Moon Called Cliff Notes: A Wildly Inaccurate Retelling of Mercy Thompson

Moon Called Cliff Notes is our wildly inaccurate recap of Moon Called, the first book in the Mercy Thompson series, by Patricia Briggs. It’s stitched together from all the Recap Guys in our coverage of Moon Called over multiple episodes.

Indulge the least responsible way to get caught up on Moon Called. (But you’ll probably enjoy it more if you’ve already read the books.)

If you’ve ever wanted the plot of Moon Called filtered through werewolf roofies, Vanagon slander, dated tech observations, mercenaries, vampire politics, and at least one truly unnecessary TPS report joke, congratulations: somehow this episode is just for you.

This bonus episode is a fast, chaotic sample of the vibe at Uncle Mike’s Book Club — a condensed retelling of the first Mercy Thompson book with jokes, tangents, and a level of accuracy best described as “spiritually adjacent.”

No spoilers here for later Mercy Thompson books — just Moon Called, badly summarized with enthusiasm.

In under eleven minutes, we speedrun Mercy meeting Mac, Adam getting kidnapped, Jesse getting rescued, vampire chaos, mercenary nonsense, Gabriel showing up to work eventually, and an absolutely unreasonable amount of commentary about Vanagons.

If this nonsense delights you, you can find our full Moon Called discussions and the rest of our Mercy Thompson coverage wherever you listen.




Links:
* Check out our “linktree”/for-now website: shewhowrenches.carrd.co 
* Follow and message us on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/shewhowrenches.bsky.social 
* Subscribe to the Podcast: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2566095/episodes/18525659
* Podcast RSS feed: https://feeds.buzzsprout.com/2566095.rss
* Patricia Briggs' official website with complete book list: https://www.patriciabriggs.com/books/ 
* Stories in timeline order (how they happen for Mercy): https://www.patriciabriggs.com/books/printabletimeline.html


We are a fan-based Mercy Thompson Universe (AKA Mercy-verse) reread-along podcast. Just some friends who love Mercy Thompson (and a lot of other stuff). We share personal fan theories, joke and tease and make weird references to other fandoms and pop culture. 


Chapters:
00:00:00 Moon Called Chapters 1-4
00:00:46 Moon Called Chapters 5-7
00:01:27 Moon Called Chapters 7-10
00:03:46 Moon Called Chapters 11-13
00:06:22 Moon Called Chapters 14-15
00:08:44 Moon Called Chapter 16

