Popular Culture Review Vol. 20, No. 2, Summer 2009 | Page 54

Popular Culture Review 50 • Several years ago, Congress created the Ronald Wilson Reagan Fae Reservation (or Fairyland). • Mercy, werewolf Warren, and Warren’s lover Kyle watch the vampire movie, Queen o f the Damned (IK 1-2). • Werewolf Adam’s human daughter Jesse watches An American Werewolf in London (BB 279). • When Mac, a newly created werewolf, wants to eat a dead werewolf, Mercy comments, “Deer not only tastes better, it’s easier to live with afterwards” (MC 32). • And when Mercy’s best vampire friend Stefan needs a place to sleep, he reminds her that he will not need a blanket: “I’m not going to be sleeping. I’m going to be dead” (BB 32). So with humor as a backdrop, a description of protagonist Mercedes (Mercy) Thompson is appropriate. Self-described as a “walker” (in contrast to a Native American skinwalker, which she is not), Mercy is able to shift almost effortlessly, or by “pure magic” (MC 13), to a 30-pound coyote with a powerful sense of smell and vision. By day, college-educated Mercy (with a degree in history and a working knowledge of German) is a VW auto mechanic with her own garage which she bought from her former boss Zee, a fae. She lives in a 1970s trailer with a werewolf roommate, and a rival werewolf is her back-door neighbor. Mercy is the most human of all of the creatures in the novels. Although she can shape shift, her human traits and emotions are more dominant than her animal character. In fact, because her human nature does not dissipate when she shape shifts, she is able to interact with and relate to a constellation of believable, preternatural creatures who are half human, display human traits, or are classically undead. For the most part, the other creatures, although displaying a human side, have more dominant creature selves that significantly diminish their humanity when they have “changed.” For example, when humans are moon called and become werewolves, the “wolf alters the human personality” (MC 11), sometimes creating incredible conflict for the changed human. As the series unfolds, we learn about Mercy’s unusual background—her Native American father, a rodeo rider, left Mercy’s “white bread American” mother a pregnant teenager. Imagine her mother’s shock when she found Mercy in the crib as a coyote pup at three months of age! At the advice of her grandfather, Mercy’s mother arranged for her daughter to be raised by unusual foster parents—Montana werewolves Bryan and Evelyn. It seems that Mercy’s great grandfather’s uncle was a werewolf—so normally predatory wolves can offer fine protection to changeling humans. And with that background, the series introduces a number of species and creatures which Mercy classifies, categorizes, and embellishes with each episode. Some of these characters include: • Werewolves