Supernatural: Coyote's Kiss [Mass Market Paperback]

In a nutshell: something unnatural is violently murdering people at the Mexican border -- both illegal immigrants and border-crossing officials. The Winchesters' investigation brings them into contact with colorful characters north and south of the border, and involves them with a hunter whose abilities rival their own.

If you're a Sam girl, will you like this book? Maybe, although there's not much in it to appeal to your inner fangirl. It's Soulless Sam who's inhabiting these pages, and as somewhat of a peripheral character.

If you're a Dean girl, will you like this book? Very possibly: almost the entire thing is told from Dean's POV. There's Dean whumpage galore, as well as a variety of other flavors of Dean -- the heroic, the snarking, the lover of Baby, the protector of Sammy. I'm pretty sure the author worships at the Altar of Dean (for which I blame her not at all, because ... so do I), and she's done quite a good job of portraying him in all his multi-faceted glory.

But.

Are you wildly averse to having a kickass female hunter working alongside the boys -- someone Dean is ferociously attracted to, and would pursue if he weren't emotionally tied to Lisa? Think of her as a Buffy-like presence, strong and knowledgeable and extremely capable, but burdened with family issues. (Although visually, perhaps Eliza Dushku is a better fit than SMG.) If that sort of character makes you run screaming for the hills, then you'd best leave this book on the shelf.

If you're game to give this a try, though, I think you'll be more than satisfied. There are a few glitches that should have been beta-ed right out of there: the car having "breaks," and some punctuation and useage problems; the fact that this is a published, income-generating work makes that sort of thing doubly annoying. (I think I noticed about a dozen "oopses," far less than I found in "One Year Gone.") But the story itself is sound, and well-crafted. The author has a fine hand at tossing in colorful, interesting background characters, described in enough quirky detail that I could see them perfectly in my mind's eye. The story moves steadily along, with plenty of mystery and gore and "OMG, how do we get out of this???" moments for the boys. (Okay, DEAN.) I read the book over the course of two days and enjoyed it throughout, without ever feeling, "This person can't write worth a damn" or "Gee...a second draft might have been a good plan." One of her supporting characters, a teenage girl, didn't quite ring true for me, but that's a small quibble. I enjoyed the story enough that I'd honestly love to see it as an SPN Movie of the Week, which isn't something I can say about most of the novels.

It's fun. It's entertaining. It didn't inspire me to throw it against the wall -- and that's a really good thing, since I read it on my Kindle, and throwing a $130 piece of electronics against the wall isn't really something I want to do. If you've got some time to spare, and a yen to spend it with Dashing El Deano, go for it!

The story started out promising... Sam and Dean were together and there was an interesting mystery to investigate. Then the author introduced "Mary Sue"* known in the story as Xochi. There was nothing that Xochi didn't know or couldn't do. She was better than Sam and Dean in everything. She could read minds, beat Dean in a fight, conjure up magic, speak with supernatural creatures, conveniently get guys she never met to go out of their way to give them all rides, drive better than Dean, had connections in every single town, had an answer for every single problem, and the list goes on.

The author tried to create sexual tension between Dean and Xochi but it fell laughably flat. And the Xochi & her sister angst... unbelievable and contrived.

After Mary Sue entered the story it became apparent that the author could not write scenes with three or more characters. So, of course, Sam was regulated to shadow duty. He just stood there until the author remembered him. I can't see Sam just standing aside while a fight is going on, but whatever. The author certainly did her best to get rid of Sam at every opportunity so that Dean and Xochi can share adventures and lackluster sexual tension. One thing a good author does is make you believe that characters, even if they are "off screen" are doing something. Not so with this author. Except for Mary Sue, if you weren't on screen, you might as well have been stored away in a closet.

The story was mostly told from Dean's point-of-view, but sometimes it switched to Mary Sue or other minor characters. The Dean in this story had the hunting instincts of an amateur. Thank God Mary Sue was there to answer every time Dean or Sam asked what to do next.

I watch the Supernatural TV show to see stories about Sam and Dean. I read the Supernatural books to read stories about Sam and Dean. Supporting characters are fine but they should not be the focus and/or heroes of the story. Dean and especially Sam were supporting players in their own book.

I don't know how authors get chosen to write these stories but they should keep in mind that fans are buying them because of the Supernatural connection, not because we want to read all about the author's fantasy character. If the author feels so strongly about a character and wants to write a whole book about her then she should do so, but not pass it off as a Supernatural book. This book was so boring it nearly put me to sleep, but I did read it all the way through just because it was a Supernatural book. I've preordered the next book... let's hope it is better.

*A Mary Sue (sometimes just Sue), in literary criticism, is a fictional character with overly idealized and hackneyed mannerisms, lacking noteworthy flaws, and primarily functioning as a wish-fulfillment fantasy for the author or reader. It is generally accepted as a character whose positive aspects overwhelm their other traits until they become one-dimensional. While the label "Mary Sue" itself originates from a parody of this type of character, most characters labeled "Mary Sues" by readers are not intended by authors as such. Male Mary Sues are often dubbed "Gary Stu", "Larry Stu", "Marty Stu", or similar names. (from Wikipedia)

Let me state first off, this book is 110% Mary-Sue. The girl in the book is better than the boys, has all the answers, and continually saves their behinds. So if you absolutely detest Mary-Sue's DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK! That said, I thought the book was one of the best when it comes to the writing. The story was decent and the writing was clear and fast-paced instead of getting too bogged down in descriptions like so many of the others have been. So IMHO, if you don't mind a kick-ass female character doing EVERYTHING better than Sam and Dean then you'll love this book; However, if you hate Mary-Sue's then leave this one on the shelves.