Name: Kirsten Simkiss's review of Skinwalker by Faith Hunter
Item: Skinwalker
Rating: 3
Author: Kirsten Simkiss

Faith Hunter

"Jane Yellowrock is the last of her kind--a skinwalker of Cherokee descent who can turn into any creature she desires--and hunts the undead for a living. But now she's been hired by Katherine Fonteneau, one of the oldest vampires in New Orleans and the madam of Katie's Ladies, to hunt a powerful rogue vampire who's killing other vamps. Amidst a bordello full of real 'ladies of the night,' and a hot Cajun biker with a panther tattoo who stirs her carnal desire, Jane must stay focused and complete her mission, or else the next skin she'll need to save may be her own."--p. [4] of cover.

a Jane Yellowrock novel

Skinwalker

Kristen

Kirsten Simkiss

There were things about this book that I absolutely adored and things about it that I loathed. For that reason, I'd probably give this one a 3.5 if I had half star options, but I went with 3 stars for Goodreads. This book took some effort for me to want to get through.

I'll start with what I loved. I loved how the book took common lore and twisted it into our reality. The world that was created, particularly focusing on the vampire hierarchy in New Orleans was very well done. It's something that's been done time and time again, so if you decide to do your own take on vampires in Louisiana, you really have to be careful not to too closely hold to other more famously done vampire stories in the area. It was really great that the vampires in this story were civilized and business people. Despite some obvious negative things this ancient race hadn't let go of yet, how they functioned in modern society was really very interesting.

I also loved reading about a main character that isn't a white male come to save the day. It's great to have well thought out main characters of color. I often don't find Native American protagonists in literature, male or female, so that was a delightful part of the book for me. While nods were made to her heritage, she wasn't a caricature of a racial stereotype. Neither were any of the other characters of color. They were simply people interacting with other people, regardless of skin color and background. I thought that was fantastic.

Unfortunately, I didn't actually like any of the characters on their own. Aside from two minor male characters, every other man in the book seems to want to bang Jane, our heroine, from the get go. While none of them do actually do so, it bugged the hell out of me. Beast, her counterpart, seemed to want her to bang anyone if it meant babies, which I similarly thought was creepy considering the whole book takes place over the course of nine to ten days. Needless to say, I'm extremely glad that she didn't hook up with any of the men in this book because they were all clearly either interested in her as a conquest or interested in her just because she didn't fit the typical female mold. Why couldn't one or two of them just look at her and go, "Man, this girl is a professional. I want to talk about preferred weapons for hours and try her different kind of teas." Is friendship so damn hard a concept?

Jane was okay, although aside from her discovering her past over the course of the book, I don't feel she showed any real character growth from beginning to end. Like I said, the book only takes place over the course of about ten days, but I'd kind of hoped for more there.

My biggest pet peeve was reading the parts where Beast is in primary control. Giant cats aren't going to type in sentence fragments any more than they will actual sentences. Please, please future writers, do not make your animal sides talk like cavemen for pages. It's not cute or adorable. If you want to differentiate, make them different characters in spirit through what they say and how they act. Sentence fragments are not the answer. I would have loved Beast so much more if she spoke like she was as valid a character as Jane. Instead, she just sort of seemed like a neanderthal second fiddle.

My final complaint is that nearly all the characters seemed to behave in the same way. When you read characters and they all speak with the same degree of directness and passion and sarcasm, they begin to all sound the same. It makes for a much less interesting read. This is especially vital for people like me who thrive on diverse and interesting side characters to back up your main characters.

Ultimately, if you like supernatural fiction, it's worth a read. While it wasn't my perfect cup of tea, it might be someone else's and that's totally okay.

Sarah Escorsa

Actual rating: 2.5 stars. Because I'm in a good mood today.

Disclaimer: I read this book only 10 days ago and can hardly remember the story. This should be a fascinating review. Then again, I was recently told my reviews were offensive, so all is not lost. You might get bored but at least there's a good chance you'll feel outraged about all this. Muahahahaha.

►► Presenting... Adventures in Lowered Ratings, courtesy of Faith Hunter my failing memory!




① 1 to 50% = OMG I can't put this down, this is 4-star material!



✔ You create an awesome, badass chick of a lead. YES!
✔ You decide she's Cherokee. YES!
✔ You make her a skinwalker, meaning she can take the form of any creature she wants. YES!
✔ You make her live with an inner Beast who tends to have a life of its own. YES!
✔ You give her a super cool bike called Bitsa (bits of this, bits of that). YES!
✔ You turn her into a total tea snob. YES!
✔ You give her the annoying habit of nicknaming everyone. YES!
✔ You set the whole thing in New Orleans. YES!

☢ Uh-Oh material: 
✘ You use short-sentence structure. Which makes this poor little reader's head hurt really, really bad.
✘ One of your very manly characters is named LaFleur, aka "the flower" in French. Yes, this literally radiates masculinity.

② 50 to 70% = Houston, we have a problem, I think I'm downgrading this to 3 stars. 



