Bloody Bones

[baeraad.livejournal.com]

Hello. I read Lunatic Café a couple of years back, didn't think much of it either way, resolved to ignore LKH in the future. Then I found this community, spent a couple of fun days reading through it, and realised that LKH had gone from an indifferent author to the second most precious thing in literature - a hileriously bad author.

This, of course, changed everything. Mocking a bad book is almost as much fun as enjoying a good one.

So I grabbed the AB books I could find at the local bookstore. The chronologically first I could find was Bloody Bones (I realise that that's technically a pre-porn, pre-suck book, but you got to start somewhere). Here are my impressions of it. I only include the first fifteen chapters, because after that, I found that my comments started repeating themselves. Basically, Anita eventually runs out of new ways of annoying me. I guess that's nice, in a way...

Spoilers for Bloody Bones, obviously.

Chapter one
Summery: Anita is pissy because her apprentice, Larry, got chicken blood all over her clothes. She gets called in to her boss Bert, who gives her an assignment and reveals himself to be greedy, ignorant of just what her work entails and uncaring of any inconvenience or risk she might suffer because of him. They briefly discuss her co-worker John, whom she tried to date once but had to break up with because he couldn’t handle her being like him, only better.

Comment: Anita appears to be surrounded by people who she considers to be inferior to her either morally, intellectually or both. This is not a problem to me, but the fact that the author seems to agree with her assessment of them is. It makes me dislike the character on principle.

Chapter two
Summery: Anita gets ready to depart for the job. She spends some considerable time talking about what she’s going to wear, and takes care to note the sexist unfairness of women’s wear compared to men’s wear. She goes to see her boyfriend, Richard, at the school where he works. There is a great deal of sexual tension. They discuss the current unorthodox state of their relationship; Anita has to date both him and the Master of the City Jean-Claude, or else Jean-Claude kills Richard.

Comment: First of all, I don’t care about what the damn woman wears. I don’t have much of a visual imagination, so I’m pretty much going to picture her wearing some unspecified grey garment no matter how long she spends obsessing about it.

Second… uhm, eh? Do I misremember how that deal in Lunatic Café went? Jean-Claude will kill Richard if Anita doesn’t go through the motions with him? Shouldn’t that be, like, the last thing that would ever work as far as winning her heart was concerned? If he’s going to be like that, why not just rape her and get it over with? This is basically a wussy version of rape, anyway.

This is basically a mild form of the ardeur, isn't it? Anita wouldn't normally date the incredibly hot guy, being such a good girl and all, but she has to, because lives depend on it.

Special notes:

* Anita, on the time when the plane she was on almost crashed: The elderly woman beside me recited the Lord’s Prayer in German. She’d been so scared, tears had come down her face. I offered her my hand, and she gripped it. I knew I was going to die and there was nothing I could do to prevent it. But we would die holding human hands. Die covered in human tears, and human prayers.

Oh, someone shoot me! Could Anita be more of a Mary Sue? Even her character-building flashbacks are inspiring tales of gripping sentiment!

* When I was too little to go to junior high, it seemed that you did get recess. By the time I got there, you didn’t. The way of the world.

Okay, this thing? This thing where I feel I’m supposed to both feel sorry for Anita and at the same time admire her for how stoically she bears her suffering? This thing is getting really old, and I’m just on chapter two.

* There had to be a circle in Hell where you were eternally fourteen, eternally in junior high. One of the lower circles.

Credit where it’s due - this one made me laugh. And agree.

* Anita on one of Richard’s students: (her) outfit was very now. The look of adoration on her face was not. She was shiny and eager just because Mr. Zeeman was giving her some one-on-one help.

Maybe I should start a count of occasions when Anita dismisses a female character as flighty and slutty.

* There was no guile to Richard, no deep, dark plan. He was the world’s biggest Boy Scout.

Given what I understand LKH did to Richard’s character in later books, that statement is sort of funny.

Chapter three
Summery: Anita gets over to the dig site by chopper. She talks to her employer’s flunky along the way. He’s an ass. Then they land, and she talks to her employer directly. He’s an ass too. They go off to take a first look at the graveyard she’s supposed to be raising.

Comment: The supernatural mystery angle is nice, I’ll admit that much. But I’m liking Anita less and less.

Special notes:

* “I realise the earthmoving equipment has complicated your task, Ms. Blake, but we did not do it deliberately.”

