Review: The Isis Collar by Cat Adams

The Isis Collar by Cat Adams
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

2.5 stars. This book is really just more of the same. I still like Celia quite a bit. And for the first half of the book I had my hopes up that the authors had improved their writing a bit, because I hadn't rolled my eyes at all at any silly coincidences like I was so irritated by during the first three books. But it was all downhill from there.

Rizzoli's gift being intuition smacks of lazy storytelling to me, not a cute plot idea. It's too much like Dottie's clairvoyance. Both end up being excuses for the authors to get the characters in the right places at the right times with a handy voilà instead of just writing a tight story.

And then there were the coincidences. Everyone in the book turned out to be related to someone from a previous book, even the minor characters. The doctor was Chris Gaetano's dad, the mage is was Jones's daughter, the kid that gets sick is Julie, and on and on. It's kind of cute once, but after a while it's just annoying, how many people that Celia has met can possibly keep coming back into her life in different ways? There wasn't any big, fated reason reason for it, it was just supposed to be cute, so it got really irritating.

And then the plot just deteriorated. It went from four stars in the middle, to three as it got pretty mixed up with just too many elements going on, to just a total mess in the end. The level of coincidences were staggering. The woman who was kidnapped was explaining one aspect of the story about the collar to Celia couldn't even believe the story herself, even she knew it sounded ridiculous. That whole plot turned out to be so absurd. The stuff with the collar felt tacked on and like a real let down.

And then there's just the love triangle. No real effort was put into it this time. I don't think it works anyway  because John has been developed as sexy and mature and just cool and Bruno hasn't been developed as anything other than a powerful mage who keeps leaving her. Just because she keeps saying that she thinks she'll end up with him doesn't mean that I see what his appeal is at all, they have to show me.

Celia's just a bodyguard, a regular person that this extraordinary stuff happened too. That's what makes me relate to her. So when they make her life seem even more ridiculous than necessary it alienates me. I liked the stuff with her mom, with Dawna, and with her dealing with the changes in her life. I wish they'd try to keep things a bit more grounded. And I wish they'd stop relying so much on easy outs when it comes to storytelling. They sell a lot of books so it's obviously working for them, but I'd never pay for one of their books.

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Review: Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter: The Laughing Corpse, Volume 1: Animator by Laurell K. Hamilton

Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter: The Laughing Corpse, Volume 1: Animator by Laurell K. Hamilton
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book is very short and I wrote a long review of the Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter: Guilty Pleasures combined collection, so I'll just make a few points. Again, the plot is very consistent with the print book, so if you're a fan of the series, you're sure to like this. And I still really like how the graphic novel format emphasizes how petite and feminine Anita is, you really don't get as good a feel for it in the books, no matter how many times she says it. Seeing a small, curvy woman in a skirt and heels creates the image much more strongly of who this character is, female but still tough. It really is an enjoyable supplement to the books. 

There are a few negatives. Anita is so much more in her head than an action character, at least in this one, that the graphic novel format is a bit awkward at times; it's more thought bubbles than action. And why is her nose red in almost every frame? She looks like she's sick, drunk or has been crying. And I still think Jean Claude looks kind of ridiculous, way too black and white and chiseled. I know he's a vampire and is supposed to be pale and that they want to show a contrast with Anita, but he looks like they forgot to color him in. Still, it's mostly minor stuff in an enjoyable book. 

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Review: Deadlocked by Charlaine Harris

Deadlocked by Charlaine Harris
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

2.5 stars. Unlike just about every other fan out there, I don't have a huge problem with the fact that Sookie obviously isn't going to end up with Eric, so that isn't the reason for my low rating on this review. My problem is with the change in the relationships is the abrupt change in story arc and that the author obviously didn't have a well thought-out plan for the series. My feeling is that Sookie is a creature of the light and that ending up with Eric or any vampire really wouldn't have worked in the end and that Harris is doing a decent job of showing that. But boy are these last few books painful. On the one hand she suddenly changed from Eric as the hero to being pretty much a jerk. On the other hand, she's pretty much completely wasting the last few books when it comes to any other plot development, there's almost no story at all. 

This book was mostly just a weird collection of Sookie's thoughts and wandering around town disguised as a murder mystery. It was rambling and overly complicated. In the end the actual plan was really simple, but the story to get there was really convoluted. 

And the entire book had a weird detached feeling, like Sookie was telling me a story but she wasn't really a part of it, just the narrator. I never got that feeling from one of these books before. I made a note about it in the beginning of the book and the feeling never went away. She kept telling me what she was thinking but she never did much or felt much. It was so odd. And it felt like Harris wasn't even trying sometimes. Like on page  120 when Sookie was "having random thoughts" and suddenly wondered how Mr. Cataliades was doing, it felt completely contrived and awkward, but apparently it was the only way Harris could think of to introduce him before he showed up again later in the book. And Sookie showers and does her hair and shaves her legs a lot. Yes, it makes her seem normal, but it's boring. I wish Harris could find more random ways to bring the everyday into things. 

There were some sweet moments though, like between Sookie and Jason when he told her about Michele, or when he gave her a birthday gift, it was a bit contrived but still sweet. The characters are still rich and well-developed, but just having Sookie run into everyone that we know and like isn't enough to have a book, you actually need a strong plot too. 

I did like some things. I like seeing Sookie stand up for herself, even when it is against Eric, especially when he deserves it. I still like Pam. Um. Sigh. It wasn't painful to read. It just wasn't a good book.

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