Feral Creatures

By: Kira Jane Buxton / Narrated By: Robert Petkoff

Length: 12 hrs and 12 mins

Note to Author: Do NOT make your heroine a deSPICable being responsible for deaths of favorite characters. Dude, it’s soooo hard to get past!

Seriously! Hollow Kingdom was suuuuch a Favorite audiobook last year, so much so that I snatched this sequel, Feral Creatures, up the instant I saw it was out. Ooooh, I was so very excited to hear of intrepid and painfully handsome ST’s further exploits (By the way? ST stands for S**t Turd, the name his MoFo owner, Big Jim, bestowed upon him… MoFo Big Jim had a way with words, did he not?).

Okay okay okay. I still hadn’t quiiiite forgiven author Kira Jane Buxton for killing off a much-loved character, like, fairly early in Hollow Kingdom, leaving sooo much story to be had without that particularly adored animal. Actually, she killed off a fair amount of awesome characters. Without any problem (I was sore saddened)! But I got over it, and I was ready to, yes, learn to let go of characters as they met their demise after the Zombie Apocalypse and moved into this new era with ST taking on the world, raising a human girl along the way.

Uhm. First.

Well, I’m not too terribly fond of humans; I’d rather he were raising a bloodhound pup. But OKAY, I’ll get over it.

-HOWEVER-

The human girl he’s raising, ostensibly the heroine of this book, is deSPICable and acts in human ways. Other Animals keep telling ST to leave her to die as she’s human, and as such she’s APT to cause harm to the environment and to all the creatures that are living and trying to recuperate in the environment.

But ST’s adoration of this little MoFo has him so protective, so enamored of her, he will NOT hear of it. Even when she causes, not one, not two, but SEVeral catastrophes that mean the deaths of many, MOST, of who cared for her. She’s willful and unbalanced, and DUDE, she DOES mean Death and Destruction.

Yo, Buxton! What Were You THINKING?!? I’m s’posed to root for that?!

Listen y’all, in this sequel even ST behaves, not Irresponsibly, but Stupidly.

I’m getting off on my tangents, so I’ll just sum it up here: ST was gifted quite possibly the last MoFo (Human) at the end of the last (Superb!) book, and here he’s raising her in Alaska, where she’s loved and protected by Owls, by Trees, by a dear, dear, Muskox. Then she jackasses it all up, and death and destruction reign to such a horrific extent that ST has to get her outta there and moves her back to the Pacific Northwest, where there are battles to be fought. A few characters from the last book are major characters here, and war and mayhem continue.

ST is a stalwart figure through it all, a bit (Hmm, no wait: TERRIBLY) obtuse and lacking in self-awareness which made me kinda cringe as Buxton has him doing dumb things. -But- hey: Jiminy H. Cricket, at least he’s not responsible for deaths of adorable characters, until he is.

Now, the only thing that kept me from throwing m’ phone at the wall was that I REFUSE to write a review without having listened to the entirety of an audiobook. I simply will not do that.

-So-

Buxton goes about saving it all to where -okay- there are some redeeming qualities to the story. I was sooo relieved when I checked m’ body, and it wasn’t all tense with LOATHING for the girl, and where I saw that p’raps she’d learned something (However painful it was that her education came from the sorrows of others).

PLUS? Oh good golly gosh: Robert Petkoff does the narration for this audiobook as well! Huzzah! He very much adds to the positives for the story. He dips, he dives, he fast-paces, he emotes, he delivers action and affection, obsession and reflection, and he does uncannily good accents as we’re given sights and sounds from Animals living and surviving throughout the many lands, many waters, throughout the globe. He. Is. AWESOME.

One simply CanNOT destroy one’s phone/listening device whenst Petkoff handles 12+ hours with suave aplomb, and cocky interpretations stemming from a much-loved/oh-so-sometimes-misguided ST. Genghis Cat is back, Trees and Waters continue to struggle to survive. Major Mishaps occur.

So, PHEW! I’m sooo glad I refrained from chucking m’ phone into a whirring blender, and I’m sooo glad Buxton crafted a few better choices and happenings.

And LORD am I glad Petkoff saved the day! Things were pretty Iffy there…!

And, cuz I can’t help m’self, but one final itty bitty Note to Author: It’s obvious ya have a huge vocabulary, but desist from using words like fuliginous when sooty would do the trick. It induces eye-rolling when you use it, like, over three times… Just sayin’…

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