Someone should post something legitimate about this--Hit List chapter 1 flog

[sehkmetschild.livejournal.com]

I read the previous post on this and thought, hey, I have more important things to do than watch the community-member flog.... such as flogging the drivel that is the first chapter of Hit List.

We open on the a murder scene and my first thought is "sweet! Old Anita is back tots smoked some guy!" Because Edward is standing next to her. But alas, no. It's an actual crime scene. So, okay, fine, she's going to poke the body and talk about theories, right? No. She complains about not being near her 43 sweeties. But, that's okay, because Edward is.. complaining about missing his family too. *Le sigh* two pages in and I have completely lost all hope for this book.

Well, it turns out the Harlequin are back, as if we didn't get tired of seeing them before. They've been a-killing again. But, while looking at this murder scene, Anita and Ed have this really weird exposition conversation. I was reading it wondering exactly who speaks like that? They start out talking about the harlequin and move on to summing up something like three books.

Then there's the fact that Anita uses the term big-ass twice in as many pages(big-ass knife, and big-ass weretiger, respectively). I had to giggle and if anyone else reads XKCD, they would get why too.

Here's the thing, what this chapter sets up sound really interesting and I think in the hands of a better writer, it would make for a thrilling read. But the execution, it leaves me cold.


As posted before, the chapter is here. read if you dare.

Comments

[fangedsekhmet.livejournal.com]

The thing is, she's done this so many times before, set up a crime in the first couple of chapters before vanishing off to sex parties for the following 300 pages and then, omgosh, rounding the original plot up in a throwaway chapter at the end.

If this book is any different I'll eat my hat.

[knowthyself.livejournal.com]

5'8" is not THAT tall-looking to someone who's 5'3". Being 5'3", I can very much attest to that.

[missingvolume.livejournal.com]

Nope and it isn't that tall at 5' either. I have siblings that start at 6' tall and that is tall. Spouse is 5' 8" so I don't think of that as tall. And really unless some guy is over 6 feet tall no one goes "gee that person is tall" unless it is a woman and then it would be around 5' 10" people make remarks about how tall you are. Or if the person always surrounds themselves with people at least 6inches shorter than they are all the time you just don't think of them as being tall when you have known them for a while.

[kisstheground.livejournal.com]

i barely even think about my 6' husband being tall and i'm 5'2". 5'8" is nothing.

[magdalen77.livejournal.com]

I'm 4'10" and I've never thought that 5'8" was especially tall. Actually I always liked that height of man for dancing. The height difference isn't that bad. My husband is 6'1" and when we slow dance I end up with my face in his chest.

[fadeinthewash.livejournal.com]

5'8" is not THAT tall-looking to someone who's 5'3". Being 5'3", I can very much attest to that.

That. I dated a guy that height (and I am also 5'3") and that's really nothing. I could put on a pair of (non-crazy) heels and more or less be eye level with him.

But then I also haven't gone through life angsting about how "tiny" I am and how giant everyone else is, boohoohoo. The only time in my life I've really felt short was when I was with a group of 3 guys who all had to have been at least 6.5' tall.

taken from hit list

[staringiscaring.livejournal.com]

legally we were real cops.

What a scary thought!

[kisstheground.livejournal.com]

man, was anyone else aware edward has a winter gaze? because i wasn't. i was hoping she'd remind me a few more times.

[queenmeow.livejournal.com]

The preview chapter is always better than the book that follows. To have it be this bad, well, Hit List might be worse than usual.

[nightmer.livejournal.com]

Ugh, there's so much I hate about this book already.

Killing your friend is the "ultimate guy moment?" LKH, your weird sexism is showing.

The colors of the rainbow tigers just annoy me on principle. Oh! Jean-Claude has collected the gold tigers! He's completed the set!

Edward is a lost cause. In my head Becca shows up in a few years, trained to be the ultimate killing machine, like Anita of past but better, and shoots the entire St Louis crew.