YouTube version of this episode: https://youtu.be/7pnMdL20VFA

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

And now it's time for recap guy! So we meet Mercy and she's like a shape-shifting coyote thing, and she's like, Oh, I'm gonna put this transmission in the Jetta, but there's there's a werewolf knocking at my door, he better go see what he wants. And so she meets this little Matt guy, and he's like, Oh, I'm a werewolf and I don't know what to do. I need some bucks, so can I do some uh she who wrenches with you? He's like she's like, Oh, sure, yeah, do whatever here, I'll pay you. And uh then people come to take him away, and she's like, No, I'm not gonna do that, I'm gonna bite you in the neck and kill you. And thing bleeds out in the street, and he's like, Oh, I'm gonna go do something at uh Alpha's pack house, and oh, strange things are afoot here, and there's a dead werewolf at my door, and uh looks like uh the alpha here's been tea bag, I better take him to Aspen Creek. Uh so Mercy taking a misty mountain hop, going over the hills and far away with the alpha, and gonna get healed by old Samuel. But Samuel's like, Oh, what the hell? You didn't set his leg, and she's like, Oh, sorry, I was sick on the werewolf leg setting day. Then Bran comes in and's like, Oh, didn't it? You know, he wanted to be your mate, and but I had to put my paw down on that because uh, you know, didn't want him to break guys old lipstick on you. Can't be having that. Big age difference there. They're all loaded up, ready to go back over the mountainside, which uh I again find hard to believe that they're in a VW bus going over the mountain with two werewolves because that's not gonna happen. And a lot of tech stuff, pagers, that's the future. They're getting ready to leave Aspen Creek, and so she's doing a car inspection. What's it's for a van again, it's just gonna break down. So she's just basically hooking up an oil IV drip to it. And then Bran comes down, like, hey, surprise, you're taking my son with you. And she's like, uh, what? And then he's like, Hey, uh, don't you worry about this werewolf business there, little fella. Let the werewolves take care of it. And she's like, Okay, go sit on your car there, peanut butter. And then uh Adam's like, Oh no, I'm stuck inside a van again with the werewolf blues again. And then they're driving back and they're trying to figure out who's behind the attack and with the werewolf roofies who made all that stuff. And Adam's still wondering, Oh, I wonder who's got my Jesse girl. Samuel puts his hand on Mercy's leg, and then Adam's like, Hey, don't you touch her, and they're like, and Mercy stops and like, hey, you guys go out and settle this, or don't have a lipstick wear racing over my account. So they have to figure out their who's dominant, and does it somehow. I know they cut away, they do commercial break. It all happens off screen. Yeah, commercial. And then um they make it back and they're like, Oh, hey, we're gonna go stash Adam in Warren's house. And by the way, uh Warren can't tell his boyfriend who he is really, and it's like, oh, mercy, then I'm gonna leave that up to you. So it's like, hey, Kyle, there's something I gotta tell you about uh Warren. Uh he's a furry. He's like, okay, I'm kinda into that. It's like, no, he's like really a furry. And it's like, oh, what do you mean? It's like, oh here, I'll go show you. So he's changed into coyote, he goes, Oh, well, okay, I guess that's kind of cool. I never thought about that, but all right. And then so they go back and Adam's like, hey, I thought I was gonna have telling not to do it, to do it, and she's like, Oh, you some bitch, and he's like, Yeah, I'm some bitch. And then they'd go talk some more about finding out who's got Jesse and who's behind everything, and they're like, Oh, Z. I know this patrol person does a lot of banking, because you know that's a thing. Yeah, the vampires had a few huge deposits in their vampire A account, and so we're gonna go set you up and send you to the sea and see what's going on there. And then they run into this old piano prodigy lily girl that is like, Oh, hey, who's this tall hunk of werewolf? And it's like, Oh, he looks his neck looks pretty tasty. I'm gonna take a bite of it and takes a bite out of his neck, and then uh strange things ensue, and he starts acting weird. And Mercy pulls out a lamb, is like trying to fry Marcelia, and it's a whole thing. We ripped on Vanigans again, and they are leaving the sea. Then Andre shows up and says, Of what did the five fingers say to the face? And slap, slap Stefan, slaps a taste right out of his mouth. And that's for not telling Marcelia, Mercy's a walker. And we learn that walkers and vampires get along together like uh vanigans and hills. And then Samuel wakes up and whoa, did somebody slip me the fang? And the phone rings and he starts an involuntary change. He says, No, no, calm down, Samuel. It's Warren, it's not the moon calling, you don't have to change. And uh cop pulls Mercy over there. Whoa, what's this thing have in it? She goes, Oh, it's got four on the floor, it'll bark the tires, and they pull up to Warren's uh werewolf chanting and uh cone of silence over him. Mercy does the all the shuffle past Ariali. Uh Warren and Daring are are playing uh musical chairs across the face. Samuel then Hadookens a magic ball to stop them, and Adam comes down and tells him to stop rough housing. Adam assembles an A-team to go find Jesse, and he says, We're we're gonna show no mercy, which means Mercy, you're not coming. And so Mercy's huff arrives and she leaves in it. That's for you, Kelly. And then she goes home and her porch unfortunately still has that dead werewolf smell on it. And so she breaks down sadness for Mac, goes to sleep, and wakes up and doesn't have a call from Adam yet, and then calls, and there's just goes a voicemail and nothing from the pagers. All those are unanswered. And it's also Thanksgiving. Uh, so she goes to the shop to work because that's a good place to go on Thanksgiving. So she's working it and trying to piece together her theory of revolution uh about Bran and the Wheel Wolf's coming out, and then Sylvia stops by and says, Yeah, by the way, my son's gonna pay for everything, he's just gonna work it off, so do whatever. I don't care. Mercy calls Bran and tells him her uh West Wolf theory about yeah. Bran says it sounds legit. And then Mercy goes home to a surprise Thanksgiving dinner, uh mercenary style. Uh David uh Christensen and his crew are there and say, hey, happy Thanksgiving, Mercy. Do you serve red wine or white wine with an ambush?

