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3.48 AVERAGE
3.48 AVERAGE
So happy to have Nicky on board. He's a character I wasn't expecting. No one was since this was a surprise book and storyline. But he's become a favorite of mine.
Link: https://holedupinabook.blogspot.com/2017/03/anita-blake-vampire-hunter-series-by.html
Oh mannnn, what to say about Anita Blake? So many things to say yet so little time to say it. Plus, I don’t want to write like a 500 page essay about the pros and cons about this series. I remember reading this series back when I was in high school, many, many years ago, and I caught up to, I think the most recent at that time, which was Skin Trade (I think, not 100% sure) and I was still engrossed enough to continue with the series. I told myself to come back to it later and finish the series. 8 years later, I finally have the chance to come back to it and I’m not sure what the fuck I was thinking at that time.
Okay, the first, I want to say 8, books were great. I enjoyed reading about Anita Blake and even enjoyed the love triangle between Jean Claude and Richard. I also liked Nathanial a lot as well as Micah so I was fine with those four men. Even though I think that’s 3 too many but, as a female, I can appreciate having many men woo and love me. However, I think there comes a time when you need to draw a line between a few and way too fucking many. I don’t think Laurell can draw that line. Anita, by the end of Bullet, had at least TWELVE men plus others that she slept with on a “pinch” or because she had some sort of “emergency.”
The biggest issue I had with this book isn’t the number of men, but the fact that Anita went from a relatively prude woman (I mean, in the first book she wasn’t with anyone at all and by around book 3 or 4, she was still relatively shy about men and sex and was essentially only with Richard and/or Jean Claude.) to someone who was willing to just sleep with almost anyone even females. It was like she lost her morals or something.
Another thing I really disliked was the fact that she became so needy of these men. She used to be relatively strong, mentally and physically, when she was doing police and investigative work as well as raising the dead. And then all of the sudden, due to the “ardeur”, she became a sex fiend. She had to have sex or die. And even other books that had succubus in it was never like this. Since she was “forced” to have sex with men, she became very, very dependent on the men around her. It was like she could never be without them and couldn’t be just herself anymore.
The one thing that I kept thinking after around book 10 was the fact that I’m 99% sure that these books are a direct link to the author’s own issues. She even mentioned it somewhere either on her website or on Goodreads or something where she herself was often in group sex/orgys and that there was nothing wrong with it. I mean, that’s your own prerogative but I think there comes a time when you need to remove your fictional characters from your own personal problems. It was like she needed some reassurance that it was fine to be so out there like that so she put it in her book. It was honestly to the point that each book had about 80% sex scenes. There was no real content anymore and no real action other than sex and more sex. Also I’m pretty sure that even Laurell herself got tired of writing some parts of the book because she kept repeating herself in explanations and whatnot.
Honestly, I kept with the books mainly because I wanted to see what the end result was between her, Jean Claude, Richard, Micah and Nathaniel. These were the core men that I was actually interested in. The rest could just disappear for all I care. However, by book 19, I can see that there was no end in sight for the sex scenes and how she became so powerful with both mystical stuff and with her magical vayjay. Seriously, I just don’t understand how men can sleep with her and then suddenly be in love with her. Like WTF. Plus I’m just tired of reading about sex over and over again in different situations and with different men. It’s like a rotating board. Also, it is not at all realistic to be like “omg, Anita, you’re so tight.” Girl, you’re probably wider and looser than any woman I know. You have TWELVE men you’re constantly sleeping with and they’re all “very well-endowed”plus all the other men you sleep with once or twice. There is NO FUCKING WAY you’re “so tight” after all that. Please. Laurell, be fucking realistic here.
Oh mannnn, what to say about Anita Blake? So many things to say yet so little time to say it. Plus, I don’t want to write like a 500 page essay about the pros and cons about this series. I remember reading this series back when I was in high school, many, many years ago, and I caught up to, I think the most recent at that time, which was Skin Trade (I think, not 100% sure) and I was still engrossed enough to continue with the series. I told myself to come back to it later and finish the series. 8 years later, I finally have the chance to come back to it and I’m not sure what the fuck I was thinking at that time.
