Swap by John McFetridge

The front cover of this novel tells me it is a mystery, but it isn't really. Certainly there is a murder, and there are detectives attempting to solve it, but that is only one of the many threads woven into a very challenging and vivid story of Toronto's underworld.

Full disclosure: when I first started reading this book, I kind of hated it. I guess because the subject matter didn't really interest me - organized crime, bikers, drug dealers, murder and mayhem. Or maybe it was because I was ticked off that it wasn't really a mystery (it's revealed early on who shot the Lowries, and why). But like in Victim Impact, the world of biker gangs proved to be a fascinating backdrop to some compelling human dramas. 

It's hard to give a coherent plot summary, since there are a lot of stories happening - it would be like describing the plot of Love Actually. Basically a young man named Get comes up from Detroit to do some guns-for-drugs trading with the Saints, a biker gang that essentially runs Toronto. He meets J.T., an errand-boy for the gang who is about to be "patched in". Get also meets Sunitha, a young woman who robs fancy spas and sells the gold jewellery to the Saints, and also gives the best hand jobs in the world. They start to get involved.

There's also Richard, who was the second-in-command of the bikers in Montreal and ended up taking over and expanding their operations across Canada. And Big Pete, the intended target of the initial murder. And the cops - there's a lot of them - most notably Detective McKeon, whose post-partum depression is steadily turning into a drinking problem. They all move in and out of each other's lives, bodies pile up, drugs get sold, the wheel turns.

McFetridge has a very compelling, no-nonsense writing style that suits the subject matter perfectly. His characters are very hard, and very real. There is no romance here, but it's not totally depressing, either. It is incisive and somewhat cynical commentary on the forces at work behind the scenes, the fucked up people who really run things; it was especially interesting for me, a great lover of mysteries and police procedurals, to watch the cops flail around, fully a million steps behind the perpetrator of the murder that the author solves for you in the first chapter. And you know that even if they solved it, they couldn't touch the guy.

I finished this book a few days ago and I have been thinking about it off and on every since. I wanted to try to write this review without using the word "gritty" but come on, it's gritty. Toronto itself is a (troubled) character as much as any of the human players, and within the novel Toronto's place in the world as a player is discussed. Get is in shock about the housing prices, the multi-storey grow-ops, the lenient jail terms. This book is not exactly a positive endorsement for Toronto as a tourism destination but it certainly sheds some light on its relationship to American crime worlds. 

This is the sort of book I never thought I would like, but really, I think if it's well-written, a book about anything could be compelling. There is a lot going on here, a lot of stuff to unpack, and I highly recommend it.

Four CN Towers out of five.

Bitten by Kelley Armstrong

I will tell you right off the bat, I'm not that into werewolves and other fantasy creatures (vampires, ghosts, etc.). Even during my Wiccan years or my goth phase (yeah, it happened) this sort of stuff wasn't really my bag. I should tell you this up front because I didn't like this book, and not being that into werewolves probably had a lot to do with it.

This is the first of Kelley Armstrong's "women of the Otherworld" series. Regardless of how I feel about the actual book, it is awesome to see a woman writing popular Canlit fantasy about women (and female beasties etc.). If you are into fantasy/horror, I recommend you check it out! (If you are not, don't.)

Normally I wouldn't put so much stock into the genre when talking about a book, but it's a difference-maker for me. When I read fantasy, I want the story to be compelling, not leaning on its fantastical worlds. I read stuff like this and I think: would this still be a good story if it wasn't about (wizards/goblins/werewolves/vampires/etc.)? (Hint: for Harry Potter the answer is yes. For this book the answer - in my opinion - is no. For Twilight, the answer is that it wasn't compelling even with the beasties).

Bitten is about Elena, the only female werewolf (the explanation is complicated, I won't get into it here). She is trying to live a normal life in Toronto with a really nice guy and a job and an apartment (on Lakeshore!), while secretly changing into a wolf every week or so (apparently they kinda have to or it just happens on its own). Then her pack leader, Jeremy, calls her and asks her to come back to Stonehaven (no really, that's what it's called), the pack hideout in upstate New York, to solve an urgent problem.

The story deals with two threads: the problem, which is that non-pack werewolves (or "mutts") have been killing people on the pack territory, and Elena struggling to decide which world she wants to live in: the human world with her bland but loving boyfriend, or the werewolf world with this sexy guy named Clay, to whom she used to be engaged, but he betrayed her trust by turning her into a werewolf, but she still kinda likes him.

The main problem I had with the novel: Elena is not super likable. It is certainly a big deal that Clay turned her into a werewolf without asking her first, for sure. But she never listens to him when he tries to explain or apologize - and then continually leads him on by snuggling with him, running around with him (literally, they're werewolves) and fucking him. Elena, you are not really a feminist character, even though I wanted you to be!  Her story brings up lots of issues of consent and agency but then basically dismisses them at will. The vagina wants what it wants. Anyway, I just couldn't really sympathize with her most of the time because she was being so unreasonable, or cruel.

I also found some of the description bland and repetitive, especially the running, hunting and fighting parts (although those readers more interested in wolves might disagree). The writing in general is fine, although the sex scenes are a bit amateurish, but it must be hard to write sex and not make it seem cheesy. Also there wasn't a lot of Toronto - most of the action takes place in New York state. I would hesitate to put this on a list of fiction set in Toronto.

I guess in the end this book just didn't hold my interest. I wasn't that invested in the protagonist, I didn't care when characters I had barely met died, I wasn't that compelled by all the running and biting and so on. This book took me a lot longer than it should have to read, and that is mainly because I was reluctant to keep picking it back up.

I think probably fans of the genre will like this, especially if they are frustrated by a lack of three-dimensional female characters in general. But for me, when you take away the wolves, there is not really a lot going on here - certainly not enough to keep me reading more.

Two CN Towers out of five