unknown 5:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:56

Uh red wine. I can never remember. Uh David Christian IDs himself, tells him they were brought in by uh Jerry Wallace, and that's how things got all foobard. And then Mercy gets mom called during the middle of it, and David then IDs her as, oh, you're the coyote. David's like, Oh, well, my honor calls for me to fix the foobar situation. Go help get Jesse and all everybody out of trouble, and I think that's where we are now. Okay, so the mercenaries uh drop Mercy and Sam off about a mile out from the warehouse because they're too cheap to pay for parking. Also, they wanted like to see the spaceship land. Yeah, yeah, so they could row one reference. Mercy strips down to uh Whitesnake, apparently, and uh puts an Acme backpack on uh and then takes a little siesta. John Julian then wakes her up and leads her through an amazing display of crates. Ow. And then they enter an office space where Adam and Jesse are held captive for not putting a cover sheet on their TPS reports. And there's a creepy card who takes Jesse to the bathroom, and she returns with a bruise on her face, and oh, that's not good. And then Adam stirs from uh his silver ware roofies, that's hard to say. I think I took a ware roofie. Then Mercy uses Z Ginsu knife uh to free Adam, Adam in chains. Yeah, you what I did there? I do not appreciate it, I just recognize it. Yep. And then Adam has a seizure just like grandma used to make and starts sweating silver bullets. Mercy adds WD40 to coffee to wake him up. Housekeeping surprises the crew and then gets a heartfelt response, like three of them. Felt it right in the chest, yeah. Yep. Adam calls on the power of Grey Wolf, evil beast man comes in through the door and breaks Mercy's arm and attacks Adam. Then a red wolf rockets and slams the attacker away. Mercy recognizes scent of the guard who hurt Jesse and shoots him three times for wearing too much axe body spray. Yeah, then Adam empties his clip into him, then lifts his leg on him. As one should. I get I get that, yeah. Yeah, and the wolves show up. Mercy, Warren, and Jesse hot wire truck, and mercy does it with one arm broken behind her back, and they take the truck to get the keys for it. Mercy senses a presence of magic, but she's not sure which one. Shots get fired, Adam howls and forces the wolves to change and assemble Voltron. And then Jerry gets summoned, reveals his plan, and then gets his neck snapped by Samuel for it being too convoluted. That's fair, I think. Yeah, yeah. Bran takes Doc Walls out for a run and a nice dirt nap. Gabriel shows up to work finally. He'll work for less than minimum wage, but it's like, you know what? I'm gonna prove myself and I'm gonna show you that I'm worth minimum wage. And then we talk about Tad getting jaded in college and our conspiracy theories, our master debating, and this Faye by the barrel years, and then more Gabriel, because Jesse walks in and he he turns into Gabriel Cal Rizzian, like, oh, what have we here? You certainly belong with us amongst the wrenches. That was exactly what I was thinking when you said it. We have Scheidenfroder for Christy because apparently she's mother of the year with all her dating choices. So Jesse gets to go live with Adam. Tony shows up and takes off his fake nose of sunglasses, and Gary's like, oh, hey, you, I want my lunch money back. Adam and Mercy go on their date and uh speak nudge and enter for porch drinks, but you know, uh then uh Samuel comes out and C3 fields them, and Samuel and Adam are having a lipstick raising contest, and Mercy's like, uh, I don't have time for this, so I'm gonna put on my celibacy sweats and goes and meets Stefan for a good uh crankshaftin'? Yeah, good crankshafting, you know, because there's plenty of work to do on the van again. And and and who doesn't love a good crankshafting? Right, yeah. I mean, it's got the the Vosserboxer engine, so you know. Yeah, gotta find that coolant leak along those tubes and those stuff. Yeah. And so I think that's pretty much where the story wraps up, but our podcast kept going. Also, there are there's no third bedrooms in a single white trailer. And scene, that was the end of the last book. Thank you, recap guy. I know, I'm out of the podcast.