Bloody Bones by Laurell K. Hamilton

According to my previous rating of 5 stars, I was definitely a lot more into Bloody Bones than I am now. (Down to 3 stars) It's alright and boy, does it go a mile a minute once we meet Seraphina... but that mile a minute-ness is actually what made me dislike it more this time around. I feel like a lot happened in too short of a time-frame to make the plot fit and go where it needed to. I really feel like the ultimate solution to Rawhead and Bloody Bones was too easy. Aaand then there's the first real taste of what vampire "politics" are like in the Anita Blake universe, which I also hate with a seething passion.

So... first, on a reread it's actually kind of nice to "experience" Anita traveling pre-entorage. Larry definitely doesn't count. We don't have 5000 characters to keep track of at any given moment. Just Anita and Larry joined by Jean-Claude and Jason. Very chill. Kind of miss that.

I did enjoy, as usual, further expansion of the Anita Blake world with the fairy stuff. This is one of the very few times Anita comes up against fairies... honestly mostly lack-luster. I'm not a fan of Dorcas, but Magnus was at least as menacing as he needed to be. Rawhead and Bloody Bones was semi-interesting before his end... his lore was a lot more interesting than the actual beastie, in my opinion.

Okay, so, vampire "politics" and show-boating and all the "we're gonna play with our food" crap... I get we gotta have vampires shown to be much more dangerous, but I hate it. I honestly feel this is an extension of their humanity showing through. You've got the power to intimidate so you gotta throw it in the faces of your rivals. I get it. This was particularly drawn out by Janos and his rotting ladies. I like that there's more than one type of vampire, and honestly, that scene, or rather, the aftermath, did very much endear Jason to me. However, the manipulation aspect of it bugs the shit out of me. Consent with a coercion backer does not mean actual consent, no matter whose life appears to be on the line. This also happens pretty much non-stop from the moment Anita and the boys arrive at Seraphina's. Anita, we're about to torture some girls to get you to let us torture you instead. Anita, we're gonna kill Larry. Anita, we're gonna kill Jeff. Anita, Larry's about to get killed again. On and on. Ugh. I hate it.

I legit spent about 4 days avoiding the Janos-in-the-basement-scene. Weird, honestly, because I'd forgotten that trauma happens this early in the series... but my brain remembered. I skimmed it, this time, just to get it over with. Read the rest of the book in about 24hrs.

So yeah, I'm a lot less into Bloody Bones than I was originally. I really found a lot of it repetitive in how it forced the plot to move along. I did like the very ending, though. It was interesting, if also kind of confusing... but not a bad ending at all. 

Favorite Lines

"You've just admitted you don't know anything about my job," I said. "How do you know what will affect it and what won't?" - Anita Blake

"A vampire was a person once. Just being dead doesn't cure you of any problems you had as a live human being. If you have a violent pathology before death, that won't change just because you're dead." - Anita Blake

"It's alright," I said. "Carrot's inert." - Anita Blake 

In Other News

As of posting this, I'm one hatching away from finishing my Ebonwumon project over on OviPets. Gonna go ahead and post about this now so I don't end up forgetting later. Ebonwumon is part of my Mega Digimon Project and based on the Digimon of the same name. I did the tattoos on their heads to mimic the helmet-things on the two-headed Digimon. I also did the tail tattoo.

Ebonwumon took me about 13 months to complete.

Ebonwumon

New Spring by Robert Jordan

Full disclosure: Prior to picking up New Spring, I did watch The Wheel of Time Amazon show. I also am well aware that New Spring was not intended to be read prior to its order in the Publication Order… and yet here I am, starting with it first. I look forward to finding out what exactly I was supposed to have had spoiled by reading New Spring first.

That said, I did have fun with New Spring. I liked learning more about Moraine, Lan, and Siuan than I knew previously. It’s always fun for me finding out how characters met and formed their bonds, especially characters like Moraine, Lan, and Siuan. Moraine’s treatment of Lan during their journey together made me smile.

It was also a lot of fun getting to know how The White Tower works from the inside. That wasn’t super clear in the Amazon show.

