Hunting Kat

Darkest Powers #3.2

by Kelley Armstrong

Kat is a sixteen-year-old vampire, and she's not too happy about it. After an experiment-gone-wrong and a bullet to the heart, she now hungers for human blood, and the worst part about that is the guilt. But guilt isn't the only thing stressing her. Kat is being hunted by the Edison Group, a dangerous Cabal that is responsible for her undead state. Kat is running out of places to hide, and she has no one to turn to—until she meets Chad and Neil. They're on the run like she is, and they offer to help Kat against their common enemy. But the boys aren't all that they seem, and for Kat, deciding whether to trust them may be a matter of life or death.


Set in the world of Kelley Armstrong's New York Times bestselling Darkest Powers and Darkness Rising series, "Hunting Kat" will leave you on the edge of your seat and thirsting for more.

Originally published in Kisses from Hell

Genres: Young Adult, Paranormal, Fantasy, Vampires, Urban Fantasy, Short Stories, Supernatural

46 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 6, 2012

About the author

Kelley Armstrong has been telling stories since before she could write. Her earliest written efforts were disastrous. If asked for a story about girls and dolls, hers would invariably feature undead girls and evil dolls, much to her teachers' dismay. All efforts to make her produce "normal" stories failed.

Today, she continues to spin tales of ghosts and demons and werewolves, while safely locked away in her basement writing dungeon. She's the author of the NYT-bestselling "Women of the Otherworld" paranormal suspense series and "Darkest Powers" young adult urban fantasy trilogy, as well as the Nadia Stafford crime series. Armstrong lives in southwestern Ontario with her husband, kids and far too many pets.

Reviews

[Steph]

Per Author, Complete Timeline of Darkest Powers Stories:
Dangerous (online novella, narrator: Derek)
Kat (online story, narrator: Katiana)
The Summoning (novel, narrator: Chloe)
Divided (online novella, narrator: Derek)
The Awakening (novel, narrator: Chloe)
Disenchanted (online novella, narrator: Tori)
The Reckoning (novel, narrator: Chloe)
Hunting Kat (novel, in “Kisses from Hell,” narrator: Katiana)
The Gathering (novel, April 2011, narrator: Maya)

[Lisa Kessler · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a fun short story set in the Darkest Powers world. Kat has escaped the Edison Group only to be captured by bounty hunters...

Kat is a fun heroine and I really liked Neil too... I hope we'll see them more in a Darkest Powers novel!! :)

If you're a fan of the YA series, you should check this one out!

[Ronda · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have read Kelley Armstrong's trilogy Darkness Rising and this book is part of it but can be read as a stand-alone. Kat has been part of the experiments that the Edison group had done and she is being hunted by them...

A good short novel, kind of reminded me what I've already read and I really enjoyed this.

[Angela Nguyen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kelley Armstrong: the only author that can create such a AWESOME, badass, realistically believable character in a few pages.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story was good even though it was pretty short but it was still good all together.

[Susana · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting tale, told from the teens vamps pov.
I wouldn't mind reading more about Kat and Neil.

[alaska · Rating 2 out of 5]

this could’ve been fun but i just wasn’t that invested :’)

[Nicole (bookwyrm) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun short story in the Darkest Powers universe. I don’t remember the main series well enough to know if Kat and company show up anywhere else, but I hope so. I’d like to see more of her story at some point.

[Jess · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoy the YA stories in the Otherworld. This was a quick read that discusses vampire lore that could be missed in the adult series.

Kat seemed to have a decent development. I'd like to read more of the event after the story ends. Some parts seemed a bit over the top but it was easy to follow. And the teens seemed to be pretty smart for the most part. Some elements weren't needed by standard for the industry.

[Anniken Haga · Rating 3 out of 5]

REREAD 2020

So I'm still on an Armstrong-high, and so I'm glad I have some short stories of her's lying around.
I honestly didn't remember much about this story, and I avoided reading up on it before reading it, so I would be surprised. I'd even forgotten it was about vampires.

Unfortunatly, I'm not as blown away by this story as I was the first time I read it.
It's ok, but not more than that, unfortunatly. That said, Armstrong clearly knows her characters and manage to introduce them clearly in just a 40-page short, which is impressive.

New rating: 3/5 stars
-----------------------
This review is written on my phone, so please look away from any stupid writing errors!

So while Arnstrongs "darkest power" series wasn't really for me when I read it, I'm interested in the Edison Group. I want to know more about their other experiments, and about how they operate.
Therefor this novella was a welcome story for me!
This is set pre—story (before the series) and is about a girl from one of said experiments. But in this one they messed with vampire genes.
Its just a really short story with a new character, giving a litte tease of Armstrongs vampires. While I normally don't care mych for vampires, I find these interesting, and wish Armstrong would write a full book from one of theirs POV — maybe Zoe from WotO?