Also, I really wonder if people who've spent that much time around crime scenes are still that sensitive. In my experience people get used to dead bodies (dissection and such) really, really quickly, especially once the defense mechanisms kick in. Anita doesn't sound like someone who routinely works with corpses, but perhaps people do react to violent crime differently.

[rodentfanatic.livejournal.com]

In my head Becca shows up in a few years, trained to be the ultimate killing machine, like Anita of past but better, and shoots the entire St Louis crew.

OH GOD I WANT THIS TO BE A FIC PLZ

[nightmer.livejournal.com]

Ugh, I wish killherdarlings was more active, I'd beg someone to write it!

Of course Edward was actually just pretending to be OK with all of Anita's character assassination and has been planning all this time to kill her for being a monstrous, selfish failure as a slayer and human being. Becca has been following in his footsteps and she really doesn't date monsters, she kills them. Peter has had years of therapy and despite being well-trained in self-defense and weaponry, has decided to pursue a college degree in accounting. Oh, and Donna actually knows everything about Edward's secret identities and backs him up since she's not the limp waif Anita is convinced she is. She's also super supportive of her kid's choices to be a monster slayer and accountant, respectively.

[booksketeer.livejournal.com]

Oh! Jean-Claude has collected the gold tigers! He's completed the set!

I know. Doesn't LKH know that pokemon is so yester-year?

Anita doesn't sound like someone who routinely works with corpses

Like she SHOULD. She's SUPPOSED to be an animator. That's what animators do. I think LKH forgot.

[adam-adonai.livejournal.com]

"Doesn't LKH know that pokemon is so yester-year?

Love it.

[queenmeow.livejournal.com]

I like how Anita assumes she'd win in a fight with Edward. I'm thinking no.

[edwarddain.livejournal.com]

Don't worry, LKH will find a way.

It will probably involve him having a heart attack during sex he's having with Anita after the arduer comes over her while they are trappped in a room with a pack of baby were-somethings they have to protect from the evil lesbian vampire who has the hots for both of them but is going to subsume sexual desire by eating their hearts and the the hearts of all their children/lovers/friends/bank-tellers/whatever...

ROFL

[mariadeangeles.livejournal.com]

heart attack during sex. Priceless

[flaveur.livejournal.com]

THat's... Horrible. And LH don't know any synonyms !!! Thin. tan, tired.
Talk to me,... what a stupide way to adress someone. And the way Ed ask how she would have disposed of El Mama. Like she the only one capable to come with that stupide way. Pfffffff.

I know the reality behind Hamilton. She is a Troll Writer. It's the Rickroll of the Author. >The Rebecca Black of the litterature... that's pretty accurate, the last one.
How can you be labelled Writer with a non-talent like that ?? I aborre that chapter. Since the non-description of the crime scene until the last No.
I lost some QI in reading that crap. FFffffuuuuuuuuuh

[knowthyself.livejournal.com]

Nah, Rebecca Black's parents loved her enough to get her $2K birthday present that happened to become an internet joke/sensation. As we all know Anita/LKH's parents clearly didn't love her that much, because OMG DARKITY DARK CHILDHOOD ANGST. ;P

[flaveur.livejournal.com]

I was thinking more of the absolute horror of the writing style. I don't like to speak of the author personnaly, since I don't know her (and don't wanna). Discuss the atrocity of the style is okay, but I ignore with gusto all personnal comment (hard, because Lh has a tendance to project her life in her work, but all the same). What I know is that, if I worked like she write, I be pretty much workless in less time I have to write that comment.
That LH has a younger man like lover and want to flaunt it, has darkity childhood angst or internet logorrae are not something I am so interested.
I read those part principally out of interest of trash, like I read things about Lady Gaga or Brtiney Spears.

In my humble opinion, people do what they like about theirs life, if they want to publicise those, it's their choices, but I will not hold it against them, I frankly don't care who cheat who or who have a divorce or a chirurgy, or have drunk too much, when I don't know them.
Well, that's all for me.

