REVIEW: Storm Cursed by Patricia Briggs
B Reviews / Book ReviewsFae / Mercy-Thompson / politics / Shifters / Urban fantasy / werewolves / Witches27 Comments
Series spoilers follow: For readers who haven’t read the series, this is not the book to begin with – start at Moon Called, book 1.
Content warning: depictions of violence and torture of people and animals.
Dear Patricia Briggs,
I enjoyed Storm Cursed much better than Silence Fallen. For starters, Storm Cursed does relate more closely to the Columbia Basin Pack and their claiming of the Tri-Cities territory (which occurred in Fire Touched) and, there is not a long period where Adam and Mercy are separated. There is no Adam POV but I wasn’t disappointed by the trade-0ff. Mercy is her usual badass self and gets to shine in this book, while still getting help from others.
I do feel like I need to to a complete series re-read/re-listen because I’m beginning to lose track of the dense worldbuilding – or at least some of the characters within it. Then again, it has been two years since the last Mercy book was released so that probably explains it. I expect I will pick up some things in Storm Cursed that I missed if the previous books are fresh in my mind. As your books are ones which tend to grow on me even more on repeat this is not a hardship.
The plot is fairly simple; black witches move into the Pack’s territory and Mercy, Adam and their friends act to remove them. It’s a lot more complicated than that of course. These are powerful witches and there are other things at play as well. The humans and the fae are about to commence peace talks and certain factions are just not into it. Revelations about a recurring character have profound impacts and we also learn a bit more about the mysterious Sherwood Post.
I did have questions about a couple of things near the end – to ask them would be too spoilery of course but these were fairly small things.
The action moved at a fast clip and I was caught up in the story almost the whole time. I did wonder a little at some absences – Jesse, Daryl and Honey were barely in the book. Bran doesn’t make an appearance at all. (I suspect after the revelation in the previous book this might be somewhat of a relief to some readers though.) On the other hand, there was plenty of Zee and Tad and that’s always a good thing.
Where I stumbled in Storm Cursed was the politics. There was a fair amount of it in the book and I’m not talking Pack politics either. I mean, US politics. In my Mercy head-canon, Trump is not the current president because I just cannot with Adam voting for that guy. It was bad enough learning that Adam is a Republican. And, sure, on some level I guess it makes sense. He was born in Alabama in the 1950s. He is conservative by nature. But the GOP isn’t just Trump. The GOP is Reagan and Bush (both of them); it is the party of the Southern Strategy and the one currently trying to overturn Roe v. Wade. It gave me a bad feeling to think that Adam could support them. In the end, I had to think of the Mercyverse GOP as some kind of idealised GOP which isn’t so many things I do not like and cannot respect – although it was a struggle and I didn’t entirely succeed. It intruded upon my enjoyment of the book. Adam has long been one of my very favourite heroes but his shine has somewhat tarnished for me now, I admit. I would really much rather have lived my life not knowing this about Adam. But it is impossible to ignore it. It is explicit in the book. To be honest I’m more upset about this than I ever was about Bran.
There is some extreme violence in the book and depictions of torture (of people and of animals) with which some readers may struggle. I didn’t find it delved into the realm of torture porn by any means, but it was still difficult to read, as I’m sure it was intended to be. The villains are Very. Bad. People.
I had missed Mercy – I hadn’t realised how much until I spent some time with her again in this book. I love her bravery and her fierceness. I love her cleverness and her wry humour.
It made him look tougher—the shiner didn’t hurt that impression either. Some people (me) get a black eye and people ask, “Hey, who beat you up?” Other people ([redacted]) get a black eye and people say, “Where did they bury the other guy?”
Adam doesn’t get shiners.
There are some lovely sections with Mercy and Adam, where he’s hurting and she is supporting him, where they are working together, where they are just loving one another. As a romance reader I can’t help but gravitate to them.
I also liked the development of the relationship between Mercy and Mary Jo and how things are settling out with Mercy and the wider Pack.
There was a lot to like in Storm Cursed – I’m sure my grade would have been higher without the intrusion of politics but as it is I’m going with a B.
Regards,
Kaetrin
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Oh hells – I loved this series but the last book & the rewrite of Bran really annoyed me. It’s been bad enough with Rowling’s cynical gay retrospective- when it’s too late to do any good or affect her sales. But now Adam a Republican…no thanks. Poor Mercy- bring back Stefan as a possible love interest now.
Great review – thanks for the other warnings too I really appreciate that.
I didn’t re read the while series, but I did re rad Burn bright in preparation.
I agree with your grade, and for pretty much the same reasons. (I wasn’t as hung up on the political aspect since I view this as an AU so I’m free to ignore things I want to.)