Okay, the first, I want to say 8, books were great. I enjoyed reading about Anita Blake and even enjoyed the love triangle between Jean Claude and Richard. I also liked Nathanial a lot as well as Micah so I was fine with those four men. Even though I think that’s 3 too many but, as a female, I can appreciate having many men woo and love me. However, I think there comes a time when you need to draw a line between a few and way too fucking many. I don’t think Laurell can draw that line. Anita, by the end of Bullet, had at least TWELVE men plus others that she slept with on a “pinch” or because she had some sort of “emergency.”
The biggest issue I had with this book isn’t the number of men, but the fact that Anita went from a relatively prude woman (I mean, in the first book she wasn’t with anyone at all and by around book 3 or 4, she was still relatively shy about men and sex and was essentially only with Richard and/or Jean Claude.) to someone who was willing to just sleep with almost anyone even females. It was like she lost her morals or something.
Another thing I really disliked was the fact that she became so needy of these men. She used to be relatively strong, mentally and physically, when she was doing police and investigative work as well as raising the dead. And then all of the sudden, due to the “ardeur”, she became a sex fiend. She had to have sex or die. And even other books that had succubus in it was never like this. Since she was “forced” to have sex with men, she became very, very dependent on the men around her. It was like she could never be without them and couldn’t be just herself anymore.
The one thing that I kept thinking after around book 10 was the fact that I’m 99% sure that these books are a direct link to the author’s own issues. She even mentioned it somewhere either on her website or on Goodreads or something where she herself was often in group sex/orgys and that there was nothing wrong with it. I mean, that’s your own prerogative but I think there comes a time when you need to remove your fictional characters from your own personal problems. It was like she needed some reassurance that it was fine to be so out there like that so she put it in her book. It was honestly to the point that each book had about 80% sex scenes. There was no real content anymore and no real action other than sex and more sex. Also I’m pretty sure that even Laurell herself got tired of writing some parts of the book because she kept repeating herself in explanations and whatnot.
Honestly, I kept with the books mainly because I wanted to see what the end result was between her, Jean Claude, Richard, Micah and Nathaniel. These were the core men that I was actually interested in. The rest could just disappear for all I care. However, by book 19, I can see that there was no end in sight for the sex scenes and how she became so powerful with both mystical stuff and with her magical vayjay. Seriously, I just don’t understand how men can sleep with her and then suddenly be in love with her. Like WTF. Plus I’m just tired of reading about sex over and over again in different situations and with different men. It’s like a rotating board. Also, it is not at all realistic to be like “omg, Anita, you’re so tight.” Girl, you’re probably wider and looser than any woman I know. You have TWELVE men you’re constantly sleeping with and they’re all “very well-endowed”plus all the other men you sleep with once or twice. There is NO FUCKING WAY you’re “so tight” after all that. Please. Laurell, be fucking realistic here.
I really loved Laurell K. Hamilton's early Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter series books but I did feel like she lost the thread a bit in the middle of the series. I am glad to say that it seems like she is focusing more on the story line and less on the sex of late which makes the books better in my opinion. I think Anita is a great character and Laurell K. Hamilton can write a great plot but her overly complicated sex scenes can somewhat take away from the book.
The more I think about this book the more it creeps me out.
There will be spoilers.
So it's a typical Anita Blake novel from the recent lot. Jean-Claude is at a distance, Richard is invisible boy and mostly Anita is working with the were-pack of toy boys.
The story starts with an incident that is apparently based on a real-life incident Laurell has with some friends while travelling (only with more clothes, Anita's men seem to favour tank-tops). Recounted by Laurell in an afterword and shown in a cartoon it's vaguely entertaining.
Bracketing this Anita has meets with clients who want her to resurrect their dead spouses, neither for good reasons. I'm not quite sure why Tony Bennington wants his spouse back, he doesn't come across as wanting her, just wanting the appearance of her. The other, Ms Natalie Zell wants to punish her husband for dying on her. So when someone kidnaps Anita and some of her harem to force her to resurrect a body, they're not sure. The kidnappers have cut Anita off from her power and Anita has to use one of them to save her men.
