When Brenda attacks
Feb. 23rd, 2009 12:24 am![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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lkh_lashoutsEverybody here knows about the Kitty series, and about Carrie Vaughn's dislike of the "RARG! I is strong woman! I has sex! I has guns! I is like MAN WITH BOOBS! FEAR ME!" urban fantasy heroines. In other words, Anita clones
Well I'm not sure if you guys have seen the latest Kitty book, in which Kitty goes to Vegas. There's a weapons convention there, swarming with sociopathic bounty hunters... and swaggering around the place is a hilariously parodic urbfan woman. If she had a dozen effeminate men trailing after her and having sex in the casinos, it would so obviously be Anita. As it is, they share a creepy number of similar traits that have infected the urbfan genre.
There's really not many spoilers here, but I'll have a LJ cut for length. Here's what goes on around her first and second scenes involving Brenda.
Lessee, she's dark-haired, wears Teh Sexsee Lether Clothes, is a gun-happy bounty hunter who doesn't bother using her brains, tries to act more-macho-than-thou and happily admits to not thinking of weres as being people (because otherwise it would be SOOOOOO hard for her to kill them).
She was my height, but she had a presence that seemed to take up the room. Dark hair, short and full-bodied, bouncing around her ears. Spiky earrings, red lipstick. Dark sunglasses that she took off, folded, and slipped into a pocket of her leather jacket as she scanned the bar. And her outfit. That was mainly why everyone stared: knee-high leather boots with four-inch spike heels, perfectly shaped legs, a leather skirt that would have had me tugging at the hem, yet she wore it as naturally as skin, a form-fitted top of silk and lace, and a cropped leather jacket—all of it in black, of course. I might have seen her picture on a flyer taped to a street sign out on the Strip. Every straight man in the place left his jaw hanging open, and every straight woman clung a little tighter to her boyfriend.
.....
“All I want to know is how she can sprint in four-inch heels without breaking her stride, but I wear track shoes, trip on a pebble, and tear a ligament that puts me in a knee brace for eight weeks.”
....
Today she was wearing leather pants, a red V-necked shirt, and ankle boots with silver on the toes. Still with spike heels, which I was sure she could use as deadly weapons in a pinch.
It's like the description was lifted from Anita's wardrobe, with a few exceptions (no babydoll tee to keep her ginormous boobs from sagging, you'll notice). You can almost hear Brenda whining internally that ooooh, Jean-Claude MADE her get these sexy clothes.
She glanced at it, didn’t take it. Hands on her hips, she looked us all over like we were drenched in pond scum.
She's definitely got Whorenita's you're-nothing-compared-to-me attitude down. And she's a bounty hunter, which is basically what Anita's secondary job is supposed to be (though she hasn't done it in ages).
Evan smirked like this was par for the course with Brenda. And my God, did she not look like a Brenda. More like a Veronica, or maybe a Blaze.
....
I wondered: was this all an act on her part? Surely nobody was this in-your-face naturally.
Totally lacking in basic courtesy because she's too tuff and ballzee. That's another check on the list.
Then she looked at me. Scanned me up and down just the same way, and for some reason I suddenly felt like I had a target painted on my chest.
....
“That’s exactly what I’m telling you. What’s the story, boys? There a reason you’re letting someone like her hang around?”
Doesn't like weres merely in principle, and seems to dislike other women as well. It's established that much like Anita (see early books, f'rinstance), she doesn't regard anyone she wants to hunt as being a person (she later gripes about how now she can't kill Kitty because Kitty's mom showed up, meaning that she's an actual person and not a werewolf-shaped cutout).
“I can buy my own damn drink. Club soda with lime!” she called to the bartender, who was in the middle of drawing a couple of beers. He glanced over in a panic.
It occurred to me that perhaps she was over-compensating.
I don't need to explain that do I? :D "I have more testosterone than you!"
I’d bet an awful lot that that she carried a gun in a holster under that jacket. Maybe another tucked in the back waistband of the skirt. And probably a knife in her boot, stilettos up her sleeves, throwing stars in her pockets, and God knew what else. Everyone in the place might have stared, but no one sauntered up to offer to buy her a drink, because she was the scariest-looking person here.
Yup. Don't forget the spine sheath that her curly Mexican hair hides. And a thigh holster. And one under the arm which means she HAS to wear a Wonderbra (not because she wants to!) because otherwise her ginormous boobs would get in the way...
Oh, and of course being at a Western Regional Firearm Enthusiast Exhibition shows where her personal interests lie.
Anyway, she continues throughout the story in this vein, including Anita's bad habit of doing illegal stuff in the name of... herself (such as exposing a werewolf by leaping out at him and squashing his hand with a silver spoon. Nice). The big difference being: Brenda improves over the course of the book, in that she actually becomes useful near the end, and manages to become a semi-likable if still freaky character at the end.
:D I knew I liked Vaughn.
Well I'm not sure if you guys have seen the latest Kitty book, in which Kitty goes to Vegas. There's a weapons convention there, swarming with sociopathic bounty hunters... and swaggering around the place is a hilariously parodic urbfan woman. If she had a dozen effeminate men trailing after her and having sex in the casinos, it would so obviously be Anita. As it is, they share a creepy number of similar traits that have infected the urbfan genre.
There's really not many spoilers here, but I'll have a LJ cut for length. Here's what goes on around her first and second scenes involving Brenda.
Lessee, she's dark-haired, wears Teh Sexsee Lether Clothes, is a gun-happy bounty hunter who doesn't bother using her brains, tries to act more-macho-than-thou and happily admits to not thinking of weres as being people (because otherwise it would be SOOOOOO hard for her to kill them).
