Undead and Unwelcome [Mass Market Paperback]

 

 

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The climax of the seventh Queen Betsy book ended in a shocking way for such a light'n'frothy series: the death of one of Betsy's friends.

And "Undead and Unwelcome" is all about the fallout between the vampires and werewolves, and all the problems that Betsy has to deal with when she takes Antonia's body home. MaryJanice Davidson manages to infuse her latest adventure with the vampire queen with plenty of pathos, a tinge of weirdness (what is UP with BabyJon?) and gentle humor, but the subplot involving Betsy's devilish sister somehow doesn't fit into this puzzle.

Betsy and Sinclair fly off to the castle-like citadel of the Pack, with Antonia's body in tow -- and they're rather surprised that the Pack immediately starts showing great grief and/or resentment about Antonia's death, since they almost drove her out. Betsy isn't too happy about the situation, particularly since the unfriendly werewolves outnumber them by thousands -- and they're all too happy to blame Antonia's death on her.

But Betsy being Betsy, she doesn't intend to take all this unjustified criticism lying down. And to make matters a little weirder, she's lunching with a pregnant crazy woman who claims to be Morgan le Fay's reincarnation, babysitting little alphas, facing down a werewolf council, and wondering what's up with Babyjon. Said infant causes Derik to utterly freak out, and Michael keeps forgetting that he's even there. Very weird.

In the meantime, Marc is left home with Betsy's saintly-yet-demonic sister Laura, who is being stalked by gangs of roving Satanists (no, I am not making this up). Marc tries to help Laura with her ongoing problem... but he unwittingly triggers a change in Laura, showing that there is nothing more evil than an obsessive do-gooder...

I have to give MaryJanice Davidson credit -- not many authors of urban-fantasy would adopt a frothy, slightly ditzy chick-lit approach, and even fewer would use that frothy ditzy approach to handle the subject of death and grief. But she does a pretty good job blending her tongue-in-cheek vampire queen's antics and problems even as she deals with the messy aftermath of Antonia's death.

And though the main story is about the overhanging possibility of a werewolf/vampire war, Davidson keeps some focus on Betsy's oft-comedic antics (fanging out during a playground brawl) and amusing dialogue ("What, are you a superstar pregnant ninja warrior or something"). Even a tense showdown with the devil worshipers has an edge of humor ("I want you athholth out of my houth!").

The problem? Well, quite honestly the subplot about Laura LHM (losing her mind) and GITTPOE (giving in to the forces of evil feels rather clunky when slapped next to the main storyline. It does admittedly lead to a (literally) smashing finale, and some plot threads left hanging for future books.

Betsy's still managed to be a likable vampire queen -- she's kind of flaky and a bit self-absorbed, but she shows plenty of guts (telling off the Pack) and quite a bit of maternal warmth. The supporting characters are also warmly likable, including Betsy's delicious husband Sinclair, her sassy buddy Jessica, and the wide array of werewolves -- from the mellow Michael to the prickly Derek. And Laura has some serious soul-searching to do after this, given how scary she can get.

"Undead and Unwelcome" explores what happens after a werewolf death, and fortunately MaryJanice Davidson writes it like a good souffle -- neither too light nor too heavy. The subplot feels rather tacked on until the climax, but it's still a pleasant light read.

After the events of Undead and Unworthy (book 7), Betsy finds herself in a tense situation. Returning the body of Antonia the werewolf to her Pack, isn't exactly the Vampire King and Queen's idea of a good time. But politics aren't always fun, so Betsy and Eric head to Cape Cod in attempt to make peace with the Werewolves. While events are unfolding on the Cape, things back home are spiralling out of control for Marc. Laura has slipped a little to the dark side, and without the Vamps around to help him Marc is left with a desperate situation.

The first part of Undead and Unwelcome seems to be mostly a recap of what happened in book 7. There's quite a bit of explaining who all the characters are and an endless amount of retelling the story of Antonia's death. Personally, I think by book 8 in the series it's time to stop with the endless exposition. (If people want to get caught up they should read some of the earlier books. Fans already know who everyone is.) Things do pick up in the second half of the book when the story finally starts to move forward, but I wouldn't call this one of the more eventful Betsy stories. And there's a definite lack of character development. Much of the story occurs during internal dialogue from Betsy and Marc, while Sinclair and Jessica barely even have lines. There is some interesting development with BabyJohn, which I enjoyed, but not a lot else happens in this outing.

Definitely one of the slower stories in the Betsy series, I think Undead and Unwelcome would have worked better as a short story with all the repetition cut out.

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