I let that go. I’d seen the pictures. They’d tried to cover it up. If the construction crew hadn’t been local with some Bouvier sympathisers, they’d have plowed up the boneyard, poured some concrete, and voilá, no evidence.

I’m starting to see a recurring pattern with Anita noting some skuzzy side to the person she’s talking to, but doesn’t bring it up because it wouldn’t do any good anyway. Anita really sees herself as the world’s only intelligent and moral person, forced to impotently suffer through stupidity and corruption that she’s unable to do anything about, doesn’t she?

* You’d think someone would have clued her in to how bad she looked. Of course, I wasn’t going to tell her either. Who was I to criticize?

Well, madam, apparently you’re the lady who knows exactly what everyone should wear, say and do. I’d say that almost makes it your duty to criticize, so that others can benefit from your supreme wisdom! Or alternatively, perhaps you could stop noting everyone’s flaws and try to, you know, be charitable?

And again with the clothes obsession!

Chapter four
Summary: Anita and her ass of an employer check the graveyard. He tells her that he’s completely screwed if the dead turn out to be of the Bouvier family (which would prove that the land is owned by the Bouviers, who would refuse to sell it to him). Anita can be persuaded with neither money nor pity, but says that she’ll relay the words of the dead faithfully. There is some hints about the Bouviers being magic-users and eccentric. Anita gets a call from the police and have to go.

Comment: Okay, this chapter was decent. Employer guy came off as a bit more human and vulnerable, not so much a complete jerk. He even strokes the protagonist’s ego a bit, and in these kinds of books, that generally means he’s not so bad.

Chapter five
Summary: Anita calls her police contact, who tells her there’s been a murder and she needs to go check it out. There is some discussion about vampire crimes. Anita heads off.

Comment: You know, I’m not sure if I’ve ever had this explained to me – what’s the overlap between animators and vampire executioners? There does seem to be one, with Larry, John and Anita all being both.

Special notes:

* “I’d rather have you on a murder than a lot of the cops I know,” Dolph said.

Of course he would. Characters like Anita wither and die if they don’t get heartfelt compliments from surprising sources at least once per chapter.

* I’d been screaming about vamps being monsters for years. But until a senator’s daughter got herself attacked just a few weeks ago, nobody did shit. Now suddenly it’s cause celebre.

Yes, I am getting the picture, thank you. Anita always knows better than everyone else but no one ever listens to her. Ho hum.

Chapter six
Summary: Anita and Larry are travelling to the murder scene. Larry acts and gets treated a lot like a child. Anita instructs him in how to behave at a murder scene.

Comment: I have to admit that I love the part where Anita admits that she threw up on the first corpse she saw. It doesn’t just make her look like she’s got human weaknesses, it makes her look silly, and that’s much more endearing than her endless self-pity.

Chapter seven
Summary: Anita examines the crime scene under the supervision of Detective Freemont. They discuss what sort of creature might have done this kind of damage.

Comment: So… is this the kind of darketydarketydarketydarkness that LKH claims her head is full of, the kind that she’s so tired of and needs to fight off by writing about something more life-affirming (read: sex, and lots of it)? Because this is kind of mild, really. Lots of blood does not darketydarketydarketydarkness make. If you want an author who (whatever his other flaws) can make you want to wail at the sky with the realisation of how easily the beautiful human form can be transformed into so much dead meat, try Stephen King.

Special notes:

* One exception is serial killers. They’re working through a pathology in which the victims can represent someone else.

Uhm… all serial killers are like that? There’s not, I don’t know, different reasons for why people become serial killers? That seems odd to me.

* Anita on vampires: I searched for a word and there wasn’t one. “They can levitate, sort of fly. I’ve seen it. I can’t explain it, but I’ve seen it.”

Look, either they can move freely through the air in some fashion, or they can’t. I’m sure the details are all very complicated and everything, but for the sake of the argument, you could just say “they can fly” and Freemont would get the right general idea. Unless of course you're looking for a way to show that you have experiences that are so cool and exotic that no mere mortal can possibly understand them...

In fact, pet peeve - why is magic so mysterious in this world? Isn't it just a scientifical fact here? Characters talk about learning about it in school, so why haven't simplified explanations and easily understood metaphores developed? I mean, I don't properly understand quantum physics, but I do know the high school version.

Chapter eight
Summary: Anita and Larry leave the murder scene, talking about the experience. They decide to visit Bloody Bones, the Bouvier family restaurant, because Anita is curious about why they won’t sell the land if it turns out it’s theirs.

