Who's Afraid? (Supernatural Sisters, #1) in Aussie Readers

Jan 09, 2016 Tonile Reads 📚 rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2016-release

This post originally appeared at: http://mycupandchaucer.com/whos-afrai....

Welcome to the first book review of 2016. Hooray! While I can’t promise to review every book I read this year, I’m hoping to review at least 50%. There’s another 2016 resolution for you. Honestly I couldn’t not (soz, double negative) review Maria Lewis’s debut novel Who's Afraid?Who’s Afraid?, which hit shelves earlier this week. Prior to this week, I’d met Maria a couple of times and we have a handful of mutual friends i This post originally appeared at: http://mycupandchaucer.com/whos-afrai....

Welcome to the first book review of 2016. Hooray! While I can’t promise to review every book I read this year, I’m hoping to review at least 50%. There’s another 2016 resolution for you. Honestly I couldn’t not (soz, double negative) review Maria Lewis’s debut novel Who's Afraid?Who’s Afraid?, which hit shelves earlier this week. Prior to this week, I’d met Maria a couple of times and we have a handful of mutual friends in Sydney, plus I bloody love supporting Australian debut novels. ‘Twas really a no-brainer.

Tommi Grayson is a woman on a mission. After the sudden and unexpected passing of her mother, she leaves her home in Scotland and embarks on a journey to New Zealand in the hope of finding her biological father. Her mother never spoke of her father, and when she died she took the identity of Tommi’s father with her. Tommi, having undertaken some online investigative work to find her paternal needle in a haystack, has an idea of who she is looking for when she sets off, but she’s approaching the trip with caution; the story of her conception doesn’t feature consent, if you catch my drift. Little does Tommi know that consensual sex is only the start of the issues meeting her biological family uncovers.

Now, spoiler alert: Who’s Afraid? is an urban fantasy novel. If you didn’t know that and don’t want to know more about the story, stop reading here. I’m not going to give away massive spoilers, but it’s fairly common knowledge that Tommi’s trip to New Zealand releases a side of Tommi that has remained dormant up to this point. Tommi is a werewolf. She’s an incredibly powerful and strong werewolf, a trait she inherited from her father’s bloodline. Her family history is complicated, in a word, and for as much as her true nature comes as a shock to her, so too does her existence come as a shock to her newfound relatives. Not everyone takes kindly to her appearance, and Tommi escapes, barely, to quickly return to Scotland, a rescue mission largely possible due to the involvement of Tommi’s enigmatic guardian, Lorcan.

Lewis has created a rich and complex paranormal world, and many questions that both Tommi and the readers have are answered by Lorcan. Discovering the supernatural world along with Tommi is one of the most enjoyable parts of Who’s Afraid?, so I won’t go into detail here and spoil the fun. It’s worth noting, though, that in some cases in paranormal world-building, the author creates contrived situations where lengthy explanations are provided by one character. In other cases, authors slowly reveal important information in short and sharp conversation sequences. Lewis writes well beyond the world-building abilities of a debut novelist, and happily provides the reader with the latter.

While reading Who’s Afraid?, it can be hard at times to not picture Lewis herself as Tommi. With her bright hair and kickass spirit, Lewis, like Tommi, is a strong, brave, and admirable woman. Tommi is a heroine that paranormal fiction needed; an independent mess of a woman who is entirely relatable as she deals with absolutely impossible situations. Lewis defied original publication suggestions and refused to whitewash her heroine, instead fiercely choosing to hold onto her biracial protagonist. Instead of playing it safe and setting the novel in Australia, she listened to the advice of another author and set it overseas to broaden its international appeal. I’ve noticed a couple of Goodreads reviews that list this as a fault, albeit a minor one, of the novel, but I disagree. Lewis is driven and determined to succeed, and with potentially four more novels to follow Tommi’s journey, increasing the possibility of international interest is a wise move. With that said, the launch of Who’s Afraid? coincided with the Australian premiere of Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight, and his media team were curious about the #WhosAfraid hashtag that trended higher than #TheHatefulEight on premiere night. The outcome? Tarantino now has a copy of Who’s Afraid?. (Shit yeah he does!) I don’t think getting attention for Tommi, whether here or overseas, will be an issue.

