Just recently finished Flirt...or wait, was it really a book?

[agrimlullaby.livejournal.com]

Okay…so, I miraculously just came out the other side after spending a few tortured days dragging my feet through Flirt. Maybe it’s just me, but I get increasingly more discouraged with every book I read in this series these days. They’re just so…well, if you’ve read them, you know. Beyond words would be a good way to put it, but when in reference to anything put out lately by LKH, it’s really just my way of saying I’ve never read something so irritating that I can barely even articulate it properly.

 

At any rate, most people are probably more eager to discuss Bullet (those who have made it that far, anyway), but I’m not going to bother getting that monstrosity to tackle until the traffic over it at the library clears up, so I’m game for discussing Flirt.

 

 

But some things that I found HORRIBLY annoying in Flirt:

--The very annoying, constant referencing to people just about being able to read someone’s actions by the slightest of motions.

Okay, STOP. Please. When it kept happening, I just wanted them all to shut up and someone to die. I don’t think you can pinpoint someone’s thoughts with perfect accuracy when they so much as have an eyelid twitch. It was almost as annoying as the constant power plays that were really just unnecessary muscle flexing. It really and truly gets old VERY fast considering that most of the wording for each “powerbath” seems to just be a recycled and rehashed one from some other part of the same book or a previous one.

--The reoccurring descriptions of just about every darn little thing. The most annoying that I can recall off the top of my head is saying that someone’s pulse is like a piece of candy. How long have we heard that one? Honestly. I understand that it’s part of her style, and I understand her style as being witty and (supposedly) creative. There’s hardly any creativity in reusing the same description for quite a few more than just several occasions.

--All the pathetic group hugging (which I find hard to imagine someone so set at being hard as nails and THE man accepting without thinking) and sudden doting on Blake because she’s so darn beautiful. I don’t mean to say this in a mean way, but to most people I know, scars aren’t necessarily beautiful. Isn’t Blake covered in them? And her descriptions of them are never pretty, so I feel like I’m missing something when it comes to those and how EVERYONE seems to fall under the impression that she’s just gorgeous and flawlessly perfect for EVERY man she meets.

--All the awing over her weapons and skills. Can’t we just have bad guys who don’t care? All the commentary just adds to the inflating balloon known as Blake’s massive head full of hot air. Yeah, we get it that she’s just SO badass. Can we move on now? Please?

--Mistake in Nicky’s eye color. Really now? It says his eyes are blue earlier in the book, and then near the end says they’re brown.

--It was said earlier that lust never lies, but hope does. Later on says that the ardeur, essentially lust itself, can make lies seem like truth. Inconsistency is rampant and slowly driving me crazy, here. Stupid hypocrites.

--Honestly, I’m tired of her trying to justify herself like as if she firmly believes God forgives every murder she’s ever committed—even those done in the name of saving others. I understand possibly those for others, but she also kills purely because she feels it’s “necessary.” Whatever happened to the Golden Rule? Don’t do to others what you wouldn’t have done to yourself? Do I just sleep through church every week or what? I do believe that God is a forgiving being—I truly do. But I despise how LKH abuses that to say that Blake is still “good.” Uh-huh. I’m finding it harder to by that with every new “book.” The only good she does is in the eyes of her half-blind boytoys so infatuated with Blake I doubt they know up from down.

 

I also just love *sarcasm* how she seems perfectly okay with stealing Nicky’s free will to help herself, but when Silas is supposed to be drugging a hooker with drugs and pretty much taking that woman’s free will, suddenly they don’t have to right to do that. Uh-huh *sarcasm* Right. Got it. Makes perfect sense. And then later, she has the audacity to say she feels guilty about it, but when with her men it doesn’t seem to matter. I read that and was sputtering with anger because I think anyone in their right mind would think themselves as bad as…say…Belle Morte for doing that. But no. Because she did it so she could come back to her other brainwashed, one-dimensional sweeties, it’s okay. The heck it is because it’s not. I used to think she had a conscience…but apparently having lovers out the wazoo means that have one isn’t necessary anymore—along with having standards and morals.

 

*sigh* Okay, I’m going to can it there before I blow a gasket on this thing. It’s not worth it. All this already makes me feel ashamed to share the same first name as the “heroine” of this series and actually live in St. Louis.

Comments

[magdalen77.livejournal.com]

I think that now they're basically giving her enough rope to hang herself. As long as she's still selling well they'll let her get away with all sorts of crap. This next AB book is the last book on her current contract. I do expect the new contract to have tougher deadlines and they may either cut into her percentage due to decreasing sales or force her to accept editing. The last couple of books she's gone down from a high of around 250K copies sold per book to more like 150K sold. 150K is still a lot of books so I doubt they'll let her go, but they might do something about the fact that she can't meet a reasonable deadline.

[agrimlullaby.livejournal.com]

Well, then I think since the series is already hanging itself there's probably just enough slack left over for the author. And once upon a time I thought she had placed a limit at twenty books because she had planned up until then with a definite ending. Must've been naive back then because she evidently doesn't plan and makes it up as she sails along. *sigh* I guess we really won't know what'll happen until after the contract ends and she gets a new one... Should we dare hope for anything when that happens?

[magdalen77.livejournal.com]

The only thing we can hope for is that they try to force her to allow editing and she accepts and doesn't just jump to another, smaller publisher. I think that might be what's happening with her MG series now. Her contract for that was up with Divine Misdemeanors and she burnt her bridges with Ballantine more than she has with Penguin. The MG series hasn't been as successful as AB. I think her agent is trying to sell the series to another publisher.

[desert-vixen.livejournal.com]

So... the book after Bullet is the last one on the contract? That should be fun to watch.

[magdalen77.livejournal.com]

Yep, this next AB book is the last in the contract. I believe its name is Cabaret. Let everyone cringe at what ideas LKH could have gotten to chose that name for her next book.