler warning! This is the sixth and final volume in the Locke and Key series. It is absolutely NOT the place to start. This review will probably contain spoilers both for earlier and this collection, so don't read it unless you're completely caught up. The first volume is Welcome to Lovecraft. 

In this final volume, the Locke kids have to confront the evil that has been haunting their family for over a generation. If there was any doubt that it was going to have a heavy cost, even the first few pages dispels that notion. So much death, so much horror, some truly noble sacrifices, and so many emotional scenes, really f*cking me up. I ugly cried through parts of this, because while I only read one volume a year (I don't think I can handle the intensity otherwise), Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez have really made me care about these characters.

For anyone wondering, is this a good ending to the series, the answer is a resounding yes. All the various story strands established in previous volumes are given attention and are given a conclusion, some adressing situations and characters I had almost forgotten. I started reading Locke and Key back in 2014, and I really haven't been able to read much more than a volume each year, because the horror that Joe Hill conjures up and Gabriel Rodriguez so cleverly illustrates really does freak me out so much, I can't read too much of it in one go. So this series has been part of my life for a long time. Obviously, when I started the series, I had no children of my own. I genuinely don't know if my extra strong emotional response to this final volume is because now that I have a little boy of my own, reading about children in peril (even teenage children) affects me so much more. As someone suffering from anxiety, I have to constantly force myself not to run through all the horrible things that could potentially happen, and Locke and Key presents some pretty terrifying what ifs?

I don't regret waiting this long to get to the end. This final volume has literally been waiting on my shelf for more than two years, but I really wasn't ready to read it until now. I'm glad the wait was worth it, and the ending was a worthy one, even if it made me feel all sorts of painful feels while reading it.

Judging a book by its cover: This cover is one of the simpler in the series, and pretty much black on black, with the details sort of embossed. The dark and gloomy colour scheme fits for the concluding volume of the series, when all the things come to a head and evil must be confronted.

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.

CBR4 Book 25: "Fair Game" by Patricia Briggs

Page count: 352 pages
Rating: 4 stars
Date begun: March 7th, 2012
Date finished: March 9th, 2012

This is the third book the Alpha and Omega series, and while it can be read without previous knowledge of the series or characters, it's a lot better if you've read the previous two. So avoid this review if you want to avoid spoilers, and if you're interested in starting from the beginning, check out Cry Wolf.

Anna Latham is a werewolf and an Omega wolf, a wolf that has the ability to stand outside normal pack structure and calm other wolves, especially Alphas. They are deeply treasured in any wolf pack because of their ability both to stand up to the Alphas and keep them sensible, and for their abilites to soothe the often volatile tempers of other werewolves. Anna is married to Charles Cornick, who's not just an Alpha wolf, but the son of the Marrok, the leader of all the American werewolves. Charles is also the enforcer who has to clean up when werewolves break the very strong edicts placed upon them. Since the werewolves are openly "out" in society, they also have to make sure they survive in the public scrutiny. Since the existence of werewolves was revealed, Charles has had a lot more executions to carry out, and it's taking its toll on him.

Anna is very worried about her husband, and manages to convince his father that unless Charles gets some different responsibilites for a while, he's going to snap, and lose control completely. The Marrok sends Anna and Charles to Boston, to assist the FBI in a serial killer case. It turns out that the killer's last three victims were werewolves, and once Anna and Charles investigate further, most of the killer's victims seem to be supernatural in some way, either werewolf or fey, although none of the victims were openly acknowleged as such. The killer clearly has knowledge not available to the general public, and the task of finding him turns is not made easier when Charles and Anna's lines of communication are threatened by the ghosts haunting Charles.

A couple of years have passed since the previous book in the Alpha and Omega series, and the characters have grown and developed in the interim. Anna, who came from a background of abuse and mistreatment has grown strong and confident, and her love and loyalty to Charles makes her unafraid to take on her ancient and extremely powerful father-in-law, even when she knows he won't like the truths she has to tell him. She is deeply hurt by the distance that is developing between Charles and herself, and determined to do anything to help him, whether he wants it or not.

Charles is deeply loyal to his father, and carries out the duties imposed upon him, even as it's slowly driving him crazy. His Native American heritage means that he sees the spirits of all the wolves he's had to execute for rule breaking, and they refuse to give him peace, taunting him and threatening his bond with Anna. He tries to protect her by cutting himself off from their mate bond, but ends up endangering her further with his distance. Even though I thought Charles was quite dumb throughout much of this book, and I suspect many of his issues would have been solved if he just spoke to his father and his wife honestly, I can also understand his need to shelter and protect Anna. Several centuries older than his wife, he's been used to relying only on himself, and because Briggs writes her characters so well, I'm sure I'll feel less like slapping some sense into him in the next book.

Fair Game updates us on several already familiar characters in Briggs' universe (she also writes the Mercy Thompson books - highly recommended), as well as introduces us to some intriguing new ones, including a human FBI agent who's not the least intimitated or scared by the existence of werewolves and fey, as long as they stay on the right side of the law. I hope we see more of her, and of Isaac, the Alpha of the Boston werewolf pack. Never afraid to take risks, Briggs makes sure the ending of this book opens up exciting and interesting possibilites for both the series she's writing. While I was a bit underwhelmed by her last Mercy Thompson book, the ending of Fair Game now has me hoping she will write a lot more, and fast, so I can find out what happens next.