Affliction excerpts

[dwg.livejournal.com]

LKH posted some excerpts of the latest novel over on Facebook a couple of days ago. Ordinarily, I'd leave her FB alone but since it's book related and therefore relevant to all our interests...well, here they are.

Wednesday 31 October

"If I don't say it enough, Jean-Claude, I love you, I love seeing your face across the table while we eat, and watching you root at Cynric's football games, and watching you read bedtime stories to Matthew when he stays with us, and a thousand surprising things, all of it, its you, and I love you."

"You will make me cry."

"A smart friend told me that it's okay to cry, sometimes you're so happy it spills out your eyes."

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Thursday 1 November

"Trust me," Dev said, "there are a trail of broken hearted boys back home that wish so much our luscious Micah liked men better than he does. Sadly, where men are concerned he's a one man boy." He gave a pouting face as if he were five, and then that slow grin spread across his face. I wanted to frown at him, but that damn Cheshire grin did me in every time. How could someone so big, so grown up do mischief so well?

Micah looked at Dev. "There are one, or two, men back home besides Nathaniel that I notice." His voice was utterly mild.

Dev's grin faded around the edges, and his eyes were thinking way too hard. You could almost see him reviewing every interaction he'd seen between Micah and the men back home. It was why Micah had said it, to bedevil our devil.

[link]

Comments

[door.livejournal.com]

Yawn and crap (to her writing, not the OP).

[ellenel13.livejournal.com]

who's matthew?

[dwg.livejournal.com]

That's Monica's kid. Anita was at his dance recital at the start of Bullet. He wanted "big boy kisses" with Anita on the mouth. *shudder*

[subtle-shades.livejournal.com]

BOTH of these excerpts creep me out, for different reasons (or maybe the same reason manifesting differently?)

The thing with JC should have been sweet but it wasn't when one considered the context surrounding it.

I love seeing your face across the table while we eat

Nitpicky, perhaps, but when does she eat much less eat with JC? Or is this some sort of thing where he's watching her eat so that she doesn't drag him down? At any rate, these books all cover a matter of days and she never seems to visit JC or eat when Nathaniel isn't nagging her to go through a drive thru.

watching you root at Cynric's football games

This would be adorable if the teenager in question was their/her son and not her underage and horrifically exploited sex slave.

watching you read bedtime stories to Matthew when he stays with us

Who would let their child stay with Anita? She has guns and screaming sex everywhere. And the mother loathes Anita. It isn't a normal, human response to let some relative stranger/acquaintance, whom you deeply and sincerely loathe, with no claim on your beloved child to have unlimited, unmonitored access to your child for long periods of time. This would be doubly true if the boy was picking up age-inappropriate sexual behaviors from her. JC going to visit dead-Robert's human family, okay, I'll believe that. The kid staying with 'us'/Anita? Hells no!

a thousand surprising things, all of it, its you --> Translation: I've run out of things to say so I'm going to gloss here. This is sad since I can name more things that I love about a Chik-fil-A salad than Anita can name about her Number One Sweetie. (I'm moving, by the way, that we just number them and be done with it.)

"You will make me cry." --> I too would cry if that was my life, my love interest, and someone's declaration of love to me. It's like a mini-capsule of all the things that are wrong in his life.

"A smart friend told me that it's okay to cry, sometimes you're so happy it spills out your eyes." --> I'm pleased that she got the right 'you're' in there. It almost negates the use of the word 'spill.' Almost. *shudders*


And the other thing, with Micah and Dev (Who the hell is that, by the way? Devon, (Micah's) gay ex?) has all of the little phrases and awkwardnesses that I deeply and sincerely loathe. Let me underline them for you.

"Trust me," Dev said, "there are a trail of broken hearted boys back home that wish so much our luscious Micah liked men better than he does. Sadly, where men are concerned he's a one man boy." He gave a pouting face as if he were five, and then that slow grin spread across his face. I wanted to frown at him, but that damn Cheshire grin did me in every time. How could someone so big, so grown up do mischief so well?

Micah looked at Dev. "There are one, or two, men back home besides Nathaniel that I notice." His voice was utterly mild.

Dev's grin faded around the edges, and his eyes were thinking way too hard. You could almost see him reviewing every interaction he'd seen between Micah and the men back home. It was why Micah had said it, to bedevil our devil.


