Repost from the Archives: Series Rant about Mercy Thompson and The Urban Fantasy Heroine Diseases

Author's note: This was originally posted on my old blog on March 28, 2017. I used to do book reviews there. I have polished the grammar, updated, edited, and reposted this here.

Since I've read all the books in the Mercy Thompson series, I decided to rant about them in one post.

I prefer the strong female leads; I could say I even loved them in the past. Sorry, I just do. I hate whining damsels in distress that have no true agency. They don't have to be actual ass-kickers, as long as they have their own mind and some control of their lives, and not just waiting for someone to save them. Luckily, that's not the norm anymore.

I also hate insta-love, Mary Sues, perfect characters, teen angst, pick-me vibes, and a lack of action. 

But I love a true strong female lead, and Mercy Thompson is one of those.

Mercy Thompson, the coyote shifter.

This series has been running for quite some time. Book 15 is coming, and the latest, *Winter Lost*, was published in 2024.

It has the gods, the werewolves, the vampires, the fae, the shifters, and the history and folklore I am truly a sucker for. It has its original elements of Native American mythology mixed with common Western folklore tropes. 

I have to admit, the first book (*Moon Called*) was a bit dull. I liked it, but I didn't love it the first time around (somewhere circa 2016 I guess?). Somehow, the references to religion bothered me to no end. What a good Christian Mercy was... Blah, dull. I am not a fan of deeply religious characters, because usually they are either naïve or morally very black and white. I tried to continue reading, but I lost interest.

But then I had nothing interesting to read, so I started the series again, this time as an audiobook. Lorelei King was familiar to me because of Charley Davidson (Lorelei King really is an excellent narrator). And wow, I had a whole new interest in these books. The world-building is deep and elaborate, but not so much that it's hard to keep up. The side characters are fantastic and three-dimensional. Mercy herself has had huge character development during this series without becoming an omnipotent goddess. She is over 30 when the series starts, but her plot never turns into the pregnancy/divorce trope; she still gets to develop and face threats. She always stays somewhat of an underdog, but survives with her wits, luck, and friends. And ghosts. Cas, my main character, would approve.

But for some peculiar reason those friends who help her always seem to be men.

The Two Deadly Diseases of the Urban Fantasy Heroines

Mercy suffers from the Urban Fantasy heroine disease, which is the horrid Hated By Every Female Character And Loved By All The Male Characters, the HByEFeChLoByATMCh.

That is a tough disease to bear. It usually causes readers to avoid the said heroine because it telegraphs "pick me" vibes and the "I am not like the other girls, and that's why they hate me" trope.

It isn't even necessary; Mercy's POV is not someone who would actually be hated. She seems perfectly likable to me, and every other woman hating or disliking her seems unnecessary, that's there only for the  drama or as a sign of some internalized misogyny. You know. The need to stand out from your competition. Pick me. Choose me. Love me.

Only Jesse, Adam's daughter, is a female who steadily likes her. Other women seem to like her, then are suddenly antagonistic toward her, then go back to liking her. In the later books, there are attempts to cure Mercy of this horrible disease, but they have not been very successful yet. I hope Patricia Briggs finds a tonic for her; I'd hate to see her succumb to it.

I like Mercy because she is tough without being overkill, compassionate without being naïve, and mostly nonjudgmental and resourceful. She's a bit of an underdog: sneaky and strong, but not invincible. She goes through horrible things, and the author is ruthless to her.

A really big part of her strength lies in her loved ones and in her connections, as she mentions in *Silence Fallen* (but all of those are fucking men...).

Now, I have nothing against men. I'd love a smoldering and brooding tall dark stranger MMC in books. Just make them... less one-dimensional? Adam, though, is a perfectly likeable, if not amazing, male lead.

And please, can we not spread any more of this "all the other women hate me" disease in fantasy? I know some women can be real bitches, but thankfully that usually gets less severe as they get older. Or they get worse, depending on whether Siberia teaches them.

Now, I mentioned Charley Davidson earlier. It is still waiting for me to finish it, but I just can't. She suffers from another horrible, lethal disease of urban fantasy heroines: The Overpowered Mary Sue-Goddess Syndrome, or the MSGS. (MacKayla from *Fever* succumbed to this after the first five books.)

That is where your character turns so powerful that everything is too easy for them, and you have to keep upping the stakes so the story doesn't lose its tension. Karen Marie Moning should have stopped writing that series after the fifth book. It was a perfect arc, the plot was finished, and it was perfect. But it was so popular that the publisher probably threw so much money at her that she kept writing the books, even though there was no more story left to tell. And it shows.

Maybe more on that later.

Books in Mercy Thompson series

  1. Moon Called
  2. Blood Bound
  3. Iron Kissed
  4. Bone Crossed
  5. Silver Borne
  6. River Marked
  7. Frost Burned
  8. Night Broken
  9. Fire Touched
  10. Silence Fallen
  11. Storm Cursed
  12. Smoke Bitten
  13. Soul Taken
  14. Winter Lost

Patricia Briggs has also written the Alpha and Omega series, which takes place in the same world as Mercy Thompson, but with different protagonists. 

Karen Marie Moning has a new series too, but I haven't dared to touch it after the betrayal of the Fever series.

Now, back to editing my own book, so people may someday smash and nitpick my work in their blogs.

Regards,

The Author



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