Feral Pride (Feral Series #3)

by Cynthia Leitich Smith

Overview

The explosive finale to the Feral series by New York Times best-selling author Cynthia Leitich Smith.

Anti-shifter sentiment is at an all-time high when Kayla’s transformation to werecat is captured on video and uploaded for the world to see. Suddenly she becomes a symbol of the werebeast threat and—along with fellow cat Yoshi, lion-possum Clyde, and human Aimee—a hunted fugitive. Meanwhile, a self-proclaimed weresnake has kidnapped the governor of Texas and hit the airwaves with a message of war. In retaliation, werepeople are targeted by law enforcement, threatened with a shift-suppressing vaccine, terrorized by corporate conspiracy, and enslaved by a top-secret, intelligent Cryptid species. Can Clyde rally his inner lion king to lead his friends—new and old—into battle against ruthless, media-savvy foes? A rousing blend of suspense, paranormal romance, humor, and high action.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780763677091
Publisher:	Candlewick Press
Publication date:	02/24/2015
Series:	Cynthia Leitich Smith's Feral Series , #3
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Lexile:	760L (what's this?)
File size:	2 MB
Age Range:	14 - 17 Years

About the Author

Cynthia Leitich Smith is the acclaimed and best-selling author of three books in the Feral series, as well as the Tantalize quartet and two graphic novels based on the Tantalize series, both illustrated by Ming Doyle. She lives in Austin, Texas.

In suburban Kansas City, I began as a child poet and grew into a journalist. I was the editor of my junior-high and high-school newspapers. I went on to study journalism at the University of Kansas and law at the University of Michigan Law School.

Along the way, I had a ton of jobs. I worked as a popcorn popper at a movie theater, a cashier at a gas station, a waitress at a Mexican restaurant, a switchboard operator for a bank, a telemarketer, and a receptionist for a small law firm. I served as a reporting intern for various small-town papers and the Dallas Morning News as well as a marketing intern for a greeting-card company in Kansas City, an oil company in Oklahoma, and a nonprofit organization in Topeka. I also held summer/semester clerkships at a judge’s office in Kansas, a small women’s-rights firm in Michigan, and a legal aid in Hawaii.

After graduation I moved to Chicago, where I worked briefly in the law office of the Department of Health and Human Services. But after six months (and a long talk with some ducks in Lake Michigan), I quit my day job to write full time. I eventually relocated and settled in Austin.

I love to literally plunge into my fictional worlds.

For Tantalize, I went house shopping for my characters, confessed my intentions to the realtors, and walked away with floor plans and photos. At the local coffee shop, I tapped hirsute folks on the shoulder and asked if I could take pictures of them to use as models for shape-shifters. I also made a point to dine at every Italian restaurant in Austin.

For the New York Times best-selling novel Eternal, I walked every Chicago street that my characters did, trying to see the landscape anew through their eyes. I made notes about the sounds, the smells, the chill in the air. The ink in my pen froze on Navy Pier, and I ended up cutting that scene anyway.

For the Feral trilogy, I strolled ash-strewn acres of Texas that had been ravaged by wildfires and spent hours at Austin’s rescue zoo communing with lions.

Hearts Unbroken was more of a journey into memory. I had to revisit being a teen journalist whose editorials sometimes crossed swords with suburban Kansas sensibilities. I had to reflect on what it felt like to navigate Native identity on every level, sometimes in the face of bigotry, while also seeking joy and celebrating daily life, culture, and community.

What I love most about being a young adult author is hearing from young adult readers!
I’m happy to answer questions about my novels and to recommend additional books by other authors.

Editorial Reviews

Smith’s ability to mix the paranormal and the divine with sexy, wisecracking humor, youthful optimism, and fast-paced action has been a hallmark of this entertaining series. Fans will not be disappointed.
—Booklist

Compelling. With its sharp humor and fully realized characters, this urban fantasy will leave readers hoping for another series from Smith—and soon.
—The Horn Book

Smith once again weaves an action-packed plotline with campy alternating narration by Clyde, Aimee, Kayla, and Yoshi, all while dealing with the complex themes of acceptance, tolerance, freedom, and self-esteem. All this is done in a nonpreachy style to which readers can easily relate. A successful conclusion to a thought-provoking series
—School Library Journal

As in previous volumes, the wickedly funny, quickly paced style is anchored by the novel's underlying theme of the marginalization of people and its effects... A final episode that is witty, smart and moving—sure to satisfy those who've been following the series.
—Kirkus Reviews

With its focus on supernatural creatures and its subplots involving teen romance, the fast-paced and action-packed series could easily lend itself to cinematic or television adaptation.
—Literacy Daily

From the Publisher

01/01/2015
Gr 9 Up—Austin, TX, is the venue for the final battle between those fighting for humanity and free-will and those plotting world domination. A creature claiming to be a weresnake has taken the state governor hostage claiming that werebeasts are the superior species and need to take their rightful place. To capitalize on the already existing fear and mistrust of werebeasts, an incriminating video depicting a werecat's transformation is made viral. A secret police force now threatens the species with a serum to control shifting and behavior. Fighting back is an unlikely group of allies consisting of a werecats, a werepossum/lion hybrid, a geek/goth human, a vampire with a soul, a guardian angel, and others working to set things right. Smith once again weaves an action-packed plotline with campy alternating narration by Clyde, Aimee, Kayla, and Yoshi, all while dealing with the complex themes of acceptance, tolerance, freedom, and self-esteem. All this is done in a nonpreachy style to which readers can easily relate. A successful conclusion to a thought-provoking series.—Donna Rosenblum, Floral Park Memorial High School, NY

School Library Journal

2014-11-04
A battle pitting a group of werepeople and their vampire compatriot against demons in disguise concludes this trilogy that began with Feral Nights (2013). Escaping to the same imagined alternate Austin, Texas, first created by Smith in Tantalize (2007), teen werecat Kayla lies low with her new friends after having been outed to the world, caught on video transforming into her feline form. It's not due to embarrassment but rather because her recorded shift coincides with the abduction of the state's governor by a creature claiming to be a weresnake who insists that people accept that shifters are their superiors. As in previous volumes, the wickedly funny, quickly paced style is anchored by the novel's underlying theme of the marginalization of people and its effects, both those obvious ("Our legal rights are slippery," explains Kayla) and more insidiously subtle (like the wedge driven between Clyde, a werepossum/werelion hybrid, and his human girlfriend, Aimee, because of her father's prejudice). Alternating narration among Aimee, Clyde, and werecats Kayla and Yoshi makes for an interesting blended perspective but can also be a bit confusing, particularly when combined with the intricately detailed plan that evolves to take out the demon masquerading as a weresnake with nothing other than an angel's sword. A final episode that is witty, smart and moving—sure to satisfy those who've been following the series. (Paranormal romance. 14-18)

Kirkus Reviews