Hugin & Munin Journal

Patricia Briggs’s Blood Bound , the second Mercy Thompson novel, expands its world by narrowing its attention. Moon Called introduced Mercy primarily through werewolves: their hierarchy, instincts, politics and uncertain place in human society. The sequel turns towards vampires and shifts the main pressure point from belonging to predation. The change produces more than a neatly structured second adventure. Vampires organise, bargain, enforce territory and manage their reputation. Demons are not metaphors, and faith can exert physical force. None of this makes the supernatural world easier to understand or morally safer. Order can contain violence without making the system that contains it just. That is what makes Blood Bound harsher than I remembered. It gives its monsters institutions and relationships without allowing familiarity to domesticate them. It also raises one of urban fantasy’s most uncomfortable questions: if holy power demonstrably works, why does the world still l...