Pure of Heart

This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.

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What’s Pure of Heart About?

In this world, werewolves are born, not made, and apparently begin changing around adolescence. In Harper’s case, this is dangerous—her parents died before they told her anything about lycanthropy and she had to learn about it along with the uncle who took her in and raised her from the age of eight. Grady knew his sister got furry every full moon, so it wasn’t a total surprise—but that’s about all he knew about werewolves.

She’s in her twenties now and pretty much all she knows is that chains can’t hold her down and that her wolf will kill and eat people if given the chance. Harper’s taken it upon herself to make sure that doesn’t happen again. Her uncle and friend/veterinarian regularly hunt her down and shoot her with tranquilizers when her wolf gets out of the house.

Harper’s entire life seems to revolve around not letting the wolf get out of control. Which seems like a lonely existence—and it pretty much is.

Until a new woman moves to the small Colorado town to take over her late grandparents’ bookstore. Something about Emerson affects the wolf part of her—Harper can’t even come close to understanding it. But her wolf immediately acts strangely (and we’re talking strangely for a werewolf, so it’s really strange) as soon as Harper meets Emerson.

Harper’s got to figure out what’s going on with the wolf before something happens to Emerson.

Parker’s Werewolves

I guess I should say “Faoladh” instead—but whatever. Keeping in line with her tumblr page’s title, Parker’s “Werewolves Don’t Sparkle.” Harper’s wolf is dangerous to everyone and everything (particularly doors/walls/fences). There’s little tame about her. We’re reminded of that constantly (bordering on too often).

This shows up in Harper, too—her wolf is always below the surface and keeps her from being too likable to many people. That’s a nice little touch and as (if?) Harper and her wolf start getting along better as the series continues, it’ll be good to see how that changes her.

The way she describes the change (particularly from human to wolf) is really good. Over the years of reading werewolf UF, it’s become one of those things that jump out at me to differentiate the authors’ take on lycanthropes and Parker’s strikes me as one of the better versions of that.

Harper and her family know incredibly little about her, um, condition. And it’s almost wholly from trial and error (mostly error). Because he didn’t manifest the werewolf heritage, Grady’s parents and sister didn’t bother to tell him much about it. I find that difficult to swallow, but I’m willing to do that for the sake of the story. I do appreciate that her cousin isn’t going to have this issue, he knows almost as much as the reader does. Harper stumbling through all of this practically blind makes it very easy for the reader to jump in with her and learn alongside her.

We are told a couple of times that there’s a difference between Faoladh and what we think of werewolves thanks to books and movies. But we have no reason to believe that yet—I really want to see us have that reason as well as see how that actually works out. I’m not saying that because I’m skeptical, but because I think both will refreshing and stimulating.

On a semi-related note, people in this town are quick to take a couple of clues and jump to the conclusion that “this woman must be a member of a species that I thought was the stuff of folklore and horror movies until right this second.” A little more self-doubt would’ve been nice, but it’d have slowed the book down too much.

So, what did I think about Pure of Heart?

I’m honestly not sure what I was expecting from this book—but it wasn’t what Pure of Heart ended up being. It’s a compelling read, for sure, just not for the reasons I’m used to in typical UF/werewolf novels, which is a pleasant change. For starters, there’s no big supernatural foe (unless you count Harper’s war within herself). It’s human drama, just with a massive side helping of the supernatural on board. Actually, I’ll just stop with that, too, so I don’t end up saying too much.

It’s also a great pastiche for Disney’s Beauty and The Beast—and once you start seeing that, it’s everywhere, adding a level of entertainment.

I don’t have a major problem with the romance arc that the book ended up focusing on, but it looked for a minute or two that we’d be swimming in strong and interesting platonic friendships, and those intrigue me more lately. So that was a minor disappointment, but just a minor one. I’m a little worried about the level of consent involved given the supernatural angle—see also, my qualms with Jolly’s BaIT—but Parker seems so focused on it, that I’m trusting her. Also, there’s reason to suspect that everyone involved is going to come to a greater understanding of Faoladh abilities soon, and that’ll give her a chance to assuage any feelings of creepiness.

Is it a wholly successful novel? Not quite—but it’s close enough to make getting (and reading) the second book a priority. The writing was compelling and engaging—Parker can tell a story and keep the reader curious and entertained the whole way. A lot of snark and love flows between her characters, Harper’s family/friends are a tight bunch and it’s hard to resist that feeling. Her characters brim with life. I think with another book or two under her belt, Parker could turn into a favorite author.

Check this one out, for sure.