Laurell K. Hamilton's "Circus of the Damned", #142

[katikat]

In Circus of the Damned-now in trade paperback for the first time-a rogue master vampire hits town, and Anita gets caught in the middle of an undead turf war. Jean-Claude, the Master Vamp of the city, wants her for his own-but his enemies have other plans. And to make matters worse, Anita takes a hit to the heart when she meets a stunningly handsome junior high science teacher named Richard Zeeman. They're two humans caught in the crossfire-or so Anita thinks.

Review: Third in the Anita Blake series. A very well-written book, full of action and surprising twists. I really liked Larry, Richard and Stephen, just like Anita's cop friends Dolph and Zerbrowski. And in places the action was so fast that I was literally on the edge of your seat. But!

I just really dislike Anita Blake herself. The fact that she hates anything supernatural often clouds her judgment to the point where she makes grave mistakes that cost people their lives (but only when it's humans does she care, when it's vampires or lycanthropes who get killed, she just shrugs it off). And the same goes for her temper tantrums - Bert annoyed her, so she didn't call back when he paged her. Result? Two dead innocent humans. And she just never learns. And the way she treats lycanthropes? On the one hand she admits that lycanthropy is a disease and she compares its victims to rape victims - then she does 180 and calls them monsters. I just can't stand her holier-than-thou attitude.

Comments

[ixchel55.livejournal.com]

At first I loved Anita Blake, but Laurell just seemed to continue to make her more and more holier than thou. Plus the books just became lone paeans to how powerfully and sexually appealing Anita is and what a tyrant she's become. All bow down and crawl into Anita's bed and service her (which I think is fantastic), but should any of her harem dare to touch another while she was busy spreading her legs elsewhere, they were cast from her dark and shining presence (which is totally hypocritical). She's a big fan of homoeroticism without any real follow through because they're all busy satisfying her alone.

Do I sound bitter? I am. I used to love her books but I haven't been able to read the last few because they're just super long Mary Sue sex blogs.

[katikat.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm only up to book 3 and she already annoys the heck out of me. I mean, what she did to Jean-Claude in this book was inexcusable. But once Oliver and Alejandro were dealt with, she was back to her old habits.

[ixchel55.livejournal.com]

I still have fond memories of her first 4 or 5 books but after that they frankly become harder to read. And it's a shame, too, because I really like her style of writing, it's just the way she uses it that's kind of off-putting.