Darkest Fear by Cate Tiernan (review)

Five years ago, Vivi was horrified when her parents revealed the family secret: as haguari, descendants of an ancient shape-shifting race originating from Brazil, they can transform into jaguars. Having spent much of her adolescence refusing to recognize her heritage and learn from her parents, now eighteen-year-old Vivi is therefore woefully unprepared when they are brutally murdered and she finds herself living with a distant cousin, who rents out his large New Orleans house to fellow human/jaguar hybrids. Vivi comes to understand and eventually embrace her jaguar nature, but now she’s in more danger than ever before as she learns that someone—likely the same person who killed her parents—is hunting and ripping out the hearts of other haguari. The plot relies on too many contrived misunderstandings (Vivi’s romance with a boy stalls several times based on frustratingly vague comments) or seemingly illogical actions from the characters (it’s unclear why her cousin and friends remain mostly unconcerned after their house is attacked) to move the sputtering pace along; the book also suffers as a first in a series, establishing quite a bit in regards to Vivi’s heritage and the murders but offering little resolution. Vivi, however, is credible first as a teenager trying to establish herself beyond her parents’ expectations and then as a grieving girl, lost in her guilt, and her experience will likely ring true with teens struggling to reconcile the tradition of their families with their need for independence. The pursuit of the bad guys amps up the action near the end, and the possibility of a steamy romance for Vivi in the future might entice readers to revisit these big cats in the sequel (or to go on to Klause’s Blood and Chocolate, BCCB 7/97).