[knowthyself.livejournal.com]

I think my comment may have been taken more seriously than it was meant--largely I was making a joke, really. Well, and also I feel calling anyone the Rebecca Black of anything is unfair to the 13-year-old girl who got a cool birthday present from her parents, which happened to include someone else's poorly-written song.

[subtle-shades.livejournal.com]

Okay, what did Rebecca Black get for her birthday? I've gotta admit, that reference went right over my head.

[knowthyself.livejournal.com]

Heard of the internet sensation song "Friday"?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebecca_black

[subtle-shades.livejournal.com]

Ah! So that song was the birthday present! *is much more amused by the references*

Thanks!

[flaveur.livejournal.com]

and my comment was merely comparative. like I said before, I don't speak about the people, but about their work. And if the present was cool for the girl,I'm sure there was a best use of that money for a good song. The song is horrible. So I can perfectly relate Black with Hamilton.
After all, the way LH write is pretty much the same than an emo-teenager fanfiction-writer with an MTV background and obsession with long-haired and (double)-rainbow colored werebeast.

I weep when I think about all that potential wasted.

[lady-fellshot.livejournal.com]

After all, the way LH write is pretty much the same than an emo-teenager fanfiction-writer with an MTV background and obsession with long-haired and (double)-rainbow colored werebeast.

BUT WHAT DOES IT MEAN? Sorry, I couldn't resist! :P

Wait, it means I should exert self control and not look at the train wreck and instead have brain bleach and cookies ready for those who have decided save the rest of us the horror.

A few thoughts...

[subtle-shades.livejournal.com]

Admittedly, I had a longer, more thoughtful comment before LJ ate it but here's the highlights:


Pre-Reading Objection: Guh! It's a giant wall of unending text!


Reading Objection: My eyes! My eyes!


Post-Reading Objections:


1. Random, pointless dialog. Ex. Anita asking if the corpse was on its 'back or its ass' when she said IN THE FIRST SENTENCE that it was on its back. Also, this is a STUPID point to elaborate on.


2. I hate, hate, hate the U.S. Marshals thing. First off, I don't think that LKH has thought through the details of it. For instance, are Anita and Edward salaried with benefits, consultants on retainer, or hired job-by-job? Each of those positions have different responsibilities. At any rate, I loathe that LKH's text implies that Edward has no choice but to spend the majority of his time as Marshal Ted Forester. It's a minor example but I hate with a fiery unending passion the powerlessness each of LKH's characters displays in their lives. (If the implication had been that Ted wants to spend more time with his family, and less as a hit man, I might've been... less vehemently against it.)


3. I object to the Edward/Superman comparison on general principle. Just no.


4. What are Anita and Edward doing? Yes, I understand that investigators get to visit gory crime scenes. But Edward and Anita seem to be playing Criminal Minds. They aren't F.B.I. profilers they're witness protecting, bring 'em in dead or alive Marshals. While I'm glad that LKH has discovered modern crime television, 'finding things that other people can use to catch 'em' isn't their job. (And it's not why they were made Marshals to begin with.)


5. Perhaps I'm the only person in the history of the universe that will openly (and shamelessly) admit to this, but I like to eavesdrop. Especially when people are keeping secrets or talking about sensitive information somewhere that they shouldn't be. Does it occur to no one that Anita and Ted are obviously bullshitting and expositioning and should be eavesdropped on? There are other U.S. Marshals and local police on the scene, all of whom are paid to be suspicious, and no one thinks 'hmmm that Anita chick and that Ted guy look awfully more/less stressed than the rest of us. Secret keeping ahoy!'


6. There are a couple of paragraphs devoted to complaining about the weather but all I get from them is that they aren't in St. Louis or Alabama. That leaves 49 possible states (minus one city) for this story to take place in.


