Now For Something Different...Sort Of

Based on Patricia Briggs's successful Mercy Thompson series, Homecoming is sort of a companion piece: it's a graphic novel, easily read in one sitting, that shows us what happened when Mercy arrived in the Tri-Cities. Mercy being Mercy, she immediately found herself in danger while out on a run in coyote form; though saved by an unknown pack of werewolves, Mercy further places herself in harm's way when she stops at a VW shop for car work and ends up making friends with Stefan, a local vampire. How Mercy then meets up with Adam, Zee, and Zee's son Tad while deciding whether or not to stay in town rounds out the story that also involves Adam's pack forcing rogue werewolves out of town.

Like many of the reviewers, I did feel this story lacked the depth I'm used to from the Mercy Thompson series. I'm not a big graphic novel fan, but I was open to the idea of furthering Mercy's tale with pictures (even if my mental images did not necessarily match up with those on the pages). I suppose I was most let down by two factors, however; first, the overly sexualized comic book rendering of Mercy, complete with curves every little boy drools over. Really? This was the best way Briggs could allow Mercy to be fashioned? And secondly, the fact that there were a couple of grammatical errors in this published book, including the insertion of "liked liked" on one page, is inexcusable, especially in a book this size. Where were the editors? I had to re-read the caption three or four times to be certain this gaffe wasn't one of my imagination.

That said, I did enjoy the book, even if I didn't love it. I liked knowing how Mercy came to know Zee, and I had no trouble following the action. The drawing itself is strictly comic book style, which will probably appeal to those who generally enjoy that type of thing. I'm not sad I read this book, but I doubt I'll be rushing out to purchase another one. It simply didn't add much to the storyline and with the errors, it certainly wouldn't be money I'd spend again.

~taminator40