As much as I like Mercy’s competence and ability to get things done, I was bothered by all her Lone Rangering in this book. It seems like it’s becoming too much of a pattern for her to be without enough support from Adam and the pack as a whole. I was really annoyed about everyone being so conveniently (or inconveniently) incommunicado for large portions of the book. Again.
I always read the ebook first, followed by the audiobook at some point, so my opinions might change upon further reflection. For now, my assessment is good, not great.
I’m looking forward to reading this and am waiting for that library copy to show up.
I stumbled over the politics as well. I’m trying to find information on Briggs’s own politics because I do not want to send any more money her way if I can’t stand her positions on certain policies. There have been authors I’ve removed from my want to read lists because they supported horrible things. I’ve just been lucky enough so far that I didn’t have to drop authors I truly loved at the time I dropped them.
@Laraine Cole: I am not really surprised that Adam is a Republican, TBH. I read a handful of the early books last year and spotted some pro-gun sentiments and I think maybe a little anti-abortion, too? I can’t remember the detail anymore, though.
@Laraine Cole: I just remembered the anti-abortion bits. Samuel’s girlfriend had an abortion (though she would probably have miscarried anyway) and Samuel’s deep depression was blamed on that. If she would not have had a miscarriage otherwise I would have understood it, but since she almost certainly would have, I didn’t.
The gun thing was early on in book three, I believe? They were sitting around a table in a pub or something (unless I’ve mixed things up) and I think guns came up somehow and were viewed as something good to have, and I’m not sure why, but I felt that it wasn’t just because of the dangerous paranormal creatures that they felt that way.
@Janine: @Laraine Cole: Adam’s political leanings are overt in this book. There’s no getting around them.
I don’t know if I was over-reading or over-thinking but there seemed to be a bit of a vibe of “not all Republicans”.
I’m not sure how Mercy squares this (she votes for the “other party” so they’re votes “cancel each other out”) as the Republicans are, among other things, the party that supports the DAPL pipeline (if I understand things correctly). Mercy is Native American.
I really struggled with this aspect of the book. It’s not just Trump. It’s the entire GOP. I read an article a while back about how the “never Trumpers” were still Republicans and it unpacked all the things the Republican party was trying to do – just their stand on healthcare is and abortion is abhorrent to me. I just don’t get it. Like I said in the review, maybe the GOP in the Mercyverse is some kind of idealised GOP but that seems a stretch.
I’ve stopped at 51% through the book because of the potential politics issue. I tried to comment earlier and I’m not sure what happened to that comment, so I apologize if I end up repeating. I understand that people have different politics, as is their right. It’s also my right to support who I want with my purchases. If I find someone’s politics are so far from my own that they’re distasteful to me, I don’t want to support them with my continued purchases. I don’t even know if I want to finish the book, because just a few paragraphs have soured how I feel about the whole thing as well as the author. The book did feel a bit off, but I put that to this being a bit of a recovery book.
@Sarah: Sorry about your comments Sarah – they got caught in the spam filter for some reason.
I don’t know for sure what the author’s politics are but I share your discomfort about the politics in the book.
I thought maybe it was a hang up in my end. I live in a small town with cell towers that need to be updated, repaired, or replaced. I thought maybe I had an internet connection error, since I made the comment on my phone. I’ve read some more of the book, and honestly I still don’t know how I feel. I don’t really remember what the Bran rewrite was about (although I’m starting to remember being mad), so maybe this just needs to be my last Briggs book. I have a few authors I used to love who just changed their characters in such unbelievable ways that I gave up on the books and sometimes the author. It’s been s rough week outside of the book, so that could also be influencing my tolerance of the things I see as wrong in the book. Thanks for your reply, and have an awesome day!
@Sarah: The Bran thing was about non-fatherly feelings from him to Mercy.
I’m sorry you’re having a rough week. Hope things look up for you soon!
I was blown away by the cover of Storm Cursed and stumbled across this blog post by the artist. Maybe others enjoying this latest Mercy Thompson story will enjoy reading about the cover’s development. http://www.muddycolors.com/2018/07/storm-cursed/
I haven’t read Storm Cursed yet, but I’m disappointed to learn Adam is a Republican. I agree it’s not really a surprise, but I don’t believe we’ve ever had to think about his political leanings before. I wasn’t happy with the last couple of Mercy books, so I’m even more frustrated that I shelled out so much cash for this hardcover. I’ve been trying not to spend money, but have been making exceptions for favorite authors. Since I have the book, I’ll read it and make my own judgment about the way politics are used in the book, but I have a feeling this will be my last Patricia Briggs.
Wow, the politics comments here surprised me. There are a few sentences in the entire book that shows a different perspective, and everyone seems to be going ballistic. Is it all right to bash half of the population? Those poor Republicans, they’ve become such great targets. Of course people have different opinions, but let’s all put our heads in the sand if we don’t agree.
