Bone Crossed (Mercy Thompson, Book 4)
by Patricia Briggs
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Book Summary Information
Author: Patricia BriggsEdition: Mass Market Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2010-01-26
ISBN: 044101836X
Number of pages: 304
Publisher: Ace
Book Reviews of Bone Crossed (Mercy Thompson, Book 4)
Book Review: Could Have Been Great *Contains Spoilers
Summary: 1 Stars
I can't even remember how the book ended, and I finished just two nights ago. I can remember what happened in book three just from the constant re-cap in the fourth though. That's how much of a new story was in this one. Briggs gets one star for this book just on writing, not what she wrote, but the quality of her writing in general.
I have no problem with what I like to call "junk food" books. Moon Called and even Blood Bound were exceptional junk food reads. I got through them in a jiffy and it was a nice change of pace in between the things I have to read for school. I was enthused about the story and was eager to see where it was going. And then it stopped.
I've noticed since Iron Kissed and even her character in Cry Wolf from the Alpha/Omega series (like another reviewer mentioned) that Mercy is becoming a little too awesome. Some have said she has a Wonder Woman complex and I have to agree. When a woman who is raised by werewolves (the most awesome of the awesome were, to be exact) and is a shape-shifter herself, claims she is a Plain Jane, then that just makes me irritated as the reader. She's poor but she runs a shop that was given to her? Before I go onto anything else, how can a woman who has no husband/lover or children not have money when she runs her own business that has been established in the books that she has a pretty decent and steady client base? She's not pretty, but the book covers make it clear that They want us to think she's a tattoo-covered juggy and has three, THREE, supernatural men in love with her? Two are alpha werewolves and another is an old vampire from Italy. Oh yeah, Mercy is a dog (no pun intended.) She's nothing special, but she has allies in almost every supernatural culture in the Tri-Cities. Sure. Aside from the rape, which I will get to in a minute, everything falls into place for her. She knows what to do, always (I'll touch on that too in another minute) and since the third installment, it is hinted that Mercy, being a coyote shifter, is so speshul that her kind have been hunted by vampires to near extinction. She is the last. Rrright... Briggs had a good thing going but now Mercy is nothing more than another Bella Swan, or any other Mary Sue to be made.
Before I get into the plot for this book, let me address the things carried over from Book 3. In Iron Kissed, Mercy has an experience equivalent to being date-raped. A human man makes her drink wine from a fae goblet that basically gives him dominion over her. She, being the smart-ass that she is, pop offs one too many times and he shows her what exactly he can make her do. Sound horrible? Well, Briggs does not show anything graphic and it wasn't until a few pages later, where she flat out tells us she was raped, that I knew for sure. This isn't necessarily bad. Some things do not need to be detailed. However Briggs, through Mercy, rehashes this over and over that it was a big deal and she is a victim, that I felt if she wanted us to be bothered by this, she should not have wrote it the way she had. Second, I felt Briggs treated rape as a vehicle for her plot to move along. Hmmm, now that I think about it, the heroine from the Alpha/Omega series is raped too, and that is a main vehicle for Cry Wolf. Well, that's something to ponder for another day... Anyway, the problem I have with my second point is that Briggs is a good writer. Rape is horrible. She can do better than using rape as a vehicle to move a sub-plot along in an urban fantasy about shape-shifters and werewolves.
Now for this plot. It is wafer-thin and just as brittle. The actual plot shows up several chapters in and is wrapped up in a chapter in a thirteen-chapter story. It takes her one end of one chapter to get kidnapped and then one whole chapter to be sad, terrified, angry, beat up and then outsmart her thousands of years-old vampire foe to beat him. Only one person dies and its someone who we only met this book and Mercy didn't much care for her anyway. This is a problem I have with people writing vampires into their books. Briggs means to tell me that this twenty-ish, 30 lbs. (she beats this into our heads) coyote defeated an ancient vampire who other vampires refer to as The Monster? Sorry, but I'm not biting. Oh, and in the previous book, Mercy "acquires" a wooden, fae walking stick that supposedly helped farmers long ago have fruitful herds of livestock. She doesn't know why it follows her around, seeing as she is not a farmer. Anywho, when she is the vampire's captive, she finds she is sharing her basement prison with a green man. He says to her once she tells him her name that "Oak said Mercy will set me free." Or some such poppycock. Hmmm, green man... oak... Could he possibly mean the WOODEN STICK THAT'S BEEN HINTED AT FOR THE LAST BOOK AND A HALF??! Wow, I am clever. Because this stick can also change into a spear, that the green man throws with great accuracy, the day is saved and The Monster is dead. *face-palm* I had many other problems with the plot, but these previously mentioned take the cake.
I think what ticks me off most is that Mercy is a Mary Sue of convenience. Earlier in the book they all meet at this fae bar to talk werewolf business and all the pack and the fae start freaking out and changing and almost kill each other. Mercy JUST KNOWS something is making them all aggressive and after a bit of looking around and sniffing, she finds a mojo bag dangling from the ceiling. She shifts, runs up a large fae that calls himself a snow elf, snatches the bag and runs away, calming everyone in the process. Okay, so she can do that but not piece together until the last minute that the walking stick following her around is what she will need to face The Monster? That's just bad writing on Briggs' part. The characters became standees. Especially Adam and Samuel, albeit "sexy" and "gorgeous" standees. Gah, I was expecting to see the word "dazzling" jump out at me. It's a shame because they both were mildly interesting. Samuel more so. I wouldn't mind seeing a spin-off for him, but it would probably only be to get him a love interest of his own, and that would be lame.
All in all it had good writing. The story and characters were weak and the plot uber predictable. I think I'm done with the Mercy Thompson series.
Summary of Bone Crossed (Mercy Thompson, Book 4)
View our feature on Patricia Briggs?s Bone Crossed.
Shapeshifter Mercy Thompson hit the #1 spot on the bestseller list with Iron Kissed...And she's planning a return trip.
Marsilia, the local vampire queen, has learned that Mercy crossed her by slaying a member of her clan. Now, she's out for blood. But since Mercy is protected from direct reprisal by the werewolf pack-and her relationship with its sexy Alpha-it's not Mercy's blood Marsilia is after...
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