November BOTM - Guilty Pleasures; Anita Blake 1

[Eliza]

It's PARANORMAL Month!
Nominate your BOTM for November by October 20th.

Guidelines:
-Book 1's ONLY from a series (unless we've read in a previous month)
-Paranormal theme
-One nomination per person
-First three nominations will go to the polls

[Eliza]

I nominate Guilty Pleasures; Anita Blake 1

[Jamie]

I nominate Daughter of Smoke & Bone:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8...

[Anna]

Anyone having trouble reading the free version? It seems the formatting just goes away after a few chapters, it's making it difficult for me.

[A.V.]

Anna wrote: "Anyone having trouble reading the free version? It seems the formatting just goes away after a few chapters, it's making it difficult for me."

...There's a FREE version?! >_<
*tosses my trade paperback against the wall*
Oh well, I've enjoyed reading it.

[Anna]

ok well... finished reading it. when people are ready to talk about it, i definitely got some things to say.

[Eliza]

Anna wrote: "ok well... finished reading it. when people are ready to talk about it, i definitely got some things to say."

Why don't you kick it off Anna! Anyone else who's read it, feel free to jump in too!

[Anna]

ok well... negative comments incoming.

i really had to struggle to finish this thing. the last 15-20% of the book were fine (though the climax felt too easy), but the rest of it... damn. i felt like i was reading a 16 year old's story about her favorite original character. i don't really have anything against Mary Sues (Batman is a Gary Stu and he's still awesome), but only when they're consistent.

A lot of the book seemed to be all "I'm so unique" in a very superficial way. 90% of the characters you met in the first half were pale people with black hair. Even the main character has to be pale, despite being half Mexican.

There are also a bunch of internal inconsistencies. Edward is this bounty hunter badass who used a flame thrower on vampires, but Anita is the "Executioner?" Why does she agree to work with people who allow everything she stands against to happen? Why is a civilian allowed to KILL for the police? Why is the regular church suddenly disempowered, when they would have come back WAY STRONGER about the value of one's soul and vampires being the spawn of the devil? What are the actual rules of this universe?????

Just a lot of small details kept bringing me out of it. I think the Rat King was my favorite character.

I can keep going on for a while, but I'll just end with the writing style. A single paragraph would contradict itself 2-3 times. Her thought process is so jarring, her "stingers" fell flat every time, and her jokes really aren't funny to me. I skipped about a page of her describing where she worked, because I really didn't care and it didn't matter. And the tense kept changing from past to present; not sure what that was about.

Now, I haven't read a lot of vampire fiction, and I've read even less monster hunter-type of stuff, but... damn. I really tried to like it. I have a few "hardass" characters of my own, but I just felt like I could do a better writing job.

Sorry for the semi-angry rant. Also, Jean-Claude is terrible and the book justifies his violating actions because Anita has a crush on him? No.

[Eliza]

Rant is fine Anna, this is a safe place for that. I've read this series before, and my advice is that if you liked it even a little, keep reading. It's a very long series and the author grew both technically and as a human as she wrote it. Anita changes a lot during the series and you'll be surprised where she ends up.

If you disliked the book that much and don't want to continue with the series, that's also fair. :-) to each his own.

[Eliza]

Did anyone else finish this one up and have comments?

Sorry this is so late, pneumonia is a productivity killer. :-(

[Jamie]

I agree with a lot of your points, Anna. The first book IMO, is by far and away the weakest. Honestly, I almost gave up after book 3. However, as I kept going through the series I started to actually be invested im the characters.

To me LKH, and through her, Anita, is incredibly preachy in the first book. I felt "shamed" most of the book. She had a lot of opinions of how life "should" be and very judgmental of all others. I think as LKH grew as a person the books improved greatly.

I too love the Rat King and am happy to report he is a key figure in several other books. The vampires as a whole get much more interesting but sadly the villians are often the weakest part. The first book had a good plot but Anita always seems to have to repeat herself.

I strongly dislike when writers explain the same thing over and over (Rules of Quidittich, banner design, how much elves hate dwarves, etc.). Anita explains her martial arts and how badass she is over and over. It took me awhile to not hate her everytime she mentioned it. That said, her heart is in the right place, and I think with time you see the front for what it is and that she is most vulnerable through the ones she loves.

[Anna]

Yes, the shaming! That was another part of the "I'm so unique" part for me; she's not like "other girls," and some of the things that get shamed are... like, she makes a comment on how her legs are always going to be muscled and not "sexy" in shorts? Umm muscled legs are pretty hot... IDK.

One good thing I'll give this book, or at least my experience with it, is the Anita/stripper tickle fight in the beginning. That gave me CHILLS. I had to get up (at like 1 AM) and go eat pastries.

[Eliza]

LKH has another series that both Jamie and I have discussed and agreed is by far better, but I'm glad you could at least find something you enjoyed. If you're inclined, keep reading, the series gets better, I promise.

:-)

[Jamie]

Yes, whole heartedly agree the fairy series (Meredith Gentry) is a much better series with the only downside that LKH takes very long breaks between books on that one.