Special notes:

* “You’ve been hanging around the police too long. You don’t trust anybody.”

“The cops didn’t teach me that, Larry; it’s a natural talent.”

Yeah, no kidding. When you despise every single person on the face of the earth, of course you don’t trust them. They’re probably conspiring against you because they’re jealous of your perfection.

Seriously, I find it a bit disturbing that so far, Richard is the only other character that Anita seems to like and respect. Even Larry seems more like a burden than anything else. And I can’t help it wonder if the reason why Richard doesn’t get his fair share of self-righteous dismissal is because Anita wants to have sex with him eventually, so she has to fool herself into thinking he’s worthy of her.

Figures. The only force powerful enough to cancel out Anita's judgemental side is her libido.

* For myself, personally, it might work. I would’ve loved to have a badge to shove in Freemont’s face. She couldn’t have chased me off then, not if it was federal. But for most vampire hunters, it was going to be a mess. You needed more than preternatural expertise to work a homicide case. You sure as hell needed more than vampire expertise to carry a badge.

Er… so Anita is completely confident that she’s fit to be a Federal Marshal, it’s all her moronic colleagues she’s worried about? Does she have any additional qualifications over them, other than always being right about everything?

Chapter nine
Summary: Anita and Larry visit Bloody Bones. They find out that the owner, Magnus Bouvier, is a faerie and is using recreational magic on his guests. Anita bitches at him for a while. He's vague about why he wouldn’t want to sell the land.

Comment: Ah yes, BB was that book with the faeries that don’t exist in the Anitaverse, yes? How interesting.

Also, I understand that this happens a lot – Anita stepping into a supernatural recreational establishment and being morally offended by what goes on there. Bah, she needs a sense of humour, this one does.

Special notes:

* Me, they seemed to hate on sight. If I knew any of them, I'd have said they were jealous, but I'm not the kind of woman to elicit jealousy on sight.

But you do elicit jealousy in people once they've gotten to know you? My, aren't we modest?

Chapter ten
Summary: Anita and Larry have lunch, and Anita gets another call from the police. There’s been another vampire-related death.

Chapter eleven
Summary: Anita examines the new murder. It seems unrelated. What’s more, it appears that the victim willingly let herself be bitten, hoping to rise again as a vampire. Anita and the local police decides to hunt down the murderer before he can escape.

Special notes:

* “I’ve done this before and I’m still alive; that makes me an expert.”

Actually, it might just make you lucky. There’s no end to all the stupid stuff people get away with on pure dumb luck.

Chapter twelve
Summary: The victim’s family wants her staked and beheaded right away, out of religious convictions. Anita is unwilling, feeling that existence as a vampire is better than just staying dead.

Comment: Seeing as I... don't much care for Catholicism, I’m very surprised that I’m actually with the super-religious Catholic parents on this one. Maybe it’s because I like Anita even less and I’m itching for a chance to disagree with her on something. Or maybe it’s because I would rather stay dead than rise from the grave as something that wasn’t me, that was some kind of vicious animal that was only alive at night and kept getting the urge to rip people’s throats out.

Of course, it helps that LKH's vampires don't have that "too cool to stay dead" vibe that the best sort of vampires have. They're sort of icky, actually. And if she's going to argue that it's narrow-minded not to treat them as proper human beings, how come so many of them seem to be not only pure evil, but pure evil without much of a reason for it?

Chapter thirteen
Summary: Anita talks to the victim’s little brother. It seems that the vampire who killed her might be her old boyfriend.

Chapter fourteen
Summary: The posse get red to go out and track down the vampire. Anita and Larry have to put up with some crap from an especially macho cop, and Anita beats him up.

Comment: I have to say, the whole monster hunt thing is very well done. I genuinely feel the chill of going out into the dark to track down and kill something that’s as smart as a person and much faster, stronger and more violent. The matter-of-factness of it all just makes it even worse; vampires going berserk is a fact of life in this world. That’s kind of cool.

Chapter fifteen
Summary: The vampire hunters get ambushed, not by one vampire but by several, among them an extremely powerful one that wields a blade much like the one that must have killed those people in chapter seven. Shots are fired, bodies hit the ground, and when they get back to the house, the victim’s brother has been kidnapped.

Comment: Okay. I admit it. This was more than “kind of” cool.

Special notes:

* I felt like a kindergarten teacher sending her kiddies off to a hostile playground.

