The Anita Blake Series
By Laurell K. Hamilton
Book review by Jaye
Copyright © 2005 by Jaye
Don't read these unless you like a certain amount of violence, blood and
gore, and a lot of passionate sex. (There's almost no sex in the early books,
but by the later ones, it's all over the place.). Anita Blake is a
vampire hunter -- in fact she's the official vampire executioner for a three
state area. She can't kill them without a court order since this is an
alternate universe United States where all types of preternatural beings have
legal rights. She liked it better back before the law was passed -- it made
her job easier.
Sounds straightforward, right? It would be -- except that she's falling
in love with Jean-Claude, the Master vampire of St. Louis. (This series
started LONG before Buffy!) Then she meets and falls in love with
Richard, the Alpha werewolf of St. Louis. Which one can she give
up? Or can she keep them both?
She has her own code of honor, and she cannot stand Jean-Claude because
she has this prejudice that vampires have no code of honor -- he's a vampire
-- therefore he has no code of honor. Then she starts getting to know him
better, and she finds that although his morality is very different from that
of mortals, it is there. She loves Richard for his code of honor -- but
as she gets to know him better, she starts realizing that his staunch code of
honor is going to get himself and his friends -- who are rapidly becoming HER
friends, too -- killed! So she gets to start practicing error recovery
techniques! In fact, error recovery techniques is almost all Anita Blake
does. And they lead to riproaring chases through all kinds of monsters,
undead creepy crawlies, you name it.
Reading and rereading these books has helped me face identity particles
in myself that I really haven't wanted to, as Anita faces her identity
particles. Particles that scared me. The dark, crawly underside of
myself. This is a series that a lot of people may want to steer clear
of. It's classified horror, but it's actually intimate adventure with
blood and gore overlaid. I've never had nightmares from it, but I've gotten
goosebumps. Try it -- if you dare.
Blessings on you, and on your house.
- Guilty Pleasures
- The Laughing Corpse
- Circus of the Damned
- Lunatic Cafe
- Bloody Bones
- Killing Dance
- Burnt Offerings
- Blue Moon
- Obsidian Butterfly
- Narcissus in Chains
- Cerulean Sins
- Incubus Dreams
