Book Review of Other by Karen Kincy

Title: Other

Author: Karen Kincy

Release Date: July 1st, 2010

Seventeen-year-old Gwen hides a dangerous secret: she’s Other. Half-pooka, to be exact, thanks to the father she never met. Most Americans don’t exactly roll out the welcome mat for Others, especially not the small-town folks of Klikamuks, Washington. As if this isn’t bad enough, Gwen’s on the brink of revealing her true identity to her long-time boyfriend, Zack, but she’s scared he’ll lump her with the likes of bloodthirsty vampires and feral werewolves.

When a pack of werewolves chooses the national forest behind Gwen’s home as their new territory, the tensions in Klikamuks escalate-into murder. It soon becomes clear a serial killer is methodically slaying Others. The police turn a blind eye, leaving Gwen to find the killer before the killer finds her. As she hunts for clues, she uncovers more Others living nearby than she ever expected. Like Tavian, a sexy Japanese fox-spirit who rivals Zack and challenges her to embrace her Otherness. Gwen must struggle with her own conflicted identity, learn who she can trust, and-most importantly-stay alive.

Summary from Goodreads.com

My Review:

I got my copy of this book when I was at ALA and I actually got to meet the author too and she signed my book.  She was so friendly and she even had a little pooka with her.   I on the other hand was a total dork and got nervous and called the pooka a boy instead of a girl.  Yeah, that was embarrassing!!  I still get nervous in front of authors, they are my version of meeting a rock star so I sometimes freeze up.  Hopefully, if I meet her again, I will not say something stupid again.  Knowing me though, it is bound to happen

Alright onto the book.  This is the story about a girl named Gwen, who is an “other.”  An “other” is basically any paranormal being that you can think of, all of them fall into this label.  Some others inherit their unique qualities, like Gwen who is half pooka.  While some others are infected, like a bite from a vamp or a werewolf.  Gwen inherited her pooka heritage from her biological father, who she has not met and has no idea who he is.  She lives with her mother, sister, and step father in a very small town in Washington.  While others are known about in the world, they are frowned upon and not really accepted in society as they should be.  It mimics racism, just in a different form and is a constant theme woven throughout the story.  As an outsider it is infuriating to see how Gwen and those like her are treated, and probably more upsetting because unfortunately we see these things happen in our society every day.

Another problem Gwen faces is telling her boyfriend, Zack what she is.  She has dating him for over a year and she has still not revealed her true identity to him.  The secret has stared to come between them and Zack has been noticing that Gwen has been pushing away lately.  When the moment finally comes for Gwen to tell Zack I found myself crossing my fingers for her because I wanted so much for her to get her happy ending.  Of course I am not going to tell you how that goes down, because I don’t want to spoil the surprise, but I am sure you will have some intense opinions on the situation, just like I did.

A little side note story about this.  When I was at BEA, a book blogging friend and I were talking about the love triangle situation that seems to appear in books so often and how we decided which team we were on.  She remarked that most of the time you root for the guy you meet first, because you are introduced to him first and get to know him before the new guy comes into play.  Normally, this is very true with me, I am with Edward (Twilight), Marc (Shifters),  or Dimitri (Vampire Academy) you see my point, right?  In this book I thought I might be rooting for Zack, until we meet Tavian.  I am totally with Tavian, he is so sweet and I love how he treats Gwen.  He really took me by surprise, because I did not think I would end up liking him, but he blew Zack out of the water, very quickly.

I did enjoy all the different types of others that were incorporated into this book.  There are dryads, and water sprites, and leprechauns, oh my!  Okay sorry, couldn’t resist.  The point is I like how the story weaves all these different characters lives into one web that connects all of them.  They are all so unique and fascinating in their own way, I loved reading about them and I was sorry to see the story end because it meant my journey with them was coming to an end for now.  I know that there is a sequel in the works, I do not think it focuses on Gwen, it focuses on someone who was a secondary character in this story, Brock.  It is called Bloodborn and it is due out in 2011.  I know I will be on the lookout for it because I want to learn more about the others and life from their point of view.

Language Love:

“Clouds clot in the sky behind my house, as if the roof is damming their flow.”

I love clouds, they are so fascinating to me and I love watching them make shapes across the sky.  This sentence just helps bring them to life even more for me.

“Evening ripens into a blackberry sky seeded with stars.  The moon peeks above the horizons, fat and nearing full, dripping silver juice.”

Do I really need to explain why I love this?  I mean, c’mon…that is just beautiful!