Night Broken by Patricia Briggs

A Spoiler Free Review

I really enjoyed Night Broken. Like, really enjoyed it. Like, crying at the end when everyone was being all fatalistic. Night Broken was awesome. However, that does not mean I did not have thoughts. So here goes:

Okay, Mr. Gywnn ap Lugh, who knows he’s dealing with a ridiculous and changeable person such as Coyote, please set an arbitrary deadline for getting back an artifact you literally spent a bunch of time not caring about. Good plan. Probably not going to work out for you. I hate this kind of crap so much. You are an incredibly powerful, incredibly long-lived person so a week is nothing. You know this. You also know who has the damn Walking Stick so… why don’t you maybe try to contact Coyote? I’m assuming that’s within your power. Instead, we must make vague threats at Mercy. Good plan. Solid plan. You’re an asshole. Leave it to Zee to point the time thing to Mercy. THANK YOU. I was overall pleased with how that whole thing turned out, just got real annoyed at that first meeting.

I very much dislike Christy. Probably picking up what Mercy’s laying down, but also… I dislike women who play the kinds of games she’s working on and yeah. Hate it. So much. So very glad that relationship drama didn’t actually become relationship drama because I despise relationship drama more than I despise Christy. Make no mistake, I despise that woman. The revelation that she basically won’t take responsibility for her own shit on top of the manipulation… ugh. Keep her away from Mercy and the rest. Forever, if possible.

I really do enjoy learning about mythologies, especially those that aren’t as “well trodden” as the ones we hear about in the US… ya know, mainly the Greek/Roman and Celtic ones. Getting the Guayota story from Kyle was neat. I did look Guayota up immediately upon seeing the name. First thing that comes up is the Wiki article, which I only read the blurb about due to potential spoilers. Honestly glad I didn’t read further due to Kyle’s retelling.

Honestly, things were progressing pretty okay, then Wulfe up an throws a wrench into things. I sometimes love that this world feels so lived in; that’s partially due to the amount of characters. However, when 15 thousand of them show up at random intervals for random reasons, it really feels too full. Especially when, say, Mercy has barely gotten any sleep and everyone suddenly want to see her tonight. And just… ugh with that whole bit. Definitely smacks of something needed to be dealt with right now that I feel like could have waited. Which shows how much I know, because having Stefan at the ready was ultimately helpful. Still felt stupid as it was happening. I am very glad Mercy’s exhaustion is shown “on screen” cuz protagonists who just keep going like the Energizer Bunny are odd.

It is very interesting to me to get to see some of the politics involved in the supernatural community basically vs the humans. I saw a very little of that in The Hollows series by Kim Harrison and a bunch of it in the Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series by Laurel K. Hamilton. The Anita Blake series focuses on it from a police perspective, as Anita becomes a Federal Marshall throughout the series and often liases with police. It’s interesting to see it from a purely political standpoint here. I mean, it’s a clearly corrupt political standpoint, but that’s politics for you. I am glad Mercy and Adam have some pretty heavy hitters on their side, as far as political maneuvering goes, apparently. It is quite nice to see idiots put in their place by smarter people, especially in regards to politicians and trumped up government agents.

Night Broken ran a mile a minute and barely let up. There were points where I felt about as exhausted as Mercy. But it was good, ultimately. Everything hung together pretty well and made sense —Wulfe notwithstanding. I’m a pretty happy camper with this one, even though reading the first paragraph of the blurb made me very scared I wouldn’t be. Seriously, there are reasons I don’t read blurbs after the first one gets me. But anyway, Night Broken = fun and intense and good.