A review by trudilibrarian
Supernatural: Coyote's Kiss by Christa Faust

4.0

Dean had never quite imagined his life might end like this. Naked in a Tijuana brothel with an eighty-year-old woman dressed like Janine from Spinal Tap sizing up his junk and looking distinctly unimpressed. He really wished the room wasn't so heavily air-conditioned.

Oh my god, what a fun ride! This was such unexpected, unadulterated pleasure. I cannot stress that enough. Finally a tie-in novel that doesn’t suck donkey ass! I’ve been so disappointed with previous efforts, but like any true addict I keep coming back for more. Christa Faust is an accomplished novelist in her own right and that’s in evidence here on almost every page. The story is multi-layered and infused with Aztec lore and mythology making it totally engrossing. It’s hard to tell where established mythology ends and Faust’s imagination begins. It’s a seamless marriage (unless you happen to hold a doctorate degree in Aztec monsters and legends).

Faust sets this story mid Season 6, taking full advantage of the show’s rich story line to this point, letting no opportunity pass her by to channel inside jokes and mine emotional terrain. Her voices for Sam and Dean are spot on; I especially appreciate the fact that she is writing for soulless!Sam. Dean’s response to his baby brother sans conscience is funny and heartbreaking. Sam used to be the emotional one, the brother with the impeccable moral compass, now Dean’s soul has to fly right enough for two to make up for Sam’s emptiness. One scene that had me laughing out loud is when Dean is in danger of becoming the Aztec equivalent of a zombie.

”Sammy, you’re not going to let that happen to me are you? If it comes to that, you’ll take care of it, right?”
“Of course,” Sam said. “I’ll take care of it.”
“You weren’t supposed to answer that so quickly,” Dean said.“So that’s it? We just sit here and wait for me to Romero out so Dexter here can pop a cap in my rotten brain and put me out of my misery?”

Another huge win for this installment is the introduction of Xochi Cazadora (a kick-ass hybrid of Salma Hayek and Rhona Mitra). We’ve had some high octane warrior women (demon, angel and human) grace the show over the years – Xochi could hold her own up against any of them. She is AWESOME. Faust already has at her disposal an entire canon of material to use when writing for Sam and Dean, but Xochi she creates out of thin air. I would be delirious if she actually showed up in a real episode. I totally bought how Dean reacts to her and that in many ways he has met his match. Faust doesn’t cheat on their chemistry; it’s earned with good writing and character development.

The target audience for this book is definitely fans of the show, and to all of you I say READ IT!