So she takes his free will from him. And then debates with her guys about letting him join her harem. She basically rapes him, and then dismisses the consequences as if they didn't exist. This is one of my problems with Anita, her actions have little consequence, she doesn't really regret much about how she treats people, it's her past that matters, her issues that surface again and again.
I'd like to see a book where Jean Claude and Richard do an intervention, force her to think, to actually pay attention to the consequences of her actions rather than drifting through her world collecting power tokens and gaining a lot of power, too much power. She imbalances the power in the world and there's nothing done about that.
And then there's the taster of the next book, where a five-year-old insists on being kissed on the lips, like the big boys do and I'm squicked even more.
Sorry, no, this is it. I have to stop punishing myself like this and declare an end to reading this series. This was a short that I flew through and it's made me quite squicked with the world, I now need to read something exceedingly fluffy to ensure I don't lose the plot entirely.
There will be spoilers.
So it's a typical Anita Blake novel from the recent lot. Jean-Claude is at a distance, Richard is invisible boy and mostly Anita is working with the were-pack of toy boys.
The story starts with an incident that is apparently based on a real-life incident Laurell has with some friends while travelling (only with more clothes, Anita's men seem to favour tank-tops). Recounted by Laurell in an afterword and shown in a cartoon it's vaguely entertaining.
Bracketing this Anita has meets with clients who want her to resurrect their dead spouses, neither for good reasons. I'm not quite sure why Tony Bennington wants his spouse back, he doesn't come across as wanting her, just wanting the appearance of her. The other, Ms Natalie Zell wants to punish her husband for dying on her. So when someone kidnaps Anita and some of her harem to force her to resurrect a body, they're not sure. The kidnappers have cut Anita off from her power and Anita has to use one of them to save her men.
So she takes his free will from him. And then debates with her guys about letting him join her harem. She basically rapes him, and then dismisses the consequences as if they didn't exist. This is one of my problems with Anita, her actions have little consequence, she doesn't really regret much about how she treats people, it's her past that matters, her issues that surface again and again.
I'd like to see a book where Jean Claude and Richard do an intervention, force her to think, to actually pay attention to the consequences of her actions rather than drifting through her world collecting power tokens and gaining a lot of power, too much power. She imbalances the power in the world and there's nothing done about that.
And then there's the taster of the next book, where a five-year-old insists on being kissed on the lips, like the big boys do and I'm squicked even more.
Sorry, no, this is it. I have to stop punishing myself like this and declare an end to reading this series. This was a short that I flew through and it's made me quite squicked with the world, I now need to read something exceedingly fluffy to ensure I don't lose the plot entirely.
Flirt suffers from the same stylistic quirks I don't really enjoy in LKH's other books: the action often gets bogged down for long periods of time for Anita to think about things or for Anita and the other characters in the scene to have long, reflective conversations about "what's happening here?". I don't enjoy it because it feels like it bogs down the story and I don't enjoy it because it feels entirely too rational for everyone (and this often includes the 'villains' of the piece) to sit down and powwow about what they're feeling and why. It also feels too much like LKH doing her own story mechanics in-story rather than outside the story's framework.
All that being said, I liked how (relatively) quickly Anita came to her decisions, without a lot of hair-pulling over what she was doing and what it was going to do to her in the long-term. I also liked the addition of Nicky to the pantheon of characters. He seems like he could be interesting on his own merits and he seems like he could present interesting difficulties now that he's so closely tied to Anita.
All that being said, I liked how (relatively) quickly Anita came to her decisions, without a lot of hair-pulling over what she was doing and what it was going to do to her in the long-term. I also liked the addition of Nicky to the pantheon of characters. He seems like he could be interesting on his own merits and he seems like he could present interesting difficulties now that he's so closely tied to Anita.
It was great to see Anita at work as an animator, it seemed like the series was forgetting that Anita has a daytime job and that she's not just a human servant, vampire executioner, succubus, etc. I also liked the essay Hamilton included on how the idea for Flirt began, it was interesting to read how a simple situation could turn into a novel.