Black Dog - Rachel Neumeier

Black Dog - Rachel Neumeier
ISBN - 9781908844828 (UK) 9781908844835 (US)
Publisher - Strange Chemistry
Release date - February 4th 2014
Find - Goodreads/Book Depository

'Natividad is Pure, one of the rare girls born able to wield magic. Pure magic can protect humans against the supernatural evils they only half-acknowledge – the blood kin or the black dogs. In rare cases – like for Natividad’s father and older brother – Pure magic can help black dogs find the strength to control their dark powers.

But before Natividad’s mother can finish teaching her magic their enemies find them. Their entire village in the remote hills of Mexico is slaughtered by black dogs. Their parents die protecting them. Natividad and her brothers must flee across a strange country to the only possible shelter: the infamous black dogs of Dimilioc, who have sworn to protect the Pure.

In the snowy forests of Vermont they are discovered by Ezekiel Korte, despite his youth the strongest black dog at Dimilioc and the appointed pack executioner. Intrigued by Natividad he takes them to Dimilioc instead of killing them.

Now they must pass the tests of the Dimilioc Master. Alejandro must prove he can learn loyalty and control even without his sister’s Pure magic. Natividad’s twin Miguel must prove that an ordinary human can be more than a burden to be protected. And even at Dimilioc a Pure girl like Natividad cannot remain unclaimed to cause fighting and distraction. If she is to stay she must choose a black dog mate.

But, first, they must all survive the looming battle.' - Goodreads

It's not often you find a fresh take on all the supernatural creatures that are out there but that's exactly what Rachel Neumeier has achieved with Black Dog.

Born to a Pure mother and and a black dog father, Natividad is a twin - her brother Miguel is human - and their older brother Alejandro is a black dog. Natividad is special though and highly prized by other black dogs, she too is Pure and can do magic. The story starts with the three siblings fleeing Mexico after their parents are killed in a vicious battle. They're heading for Dimilioc, the only place that might offer them sanctuary but this in itself is a huge risk. Whilst the leader of the Dimilioc dogs will be more than happy to take in Natividad who knows if Miguel or Alejandro will be welcome, or even survive. Everything appears to be looking up for them when they're found by the Dimilioc Enforcer, Ezekiel (and possible love interest!) and taken to Grayson Lanning, Master of Dimilioc. What they find is a surprise, a greatly diminished pack thanks to the recently ended war with the vampires and in need of help especially as it appears that instead of escaping their troubles they've brought them with Dimilioc's doorstep.

I loved just about everything about Black Dog with a only a minor niggle, that being that as Natividad is Pure and therefore if she has children they are likely to either be black dogs or Pure themselves she is looked at almost as a breeder rather than a person. I didn't like the fact that the Master said she would be left alone until she was sixteen but after that she would have to choose a black dog to mate. Natividad doesn't blink an eye at this and goes along with it but this is obviously all part of the world that they live in. The werewolf myth is turned on its head here and I loved that they had a different mythology, there are creatures that turn with the moon but they're seen as weak and not true black dogs, only being able to shift with the moon is full. Black dogs on the other hand don't actually shift, their black dog is a shadow - almost a separate creature that envelopes them but is hard to control, this is where the Pure come in as they are able to help them control their shadow and becalm them.

The story is narrated by both Alejandro and Natividad which I loved, it was great to see Alejandro's struggle firsthand, to see into his head about everything that was happening especially with his beloved sister. Natividad was also a strong character, headstrong, backing down if she absolutely had to but more than willing to go out a limb to help people even at the risk of her own life at some points. As a Pure girl she was meant to be protecting but it was more often than not Natividad doing the protecting, especially with Grayson - I'm not quite sure how their relationship was developing (in a daughter/father sort of way or a romantic way) but she was able to bring him comfort which was misinterpreted by Ezekiel. Enforcer of Dimilioc since the age of thirteen, Ezekiel was both violent and gentle, he never actually laid a hand on Natividad but made it quite clear that it was going to be him that she chose when she turned sixteen. I would loved to have read parts of the story from his point of view and also from Miguel, who turned out to be extremely useful in the ensuing battles even though he was human. It would have been nice to get his viewpoint as a human but I did read that Rachel Neumeier is hoping to write a couple of short stories set in the Black Dog world, I'm hoping that both Ezekiel and Miguel both get to share their thoughts at some point. I also read (on Twitter, I think) that there's going to be a sequel which is great news as I was under the impression that Black Dog was a standalone, excited now to read it to see how the story develops and what's next for Natividad, Miguel and Alejandro.