As for Samuel’s unborn child being aborted (and the oh-so-convenient statement that it would probably have miscarried anyway), the universe here has been clear that many human children are born to the pack, and of course Adam’s ex blamed him for all of her miscarriages. Perhaps you agree with his ex? Consider what you write. Even in this universe, children are precious.
As for the guns, consider the universe that’s being written about. There is conflict, physical conflict, in every book. If there weren’t knives, swords, and guns, Mercy’s story would have been very short. As a 65 year old, I don’t want any conflict at all, but I certainly know that I am relatively weak and cannot compete with people half my age if they want to do me harm. When seconds matter, the police are minutes away. We none of us want to use a fire extinguisher, but most of us have one.
That’s my extent of counter-culture writing. Patricia Briggs puts a few sentences in her book to show another perspective, and everyone seems aghast. Please be more tolerant.
Very Best,
Hunter
@JH:
I apologize for the offense my comment caused; that was not my intention.
I have not read the book so I don’t know how heavy-handed the politics in it are. In real life I have a Republican family member who is dear to me, even though I find her politics abhorrent. As the daughter of Holocaust survivors I’ve been triggered to see synagogue shootings, Nazis marching and being called “very fine people,” and children separated from their parents and caged at the border. These things terrify me.
Without having read Storm Cursed, it’s hard for me to say how I would feel about the way Adam’s politics are presented, whether they feel organic to the story or out of place, but regardless, I can certainly sympathize with readers who are triggered.
As for my statements, I have only read as far as book four in the Mercy Thompson series, as well as all the books in the Alpha and Omega series. I read them (in some case reread them) relatively recently, last year. In these books, it was specifically stated that the reason Samuel wanted Mercy was that she could be relied on to bear children, whereas other women had a high risk of miscarriage if their partner was a werewolf. From what I remember, it was also stated that Charles’s mother died giving birth to him, and was only able to carry the pregnancy to term because her shaman father’s magic aided her in doing so.
As for Adam’s wife, as far as I recall her miscarriages were touched on as one of the reasons for the divorce, but it was never stated that she was wrong about that. I have not read the subsequent Mercy books, so it’s possible that this was amended and I didn’t know. But I think that was how it was presented in the early books, when Samuel was mourning over it.
With regard to the guns, it is possible that I misunderstood what I read. I understand that there are people who need guns to defend themselves and their pets from wild animals, for example, but what I read struck me as going beyond that. Since I don’t remember the details, though, I should probably not have said anything about that.
I can’t speak to your personal decisions and I won’t. But I will relate another perspective, in case it is helpful to you to understand where I am coming from. A friend of mine has a mother in her seventies who recently started to talk about getting a gun out of fear of burglars. My friend is terrified that she will do that, because she reasons that a young, healthy burglar would probably be able to take the gun from her elderly mother’s hands, and that would just make for an armed burglar, who might not have previously been armed.
Again, I apologize for the offense my comment caused.
@JH: You put to words what I was thinking. My take was that Mercy and Adam’s politics are diametrically opposed but they get along anyway. And that was the extent of it.
The current administration and GOP have cut themselves loose and drifted so far away from traditional positions that they hardly qualify anymore as Republican or conservative. Storm Cursed is a work of fiction, not a commentary on current events. Everyone is entitled to her opinion, but it seems unfair to downgrade a novel set in an imaginary world because major characters are not sufficiently distanced from events occuring months and years after the book was written.
@JH: Janine has already addressed some things but I wanted to respond to you about my thoughts on the politics in the book. There weren’t that many lines about it that’s true. They could in fact have been left out altogether. It would have been a better book and it wouldn’t have upset anyone.
Adam is explicitly a Republican in this book. Trump isn’t exactly named, but it is strongly implied that Trump is the president in this book. As much as I wish it weren’t so, the Mercyverse is explicitly an AU version of *this* world. Adam served in the Vietnam war. The fae reservation is named for Ronald Reagan. A previous book references a Black president (a hat tip to Obama I believe). The current president (ie the president in *this* book) got Adam’s vote.
“He’d voted for this president, canceling my vote as apparently we’d done all of my life and would do for the foreseeable future. But Adam didn’t really approve of him.”
I’m not a fan of the GOP. That’s an understatement but this is a romance blog not a political blog and I’m not the blog owner so I want to be respectful of those things. But my views inform my reading. And the politics of people in real life and fictional characters inform my thoughts about them. Adam has been one of my all time favourite heroes. Up until now. Now my heart hurts.