7. We have our usual descents into misogyny, racism, and 'woe! feel my mixed race pain!'


8. There's a Snow White reference that might be cool except it puts Mama!Vamp into the Wicked Queen/Stepmother role and that leaves Anita in the Snow White role. (Put a check next to mommy!issues on your Anita checklists.) Edward's reference to her merry men a few sentences later left me with the image of JC and co. as short, bearded dwarves with a mean, selfish Snow White. (Who definitely doesn't clean their dwarvian home!)


9. They angst about not being able to go home to their... um.... home. Yeah. Anyway, in Edward that could be construed as character growth. With Anita, I'm left wondering how she's traveling without a food supply with that a-word. (Not even the writer knows what it is or how it's spelled. I feel no shame about shortening it.)


10. LKH tries to make me feel sorry for the victim. Sadly, he's cast as a rippling set of abs with super powers. I feel no sorrow for his loss. Instead, I'm left to wonder why LKH missed the very easy tricks Criminal Minds uses to make viewers pity the victims. (I also promised myself a cookie for getting that far in the...er... narrative? If narrative is *very* loosely defined.)


Continued in Pt 2.

Re: A few thoughts...

[subtle-shades.livejournal.com]

11. There's this whole bit where Edward compares the clown!assassins to Voldemort and the Death Eaters. It's probably supposed to be a lampshade but I agreed with him. (Is there a you-said-my-name!spell in play here too? 'Cause it looks like there may be...) I also wondered how no one noticed a bunch of masked, robed, hooded, and cloaked vamps running around. Even if they took off the masks, as Edward asserts, they're still really noticeable as: KKK members, ax murderers, or cos players. If I saw them running down my street, or across my local little league field, after either a man or a giant tiger you'd better believe I'd call the police. (As a side note, this is another place where she could show Edward's character growth. Sadly, it comes off as blah.)


12. We got the obligatory terrorist cell reference in there. Go Edward!


13. "So we know everything and nothing useful." -- This is a headbangingly STUPID sort of quote. It's also one of the less info dumping, Captain Obvious lines of dialog. Sadly, it remind me of 'Let me test my understanding...' Also, if you know nothing useful then you clearly don't know everything.


14. Let's Talk About How Anita Would've Killed That Hit I Turned Down - it's not interesting or new info. Also, it's a waste of space. A true trifecta of awesome there.


15. WHY does Edward know or care about vamp!politics? I thought he just killed them? Also, how does a masked group of fanatical vamps killing spechuful golden tigers (I just threw up a little in my mouth while typing that) impact him? Granted, it sucks if you're Anita or a tiger but he's not either. And neither are Peter or Becca.


16. We have a 'guy moment' of 'who's a better killer'. My eyes rolled so hard they nearly got stuck that way. True facts! Also, killing doesn't make you a better man.


17. There's some weird stuff about Edward liking to see the light in their eyes dim and whatnot. This is OOC since we have entire stupid plot arcs about his ability to watch people through a rifle's scope. He's the guy who votes to kill the vamps in their sleep with silver nitrate. At one point Anita remarks that Edward would probably just blow her up if he ever decided to assassinate her. He's not the guy who has to be up close and personal to feel the satisfaction of a job well done. (That's Olaf.) And at this point in the game, LKH can't/shouldn't change that.


18. It's cheating to compare your spechulful killing-fu to some guy who is aging faster than you. Edward's going to leave his prime behind and Anita's stuck at... I'll be generous and call it her prime. I still think he'll win - because he's smarter and not distracted by sex - but still she's a cheating cheater wot cheats!


19. Does anyone else think of Power Rangers with all this Gold Tiger stuff? Also, if JC collected them all (Pokemon reference!) then does he get a giant mecha suit to fight evil in? If so, I'm behind this rainbow!tigers movement.


20. I love the bad knee that is miraculously healed reference. Mostly b/c Anita never had a bad knee to my knowledge but LKH does.


21. Since when does Edward promote the usefulness of Anita's sex slaves merry men? I thought he wanted to use them as human shields and that's it. So why's he all 'you need bodyguards! Call in the fur patrol!'?


22. Why does this whole thing have to equal a convoluted plot to get Anita away from the safety of the penis patrol St. Louis and kill her?


