The Laughing Corpse -- Laurell K. Hamilton
A book has to be pretty darned entertaining for me to read in a moving car. So far, Laurell K. Hamilton has a pretty good track record with me--two for two.
Chrissy was worried that I'd freak out about the rather graphic child-murders. Nope. Those parts didn't bother me much. (Okay, I admit that it was horribly disgusting when Anita and Merlioni have the gross-out contest at the crime scene). Usually, though, it's the little things that really get me--like when Anita shoves her thumb into a bad guy's eyeball and pops it! GROSS. I had to put the book down for a few minutes after that one. Just thinking about it gives me the willies.
But, as I've probably said before, what I like the most about the series is the politics:
Vampirism had only been legal for two years in the United States of America. We were still the only country where it was legal. Don't ask me; I didn't vote for it. There was even a movement to give the vamps the vote. Taxation without representation and all that.(Note the 'if I was caught'--that's a perfect example of the Anita Blake attitude).
Two years ago if a vampire bothered someone I just went out and staked the son of a bitch. Now I had to get a court order of execution. Without it, I was up on murder charges, if I was caught. I longed for the good ol' days.
For people who don't know the series at all, not only is Anita Blake a vampire hunter; she's also an animator. (An animator raises the dead--apparently, as a child, before she learned how to control it, zombified roadkill followed her around a lot). Of course, as an animator, Anita has a special interest in the dead--so she takes issue with the fact that it's perfectly legal for people to raise zombies and use them as slaves. (Chrissy, I will admit that I did find the idea of raising zombies to be sex-slaves to necrophiliacs rather disturbing).
All of this is leaving out the whole Jean-Claude Master-of-the-City thing, but I haven't hit any raunchy sex scenes involving him (yet), so I'll let that one go. For now.
posted by Leila at 8:05 AM
3 Comments:
I don't know, this book creeped out a lot of folks who I had to tell"No! Keep reading." Personally, I had a hard time with it because I have an intense fear of zombies and this one is pretty zombie-centric (I also have an intense fear of spiders. Bad goth girl, no cookie!).
The sex doesn't start up for several more books, so unless you plan on reading the enitire 12 or 13 book series as part of your 50 books this years, don't sweat it too much. Though I will say the scenes are quite good, if you're into that kind of thing.
I was dissappointed in the most recent one, I must say. There were things I absolutely loved about it, but I had to admit to myself, it was pretty light on the plot. Sadness.
My grandmother doesn't like this series too much, she says there's too much blood. She likes the Fey series LKH wrote. I would like to add here that there is like 10 more sex in the Fey series, and it's sometimes weird to talk to my grandmother about these books.
1:43 PM
Once again, your grandmother is SO COOL.
I could totally see people getting creeped out by some of the stuff in the book. Actually, I'd be surprised if there weren't a lot of people that got upset about the gross-out contest, specifically. If they didn't get that it was a coping mechanism, they'd probably say something like: "That Anita Hill is SICK. Imagine! Throwing mangled, bloody body parts around! Just awful!!" Actually, some people might say that even if they understood the coping thing.
Anyway. Happily, I have not been deterred--I continue to like the series. A lot. I'll even read the sex ones. Probably. It isn't that I dislike sex in books, it's just that I'm almost always surprised by it. "Like, YIKES! They're DOING IT! Should I avert my eyes?"
I'm so immature.
Zombies don't bother me much. It was the zombies that still had souls. That was horrible. Dominga S. was such a huge bitch.
2:14 PM
Uh, yeah. By Anita Hill, I meant Anita Blake. As far as I know, Clarence Thomas has yet to appear in this series.
What a weird brain-fritz.
2:20 PM
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