Bayou Moon

Bayou Moon (2010) Ilona Andrews

Following this immediately after finishing On the Edge helped clarify what bothered me about this story.

I really like William in the first book. He’s odd, and he’s badly broken, but he is a good man who is fiercely protective of children. But he is definitely odd. And this book starts out with that weirdness.

William picked up the letter and looked at it. It was short. George’s writing was perfect, with letters neatly placed. Jack’s looked like a chicken had written it in the dirt. They said thank you for the action figures. George liked the Weird. He was given plenty of corpses to practice necromancy on, and he was taking rapier lessons. Jack complained that there were too many rules and that they weren’t letting him hunt enough.

“That’s a mistake,” William told the Green Arrow. “They need to let him vent. Half of their problems would be solved if they let him have a violent outlet. The kid is a changeling and a predator. He turns into a lynx, not a fluffy bunny.” He raised the letter. “Apparently he decided to prove to them that he was good enough. Jack killed himself a deer and left the bloody thing on the dining room table, because he’s a cat and he thinks they’re lousy hunters. According to him, it didn’t go over well. He’s trying to feed them, and they don’t get it.”

But here you can see the oddness already starting to be toned down. His voice is far more normal here than in the first book. Which is too bad because that oddness–as much as his brokeness–is what made William so compelling.

Also, Cerise’s cousin reminds me very much of Silk from the Belgarion. The similar name doesn’t help.

Kaldar, slim, his hair dark like Richard’s, peeled himself from the wall. Where Richard radiated icy dignity, his brother lived to have fun. He had wild eyes the color of honey, a silver hoop in one ear, and a mouth that either said something funny or was about to break into a grin, sometimes just as he sank his blade into someone’s gut.

The judge’s massive eyebrows crept up. “Kaldar. Are you the one speaking for the plaintiff today?”

“Yes, Your Honor.” “Well, shit,” Dobe said. “I guess you’re familiar with the law. You hit it over the head, set its house on fire, and got its sister pregnant.”

A huge grin sparked on Kaldar’s face. “Thank you, Your Honor.”

During the evening William had watched him steal a hook from Catherine’s basket, a knife from Erian, some sort of metal tool from Ignata, and a handful of bullets from one of Cerise’s cousins. Kaldar did it casually, with smooth grace, handled the item for a couple of moments, and slipped it back where it came from.

Those passages could just as easily have been written about Silk. Which means I’m going to love Kaldar.

But really, what bothers me the most is the change in William’s voice–how the oddness was greatly toned down to the point where he mostly didn’t sound odd at all.

It didn’t bother me as much the first couple times I read this book, but between then and now I’ve read several books (including several by Courtney Milan) where characters are neurodivergent, which is how William should feel, considering his history. But throughout the book he comes off as normal, and that’s just a tiny bit disappointing.
Rating: 6.5/10

Published by Ace

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