23. When did Anita develop a pleasantly blank face? I'm not seeing it.


24. What sort of liberated, ass-kicking heroine needs bodyguards anyway? I don't remember Buffy having bodyguards and Buffy had way fewer mad, magical, I've-just-pulled-this-from-my-butt skills.


25. Speaking of Buffy, I'd like to drop her into this train wreck and see what happens.


As a last point, I skipped my grammar issues. It would just be too much. Mhhmm. (Also, please excuse the weird formatting but it was either this or a giant paragraph of doom!)

Re: A few thoughts...

[lady-fellshot.livejournal.com]

19 should probably be Voltron rather than pokemon... unless there are mecha in pokemon, in which case nevermind.

Awesome rant is awesome. And here's a cookie for sparing me the need to read the sample chapter. :D

Re: A few thoughts...

[subtle-shades.livejournal.com]

Teehee! Thanks! *loves cookie - nom nom nom*

You're so right about the Voltron thing! I just for the life of me could not remember the name of that show. (But the Pokemon catchphrase came to me with no trouble at all. -_-)

As for ranting... I can rant on books for hours. It is a secret love of mine.

Re: A few thoughts...

[dreamstrifer.livejournal.com]

Although the Power rangers could transform into one super mecha thingy. If I recall correctly. And they were all magically in the same room when they did.

Re: A few thoughts...

[sehkmetschild.livejournal.com]

Yeah... you did what I was afriad to do; a huge block of text :). I read through your list and can safely say that every one of those hit my mind with an "are you kidding me?!" except that Anita did have a knee issue (talked about in books one and three). But I agree, most of this was made of bullshit!

Re: A few thoughts...

[subtle-shades.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

Ah... I remembered the 'scars are not hideous!' issue and the 'my arm!' issue but I'd had no idea that the list of aches went further than the magically not injured or scarred arm. *contemplates looking at either book 1 or 3 for the lolz...nah*

Re: A few thoughts...

[fadeinthewash.livejournal.com]

I think it came up at least once in the context of trying to run with/carry/drag someone away or running uphill or something like that. Maybe a bad guy even took advantage of it? Meh. *shrugs*

I wonder how long it'll be 'til her scars all disappear.

Re: A few thoughts...

[dwg.livejournal.com]

#2 boggles my mind, I mean...surely there'd be some sort of training and guidelines that go along with giving people badges. It wouldn't be just a case of "hey, here's your badge: continue as usual with your bounty hunting/vampire executing/serial killer ways!" Taking that badge means they're now representatives of an entire department and you'd think the department would have a few things to say about how they conduct themselves publically, with other law enforcement offices, and even with vampires in case someone decides to sue the Marshals. Surely there'd be paperwork and a chain of command?

On the surface it seems cool, but it really turns into just an excuse to give Anita special provisions with zero consequences, like bullying her way onto a case or carrying a gun on a plane. She's got a badge! She can do that! Not doing so would require thinky stuff and planning on how to best use a character with plausible limitations.

It also adds my irritation to LKH's massive failure in world building where it appears to be Present World + Monsters = Anitaverse, and there's not much consideration given to how things should be different when you change something.

Re: A few thoughts...

[subtle-shades.livejournal.com]

Exactly! I cannot even *imagine* a world where government officials get badges and regulatory powers like I get prizes out of crackerjacks boxes. (Seriously. I won't buy them if they come without a prize.) Where are the background checks? The drug tests? The conflicts of loyalty checks? These are *basic* hiring principles that exist for a reason. (And I maintain that Edward would fail the background check while Anita would fail all three.)

I would *love* to see case paperwork, complaint paperwork, and the many, many lawsuits created by Anita. (I often go - Seriously? Have you people NOT HEARD OF CIVIL RIGHTS? 'Cause that 'varmint hunting' thing and that 'executing wild/bad were-animals w/o a trial' is TOTALLY ILLEGAL.) I would adore a boss who just wouldn't put up with Anita and Edward's serial killer ways. And I would die of laughter to read a performance eval on either of those characters.