As a not-so-random side note, liking or not liking men has nothing to do with whether or not you subscribe to monogamy in your relationships, sexual or otherwise. But if Micah is or was sexing up men, he's not straight. Bi, possibly, but not purely, unadulteratedly hetero-anything.

The sentence about noticing a couple of men besides Nathaniel makes no sense to me. Maybe it's just awkwardly phrased? It sort of gives the impression that Nathaniel is a relic from his younger, gayer days.

It's good to know that "dev" keeps his brains in his eyeballs. It's the sensible place to do your thinking. Also, I enjoy the fact that he gives/does expressions and verbs with LKH's trademark awkward flare.

That last line might be clever? I'm not sure since I get the impression that it's referencing something not in evidence. Also, what the hell is up with 'our Micah' and 'our devil'?

Anyway, I just don't like these.

[shadwing.livejournal.com]

Dev is ASHER's ex, you know the one Anita had sex with while JC & Asher had their last night together before he left St Louis...he of the famous 'Glued together scene'

[subtle-shades.livejournal.com]

Asher's ex? Poor Asher! Swapping rights to this Dev guy for a night with JC seems insulting to JC's worth but definitely a worthwhile bargain for Asher. Glued...with...bodily fluids? *convulsive shudder*

[dwg.livejournal.com]

I think there was an interview where LKH said that Jon is more like a mix of Micah/Nathaniel, but soon after came the vehement denials that any characters are based on real people at all nooooooo it's totally not true. Likewise, that Richard is totally not her first husband in any way, shape, or form.

[fangedsekhmet.livejournal.com]

brb, squicking to infinity and beyond D:

[subtle-shades.livejournal.com]

When I was seventeen, a couple of my eighteen-year-old guy/girl friends had 30 to 35-year-old girl/boyfriend. I was *always* creeped the hell out by them.

The guy who got with the older woman was cool when we thought he'd gotten with her once or even a couple of times for purely sexual purposes (and after we were all assured that she was hot). When we realized it was supposed to be a *relationship* it was no longer cool. We dubbed her weird and creepy and he didn't talk about her much after he realized how uncomfortable her long-term inclusion in his life made us. It was a short romance. Maybe a few months?

But we were friends with him BEFORE the weirdness of that relationship. And that guy was cool enough that his rep took the hit and recovered.

Cynric has an odd name, an odder home life, and a creepy, old girlfriend. And he didn't have any history with his classmates or friends before all of those factors came into play. Also, you know none of the Anita crew are behaving appropriately in public. Cynric probably gets beaten up and shoved into enclosed spaces pretty frequently. Also, like, no friends. If he joined the football team, it was probably to stop getting his ass kicked since the team may not like him but he IS one of them. But still, no friends.

[jya-bd-cp-ttgb.livejournal.com]

Actually, I don't think Monica had a problem with Anita at all, but Anita definitely had a problem with Monica for betraying Catherine to the vamps back in book one or two. I don't really remember the book where Robert died, so if Monica started hating, *shrugs*

Either way, Matthew don't belong around the harem.

[magdalen77.livejournal.com]

Yeah Micah/Nathaniel aren't based on LaLa's second husband, they only came into prominence after LaLa's divorce, both are utterly submissive to Anita (who is not LaLa's avatar) and Micah has such an enormous dick that it can be seen from space. Of course, Richard (who is not ex-hubby's avatar) was at first a great guy and had such an enormous dick that he hurt women who weren't as ruff & tuff as Anita. For books he was a whiny psycho who (horror of horrors) wanted to be in a monogamoud relationship with Anita despite hating her current behavior. Oh and he became a big homophobe despite the fact that Anita first met him in JC's bedroom, where he'd come to feed JC (like all the other bi guys). Recently he got a couple of months of therapy that has made him okay with everything (the "love duodecagon Anita has with her harem members, gay sex, group sex, BDSM, etc.).*

*In Hamilton's world therapy causes people to mysteriously start agreeing with everything Anita does, says or stands for. And this complete personality and behavior change generally happens in a matter of weeks or at the most a few months.

[lady-fellshot.livejournal.com]

That's because in LKH's world "tharapy" means "headcrab zombie."

