Skinwalker by Faith Hunter Book Review

Skinwalker 

By: Faith Hunter






Skinwalker is a fast paced paranormal adventure novel.  The book takes place in a world that is a step away from our own.  The cities and settings are almost the same as our world, with the major distinction being that Vampires, Were-Creatures, and witches are not only real but publicly acknowledged.  Faith Hunter does an excellent job of creating this world that is at once so close and so different from our own.  In particular this book explores some of the societal changes from having vampires exist in the light as it were.  For example master vampires will pay for vampire hunters to take care of rogue vampires in their territories.  Jane Yellowrock, the main Character of the story, is one of these rouge vampire hunters, and you find yourself drawn in to her own unique heritage.  She is a Skinwalker ( a native american shapeshifter) and shares her body and soul with a mountain lion known as Beast.  This allows her to hunt down rouge vampires for the bounty on their heads and survive, but not everything in this world is out in the open and she would rather her powers remain in the shadows.



There are a few things about this book that threw me a bit.  The first is the way that vampires and paranormal creatures are allowed to police their own.  It is required for the story, but I have trouble seeing it in a world so close to our own.  The second is that skinwalker's in this book don't really match up with their depiction in other books I have read.  They are often not very nice people, and serve as bad guys so a skinwalker hero was a little different.  These points are quickly forgotten however once you get caught up in the fast paced narrative, and it becomes clear that the paranormal races in this book only take inspiration from their legends.  Overall I really enjoyed this book and the series it is a part of.  It is a fun read that is hard to put down.

Jane Yellowrock makes her living hunting rogue vampires for the bounty on their heads.  When she gets a call from the Master vampire of New Orleans to hunt a tricky rogue killing in his territory she knows that she has hit the big time, and can hardly refuse if she hopes to keep up her career.  While her skinwalker heritage is an asset for actually hunting vampires it can be a major hindrance when dealing with them personally.  The vampires know she isn't human, but she must keep them from finding out what she is if she hopes to keep her freedom.  When the rogue vampire killings start to become familiar, and she catches a scent of her own kind at the scene of one of the killings, the stakes couldn't be higher for her.  She must take down the rouge vampire who she suspects is also a skinwalker before the increasingly more savage and desperate kills point the finger directly at her.

This book will appeal to lovers of urban fantasy, and paranormal novels.  People who like a gritty urban adventure will also be right at home providing they can deal with shapeshifting cats and vampires.

This book can be purchased at www.amazon.com in e-book or print form.