Jackalopes and Woofen-Poofs

Jackalopes and Woofen-Poofs (2017) Angel Martinez

This story splits between Jason and Alex’s point-of-view.

Most of the 77th has to go to State Paranormal to face an inquiry as to the events of the previous book, where an arcane working was destroyed in the hopes it would stop the attacks by the feral dust bunnies that had injured two humans and killed multiple animals. The powers-that-be had wanted to inspect the working in-situ and were very unhappy about Kash deciding to destroy it.

For the first time, the members of the 77th begin to wonder just why their unit is so different from the rest of the units in the state.

To come to us, you’re either defective, unclassifiable or what they so kindly call physiologically alternative, like Wolf and Krisk.”

I get that everyone at State feels like they’re better than us. We are the rejects. But how does it make sense to send your rejects to the biggest city in the state? Why does this state even have rejects?”

Unfortunately, they don’t have any answers.

On the bright side, they have Kash and Kyle’s wedding to look forward to, and it is a lovely wedding.

While this wasn’t going to be a traditional wedding for either side of the family, Jason suspected they were trying to fuse all the important parts.

Both grooms end up crying, which is the sweetest thing.

If you haven’t read the previous book, most of the best bits of the wedding won’t be anything, but if you have, it’s delightful to see LJ and Hunter sitting at a table with Krisk and Tim.

Unfortunately, there are two problems facing Jason and Alex. First, is Jason’s family who do not accept Alex because he is white, because he is male, and because he is (as Jason’s grandmother calls him) a monster.

The second problem is that creatures that mythical creatures have started attacking the public–almost all around members of the 77th.

Jackalopes might sound cute, but they are capable of attacking with their antlers.

To add even more strain to the unit, they take on two new recruits–more officers with awkward or seemingly useless talents.

One of the strongest parts of this story was Jason’s complicated relationship with his family. His parents think he can “get over” being gay and just marry a nice Chinese girl, but they are also worried that Alex will leave Jason and break his heart–after all, Jason is “only” an animal control officers.

And how his family feels has shaped how he feels about himself and his choices.

Yes, he’d go to the wedding because Kyle and Kash were good people and a great couple and he was trying to get over his judgmental self about weddings as heteronormative distractions from real issues.

That’s a lot happening in this story, which means there’s a little less space left for Alex, which is too bad as he really is my favorite character.

“Sir.” Wolf dared to seize the captain’s arm, though all he got for it was a raised eyebrow. “What if there’s magic?”

Valbuena covered Wolf’s hand with his own and gave a gentle squeeze. “You’re not frightened of magic, are you?”

“Yes, sir.” Wolf swallowed hard. “It’s how I got like this.”

I don’t love this as much as I loved the previous book, but its still delightful and wonderful.

Publisher: Pride Publishing
Rating: 8/10

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