Anita is still her usual condescending bitch self, though. For fuck’s sake, woman, do you think that you’re not in danger? I don’t care how badass you are, some vampire could get lucky. You’re risking your life along with the rest of them, so less of the “I’m leading lambs to the slaughter,” yes?

Final comments: Well, all my bitchy comments aside, I can see why these books used to be so popular. There's an... immediacy to the story. You can believe in the characters and the plot. And the vampire-hunting and zombie-raising aspects are just amazing. I guess I should enjoy those while I can, because they're not going to be around forever, are they?

To be honest, aside from a minor gripe with LKH's characterisation (I feel she doesn't bother getting into anyone's head other than Anita's; I get the impression that people who disagree with Anita are simply wrong, not that they have their own viewpoints which make perfect sense to them), there's only one thing wrong with the book, in my view: Anita.

I hate Anita. I hate Anita. Die, Anita, die, because you're too big a bitch to live!

Comments

[pandaemonaeum.livejournal.com]

I hate Anita. I hate Anita. Die, Anita, die, because you're too big a bitch to live!

Call me stupid, but that's what I found endearing about Anita. The author had the courage to make her an arrogant bitch. I read a lot, and all too often the woman is nice, kind, self-sacrificing, charitable, sweet, forgiving, caring, decent. Anita is an out and out bitch. She says the shit (some) women think in the quiet of their rooms, she doesn't give a toss about who thinks she's pretty, and she damn well knows she's good at her job. When a man is like that, we call it confident. But a woman? Even you yourself comment that she could shut up and be more charitable. Why they hell should she? Having breasts and a vagina doesn't make you nice or sweet, it makes you female. Part of being female is competitiveness. Anita rarely used to compete with women. She competed with men. She was better at her job, tougher, and nastier than the men. I think my favourite Anita moment is the gross-out moment in the Laughing Corpse, where she and another cop try to out-gross one another, last one to throw up wins. I'm telling you, I might never make friends with someone like oldAnita, but I sure as hell would admire her.

The appeal of these books was a woman who was unlike other female protagonists, whilst at the same time speaking to the part of me that hates hiding my 180+ IQ from people because it invariably intimidates the hell out of them. OldAnita spoke to the anger that sits in me, that society tells me is not acceptable if you have two XXs at Chromosome 23.

Anita now is a pale shadow of that little bitch, and I miss her :/

In short, I want that judgemental bitch back.

[pandaemonaeum.livejournal.com]

I'm saying that I liked Anita for her flaws, not that her flaws were virtues.

Yes, we should possess a shred of concern for other people, but I liked that Anita didn't, in the same way that some of the male characters didn't. It made them real. It made Anita's fears of sliding into sociopathy seem that much more realistic, because part of being a sociopath is an inability to be empathic.

[pandaemonaeum.livejournal.com]

I always read that a lot of what Anita perceived as sassback because she was female was actually because she was a bitch, a know-it-all, and difficult, but Anita perceived it as sexism :) Sadly, I know a lot of people like this!

[summersdream.livejournal.com]

I actually read Cerulean Dreams first, but then went back to the beginning. I HATED Anita, but other characters were interesting. My best friend (who was the Anita fan) suggested your version of Anita's world view. That is the pov that got me through the first books. But it's still... she was more INTERESTING as a possible sociopath/ deluded megabitch. Now she's just an emo middle schooler.

I wonder if she doesn't have a borderline personality disorder or something?

[pandaemonaeum.livejournal.com]

If I'm completely honest, I used to get annoyed at Anita's stubborness, and her abrasiveness for the sake of abrasiveness, but the only written character I have ever really hated was some weak little ninny in a Jean Rhys novel I read years ago.

I admired the hell out of Anita the megabitch, the hardline (if somewhat misguided) feminist. Yeah, she was interesting. The other characters, and her interactions with them, were what made the books for me.

I don't know about borderline personality disorder, I always thought that was a catch-all term for what we used to call 'socially maladjusted'!

[baeraad.livejournal.com]

I would not dream of calling you stupid, and I don't begrudge you having some characters who speak to your own experiences. However, I really must protest against any accusations that I dislike Anita for being the way she is while being female. I have read male characters who went around feeling completely disgusted with the inferiority of all things that weren't them, and I didn't like them, either. And they were usually villains.

I do feel she should be more charitable, yes, because even if she really does know everything and knows what's best for everyone (which is quite a bit assumption), I take it as a given that people do their best. Looking down your nose at them isn't going to make them change, and it certainly isn't going to make it easier to work together with them.

