Title:

Series: Other Book 1 
Author(s): Karen Kincy
Genre: Young Adult, Paranormal, Mystery
Publisher/Year: Flux/2010
-Webpage:  Karen Kincy
-Blog:  Karen Kincy @ LJ

Synopsis:  Feathers unfurl from my skin. My plummet curves into a swoop, and I tuck my talons beneath my body. From girl to great horned owl in about a second. Pretty good, huh?
 
Gwen Williams is like any other modern teenager with one exception: she's a shapeshifter. Never having known her Pooka-spirit father, Gwen must struggle with the wild, wonderful magic inside of her alone—and in secret. While society may tolerate vampires, centaurs, and "Others" like Gwen, there are plenty of folks in Klikamuks, Washington, who don't care for her kind.

Now there's a new werewolf pack in town, and Others are getting killed, including Gwen's dryad friend. The police are doing zilch. In the midst of terrible loss and danger, Gwen meets a cute Japanese fox spirit who's refreshingly comfortable with his Otherness. Can Gwen find the courage to embrace her true self and find the killer-before she becomes the next victim?

Review:  For the record stick a kitsune (Japanese fox spirit) into a book and it instantly becomes insta-need for me.  It can be blamed squarely on Shippou from Inu-Yasha by Rumiko Takahashi, but that's not here nor there.

In a lot of ways I really enjoyed Kincy interweaving of mythology with that of 'shifters'.  Not just one cultural mythology either--there is the Welsh mythology that Gwen is part of as half-pooka, Gwen's friend Chloe who was a Greek dryad and then there was Tavian, who was half kitsune, or Japanese fox spirit.  Kincy weaves each other their varied origins and legends into the 'Other' background.  And not all 'Others' are created equal.  Like any other race there are the miscreants--in this case werewolves who are viewed little better than as criminals.

Also her handling of the murder mystery, because in many ways this follows a classic murder mystery outline, is deft and clever.  Pieces are unveiled slowly, through hardwork and observation--there is no 'magic clue' that suddenly makes everything so perfectly clear.  Mistakes happen, trust is broken and people are overlooked simply because it felt weird accusing a neighbor.  Kincy didn't mince words, the murderer was reprehensible.  There was no sense of moral compass just a warped belief that murdering 'Others' was the right thing to do. 

Where the book failed was in Gwen's interpersonal relationships with first her boyfriend and later Tavian.  Putting aside my belief that Tavian being the same person as the guy online she talks with, it felt as if she was fighting her instincts and staying with Zack because she wants to believe she can have a normal life.  As much as she despises having to hide her 'Other'-ness she is also scared of how things would turn out if everyone knew.  In a morbid way it was amusing when she finally gets around to explaining things to Zack--they're talking at such cross purposes that in any other situation it would be hilarious.

The thing is everything falls apart with Zack and in a relatively quick amount of time she is with Tavian.  Whether it was the attraction of being in similar circumstances, the pressures of the time or what, it felt too abrupt.  I thought less of her because of it in fact. 

The world is what drew me in and kept me to this book.  If the snippet Kincy sent me from the second book, Bloodborn (due out in 2011) is any indication the second book will improve upon Gwen and Tavian's relationship, and expand upon the universe as a whole.