@Mzcue: I don’t think this book refers to real world events which occur months and years after the book was written. The book was written last year and is set in the now – at best, the book is set in 2018 or maybe 2017. It is strongly implied that Trump is president in the Mercyverse and it is explicit that Adam voted for him. And yes, that did affect my enjoyment of the book, hence my grade. I appreciate you think that’s unfair. Those who read the review will make their own judgements about it. All I can do is try and express the reasons for my grade so it has context, to enable readers to decide what to make of it.
I’ve said I would have graded the book higher but for Adam’s politics. For readers who don’t care what Adam’s political leanings are, that will perhaps be relevant. I’ve tried to be fair but honest. Storm Cursed isn’t the first book where I’ve explicitly commented on the politics within it and I’m sure it won’t be the last.
@Kaetrin…Well said.
As a non-USAian I have to say it is very hard to separate the Republicans from children in cages, that seems like a pretty good line in the sand for me.
I’d been getting increasingly frustrated with the way Briggs portrayed female relationships so it doesn’t take much for me to decide to buy other things instead.
I just finished the book and could fangirl as usual about my love for the Mercyverse. I was neither surprised nor put off by the mention of politics, Adam’s or anyone else’s. Reading as someone who is to-the-bone, ride-n-die blue, there were more potentially interesting transformations happening, IMO. I’m aware that any step into our current politics can feel toxic, including in my family. Authors and readers have to do right by themselves and, fortunately, this is still one arena in which we get to make our own decisions.
Just finished reading the book. While I was reading it I kept thinking maybe I missed a book because I could not remember some of the characters and their action in previous books. It never happened before so it left me a little confused, I might need to reread the books. Politics in this books did not bother me, to each his/her own, the Bran information (in a different book) that came out of the left field was way more upsetting and disturbing to me.
Now for the discussion on this board, I am confused on Samuel aborted child and the information that his then-girlfriend would have had a miscarriage. There are kids who are born to the wolf and human parents so the miscarriage part is iffy IMO. As for Charles mother, it is my understanding that she died during childbirth because she could not turn wolf during full moon during her pregnancy and it weakened her.
Overall not a bad book, but I still prefer Alpha and Omega books.
re: “He’d voted for this president, canceling my vote as apparently we’d done all of my life and would do for the foreseeable future. But Adam didn’t really approve of him.”
I just thought the quote above represented a rather naive understanding of the political realities right now. But, now that the other instances have been brought up, I do think a bit of shading has gone on and i find that I like Briggs as an author less for it. It is naive and I din’t need to know that about her.
I enjoyed this book a lot more than the last couple. I have to say I’m surprised that anyone would think Adam was anything but a Republican. He’s overall conservative and if I remember joined the military voluntarily (as opposed to being drafted). But given everything I’ve learned of him, I’d say he’s not on the extreme right. Maybe it’s easier for me to accept his. I consider myself a centrist and can see things to both value and despise in both parties.
@MikiS: I’d just rather not have it spelled out. Up until this book I hadn’t really thought about it and I was much happier that way!
These comments are all so ridiculous. Your bias is so close minded. How boring your world must be that you want to read and be around people who share the same views as you. I feel sad for all of you. The way you generalize an entire political party? And then relate it to a book? When you grade a book your grading writing style and plot content. Political views that you don’t even respect that someone can feel differently about shouldn’t factor in.
The political views are part of the characterization. If it’s not important enough for readers to critique, maybe it’s not important enough to go in the book in the first place. This particular detail goes against previously established characterizations without any reasoning behind being included – no further understanding is gained, no plot points are driven forward. It doesn’t educate readers on any real life experience either. Adam goes from being a loving father and husband, who might be a bit over protective and old fashioned, to voting for someone who is very similar to a real life politician with policies that would hurt both of the people he’s supposed to love most. He’s a smart man who goes from being very deliberate about his choices to someone who doesn’t pay attention to politics beyond party affiliation, to the point of overlooking the damage that party does and can do to his family, and the horribly corrupt person that party has put forth as their candidate. I was staying with this author for the characters, but turning Adam into a caricature of who he used to be was the last straw.
If I dismissed things in real life as “just political views,” I’d have to overlook all the various forms of bigotry I’ve seen from people I’ve worked with, class mates, people I used to think of as friends, and even family. My aunt is a raging islamophobe – she literally supports genocide of Muslims – and I refuse to just chalk that up to “political views.” My neighbor calls people of color racial slurs – if you ain’t white, he hates you. He also hates LGBT+ people and people who aren’t Christian/Catholic. A former coworker hated Mexicans so bad, she called them horrible things to their faces and refused them service. She believed that all the “damn old dirty Mexicans” should be kicked out of the country – here legally or not, actually born here or not – and if they came back, they should be shot in the head. She was fired for discrimination. They all leaned the same way politically. Politics are important to every day life and if I want to judge characters in a book by who and what they’re willing to support, you can bet your fancy pants I will.