Review of The Kitty Norville series by Carrie Vaughn. If you want an urban fantasy series about a woman who is a werewolf, then The Kitty Norville series is probably your best bet.
My review from 2014 of Kitty Norville by Carrie Vaughn
Title: Kitty and the Midnight Hour, Kitty Goes to Washington, Kitty Takes a Holiday & Kitty and the Silver Bullet
Author: Carrie Vaughn
Series: Kitty Norville
Genre: Urban fantasy
Right now Kitty Norville is the urban fantasy series I am recommending people if I know they like urban fantasy. So far I read the first 4 books in this series in four days. Yes I think this a good series.
A while back I made a post about how I define urban fantasy, and I defined four different strains of urban fantasy. The Kitty Norville series falls into the strain I call: A world you don’t see. Kitty is a werewolf but nobody but other werewolves knows that she is anything special. She hosts a night time radio show playing music and taking calls.
The setup is pretty simple, what happens when the people listening to her show starts talking about the supernatural (werewolves and vampires mostly) and she is taking them seriously, the world starts to take the idea of them being real seriously. This in itself is a great setup and one I find really interesting.
The protagonist: Kitty Norville
Kitty (yes that is a horrible name to a werewolf and yes she gets teased) is a way more capable woman that what she gives herself credit for and she is way braver than she thinks she is. She starts standing up for herself, stops being the omega in the pack and then trouble really starts, now doesn’t it. There are great character growth in this series, not just in Kitty but also in the people around her. There are a lot of coming out stories in this book, not coming out as gay, but as werewolves, which are very emotional but also handled with humor.
The books are quite funny, fast moving and entertaining. It is surprisingly entertaining to read the talk radio shows that she does. She is witty and sharp and she has the weirdest callers which is awesome. In the later books there is a very nice romance as well, without the books slipping into paranormal romance (not that there’s anything wrong with that, if that is what you are in the mood for). There are chewy bits in between the the ice cream which makes it a more interesting read.
Judith Tarr has written a review of the Kitty Norville series as well at tor.com
The stats: The Kitty Norville series
Published: 2005 – 2009 by Grand Central
Read: December 6. – 9. 2013
Author: female, white, US resident
The protagonists: Kitty Norville: female, white, radio host, straight, able-bodied
Setting: Denver, USA, present day
This review was originally posted: January 5, 2014. Updated and edited July 1, 2023
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