Lover of Snark

[mulder200.livejournal.com]

Hello, new member here. I recently got myself roped into LKH by reading The Harlequin. I wrote a book review about on my own journal and needless to say was curious for more. That book was probably one of the most explicit mainstream porn books I have ever read. LOL! I mean I was just so fasicinated that she would spend so much time on sex.

So I started to read the books from the very beginning and I have to say that while Anita is one MAJOR bitch with mental problems and issues, the books were still good to read.

So anyway, I have to ask you follower snarkers: When was the moment the series Jumping The Shark?

BTW, was I the only one who kinda got the feeling that the author was trying to set the scene for Anita sleeping with Edward's adopted son?

Comments

[sharkbytes.livejournal.com]

Welcome over! I really think that Guilty Pleasures through Obsidian Butterfly was a complete series. OB felt like an ending, Anita had decided not to run from her life any longer, and makes some actual decisions. You can even tell from the covers, after that point she started going for the oddly-colored silhouettes.

Narcissus in Chains is my official 'jump the shark' book (and given my user name, I love that term lol) specifically, when Micah forces himself on Anita (this was in hardcover, and it was later changed in the paperback form so that Anita does give consent) After that, there wasn't anything left of the old Anita, and we got this bot-like replacement.

[poor-toms-acold.livejournal.com]

Agreed, except I really like the character of Narcissus, so I'll always like that book despite Micah and the 'marrying of the marks' and all that other shit.

[alorarose.livejournal.com]

Nothing happened after OB. There are no more book. NONE!!! KAPUT!!!

*me whimpers under a rock*

[saucyirishlass.livejournal.com]

it was later changed in the paperback form so that Anita does give consent

IIRC, she doesn't actually give consent so much a make the nonconsensual aspect of it just that much more ambiguous, which I know some people consider almost more disturbing than her outright protest in the hardcover.

[roguetailkinker.livejournal.com]

Exactly. I was all "WTF? Shoot that SOB!" Instead she moves in with him? No. Just... no.

I'll make an exception for Cerulean Sins, though. I thought that one was good if you skipped most of the mad sexing. (Except Asher. It was about damn time Asher got some loving.)

[princessblaise.livejournal.com]

The first hardcover printing of it? I had no idea that scenes were changed....is there a comparison online somewhere?

[no-ron.livejournal.com]

i'm afraid the latest AB drivel cannot even pass as good or representative "female porn". (not that i know much about female porn. but this can't be it. for sure. can it? >_> )

i guess you'll get a couple of different answers as to when the series jumped the proverbial shark (based on people's preference), but as far as i'm concerned, 'Obsidian Butterfly' was the last good AB book.
then came apocalypse.
and what a wild jump over the shark that one was. it's almost unbelievable that the same person who wrote the books "after" had written the books "before". there's a lot of speculation about the hows and whys.. as you'll see if you decide to catch up on the archives.

how far into the series are you? and do you like the older stuff?

in any case, the brutal devolution of the AB series is a phenomenon to behold. quite unique, actually.. :)

[mulder200.livejournal.com]

Well, the last AB book I read was the omnibus edition Midnight Cafe and I ordered Black Moon Inn from the library.

It always amuses me how fans get so emotionally invested in these fictional characters like they are real people. Reminds me of the debate going on over at the CSI fandom about GSR and Sara leaving. It's just nuts!

[fangedsekhmet.livejournal.com]

When you reach the end of the book and realise the crime plot was located in three chapters. One at the start, one in the middle and one three porn scenes from the end.

Oh, and when you can count the number of partners Anita's hand on both hands... and feet.

[easol.livejournal.com]

Oh, that ghastly plum simile! Gack! Not to mention those endless "candy on my tongue" ones.

[alorarose.livejournal.com]

I write too much gay porn, XDD

[mulder200.livejournal.com]

Well, I didn't women would be into gay sex honestly. Needless to say, I was rather shocked when I discovered that some of my favorite slash was written by women.

At first in The Harlequin I skipped over the sex and then reread it and yeah she was more graphic than I had originally thought. The sec scene between her and Richard dragged on forever.

[mulder200.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I was just trying to imagine how if I was a woman, I would write that scene and since I read romance novels from my mom that's what I came up with.

[easol.livejournal.com]

Welcome! Welcome! Welcome! welcome to the snarkage!

Wel, there were a few hippity-hop moments in the original books, but NiC, as others have said, was when Anita went bounding over the wereshark and then had sex with it. All the characters started disintegrating, the plot died, the writing became this horrible purple repetitive mush, and the main character became this bitchy crazy sexbot who likes rape, ultrakinky sex and is rapidly becoming more powerful than God. Yeah, that's a big sharkjump.

poor-toms-acold, I like Narcissus took. He's such a weird, cunning character, and he does not bow to the crotch of doom. (Isn't it sad that the latter is basically a measurement of how bad the characters are to me?)

[no-ron.livejournal.com]

"was when Anita went bounding over the wereshark and then had sex with it."

LOOOOOL!!!! :)))))

[easol.livejournal.com]

"BTW, was I the only one who kinda got the feeling that the author was trying to set the scene for Anita sleeping with Edward's adopted son?"

