Guilty Pleasures - Anita Blake Review
May. 19th, 2006 09:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
One of the first essays I read on the online Buffy journal, Slayage, was about Anita Blake the Vampire Hunter as well as Buffy. It's a series of books by Laurell K Hamilton so I swiped the first one from Amazon and gave it a try.
Book one certainly has an apt title - I felt a bit embarrassed that I was enjoying it at first because it's gloriously trashy, kind of like vampire Mills & Boon. But the main character is quite complex and interesting and she definitely drew me in, which was weird because I don't normally like female protagonists. She shares my motto in life - the Eleanor Roosevelt quote: "No-one can make you feel inferior without your permission", which is very important to me.
A lot of the peripheral characters are very cool and made me want to read more of the books so I can find out more about them.
The world is intriguing as well - the undead are publicly acknowledged and even have rights under the law, which is very different to most horror worlds. It has a lot more depth than I was expecting and it kind of sucks you in and won't let you go, rather like the vampire characters.
Hamilton does exhibit a common flaw among writers in that she tends to repeat disctinctive words and phrases several times in a short space of time. I know it's sometimes difficult to avoid this, but it shows she needs a better editor.
Overall, a very enjoyable read - not exactly brain surgery but with enough quality features to keep my interest right to the end and probably beyond. If you're looking for something quick, easy and fun, then this comes recommended, as long as you don't mind melodrama!