I don’t really have a whole lot of thoughts, other than that. I did think Malkeri culture seemed interesting… though we clearly won’t be getting much more, if any more of that… though of course I say that with full knowledge of a whole series ahead. Anyway.

New Spring definitely felt like the prequel it is. Nothing delved into super deep. It was entertaining enough. On to the main Wheel of Time series now, I guess. 

The Lunatic Cafe by Laurell K. Hamilton

Beware of spoilers if you have not read the book. Otherwise, read on.

So, I spent a lot of this time reading The Lunatic Cafe this time focused on Anita and Richard and their relationship. I said in my review of Circus of the Damned that I'm really not a fan of Richard and that definitely still holds true. I feel he's all wrong for Anita and know he's not super secure in himself at this point, so them getting engaged in this book was just... blech. I'll definitely be getting more into that later in this review. The B-Plot with the shapeshifters and lycanthropes isn't my favorite of the police-centric stories, but it's definitely not bad. I'm honestly surprised the sort of thing it turns out to be doesn't end up being more prevalent in the series... but then, that would probably be too repetitious... and the antagonists do all die in the end so... yeah.

It's always interesting to get more preternatural world-building. I don’t think we hear much, if anything else about gargoyles and trolls through the rest of the series. Interesting to know they exist, though. We also get our first big encounter with witches, so that's fun. I really do feel like the way Hamilton does her world-building makes the Anita Blake universe feel very lived in. We get trickles of information from what Anita encounters when she encounters it, but never in large info-dumps. I appreciate it a lot.

Sheriff Titus and Officer Aikensen, first in a long line of cops Anita has to convince she knows wtf she’s doing. Being assholes basically just to be assholes. These guys never fail to piss me off. I find myself skimming those parts lately, more often than not. This time they had the added bonus of pissing me off more toward the end of the book... I can just hear Titus' slimy "good ol' boy" voice in my head as I read his dialogue. I fully believe Aikensen deserves his fate.

We also get another impatient antagonist in Marcus. Like, dude, allow for scheduling meetings for the next day, ESPECIALLY if it’s frigging 2am. This intimidation tactic really reads as annoying af. I also find it extremely annoying when the sub-cultures introduce and enforce rules on the humans (it’s generally humans) who have zero clue what’s even going on. Especially when those people used to be completely human themselves and/or have to exist in human society. Like, wtf are you even doing expecting someone who has no clue what’s going on to know this shit or agree to it? Like, yes, okay, explain it to them, but don’t expect the newbies to follow immediately. Express an expectation that the newbie will be held to the “laws” or whatever the next time ya’ll interact. Ugh. Frankly, this whole thing with Marcus, at least the beginning of it, really did not need to be or turn into what it did. He could/should have set up a meeting with Anita alone. But hey, gotta set him -- and Raina -- up for later installments.

Alright, now for the relationship discussion. I have THOUGHTS.

The following two paragraphs are verbatim notes I took as I was reading:

I feel like the conversation about “happily ever afters” at the end of Anita and Richard’s date really highlights why the pair of them just won’t work. This doesn’t exactly come out until later, but Richard’s insistence on that white picket fence mentality despite knowing all along that what Anita does isn’t conducive to that… big red flag. I would have liked to see where that conversation would have gone if Jean-Claude hadn’t derailed it.

How the fuck was Anita supposed to “take care of yourself” when she a) doesn’t know what’s going on and b) doesn’t know the dang rules, Richard? Wtf, man. Keeping her out of it clearly did her no good. Also, Jean-Claude using her against Nikolaos was totally different than the whole Marcus thing. Jean-Claude and Anita weren’t even close to dating at the time. You tell people you’re dating about your big life things, especially when it’ll probably get you killed.

Oooooh the absolute hilarity of Anita waiting for marriage… Also… Richard’s very quick “well let’s get married then”… oooof. Ya’ll haven’t been dating that long… not that people haven’t been a roaring success with a short dating period but… ya’ll also have some serious differing life opinions you need to sort out first. Ooof.

End notes.

