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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Review: Black Howl by Christina Henry

Black Howl by Christina Henry
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I'm going to try not to go on and on about this one. It's just not as good as it should be, again. It has a lot of the right elements, but it's still not coming together. Maddy is still a big know-it-all for an extremely inexperienced woman. For men who are thousands of years old to look to her as a strategic leader, and a battle leader, is just silly. And she's bullheaded and stupidly impulsive. Plus she almost dies and get healed by one fallen angel or another over and over again, it could be a drinking game. And I'm supposed to believe that she's suddenly so powerful at one point that if Lucifer himself chose to fight her he would lose? Not the Lucifer that's been written in this series, it doesn't make sense. And the Jude background story was completely unnecessary, it was overly complicated and again, silly. And there was a too much going on in this one, it's frantic. But I did actually like the twist in the end that a lot of people will probably hate, the series needs to be shaken up; when you start off from book one with a storyline that's too predictable it puts a series in a rut. Sorry, that was my attempt to keep this short! Anyway, it's just a series that I want to like much more than I do.

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