And wouldn't limitations be wonderful? I'd love a main character who has to drive cross country or buy new weapons and whatever. Obeying the law would be nice too. But it's a stupid trend...

And I agree about the world building. History should be totally different! Looking at the short-term, the U.S. Constitution should be totally different - meaning that vampires might've always had rights if they were on the right side of the war. Or maybe the U.S. would be super harsh b/c of the Puritanical background of this country? *Waves hands* Not that I've thought about this! Much.

Re: A few thoughts...

[dwg.livejournal.com]

I'm still stuck on how the execution warrant thing works - Anita gets a piece of paper to say she can kill a vampire, but she seems to be the one that arbitrarily decides which vampire and there's an awful lot of faith put on her to kill the right one. What if she kills the wrong one? By the rules of the universe, that's murder. And since she's a necromancer/animator, it could be argued that she uses her skills in order to hunt/kill, and that means an automatic death sentence without trial.

And the thing that's tripping me up with the sample chapter is the Harlequin itself being this secret society of vampires in an open world of monsters. You'd think that if the Harlequin are the police force of the monsters, they would have shown up from the earlier parts of the series to sniff out that there's no shenanigans with JC becoming Master of the City and to make sure everyone's playing by the rules. ESPECIALLY when the Council members come to town. Or why don't they work with the human police to deal with supernatural matters? But no, they're so super secret that they don't exist until it's suddenly convenient for the sake of what passes as plot.

The more I think about it, the less sense the entire universe makes.

Re: A few thoughts...

[subtle-shades.livejournal.com]

See, the warrants upset me not just because of their execution (b/c I agree with you) but with the way they work legally.

WARNING SWEEPING GENERALIZATION: In some European countries, the belief is that you're guilty until proven innocent. (It's not phrased that way but the net effect is the same.) You can be tried for criminal matters in absentia and the death sentence can even be passed down without the accused ever setting foot into a courtroom. (Note, however, that the Western European countries no longer, to my knowledge, have the death penalty.)

That said, our justice system is supposed to be the exact opposite. (This was in part a violent reaction to some shenanigans that occurred just before the War of Independence. It's like that provision in the Constitution against the mandatory quartering of soldiers - our forefathers were pissed and thus they incorporated it's opposite to our society.) You CANNOT be tried in criminal matters unless you are there to help in your own defense and confront witnesses. Jury requirements vary from state to state but the common thread is that in more "important" criminal matters, you MUST be judged by your peers.

These rights (among others) protect EVERYONE on U.S. soil, regardless of whether or not they're U.S. citizens.

All of that said, vampire, witch, and were-animal executions are utterly illegal in the Anita-verse. The accused may not (and usually seems not to) know that they've even been charged with a crime, they're usually tried in absentia, there is no jury of any sort, and the death sentence is handed down without the accused ever getting their day in court. And then some woman who isn't even a state or federal employee gets to murder them in a mall in front of everyone with no repercussions. (And then she has the gall to go home and whine about how *she's* had a hard day and how awful it is that people aren't grateful for her murderous services.) Under the current U.S. Constitution this is state-sanctioned murder. (And remember, LKH did nothing to change modern America except add vampires to it. So I think it's fair to judge her society under the Constitution that they apparently have.)

Additionally, regardless of what they've become, the witches and were-animals were usually natural-born citizens. The vampires were also usually citizens, either by birth or naturalization, who were like those people who insist on 'living off of the grid'. They all are entitled to the full protection of the U.S.'s laws.

A state CANNOT declare its own citizens non-human varmints (as Anita often says the Western states do) or too dangerous to be put in prison and to be shot on sight. At one point, Anita darkly hints that people deliberately leave windows open to kill vampires in custody but A.)they SHOULD have windowless rooms in an integrated society and B.) that should be considered murder and the people in charge of that vampire should be properly brought up on charges when the fiery demise (or lack of Prisoner X) is discovered.

