A Spoiler Free Review
I am overall much happier with Slay than I was with Smoulder. I feel like stuff actually happened and was resolved in a satisfying manner that didn't leave me wishing for a second half of the book. I am kind of over the massive amount of characters we have to keep track of at any given moment... I really just can't keep focused on more than whoever's "on stage" and even then it's like "Wait, who's that again?" or just rolling with it. The same goes for the bad guys. At this point, I think I'm having a hard time feeling any kind of actual threat from them. Deimos was scary to Anita, but not really to me. I didn't really feel any of the threat with Anita because, well, it's 30 books in and it's just not feasible for her to really lose or be permanently separated from her loved ones. I definitely felt the threat from her Grandmother at the end... but I won't say anything more than that about that because spoilers so... yeah.
I did think Deimos had an interesting power set. That he could essentially throw an entire city into chaos by feeding the fears of hate groups and everyone, apparently, was neat. Ultimately disastrous, but you kind of know that if you know people so... yeah. Fear makes us do some fucked up shit, that's for sure. For example... human history. But that's a rant for another time. Also Deimos' dragon form was interesting. I don't know about anyone else, but I definitely clocked that we'd be getting a dragon as soon as crime scene photos started appearing "on stage." Like, yep, only thing that could have bitten a dude in half in one bite and left reptilian footprints was gonna be a dragon. Well... maybe a dinosaur, but my brain dismissed that one pretty quickly... though I guess Deimos could have been a dinosaur instead of a dragon but... nah. Earliest vampire at this point was Mommy Dearest and she was a sabre toothed cat so... yeah. No more dinos at that point in time.
I don't really have much feeling toward Anita's family. They're definitely the epitome of "we're not close at all except for perfunctory things like weddings, but we still think we have some say in your life because we're your family." Or at least, Fredrick and Grandma Blake are. Judith and Andria are clearly more supportive and accepting. Josh is just kind of there in the background, not being "on stage" this time except for a few moments. Fredrick really pissed me off. I sincerely hate his insistence that Anita conform to his ideas about respecting your parents because they're your parents and treating his adult child like she's not an adult in the same breath. Just no. My grandfather tried to pull that crap on me once and I literally screamed in his face and walked away. Probably not the best way to handle it, but it's funny in hindsight. Grandma Blake... really should have just been kept away, like Anita wanted. Anita was definitely the bigger person by not calling off the entire thing immediately when Grandma Blake appeared.
I feel like the entire thing with the Wicked Truth at the hospital really slowed down the pacing. I mean, I guess it was a nice break from the action-action-action happening, but I dunno. It did serve to show how weird it was for Anita to be without the metaphysical stuff for once in a very long time. Definitely wouldn't want that to be the norm. Also that part of the book kind of drove home how really weird and awkward it is to have security also be either lovers or former lovers. Like, I don't know why I didn't really think about it until now, but yeah... awkward stuff with Echo.
So yeah, I was much happier with Slay and it was definitely a lot of fun. Happy 30th birthday to the Anita Blake series. Only 5 years younger than me.
Favorite Lines
" Judith said, 'Language.'I stared at her as I said, 'Motherfucking son of a bitch, what's wrong with my language, Judith?'" - Judith and Anita Blake"The only difference from the Church's perspective was that vampires were dead, so they couldn't repent, but the bloodiest serial killer could still be saved if they were truly repentant. I'd met serial killers both undead and alive, and they weren't savable. What they had done to their victims put them outside of God's Grace or the salvation of Jesus Christ." - Anita Blake
"It's just rude to leave bodily fluids in public." - Anita Blake
"Part of true love is telling each other the truth even when we don't want to hear it and reminding us again when we forget what we've already told each other." - Anita Blake
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