Buzz books are brilliant when they meet expectations, and even better when they exceed expectations. I can’t wait to see what’s next for Tommi, and I wish Lewis, her wonderful agent, and her fab publisher Hachette all the luck in the world with this one. For Lewis, the future looks as bright as one of Tommi’s fresh dye jobs. ...more

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Feb 06, 2016 Alan Baxter rated it really liked it

Shelves: urban-fantasy, horror

If Buffy was a werewolf she'd still only be Tommi Grayson's sidekick. Who's Afraid? is a smart, snappy, blistering urban fantasy with a kick-ass protagonist. It wears its influences proudly and is heaps of fun. It's clearly the setup for a series and I'm looking forward to seeing where it goes from here. I have a feeling it's going to get darker! ...more

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Oct 28, 2015 Stephanie rated it liked it

Shelves: read-2016, netgalley, kindle, aww-2016, aurealis-awards-2016

NOTE: This book is an entry in the Aurealis Awards for 2016, for which I am a judge. This review was written before the awards opened for entries, and does not reflect the view of the judging panel.

An eARC of this book was received from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This review is presented as part of my contribution to the Australian Women Writers Challenge 2016.

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Who’s Afraid is the debut urban fantasy novel from Australian journalist and author Maria Lewis.

The NOTE: This book is an entry in the Aurealis Awards for 2016, for which I am a judge. This review was written before the awards opened for entries, and does not reflect the view of the judging panel.

An eARC of this book was received from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This review is presented as part of my contribution to the Australian Women Writers Challenge 2016.

***

Who’s Afraid is the debut urban fantasy novel from Australian journalist and author Maria Lewis.

The first thing that has to be noted about this book is the cover. The book itself is clearly urban fantasy (for where urban fantasy involves paranormal creatures like vampires and werewolves existing in the modern world) but there’s no randomly sexualised woman on the cover. Instead, we see the protagonist Tommi from the back, blue hair on display, in a pose that screams power and defiance. Well done, Hachette, bravo to the cover artist for a truly gorgeous cover.

Who’s Afraid is a fast-paced, easy read. The settings are well grounded, be they in Scotland or New Zealand, and Lewis has a deft hand for the dialogue and idioms used by the characters in each setting. There’s a lot to love about Tommi – she’s no cringing violet, and is is shown as having a well-rounded life, with a job she enjoys (and is good at) and a good circle of friends, both male and female. Tommi doesn’t need saving (she will save herself, and thank you very much, and do you need saving as well?) and she is comfortable in her own body and in control of her own sexuality.

It does need to be noted that there is a sexual assault in this book, which may be a no go for some readers.

There are some debut novel issues with this book. Some of the pacing feels off, with some events happening far too quickly, and it feels like too much explanation about the world and its paranormal denizens is handed to Tommi, where it could have felt more natural if it were discovered by her more slowly. Tommi herself doesn’t always seem to react to some of the events happening – I’d expect someone to be reacting more than she does to the discovery that she’s a werewolf, for example. Many of the characters don’t feel as developed as I’d like them to be, also. Tommi is wonderfully developed, which makes some of the others, such as Lorcan, her mentor, feel thinner in contrast.

I also had some issues with the antagonist of the book, who isn’t developed much beyond his role as “bad guy who does bad things and therefore needs to be defeated by Tommi”. This ties into some of the pacing issues with the book; it feels almost as though this part of the story would have been better served with it being threaded through more than one book.

There’s also an issue which may put off some readers, in that all of the “bad” guys are Maori (and we don’t get to see any Maori who aren’t the bad guys). Tommi herself is half Maori, but identifies as Scottish several times in the book, which does little to lessen this. Again, I feel like this is something that ties into pacing issues and possibly the need to keep the book to a particular length, and I don’t feel that this was something that was done deliberately by Lewis, but it bears noting in case it is something that some readers want to avoid.

Despite these issues, I feel like Who’s Afraid is a promising debut novel, and would recommend it to fans of fast-paced fun urban fantasy. I’ll be looking out for the sequel when it is released.
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