And I hate ALL of the secret societies/hierarchies in the series. You want to be acknowledged citizens (which, arguably, the non-humans aren't) then you've got to play by the citizens' rules.

But seriously, what *were* the Harlequin doing during their boss' nap? I mean, if the ancient stone-age!vampires-who-are-nearly-weres are her bodyguards (see some earlier book where Asher *has* to rub off with JC and Anita) then what were the Harlequin doing? Obviously, they weren't watching over Sleeping Beauty or enforcing the vampiric laws. They only *now* decide to get up off their butts and terrorize a few people/vampires? Yeah, right. (But I'd find a world where vampire and human laws clash, and the vampires are befuddled as to which to obey, to be delicious! Assuming it was properly executed, of course.)

Re: A few thoughts...

[sehkmetschild.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure Anita would fail the drug test... because drugs are bad and evil and VERY BAD!!11!!!1!!!!

But yeah "you there, in the Jason mask with the ax. You say you're a vampire hunter? Yes? Oh well good, here is your GOVERNMENT BADGE." Did they take crazy pills??

Re: A few thoughts...

[subtle-shades.livejournal.com]

The girl sleeps only 2-3 hours per book, is skinny w/o working out or eating right, suffers from literally killer munchies, suffers from an abrupt shift in her sexual behavior, has a skewed perception of reality, and has violent/murderous mood swings. Whether she knows it or not, she's *got* to be on something. ^_^

EXACTLY! I often want to scram "SAY NO TO THE KOOL-AID" when reading AB snippets because, seriously, there's got to be something in the drinking water. That entire society is Too Stupid To Live.

Re: A few thoughts...

[sehkmetschild.livejournal.com]

Don't you know? Anita lives on coffee. Ordinary coffee with traces of LSD.

It's sad that LKH go so lazy! The books were good! I'm rereading book 4 and it was good! Now she vomits on the paper and people love it >.

o.O; Anita Blake seems way worse than even I remember it...

[alondra-del-sol.livejournal.com]

Wow... I don't know if it's because I'm following a lot of writing communities on Tumblr or I recently revisited the lovely world of Anne Rice's immortals or if it's because of the Tumblr that I follow that specifically rips on Twilight, but... I don't even know what I just read here.

A) The repetition, awful.
B) What is up with all these token pop culture references? Harry Potter and Voldemort, Superman (anything to do with the up and coming Henry Cavill Superman?). It's like she's trying to attract the summer movie-going crowd.
C) She really is going with the "Gotta' catch 'em all!" theme.
D) Is it just me or was the dialogue just really off in general, not even the dialogue but the narration reads more like bad tween paranormal romance than... well early Anita Blake anyone?
E) In conclusion Anita Blake is regressing/has regressed into a whiny, emo, Pokemon nerd with a tween voice to match.

The way this series has degraded really is horrifying.

Re: o.O; Anita Blake seems way worse than even I remember it...

[subtle-shades.livejournal.com]

I agree! Perhaps she is trying to appeal to people other than her usual audience (or maybe she's just trying to keep them...) but it's just too clunky to get that across?

Re: o.O; Anita Blake seems way worse than even I remember it...

[magdalen77.livejournal.com]

IMHO LKH doesn't think that deeply. She just desperately writes crap at the very last minute to "make pages" and that's why she's things are disorganized, many times contradictory and she never bothers correcting it. She's found out that she can recycle snippets of plot and cut and paste sex scenes or character descriptions and voila she has a book. And her "true" fans will line up to buy it. (Though she's gone down 100,000 copies in sales since, I believe, The Harlequin)

The Vampire Council

[excessiveperky.livejournal.com]

Ah, I see another group of badnasties is after Anita. Makes me wonder if the Vampire Council gets rid of people they don't like by telling them that they need to take care of The Situation in St. Louis (although that brings up other images--maybe it _is_ The Situation who's the corpse). Seriously, do these vampires never talk to each other and keep track of Anita & Company's body count?