I do agree with you about the spinelessness of most female protagonists, mind you. But is it okay if I feel Anita is too much of a good thing? =]

[pandaemonaeum.livejournal.com]

It's okay to have any opinion you like :)

Now, the CoD Anita is starting to show concern for other people, and I have to say that it's not convincing.

I drew the conclusion I did because you use 'woman' in an accusatory manner at one point in the post, where you say "For fuck’s sake, woman, do you think that you’re not in danger?" and a couple of instances where you use female-specific insults such as "bitch". If you really dislike any character who behaves like this, then non-gender-specific insults might be the way to go :)

[baeraad.livejournal.com]

Hmm. Duly noted. ^_^; I'll make sure to remember the risk for giving the wrong impression with "bitch" from now on. Thanks for the tip. :)

But as for "for fuck's sake, woman," I assure you that I would have said "for fuck's sake, man," had she, you know, been one. =]

[pandaemonaeum.livejournal.com]

Yes, I'd thought that might be the case :) If my husband wants to see a fit of epic proportions he calls me 'woman' in exactly that perjorative way, then hides behind the couch giggling! :D

[summersdream.livejournal.com]

I didn't realize that there was any connotation to that stuff at all. You're annoyed at someone you say 'bitch' if the subject is a girl or 'bastard' or 'motherfucker' or other such thing if it's a guy. Although I've also seen/read a guy called a bitch. And I've seen 'man' used in the same context (in fact I can attest to several female friends who can just by tone of voice turn the word 'man' into the filthiest insult). And sluts come in both genders too.

I just assume when people use those terms to insult Anita, it's because she IS supposedly female and thus more apt to receive female-targeted insults. (Now, Nathaniel or Mycah should probably get non-gender-specific insults, as they don't seem to have any gender at all. Or personality.) Although 'misogynistic pigbeast' is my favorite Anita insult ever, and came out of one of my friend's mouths after she attempted to read the last few novels.

Thanks for giving me something else to ponder regarding gender roles in this series. lol

[pandaemonaeum.livejournal.com]

The way I look at it is, if you will accept a male character behaving in that way, what is the difficulty with a female character behaving in that way? I always liked that Anita wasn't a girly-girl, she didn't feel the need to wear make-up and heels, it was a chore to her to have to get out of jeans and into something more glamourous. In several of the books, Anita participated in weddings, and never once complained about not being the bride. She complained about having to wear the goddamn stupid dresses. Even in the current books, if someone is complaining about being dressed up, Anita will say something like "Hey, I wore make-up." as if it's a big deal to her.

The other thing I liked, was that Anita was beligerent and 'masculine', but was still heterosexual. All too often, authors fall back on making tough women lesbians. LKH (even if it is her own homophobia) never fell into that trap.

I find myself pondering gender roles a lot, maybe I should stop!

[pandaemonaeum.livejournal.com]

I was hoping to watch the slide into sociopathy, to be honest. Every book she got ever-closer to being an all-out sociopath. The whole Nietzsche vibe, with the abyss looking into you, was what I was hoping for, instead if the emo whingeing mess the books are now.

[marumae.livejournal.com]

*de lurks* Major farking WORD on that, fictional sociopaths are fun to read about and write with, real life? No, of course not.

[witchwillow.livejournal.com]

Your point is why I accepted Edward both working with her and speaking up for her with the other killers.

Because she was one of them - a stone cold killer. Even if she didn't want to admit it just yet. And if she'd been killed just for being a woman - they'd have missed out on the thrill of going head to head with one of their own.

I always got a weird little sister/female me / kill the demon in front of me vibe re: her relationship with Edward. And thus his disappointment when she seemed to be sliding into bed with the monsters. Because he wanted her to be a human monster. Not a supernatural.

/ends babbling.

[defiler-wyrm.livejournal.com]

Likewise. She turned into a monster, all right, but instead of the compellingly sociopathic kind that's just human enough to make it terrifying, it's something out of bad hentai fanfic. oAo

[saucyirishlass.livejournal.com]

Hey, I've never been particularly fond of Anita. I've always resented having to go through her mind to get to the other characters that I love.

[dwg.livejournal.com]

Oh, Bloody Bones is one of my favourite books in the series! I heart Seraphina so very much and her bitchitude! *dances* Honestly, this is one of the few books in the bunch that does villainy reasonably well even if it's got little or nothing to do with the task at hand and the whole connection to the original idea is really clumsy.