If you like your YA fantasy with an original spin on a well-known supernatural creature, with great characters and unique world-building and without all the usual love triangles/insta-love then you should definitely give Black Dog a try. It's over four hundred pages but it doesn't feel that long and as soon as the action picks up the story rockets along, Interestingly, the book started life as an adult novel and there definitely still hints of this throughout the book, ie. the level of violence but it works well as both YA and adult fiction. I'm intrigued about how the story would have gone had it stayed adult fiction, that would have been a great book too!

Thanks to Strange Chemistry for providing me with an e-ARC via Netgalley!

Guest Post: Feeding the Muse - Rachel Neumeier

Black Dog by Rachel Neumeier is published on February 4th in the US and February 6th in the UK. I loved Black Dog so when the lovely folks at Strange Chemistry were looking for blog tour participants I jumped at the chance to take part. Without further ado, please welcome Rachel!

Feeding the Muse

Thanks for the invite to The Bookish Outsider – it’s a pleasure to be here!

BLACK DOG is a bit of a departure for me, as you may know – my first contemporary (or contemporary-ish) fantasy, my first paranormal (or paranormal-ish) fantasy.  Even for a semi-established author, it’s hard to break into the urban fantasy/paranormal/werewolf/vampire crowd, and the only reason to try it is because your muse gives you a push you can’t ignore.  

As it happens, I know just when I started reading UF and paranormals.  It was some years ago, when a convention put me on a werewolf panel.  Now, I had nothing in particular against werewolves, but in fact I hadn’t ever read any books featuring werewolves.  None.  After all, I had no shortage of other fantasy novels on my TBR pile, and who can even begin to know where to start in a genre that has blown up so far so fast?  But I didn’t like to tell the convention folks I couldn’t do their panel, so instead I picked up a handful of werewolf stories real quick.

One of those was MOON CALLED by Patricia Briggs.  

I probably don’t have to tell you how I fell in love with Mercy Thompson, and with Bran and Samuel and Adam and the whole world of werewolves.  I read the rest of the series and then branched out:  Ilona Andrews and Kelly Armstrong, Charlaine Harris and JR Ward.  But for me, Mercy Thompson was the first – and I still think that this series is the most consistently outstanding.  You can bet that I’ll be right there when NIGHT BROKEN hits the shelves this year!

So, indirectly – or actually pretty directly – Patricia Briggs is responsible for BLACK DOG.  Because you know how it is, when you fall in love with a series.  You hate to leave those characters, that world, that reality.  So, in my case, I created my own reality and world and characters.  

Of course my world isn’t actually much like the world of the Mercy Thompson series, barring both being contemporary-ish.  And my black dogs aren’t much like Briggs’ werewolves, either.  I kept the “hot-tempered werewolf” trope, but took it a step further by giving my black dogs an actual demonic twist.  I liked the idea of making most werewolves male, but created new reasons for that gender imbalance to occur – I could explain the exact genetics behind my black dogs and the Pure, I worked it all out, though those details did not make it into the book!  I loved the idea of one central authority for werewolves, but handed my Dimilioc a recent crushing Pyrrhic victory to reduce their effective power.  And, of course, I killed off the vampires in the recent backstory.

But Patricia Briggs’ series was the one that acted as a muse, giving me a strong push to write a werewolf story in the first place.

A huge thank you to Rachel for stopping by! I'm ashamed to admit that although I have owned a copy of Moon Called for several years I still haven't read it... I will definitely rectify that - and soon! Look out for my review of Black Dog coming in the next couple of days!