Okay, so… Anita and Richard basically have a good chunk of issues. Mainly because Richard doesn’t believe Anita’s really as tough-as-nails and Anita had zero clue what she was getting herself into with Richard and his Beast. This does not go away and, from what I remember about the rest of the series, only really gets worse. Hamilton pretty much states this herself in the Afterword. Richard also clearly has issues with the Beast side of himself, so… yeah. That contributes a lot. Anyway, them getting engaged this early was honestly really stupid, in my opinion, for all the reasons I’ve stated here.

I also really hate Jean-Claude’s whole “I would like to date you for the same amount of time he did and I won’t kill him” thing. Coercion is not a green flag. While ultimately, I think Jean-Claude is the better partner for Anita (just between him and Richard), the beginning of their relationship is gross. First the vampire marks against her will, then the coercive dating... I was reading the bit where Jean-Claude shows up at Anita's apartment after her dip in the icy river and ranting aloud to my boyfriend about how it's all really stupid and everyone is being an asshole... The whole thing is super problematic and I hate it. There are reasons Romance is not my genre.

Anyway... The Lunatic Cafe is a solid fourth entry in the Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series. It really does focus a lot on the issues Anita and Richard have, I didn't just pull all those notes and stuff out of thin air. I'm mostly satisfied with where and how this ended. And oh yeah, Jason's first appearance! 

Favorite Lines

"There are more roads to monsterdom than most people realize." - Anita Blake

"If you do not help and protect those who are less able than you, weaker than you, what good are you? No damn good at all." - Laurell K. Hamilton

An Illustrative Couple of Paragraphs

Please, for the love of all that is Holy, discuss this stuff with your SO well BEFORE you decide to tie the knot. I feel like these paragraphs say a lot about why Richard and Anita shouldn't have gotten engaged in this book... clearly not all, but A LOT.

Circus of the Damned by Laurell K. Hamilton

So, rereading this one was interesting. There’s a lot of setup here for future stuff. More with the vampire marks, Richard and Larry’s introductions, the creation of Humans First, and the solidification of Jean-Claude as Master of St. Louis. It’s a lot and yet somehow manages to work fairly well.

Talking about characters, as this is a reread, is a bit tricky. My opinions are very colored by the future actions of them… well… Richard. I’m mainly kind of conflicted about Richard. Larry’s fine. I like Larry. I had forgotten he was introduced to early, but other than that, he’s fine. No notes. Richard, on the other hand… I think I remember liking Richard to begin with. He comes across as earnest, good-ol’-boy kind of, hampered by the reveal Hamilton wanted to do with him. But otherwise, he seems fine. Future events do color this and I just found myself rolling my eyes some at him. But I won’t get into that otherwise due to spoilers.

I enjoyed Edward and Anita’s continuing relationship. Edward’s always fun. I’ve always enjoyed him, even if he shows up initially to threaten to torture Anita twice in as many books. Their dynamic is one of my favorites going forward.

I think Oliver was… uh… he was there. He was really mostly threatening in the background. Again, this is colored by the reread. I knew how this ended. I did get Alejandro mixed up with a different Alejandro from a different series… of course I can’t remember which one off the top of my head. Alejandro seems to be a popular name among the Aztec vampires… so he sprouted a backstory that wasn’t actually his. 🤪

I did find the actual events of the book went by rather quickly. I did notice Anita got more sleep this time around, though not by much. Starting off the trend of her not quite taking care of herself as she should. I had also completely forgotten that Humans First was started in-series as opposed to Humans Against Vampires. That was kinda neat. I also very much enjoyed the Anita/Zerbowski relationship. They’re quite fun together as well… though definitely not in a romantic sense.

So yeah, Circus of the Damned was pretty solid. Got in some good world and character building.

Favorite Lines

"There are also a lot of very jerky men in the twenty-one-to-thirty age group." - Anita Blake

"Please, I always use fresh sarcasm, never canned." - Anita Blake

"When all else fails, hide. It works for rabbits." - Anita Blake

"How can you possibly torture someone without bamboo slivers?" - Anita Blake