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.

[glitterbats.livejournal.com]

Ditto. Narcissus is the entire reason I consider that book worth reading.

[sharkbytes.livejournal.com]

Totally agreed! Narcissus was at least interesting and new, and he had the good sense to have a crush on Asher :)

[easol.livejournal.com]

Interesting, new, unpredictable, and he has a Machievellian twist to his goals, because he ain't one of Whorenita's penii who would never plot and scheme, lest they incur her wrath.

Oh, and Asher >>>>>>>> Anita. Good choice, Narcissus!

(Although was Narcissus the first of those characters saddled with absurd names?)

[sharkbytes.livejournal.com]

Indeed he was, but I'm a bit more forgiving on that one because the name does seem to suit him. He's so pretty and full of himself, it's refreshing =)

[easol.livejournal.com]

Ha! True, unlike characters like London, Truth and Wicked, Remus etc.

[amamelina.livejournal.com]

Off topic, your icon made my day.

Icon love!

[roguetailkinker.livejournal.com]

Totally OT, but your icon cracked me up.

[alorarose.livejournal.com]

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

*me whimpers under a rock*

[maladaptive.livejournal.com]

Totally OT, but: Awww Taiki!

[alorarose.livejournal.com]

HEE!!! *latches onto another Juuni Kokki fan!!!*

ah! You go to Bryn! My friend just graduated from there.

[sharkbytes.livejournal.com]

LOL, certainly not anymore Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter books....there's some other weird, porny series masquerading as the one we all knew, but it's definitely not the same, haha.

[alorarose.livejournal.com]

when NiC came out...I read it twice...because I thought I read it wrong....
I still don't remember actually reading CS (I swear I did...it was just THAT forgettable) and ID I whimpered through.

But...I'm hearing that Harlequin was actually better.....I dunno...I'm skeptical.

[sharkbytes.livejournal.com]

Hee, I felt the same way about CS. I remember it being really annoying, and then I remember not really getting the stupid title (the closest I can come is that the bed sheets were blue. Srsly.)

The Harlequin is actually much, much better. To put it in perspective, it's better than Danse Macabre, Incubus Dreams, and Cerulean Sins. I put it on par with Narcissus In Chains--not as good as the early books, but a marked improvement. Since i've been snarking the recaps of it, I've come to enjoy parts of it even more.

[alorarose.livejournal.com]

do I need to know anything about DM to read it? Cause I havn't read DM.

[easol.livejournal.com]

Harlequin was better in the sense that...

PROS: Fewer sex scenes;
a potentially creepy villain;
Nathaniel finally growing vestigial backbone;
action and some semblance of a plot;
and the moment when Rafael basically says that he'd rather screw JC than Anita, if he were even a teeny bit bi.

CONS: Edward has been turned into yet another fawning enabler;
Anita ordering murder because a man turned her down;
hinted future pedophilia;
continued abuse of Richard; sexx0rs with Donovan and Rafael;
LKH's snottiness toward a "geek film";
endless rambling conversations about having sex, not having sex, and who Anita should have sex with next;
numbing powermongering;
plot threads dropped;
potentially cool villains are wasted and hurried;
and of course, Anita generally being a thick-skilled psychowhore who is too dumb to do anything but spread her legs, and start screaming, "We gotta fight them!" whenever somebody mean shows up.

So yeah, it's better... than the books preceding it.

[alorarose.livejournal.com]

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh. Maybe I'll just remain in the land of denial.

[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.

[sharkbytes.livejournal.com]

Indeed, it was extremely cloudy and ambiguous, I shouldn't have said "consent." It was more of a Not No, I suppose. I've read those scenes a bunch of times trying to extract the meaning, and I've come up empty everytime. I have to assume that it's one of those scenes that she went back and filled in, because it makes no sense.

[easol.livejournal.com]

That was effing creepy. Here's the before and after excerpts...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anita_Blake#Book_10:_Narcissus_in_Chains

It's especially bad because she STILL isn't giving consent -- apparently LKH thinks that merely having Micah say, "Okay, feed off me" and when she's still saying "don't" is just fine. The worst part is, a few more words like Anita saying "All right, don't say I didn't warm you" would have fixed it.

Makes me wonder a bit about Jonboi.

[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?

[mulder200.livejournal.com]

From Nic:

Micah and Anita have sex within hours of meeting each other because of the unexpected appearance of the ardeur in a shower scene in the hardcover version. The scene is as follows, shows that she clearly did not give consent, and ends with Anita crying in the shower.

I found I did have a voice and said, "Micah, stop, please stop."
Micah licked the back of my neck, and I shuddered, pressed against the wet wall.
"Please, Micah, I'm not on birth control." A clear thought at last.
He bit softly at the back of my neck. "I had myself fixed two years ago. You're safe with me, Anita."
"Please, Micah, please don't."

In the paperback release, the scene has been rewritten as follows:

I found I did have a voice and said, "Micah, please", but I was no longer sure what I was asking.
Micah licked the back of my neck, and I shuddered, pressed against the wet wall.
"Please, Micah, I'm not on birth control." A clear thought at last.
He bit softly at the back of my neck. "I had myself fixed two years ago. You're safe with me, Anita."
"Please Micah, please don't. If we have sex I'll feed on you. Feed on you like some kind of vampire."
"Then feed, if that's what you need, what you want."
He bit harder, just this side of drawing blood, and my body went passive, calm.

Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anita_Blake#Book_10:_Narcissus_in_Chains

[princessblaise.livejournal.com]

Oh woooow I can't believe that. Ew now I'm even more squicked out by Micah than I normally am. Thanks though.