Also, this feeds my Corruptor love. Janos, Pallas & Betina = ot3. RAR!

That, and it poked my Anita/JC shipping heartstrings. *sighs nostalgically* Oh, how things have changed.

About my biggest regret is that it was never followed up on JC's ties to the Branson vampires and Kissa just vanished into thin air, ne'er to return. That thread right there has so much potential for awesome and it's totally wasted.

[baeraad.livejournal.com]

The Jean-Claude/Anita tension was indeed very hot, while simultaneously Jean-Claude was very, very cool. :D I love how he's so polite and so civilised and even reasonable, but underneath it all you just know he's constantly plotting to get more and more of what he wants. =]

[dwg.livejournal.com]

I KNOW! There was that Machiavellian undead bastardry that I fell in love with (it's...my kryptonite, I swear) and it just chews me up how that's mostly been forgotten in JC's new role as Obi Wan Kenobi of the group.

I'm living in the land of denial and keep telling myself that Anita's POV on all this is screwed up and wrong, JC's as duplicitous as ever and that he's playing dumb to keep Anita unawares of his Grand Master Scheme of Sneaky Ninja Vampireness.

[saadiira.livejournal.com]

Seconded, and I also liked Bloody Bones very well. I liked all of them, right up until around the end of Obsidian Butterfly. Didn't entirely like what went on with Edward, there, and that bit of OMG deicide, but was willing to let it slide. Then, WTF? It all just turned into a poorly written pornfest. THAT is when I stopped liking the books, even loving some of them.

-Dira-

[nimnix.livejournal.com]

Having a self-righteous, arrogant bitch who thinks she is always right is one thing. Having that character always BE right and the arrogance deserved because EVERYONE around her is lacking... that's just weak characterization for everyone in the book.

[baeraad.livejournal.com]

I completely agree. I'm all for characters who get themselves into trouble because they only thought they had it all figured out. =]

[nimnix.livejournal.com]

I love that... I'd like to see it happen in LKH's world

There are so many places where LKH drops the ball when it comes to consequences. She sets up situations that could become extremely complicated, deep, treacherous, etc. and Anita opens her big mouth in exactly the WRONG times and says things that SHOULD elicit really strong reactions if her characters actually are what she described them as.

Then LKH pulls out the teeth and claws, leaving this gimpy, mutated sack of flesh shambling through the book wailing for mercy.

With Anita as the sole POV, there's a lot of potential undercurrents being glossed over. She's not the introspective or observant type when it comes to people and motivation, or even things like facial expressions and the differences between people. If this is LKH's intent, to show Anita suddenly getting hit with all the cues she's been missing, then it's extremely well-hidden.

[dwg.livejournal.com]

That's one of my biggest pet peeves of late - we're stuck with Anita's POV and she's somehow so incredibly AWESOME, she just KNOWS what the other characters are thinking/about to do and can read them like an open book -- including the people she's only just met. But woe to anyone that tries to read her and preempt her in some way, because they get bitched at wholeheartedly and taken out of the room.

Srsly, unless she's actually omnicient or can read everyone's mind without her head exploding, this is the most. ridiculous. thing. ever. Having your character just "know" something and turn out to be right is stupid beyond words, simply because of the "what if they're wrong?"

But Anita can never be wrong, so...I'm just talking crazy here.

[nimnix.livejournal.com]

That's what you get for thinking. The only cure is severe brain damage, really. Or the realization that she is giving some serious spoof material to work with, or that it frees up our brains to imagine the way the book SHOULD be.

[fashi0n-mistake.livejournal.com]

*looks at old Richard with a depressed look in her eyes* I really miss him.

*smiles* When I first read this, I thought Anita was pretty cool but I have a much different opinion now. She's annoying and I absolutely hate that she's always, without fail, right.

[missamii.livejournal.com]

Even during the old days I was always torn between liking her and loathing her. It kind of made her seem more human to have the unpleasant side to her, and I believed that her egocentrism came from her being emotionally stunted and never really growing out that teenaged "Me-Me-Me" phase. Knowing what do about the author now, I'm not so sure that is true. For that reason, as much as I loved books 1-6 I'm terrified of reading them over again.

[saucyirishlass.livejournal.com]

For that reason, as much as I loved books 1-6 I'm terrified of reading them over again.

Oh, thank God, I thought I was the only one. I want my memories of those books preserved, and I fear that if I pick them up again, they'll be contaminated by what I know now about LKH and Anitaverse.