But yes, a well written short story, hinting at the rest of the series. Interesting characters and developments

Original rating: 5/5 stars

[Thomas Edmund · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wouldn't spend much time pursuing this short story - the majority of the plot is really teasers to her novel series. Nothing too dramatic happens either (as this needs to be saved for said series)

There is a couple of twists, however in a short story there isn't really enough established, to consider unexpected events to be real 'twists'

All in all Hunting Kat, should really be a chapter from a novel, not a considered a story in itself. If you are a fan grab Armstrong's novels, don't bother with this as a stand-alone.

[Geli · Rating 5 out of 5]

Omg that ended way too quickly! Man Kelley Armstrong always gets me so wrapped up the story I'm Always so upset when I get the last page. My brain is screaming right to know what happens next! I can't wait for "The Rising" to come out next spring!

[Kateblue · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a review of the following works by Kelley Armstrong. They are hard to tell apart because their names, and the names of the trilogies, are so generic and similar. They are also related to each other and similar to each other (all of which caused me trouble in writing this review.)

Darkest Powers Series
Darkest Powers Series https://www.goodreads.com/series/5485...

BOOK 0.4 Kat (in Led Astray) and BOOK 0.5 - Hunting Kat (solo Kindle short) Both of these can be skipped because they are not really connected to the other books except peripherally despite their inclusion in the series by GoodReads.

BOOK 0.6 Dangerous (in Darkest Powers Tales)
BOOK 1 The Summoning
BOOK 1.5 Divided (in Darkest Powers Tales)
BOOK 2 The Awakening
BOOK 2.5 Disenchanted (in Darkest Powers Tales)
BOOK 3 The Reckoning
post 3 Facing Facts (in Darkest Powers Tales)
Post 3 Belonging (in Darkest Powers Tales)

Darkness Rising Series https://www.goodreads.com/series/4848...

BOOK 1 The Gathering
BOOK 2 The Calling
BOOK 3.The Rising

There are also three shorts in the Darkness Rising series which I have not read,The New Guy and The Invitation which fall between Books 1 and 2 and Atoning, which follows the three books.

Despite their high ratings here on Goodreads, and my usual liking for Kelley Armstrong's books, I rate them all at an average of 2*. Why? Because I found these books to be aggravating for many reasons:

1) The teen protagonists are all "stuck protagonists." In other words, despite their best efforts, they cannot prevail and surmount the challenges facing them.
2) Except for the beginnings of each trilogy, the books are all one big chase scene. Kids trudging through cities and the countryside, fleeing the bad guys, getting double-crossed and/or getting caught, then getting away and running again. Snore.
3) The teens all rely upon adults to solve their problems. In both trilogies, the kids are just looking for their parents or other parental figures. Maybe some people want this in YA books, but I think it defeats the purpose of YA literature--to help kids learn how to take care of themselves. Compare these books, with, for example, Heinlein's juveniles, where sometimes the kids fail, but they keep trying and usually succeed on their own.
4) At the end of the last book, suddenly there are people from the Otherworld Series who are briefly brought in or are mentioned. This was totally unnecessary.
5) The end of the Rising, where the two groups come together, was contrived and then they all just gave up, so after all the struggle, they lose.
6) Many of the characters, particularly secondary, adult ones, acted in ways that defied explanation. One teen that acted acted strangely was Nicole. There was no groundwork for Nicole's actions. Suddenly in the second or third book of the trilogy, she suddenly was a bad guy. Somebody was just a normal kid with a mean mom and then-poof-she was magic too.
7) And the whole business of killing off kids seemed strange and unsupported. So many of the adults were just monster-like, and then some did an unexplained about face. And no-one told the kids anything. Nor did the author tell the readers. There were so many switcheroos that the books were confusing at times.
8) Some of the short stories in Darkest Powers Tales (the prequel and the ones in between the books, in particular) were not that interesting to read because you already read about what happened in the novels.

The only redeeming feature is the Kelley Armstrong can really write. Go read The Masked Truth, a YA novel of hers that is incredibly excellent, and skip all of these.

[Kikiromao · Rating 4 out of 5]

Better than the last short story. I found the boy cute because I am a simp for black-haired-blue-eyed-with-glasses-geek-that-can-fight. Lol

But the romance between Neil and Kat was just TOO predictable. That's what happened in ALL of her books:
Girl gets in problem, meets cute guy, cute guy falls for her, she falls for the guy, they fight the bad guy, they admit they have feelings for each other, and BANG! GIRLFRIEND AND BOYFRIEND.