No, you're not. Big evidence leaning that way:
1) his appearance is comparable to a young Richard, but he's still young and immature enough for her to be interested in him.
2) he likes violently rough sex, just like Anita.
3) he is sexually traumatized and has deep emotional scars, which all of Anita's penii are as well.
4) he adores her for no reason in particular.
5) Edward is okay with the idea of her fucking his adopted son.
6) The only reason LKH introduces/reintroduces male characters into the series is for sexx0rs with Anita. ID was especially bad in that regard, introducing two new vampire characters who do absolutely nothing but have sex with Anita.

[ladymuttly1.livejournal.com]

I ran from the series at the idea that Peter was being set up as another Anita victim.

[mystickiwi.livejournal.com]

It's been awhile since I've read the books, especially the ones I didn't like, but I think it "jumped the shark" in... was it the Killing Dance that had that random chase/sex/I didn't even know what was going on at the time I read it scene? That was the first time I had the "what the hell, this is getting crappy!" feeling, and then I read Obsidian Butterfly and thought "oh, she just had an off book!"

yeah...

[denouement16.livejournal.com]

That was Blue Moon and I completely agree. The sex in that book between Anita and Richard was too forced. It's also the first time some "metaphysical shit" forces AB to have sex. Hmmm...I think the ardeeer, ardoor, ardeur..whatever...was a final solution. That way Raina didn't have to make multiple appearances per book.

[ctrl-issue.livejournal.com]

A lot of people here say that OB was the last good book for them. For me? OB sucked worse than a cheap whore with a mouth full of novacain. Before that, it was okay but it was in that book that we got the first Pod-ward who showed up in the last book in full form. *shakes head* Next thing you know, there's going to be a threesome with him, her, and his step-son.

So. Very. Sad.

[easol.livejournal.com]

Sadly, that seems creepily likely. I can imagine LKH thinking, "Peter and Edward aren't really related, so it's not creepy!"

Jumping the Shark

[thecelticmyst.livejournal.com]

I must agree that Narcissus In Chain was when the shark finished being jumped, but the leap started in Blue Moon with the whole munnin as an excuse to sleep with Richard, too.

Oh, Ctrl_issue,the picture, I must thank you from the blast from the past. Guess what my favorite cartoon when I was five was?

Re: Jumping the Shark

[ctrl-issue.livejournal.com]

Hehehehe. I loved that show. It was the first one that I ever wrote fanfic for. When I was the tender age of 13. Thank gods I didn't own a computer. Or literate friends. ^_^;;

And yeah, I'd say that it started jumping even before that, way back in Burnt Offerings, when she was able to spit magic in that one guy's face. But you know what? She's never done it again. *shakes head* Also, you'd think that as vampires, they'd get tired of sex and murder after a time. I mean, there are only so many ways you can do either...

[ex-naomi-ja.livejournal.com]

Officially I think we jumped the shark in NiC (loves sharks, is sad that Anita must taint them too). But really, I think the run-up began in Blue Moon. The whole rape-tag thing? Not good. OB took it further as that's when the deconstruction of Edward began and there was that awful, awful, awful scene where Anita gets the jaguar-stripper-guy all aroused in Obsidian Butterfly's club. Awful.

And then we get to NiC and have Anita actually raped - and I don't care how it got rewritten, she was raped - and then decide her rapist was her One True Love (or one of her one true loves, anyway.) We're over the shark and speeding towards the sunset on the back of a sea turtle. Everything after that is just dreck. CS was a joke - three chapters of plot v endless pages of sex, angst and angsty sex. Micah was a rip-off - as if we needed any more information on his giant wang. It was a poor attempt on LKH's part to make us adore the new speshulbesthappylovetime man in her ... oops, Anita's life. ID, I couldn't even read. After the whole rainmaker scene, I threw it across my room and left it there for six months before selling it on.

[dwg.livejournal.com]

I'll go against the grain here and say that the series jumped the shark after Bloody Bones. Serafina was the last great villain, and IMO that was the last book that actually had the mystery aspect played reasonably well with all that sappy romatical stuff that had been seeping in after The Lunatic Cafe. It was also the last time that Team Evil played it smart. The UST with JC and Anita was great (and JC was bunking down with Jason, which is just adorkable). AND OMG WE HAD THE CORRUPTORS. And they were EVIL. And AWESOME.

After that, things really fell apart -- I...I have no words for the stupid of Burnt Offerings, or the total lack of follow-up on the matter, and Blue Moon is full of WTFery that again gets no follow-up -- and it was painfully apparent with OB -- because I maintain that after you've killed a fucking god, it's really hard to come up with a new worst Big Bad to defeat. Just look at Buffy if you want more proof of the theory in action.

[kerame.livejournal.com]

I think the beginning of the end was screwing JC in Killing Dance.

Bad, bloodthirsty Executioner betrays a man who treats her with respect, for the vampire who blackmailed and manipulated her throughout their entire relationship because she gets grossed out? The same woman who picked through dead bodies and gutted a captive man? No. Way.

That was the first of the endless excuses for her descent into skankitude.