[found-then-lost.livejournal.com]

See, I have mixed feelings about Bloody Bones. The negative ones win.

Anita always annoyed me. I couldn't stand the girl. But I liked her other characters and her world.

Now, Bloody Bones. Bare in mind, I read this last year. I liked the end of chapter fifteen, where Anita comes back to the house and has to walk outside. It just appealed to me because it showed that she failed. Not that it was a good thing, but it showed she wasn't perfect and she realised what this meant.

The corrupters! Hell yeah Baby!

The very small part of the scene when JC is completey like...stoned! I like the image of him rolling on the floor, in fits of giggles because of "Fang face."

Negative Points:

I am so NOT a Jean-Claude/Anita person. I can't stand the pairing. Probably a good reason I very pissed with later books. I couldn't stand seeing this almighty vampire begging to be with Anita. And it was worse when she was with him. So that was a major disappointment.

The scene with Anita and Jean-clause in the bathroom. I just....I don't know. Didn't like it. Don't think I would have liked it whoever it was. I don't think it really fit with me because I never thought it fitted with the whole rhythem of the series.

Anita is more dominant than Jason. I knew it, but still.

[witchwillow.livejournal.com]

Maybe it took seeing someone else go chapter by chapter. But sometime around your comments on chapter 2 it finally hit me why the Richard vs JC thing pissed me off; most pointedly the 'Oh Richard couldn't accept himself' bullshit.

It's Superman vs Batman!

And she made Superman a wuss!

Now, granted I'm more a Batman girl than a Superman girl. But they both have unique pov's and unique ways of handling things and unique personalities and reasons to be attracted to them.

Her 'Superman/Kal-El' went from that, to a slobbering half-wit Bizzaro. Except that The World's Finest are friends. And Richard and Jean Claude got along fine before Anita entered the picture. Richard knew where he stood with JC. JC knew Richard was hostage and spy. It was all simpatico.

The moment Richard became Ulfric and could be on par with JC that should have been a dangerous moment for the rest of the world. Sort of like when Superman and Batman form a rudimentary friendship (back in the days when they weren't friendly when they first met. And set off to fight crime! Criminals Beware!

Only Richard suddenly became conflicted, confused and stupid and JC got screwed in the head by the pooch of doom!.

Did LKH realize that the men would be more powerful than her pov character, so she had to put them down? If so, why set up a Triumberate anyway. Sure Anita's no Wonder Woman. But the Trinity works well for the Justice League. So why can't she make it work for her?

Just... Sorry, I know I'm bringing super hero comics into it. But it just hit me really, really hard the 9th level of cockup the woman's gone and done with something so fundamentally classic from a lit pov.

Just... Cheese on pissmoldcrackers man. Geeze!

[delphinapterus.livejournal.com]

Superman/Batman is one of the best analogies I've heard for JC/Richard. It fits so well.

[sharkbytes.livejournal.com]

that is brilliant!! It never occured to me, but now it makes perfect sense. It also reminds me of that speech from Kill Bill vol. 2, where David Carradine (!!) tells Uma Thurman that Superman's costume isn't the cape and tights, but it's his guise as Clark Kent. Richard is the same way, at least to me. He's the king of the werewolves, his costume is the Science-teacher. He's too badass to be so wussified by LKH.

I really need a Batman/JC icon....*contemplates making one*

[shadwing.livejournal.com]

Actually your analogy works very well, and while LKH might see Anita as Wonder Woman, she's the farthest thing from it.

Wonder Woman is a fierce warrior able to go toe to toe with Supes himself and not only hold him at bay but in theory can beat him. She can be a right nasty bitch, and I so don't want to see her in a bad mood in a dark alley *meep*. But UNLIKE Anita the bitchyness is countered with a real empathy and compassion for others, even her enemies. Anita tries to be a 'Protector' and help the people under her care and protection, but fails and ends up using them, while WW IS a Protector.

I think in another thread somebody brought up that LKH tends to look down on the traditional feminine traits of empathy, compassion, sympathy, ect. and sees them as 'weak' Wonder Woman however is a prime example of how a woman can be both strong and powerful yet still have compassion, mercy and empathy.