She was my height, but she had a presence that seemed to take up the room. Dark hair, short and full-bodied, bouncing around her ears. Spiky earrings, red lipstick. Dark sunglasses that she took off, folded, and slipped into a pocket of her leather jacket as she scanned the bar. And her outfit. That was mainly why everyone stared: knee-high leather boots with four-inch spike heels, perfectly shaped legs, a leather skirt that would have had me tugging at the hem, yet she wore it as naturally as skin, a form-fitted top of silk and lace, and a cropped leather jacket—all of it in black, of course. I might have seen her picture on a flyer taped to a street sign out on the Strip. Every straight man in the place left his jaw hanging open, and every straight woman clung a little tighter to her boyfriend.
.....
“All I want to know is how she can sprint in four-inch heels without breaking her stride, but I wear track shoes, trip on a pebble, and tear a ligament that puts me in a knee brace for eight weeks.”
....
Today she was wearing leather pants, a red V-necked shirt, and ankle boots with silver on the toes. Still with spike heels, which I was sure she could use as deadly weapons in a pinch.
It's like the description was lifted from Anita's wardrobe, with a few exceptions (no babydoll tee to keep her ginormous boobs from sagging, you'll notice). You can almost hear Brenda whining internally that ooooh, Jean-Claude MADE her get these sexy clothes.
She glanced at it, didn’t take it. Hands on her hips, she looked us all over like we were drenched in pond scum.
She's definitely got Whorenita's you're-nothing-compared-to-me attitude down. And she's a bounty hunter, which is basically what Anita's secondary job is supposed to be (though she hasn't done it in ages).
Evan smirked like this was par for the course with Brenda. And my God, did she not look like a Brenda. More like a Veronica, or maybe a Blaze.
....
I wondered: was this all an act on her part? Surely nobody was this in-your-face naturally.
Totally lacking in basic courtesy because she's too tuff and ballzee. That's another check on the list.
Then she looked at me. Scanned me up and down just the same way, and for some reason I suddenly felt like I had a target painted on my chest.
....
“That’s exactly what I’m telling you. What’s the story, boys? There a reason you’re letting someone like her hang around?”
Doesn't like weres merely in principle, and seems to dislike other women as well. It's established that much like Anita (see early books, f'rinstance), she doesn't regard anyone she wants to hunt as being a person (she later gripes about how now she can't kill Kitty because Kitty's mom showed up, meaning that she's an actual person and not a werewolf-shaped cutout).
“I can buy my own damn drink. Club soda with lime!” she called to the bartender, who was in the middle of drawing a couple of beers. He glanced over in a panic.
It occurred to me that perhaps she was over-compensating.
I don't need to explain that do I? :D "I have more testosterone than you!"
I’d bet an awful lot that that she carried a gun in a holster under that jacket. Maybe another tucked in the back waistband of the skirt. And probably a knife in her boot, stilettos up her sleeves, throwing stars in her pockets, and God knew what else. Everyone in the place might have stared, but no one sauntered up to offer to buy her a drink, because she was the scariest-looking person here.
Yup. Don't forget the spine sheath that her curly Mexican hair hides. And a thigh holster. And one under the arm which means she HAS to wear a Wonderbra (not because she wants to!) because otherwise her ginormous boobs would get in the way...
Oh, and of course being at a Western Regional Firearm Enthusiast Exhibition shows where her personal interests lie.
Anyway, she continues throughout the story in this vein, including Anita's bad habit of doing illegal stuff in the name of... herself (such as exposing a werewolf by leaping out at him and squashing his hand with a silver spoon. Nice). The big difference being: Brenda improves over the course of the book, in that she actually becomes useful near the end, and manages to become a semi-likable if still freaky character at the end.
:D I knew I liked Vaughn.
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no subject
Date: 2009-02-23 06:22 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-02-23 06:23 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-02-23 06:34 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-02-23 08:20 am (UTC)Kitty & the Midnight Hour
Kitty Goes to Washington
Kitty Takes A Holiday
Kitty and the Silver Bullet
Kitty and the Dead Man's Hand (in which
AnitaBrenda appears)Kitty Raises Hell
I noticed the Anita/Brenda parallels too--they'd be hard to miss, really. It was really amusing, and happily Carrie Vaughn didn't carry it too far. Brenda isn't Anita, despite the similarities.
no subject
Date: 2009-02-23 06:58 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-02-23 07:34 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-26 08:13 pm (UTC)I snorted juice up my nose! Thanks for the great laugh.
I have to agree the name Brenda doesn't match the character.
no subject
Date: 2009-02-23 08:34 am (UTC)Have you read all the Kitty books? When I read the Kitty and the Midnight Hour, I admit I was put off at first by Kitty's submissiveness. I almost put the book down. But the writing style kept me reading. Soon I was rooting for Kitty to stand up for herself. Carrie Vaughn has definitely written a believable character within a fantastical world. Kitty doesn't have stupendously grand power jumps. She gradually grows as a character. While I still enjoy a totally kickass heroine, (would really love one that has NO angst) I can appreciate a scared, submissive werewolf who learns how to be assertive and eventually ends up an alpha, leading her former pack.
The next Kitty book has just come out also, Kitty Raises Hell. Just bought it yesterday though I haven't started it yet because I am once again in the middle of reading at least six books.
no subject
Date: 2009-02-23 08:39 am (UTC)Kitty Raises Hell
Date: 2009-02-24 09:38 am (UTC)Re: Kitty Raises Hell
Date: 2009-02-24 05:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-02-23 01:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-02-23 12:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-02-24 12:42 pm (UTC)I was all "and she's bouncing around her ears WTF? Oh, her HAIR is short and full-bodied!"
Can't have an LKH avatar that's not short and fullbodied, right?
no subject
Date: 2009-03-21 09:56 am (UTC)