✘ Your awesome, badass chick of a lead is a walking contradiction. She is supposed to be this super tough heroine but she starts acting like a bloody teenager and blushes furiously every five minutes. Sense this not makes. I get it not.
✘ The members of your Testosterone Bunch all seem to have escaped from a PNR Novel. They're all HOT. They're all SEXY. They all EXUDE manliness. They all OOZE sensuality. Please kill me somebody.
✘ Your plot is getting thinner and more boring by the minute. What started out as wow-this-is-freaking-exciting is slowly but surely becoming what-the-freaking-meh-is-this.
✘ Short-sentence structure: choppity chop, choppity chop, the headache is turning into a migraine. 

③ 70% to 100% = WTH happened I am now considering giving this a 2.5 rating?!



✘ It's official, your exciting, original plot is actually nothing more than a standard, average UF story.
✘ You're full of blah-blah-blah and boring-boring-boring. 
✘ You're full of lame sexual tension but desperately lack actual sex.
✘ Click-click-click, tap-tap-tap, watch me turn the pages of my Kindle at record speed.

Tada! THE END!

Nickie Mohler

This book has been on my to be read list for quite a while. I loved it! It worked out that I waited so long to read it, because now there are quite a few more in the series for me to read. Yay! Jane Yellowrock was hired by the vampire council in New Orleans to kill a rogue vampire terrorizing the city. It feeds on humans AND vampires, so is it a rogue? Or something else?

Megan Cooper

Skinwalker is a great first book in a series that I'm definitely going to add to my "must read" list. Lots of action with a kick-ass heroine - and a tremendous amount of gore. But when you're tracking down organ-eating rogue vampires, it's hard not to spill a little (copious amounts actually) blood. 

Yellowrock is an interesting twist on the UF heroine. She's a shapeshifter, but not a were, as well as sharing consciousness with Beast - the two are aware of each other, using each other's skills in both human and Beast form and have some some rather amusing mental interactions between them. Having the narration switch from Jane's to Beast's POV (story is in 1st person)for some of the hunt scenes works really well to establish that both are sentinent. 

There is little in the way of romance - some mild flirtation but no alpha male is required to keep the plot moving. With the power shifting between Jane and Beast, there's already enough alphas - and most of the guys, although big and buff, actually are more beta males as they work for the vamps. 

As always, there's mystery surrounding Jane's origin but we start to see answers to early on - meaning that although there may be more gaps filled in as the series progresses, its not something like the secret of Lost that gets dragged out forever until you don't really care anymore.

Just like in the Rogue Mage series, Hunter thinks out alot of "science" behind the magic/shifting so that there's some plausible explanations (plausible if you first suspend your disbelief and accept that skinwalkers, witches and vampires exist) of how a human woman can shift into a 200+ pound "Big Cat", and preternatural powers of observation (scent, sight, hearing) is augmented by Beast. At some points, Hunter goes a bit overboard in descriptions, but not enough to make me skip anything.

Defintily recommended.

Meet shapeshifting skinwalker Jane Yellowrock in the first novel in the New York Times bestselling series that captures “the essence of urban fantasy” (SF Site). Jane Yellowrock is the last of her kind—a skinwalker of Cherokee descent who can turn into any creature she desires and hunts vampires for a living. But now she’s been hired by Katherine Fontaneau, one of the oldest vampires in New Orleans and the madam of Katies’s Ladies, to hunt a powerful rogue vampire who’s killing other vamps. Amidst a bordello full of real “ladies of the night,” and a hot Cajun biker with a panther tattoo who stirs her carnal desire, Jane must stay focused and complete her mission—or else the next skin she’ll need to save just may be her own...

Caletha Jackson 

Jessica Nottingham

Well Faith Hunter, you have my attention. In my quest for new Urban Fantasy to read, I stumbled across Jane Yellowrock's series. It sat on my to-be-read pile for ages, and now I fully regret not getting to this book sooner. Skinwalker is the whole package. A shapeshifting, half-Cherokee, snarky and kick-ass heroine? Yes please! For the love of all things bookish, yes please.
 
I'm totally a Jane Yellowrock fan now. Her character somehow manages to walk that line between being too cocky, and being just sarcastic enough to keep things fresh. Jane is intelligent. She's funny. She doesn't let any man tell her what to do. In fact, that's what I loved most of all! A lot of UF has a heavy focus on romance. This book fights those rules. Jane is single, and she's not looking to change that anytime soon. Oh, and did I mention she rides a motorcycle? My kind of girl!
 
Jane shares her body with Beast, the main form she shifts into. Beast is a predator. A big cat who, while her mind is more simplistic than Jane's, is extremely intelligent and therefore just as dangerous. I liked being in Beast's head. Her thoughts were clear, and the perfect way to see further into the mystery of the rogue vampire that Jane was hunting. I will say that after finishing this book, I think I'll read the next one rather than listen to the audio book. I feel like Beast's thoughts would be better on paper.
 
I loved that this book was set against the vibrant backdrop of New Orleans. What better place for ages old magic than a city who pulses with the stuff? Good music, good food, and vampires. Who needs anything more? Jane's story flew by as I watched her navigate the city, meet the locals, and hunt down the rogue. This was a great start to a new series! I'm eager for the next book to be in my hands.

Kristen &
Skinwalker by Faith Hunter

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