Review: Kitty's Mix-Tape

Kitty's Mix-Tape by Carrie Vaughn
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A varied collection of short fiction in the world of the Kitty Norville stories. I say "in the world of" because it includes a couple of stories set in the 19th century, which seem not to feature any characters from the main (contemporary) series - and with a number of characters being unaffected by ageing, that isn't as odd a sentence as it sounds. In fact, there's one story about Rick the Conquistador vampire and some experiences of his from 50 years ago that suddenly become relevant today.

A couple of the pieces are just short vignettes written for posting on social media, and could have been skipped without losing anything from the book, but they're short enough that it's not a problem. Others are side-stories for characters in the books; the books are all from Kitty's viewpoint, but these give other characters a chance at centre stage.

Carrie Vaughn is that unusual thing, a novelist who is also a good short story writer, and while I've read standalone short stories of hers that are better than many of the ones in this volume, that isn't to say these aren't good. And if you're a fan of the main series, you'll probably enjoy these glimpses into other characters' lives and other places and times.

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