[defiler-wyrm.livejournal.com]

I feel she doesn't bother getting into anyone's head other than Anita's; I get the impression that people who disagree with Anita are simply wrong, not that they have their own viewpoints which make perfect sense to them
Now see you bring up a fantastic point there. That's a stunning little piece of squandered potential. Given that all of these books are in limited first-person POV, what if it WAS just a case of her only hearing what she wanted to hear, seeing what she watned to see? What if that was a sign of her delusional and proto-sociopathic nature rearing its ugly head? What if that was just how she PERCEIVED everyone else rather than how they actually were?

*sigh* That would have been spectacular, watching a strong character like early!Anita sliding into madness. To make it work, though, I think LKH would've had to break POV here and there to show little snippets of the world outside Anita's ever-devolving mind as contrast to the way she sees things.

The biggest kick in the crotch here is that LKH might have become a good enough author to pull it off, too...if the same thing hadn't happened to her IRL. Instead we are those third-person vignettes.

[troubleinchina.livejournal.com]

I just realised that even though I *know* I read this book - I have no recollection of it whatsoever.

[leggomylegolas.livejournal.com]

Oh! I like you. I got into LKH specifically for the badness (my BF and I like to hand each other books and say 'this is the worst fucking thing I've ever read, now you have to read it too'). I was going to do something sort of like this with Burnt Offerings.

I’d been screaming about vamps being monsters for years. But until a senator’s daughter got herself attacked just a few weeks ago, nobody did shit. Now suddenly it’s cause celebre.

Wait, what the hell? That is blatantly stupid and unrealistic. I'm worried about vampires NOW and they don't really exist. What a load of crap, specifically designed to make Anita look like the smartest person ever.

[melaniedavidson.livejournal.com]

You know, I’m not sure if I’ve ever had this explained to me – what’s the overlap between animators and vampire executioners? There does seem to be one, with Larry, John and Anita all being both.

Let's see if I'm remembering this right--there's an overlap because the talent that makes someone an animator also gives them a little protection against vampires. Just a little, though, I think.

[alex-lebeau.livejournal.com]

I don't remember there ever really being a reason for Anita being both, honestly. It probably is because they raise the dead, and even though Anita doesn't realize until book....um...something or another that she can raise vampires during the day, one might suppose people assume raising dead things = killing undead things.

Oh, and baeraad? Stew on this bit: Anita is in her early twenties during most of the series. I believe she just passed 26 in recent books. The woman isn't old enough to hit her ten year high school reunion yet, but she knows all and everyone else knows nothing. She seems to have the emotional growth of a lightning-struck tree.

[melaniedavidson.livejournal.com]

I think it was mentioned once, briefly... had to have been one of the earlier books. Maybe Guilty Pleasures. I could be misremembering exactly what it said, though.

[pandaemonaeum.livejournal.com]

It's mentioned, repeatedly, in Guilty Pleasures. Anita has a partial natural immunity to vampire hypnotic powers. As the books go on, it emerges that she's actually a necromancer, and necromancers have power over all sorts of dead and undead, including vampires. No-one seems to know what this means in the long run, as vampires tend to kill necromancers on sight.

In Bloody Bones there are hints that Larry is a different sort of animator, as when Anita and he share power, the power increase is way more than either of them expected. This, unfortunately, has not been further explored :/

[melaniedavidson.livejournal.com]

I remember the necromancer bit because it's been HARPED on and HARPED on but I'm sure it's been mentioned somewhere that animators in general had slight immunity/whatever and that's why vampire executioners tended to be animators too/many animators went on to become executioners. *ponders rereading the first few books to look for it.

And at first it was just her natural animator immunity, pretty much expected, then LATER it was blah blah Necromancer blah special blah blah blah.

[baeraad.livejournal.com]

Ahhh, like that. Okay, thanks. :)

book-ab05: bloody bones

[raging-muse.livejournal.com]

Excuse my butting in guys but just couldn't resist commenting. I have the same problems you guys have, i actually used to like both JC and Richard on there on at the beginning in these earlier books. JC with his plotting and enigmatic outlook were a source of interest and tension and your both right they were both powerful in their own right, even before he was leader of the local pack Richard was still more powerful. I too bemoan what happened to these two guys, they were great and they got de-balled as i saw somebody say about Doyle's character on another message board.

I wonder what Laurell has against strong men keeping their balls? Why do they always have to loose them after one fuck or two? And this is totally off the point of this book, but i heard that new newest book has her fucking Raphael! *Goes to find a blunt knife*.

I happen to really like the Wererat King's character and to hear that she went and fucked him as well just broke something in me that i thought was already broken by her latest writing. *pissed off**