[shadwing.livejournal.com]

Yeeeeah...Anita basically found Dev in the hall crying because Asher was leaving...and she had 'comfort sex' with him...in the hall. Then they fell asleep with out cleaning up or separating so the condom glued them together.

[subtle-shades.livejournal.com]

We have a word for that kind of "therapy" in the real world... It's called "brain washing" and it's (usually) done by cults. Although I suppose that one could make the argument that Anita's harem is a cult...

[subtle-shades.livejournal.com]

UGH! *So, so grossed out*

Imagine stepping into that mess, before or after they moved. UGH! Asher can do *so* much better! *is also deeply disapproving*

These are the neighbors that you loathe in apartment complexes!

Anyway, Dev seems to have completely gotten over losing Asher. (Not that he seemed to be holding a grudge regarding it.)

Where did Asher end up going, anyway? Is it somewhere where they'll be nice to him?

[shadwing.livejournal.com]

I haven't had the guts to dive in and double check...but I think the book just said 'exile' nothing more clear than that

[duamuteffe.livejournal.com]

"...watching you root at Cynric's football games..."


I am laughing hysterically at that mental image. The supposedly sexy, powerful, ancient Master of the City sitting on metal bleachers wearing a sweatshirt with a high school logo, with a big foam hand that says "Go Team!" on one hand and a pennant in the other. And possibly earmuffs and a striped scarf.

[mocha-latta.livejournal.com]

Anita isn't a white picket fence kind of girl because she's not naive enough/too darkty dark to believe in it? Bullshit. She wants to be the male in the 1950's relationship dynamic while fucking her barely legal son.
I know this is just a stupid urban fantasy novel and I shouldn't get upset, but the rape culture in these novels is as thick as LKH's skull.

[plastraa.livejournal.com]

OH HEEEEEELLLLLLL NO! Sleepovers at Anita's place? UH, no, no, and NOOOOO! As far as I am concerned she is a creepy sexual abuser and you don't send your children home with creepy sexual abusers (at least not on purpose). This one really hit all my triggers. So much super creepiness. How is this cute and adorable? I am fur-balling like my cat right now just thinking about this.

Also I am guessing all the football games are night games or uh oh, there goes Jean-Claude up in smoke. Whoops.

Dev crushing on Micah now? UGH 'their devil" oh yes he's all broken up about Asher, who I am just thrilled has been exiled. I can imagine him running through fields of daisies (at night) with someone who really will love him (I had hopes for Jean-Claude at one point, but I think he is Anita's servant right now and Asher his companion for hundreds of years...yeah, he'll get back to you later Asher). I had so much love for Asher back in the day. His brokenness, just made me want to cuddle him and make it all better. :-\

All in all, the excerpts make me even more disgusted with the way this series has gone.

[plastraa.livejournal.com]

The whole 'he's a one MAN BOY' thing is a pet peeve of mine. The word BOY used interchangeably with MAN, annoys me. I know it's common enough to do that when one man is younger even if both characters are adults, but I dislike it (I once downloaded a story I liked and used 'find/replace' and got rid of every incidence of referring to the younger character --in his 20's-- as ' the boy' and put in the character's own name in it's place...heh).

The whole 'boy' thing, smacks of consent issues to me and also then we have Anita's(LKH) fascination with ever younger lovers.

[magdalen77.livejournal.com]

"Another city", Hamilton is too busy writing barf-inducing sex scenes to bother with details about where a major character has been exiled.

[rodentfanatic.livejournal.com]

Oh god that is hilarious.

[rodentfanatic.livejournal.com]

As others have said, why in the hell is Matthew having anything to do with Anita & Co.? Anita made DEATH THREATS to his mother and they have not been on anything close to friendly terms ever since. No child should be near her and her group, of course, but Monica's child in particular makes no sense.

That reminds me, whatever happened to Catherine?

[snarky-imp.livejournal.com]

I love this mental picture and shall cherish it always.

[subtle-shades.livejournal.com]

I don't remember the surrounding circumstances but I have the strong impression that Monica and Anita dislike each other intensely. (And I'd forgotten about Catherine so it's not that.) Knowing Anita, it probably involved a gun and being threatened to be shot.

But yeah, Anita and Co. have no business being near ANY kid.