omphaloskepsis

WARNING: Uninteresting shit ahead. More navel-gazing yay.


(Personal) reasons I stopped with the Mercy Thompson series after Moon Called

1. I don't like love triangles. Positively detest them, in fact. This is completely a question of preference for me. But I've heard that the triangle is resolved a few books into the series, so I might not have to worry about this anymore.

2. The lack of a female community. There are very few decently fleshed-out female characters aside from Mercy. I'm sure there must be ways to emphasize Mercy's sheer awesomeness without having to take other females out of the picture completely (I suspect this is the main reason for her isolation. The other secondary-main female role is a love interest's daughter and so is not a potential threat to Mercy's desirability.) The isolation and overwhelming testosterone, it burns.

3. The status of women in the story. All the lip-service paid to feminism in the form of offhand comments that the wolves 'aren't very enlightened' isn't enough for me. I'd have liked to see a little more awareness about it. Considering that the wolves live among humans who view gender equality differently, how do they reconcile it with their own culture and justify it? Also, Briggs has made it so that female wolves derive their powers and status from their mates directly (there's no fighting biology yo). I don't even-- why would she do that? Why would she base the gender inequality issue in her world on something so irrevocable as, as...having to literally rely on a man for power? D:

I know, I know, it's her world and it's not perfect. But I don't have to like it.

2+3. It's not even the lack of options presented to females that bothers me. It's the lack of females who assert their own fate and come out strong despite the obstacles Briggs has given them. Mercy may be cool, but she's so utterly alienated and alone in this, I'm left wondering what happened to all the other decent women. I mean, come on, Briggs has all the female werewolves resenting and ostracizing Mercy because of her ability to carry a baby to term. Seriously? Not a single woman among them with enough fortitude of character or self-awareness to think gee, maybe my life doesn't have to revolve around having babies and snagging an eligible wolf for his hierarchy status and power, so maybe just maybe we shouldn't torment that poor girl out of petty jealousy?

No. In Mercy Thompson's world, female werewolves are jealous, immature, backstabbing bitches who are arguably the product of the myth constraints that Briggs put them in, and they can't seem to grow out of it. Unless they're in spin-off novels of which they are heroines. Then they are awesome.
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Sigh, but despite my misgivings, I did like her writing, and I liked Mercy a lot. I'm not sure why these points bothered me enough to stop reading. And, well, it was only one book. Maybe all those issues get ironed out in later volumes. It's definitely a series I might go back to one day, but for now I offer these hang-ups as excuses.