Review: Alpha

ALPHA (Shifters Series #6)
Rachel Vincent
Urban Fantasy
472 pages
Mira
Available Now

This review contains NO spoilers, though it does summarize events from the previous five novels.

THE STORY
Faythe is not one to play it safe. She's in no hurry to get married and have innumerable children in the hope of finally giving birth to a daughter and fulfilling her duty as one of the country's few tabby cats at a breeding age. No, she's a fighter, always knee deep in trouble, equipped with her sharp claws and her dry wit as she fights to find a place of her own making in her Pride.

All the trouble Faythe and the two men whom she loves, Marc and Jace, have gotten into in recent months has finally come to a head. The direction of the governing council is changing, spearheaded by ruthless rival Alpha Calvin Malone who has no desire to keep either Marc or Jace breathing, and his plans for Faythe center on an immediate marriage to, and subsequent pregnancy by, one of his own sons.

Faythe's father has been training her to lead in his stead though she knows she's not ready. Unfortunately for her, she has no say as to whether she's ready or not as war lands on her Pride's doorstep and forces her hand. Now with her world in shambles and her heart strings pulled dangerously taut between Marc and Jace, Faythe begins a brutal journey to discover what it means to be Alpha.

MY THOUGHTS
Ms. Vincent concludes her intensely dark Shifter series by throwing down an emotional gauntlet from which there is no way to escape unscathed. We are challenged at every possible opportunity, an utterly repulsive dictator forcing an anger to burn in our chests so shockingly bright we can't help but fear the very pages we clutch white-knuckled will ignite with the fiery depths of our loathing. Pain erupts from a multitude of wounds inflicted by the sharp tongue of a betrayed lover and friend, creating an agony so consuming that at times we have no choice but to get up and walk away from the fictional world, gasping for breath and seeking the solace of reality as our only means to stanch the bleeding. We as readers are afforded no quarter, left with no other option but to barrel forward with Faythe as we both cling to the meager hope that our injuries, both emotional and physical, won't prove fatal.

Faythe is a character who has progressed beautifully, starting her journey as a young, naive girl trying to escape a world she feels will strangle the independence she so desperately seeks, and becoming a woman with an unmatched fortitude and a strength of will to equal the inherent power of her Shifter body. Her respective relationships with Marc and Jace are unbearably real and gruesome in their vitriol, positively shredding the soft tissues of our hearts with the depth of their feelings for one another and the extent of their combined guilt and anger. The torments of their love triangle are aired out in excruciating detail until we are brought to our knees, doubled over in a pain no less profound for its vicarious nature. Though the abject misery is overwhelming, we are able to glory in its realism as Ms. Vincent does not structure events so a magical solution to every heartbreak appears, but rather she forces Faythe to make the hard decisions, reaping what she's sown, without making the decision easier for her by providing a simple default option.

The emotional pain of not just Faythe, Marc, and Jace, but of all the characters, is only equaled by the physical torture as casualties of the Shifter war steadily grow in number as the book progresses. There is anguish. There is death. There is a hatred for Calvin Malone so extreme we can only curse at our own impotency, wanting nothing more than to scream his injustices at anyone who will listen in the hope that by some miracle, the characters might hear us and the events will be rewritten in our favor. But through the mist of our bleary eyes and our shallow, uneven breaths, there is a tiny pinprick of reassurance that this is a war worth fighting, and the individuals we so love will not die in vain.

By the end we are exhausted, our bodies throbbing with phantom aches, our minds churning with possibilities for the future, and our hearts mourning the loss of spectacularly brilliant characters. Tears run in jagged streaks down our cheeks, but we dare not wipe them away for they are a testament that we survived the events with Faythe, witnesses to her joys and pains, her successes and failures, and most importantly, her transition from young girl to South-Central Pride Alpha. This series is brutal and violent, but also infinitely satisfying, a true journey marked by both searing pain and soaring joy, and one that has earned a prominent place in my heart and on my bookshelf.

Rating: 5/5