COULD HAVE HAD SOME SPICY TENSION FROM ENEMIES TO LOVERS!!! (Something better than Derek and Chloe okay please thank you).
But hey, we can't get everything we want right? Hahahahahah *sobs*

Well, I really like Kat, and I really wish there was another short story to know WHAT THE F**K IS GOING TO HAPPEN NOW?!?!?!?!
HUH?
DOES SOMEBODY KNOWS WHAT WILL HAPPEN?
WILL NEIL AND KAT MEET THE REST OF THE GANG?
ARE THEY FREE OF THE PEOPLE HUNTING THEM?
WILL THEY LOOK FOR THE REST OF THE VAMPIRE KIDS?
WILL THEY FIND THEM?

WHAT THE HELL IS GONNA HAPPEN MY SWEET SWEET BOOKWORM-COLLEAGUES?!?!?

Okay i am done. Thank you for coming to my TedTalk.

[the judgy reader · Rating 4 out of 5]

Three reasons to read Hunting Kat:

1) After reading Cassandra's POV short stories, I wasn't convinced I wanted a vampire lead character, but Kat changed my mind. She features in only two very short stories yet I feel like I know her as well as the other characters in this series.

2) As usual with Kelley Armstrong's work, the story is well written, easy and pleasant to read.

3) Kat has only recently become a vampire. Seeing her get used to that is hugely enjoyable.

One drawback to Hunting Kat:

1) Kat's two stories are fairly similar to the Darkest Powers and Darkness Rising book. A genetically modified supernatural teen is on the run from the Edison Group. Each story differs in big ways, but that's the general idea. It would have been nice to see something different.

[Andrea · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I'm happy to be back to the supernatural world of Armstrong's creation, I didn't find this story to be quite as enjoyable. Mostly, I think this is because it should be much longer, it could definitely be a whole novel. One of my major problems was how fragmented it was because many things about Kat were explained in "Kat" and thus they were rushed in this story even though they were the coolest snippets of the previous one. I don't know if this makes much sense; overall, my point is that both "Kat" and "Hunting Kat" could've been combined and reading them separately feels a bit discomforting.

Other than that though, I loved seeing a bit more about vampires in the series and to get more info about the experiments done by the Edison Group, so that was fun.

[Anna 'Bookbuyer' · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am really enjoying reading about Kat. I'm still unclear on where she fits in the two worlds. I'm assuming since this is labelled Darkest Powers she is part of that world.

It was really tense for a while not knowing who was the guy masquerading as a vampire. I was sad that Kat still didn't know till poor Neil was kidnapped a second time but thankfully they escaped. AGAIN.

I really want to read more of these stories. I just have to figure out where she is in the storyline! lol. :D

[Catherine\ Cora · Rating 5 out of 5]

❤ Love it!!

I love this book along with all the other teen appropriate books!!!! They are fun to read and I never want to put them down. Kelley Armstrong has also got me big on supernaturals

[lisa oreilly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Short story related the the darkest powers trilogy

Nice short story could have been longer ties in nice with the darkest powers trilogy not sure why it wasn't in with the short stories from the darkest powers trilogy but good short read

[Erin King · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cute shortie

I love how she gives so many characters their own story, their own life and their own personality. It gives off different points of perspective. This one follows a teen vamp, recently turned who was part of the Edison group experiments.

[Bre Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a really good short story. I’m surprised I haven’t already read it. I found it when I was about to start my reread of the Darkest Powers and Darkness Rising trilogy’s. I like Kat and I wish that she had a longer book!

🩸Vampires
💉Science Experiments
🏃🏻‍♀️MC’s On the Run

🌶️/🚫
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

[old account (rl) · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is so much action and suspense in this novel, its surprising! I loved Kat so much and really want to read more about her.

[Amee · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars
Because i want more, I NEED MORE!!!

[annapi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Short story in the Darkest Powers series. It was ok, but I'm tired of vampires, just glad this was a short. I will eventually get around to reading Armstrong's vampire stories, but not now.

[Sara · Rating 5 out of 5]

I WANT MORE!!!!!!!!!! *sob* PLEASE GIVE ME MORE!!!!!!!!!!

[Zoha · Rating 3 out of 5]

The vampire that she is isn't as interesting to me.

[Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Too short novella from what has become one of my favorite authors.

[Jackie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting but way too short.

[Lyndsey Gollogly · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good start to the Darkest powers series.

[Deyara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun.