The Last Straw

[world-dancer.livejournal.com]

Since I'm having a slow week, I thought I'd poll the lashers on what was the book where you stopped reading. I realize that some are still reading (tenacity, you haz it).

I stopped with Cerulean Sins. I may, one day, have to start up reading again, but that day has not yet come, and I am grateful for that.

Cerulean Sins also holds the title of "Only book I have ever thrown at the wall." I don't like to mistreat books and am one of those people who don't even crack the spine.

Comments

[starcrossedlady.livejournal.com]

The beginning to the end for me was Obsidian Butterfly,but I slogged through to Incubus Dreams. And then? I was. So. Done. I know there's a crapload of books after that, but after suffering through ID, I figured there was way too much good paranormal romances/mysteries for me to use the time I spent on these books for me to continue.

[bronzed.livejournal.com]

Recs please? I am dying for more! But the good kind.

[thornsilver]

Obsidian Butterfly was the last one I've read, and purely for Edward.

[bronzed.livejournal.com]

I love Edward! He is my favourite part of all the books now. I do so hope he kills off Olaf soon though.

[plastraa.livejournal.com]

Obsidian Butterfly was the last one I finished. I never got through a whole book in the series after that one. I tried because I had loved the series, but once I realized that there was never going to be any real danger in the series, it became like a 'what did you do last summer' essay or a travelogue. Boring.

And when I realized Edward was a family man and not someone who wouldn't eventually end up killing Anita because she was the new biggest monster, then I knew I needed to stop.

[viridian5.livejournal.com]

Ditto and ditto!

[collectively.livejournal.com]

It's been so long and I've read so many sporks it's hard to remember for sure, but the last one I remember reading for sure was The Harlequin, though I might have made it as far as Bullet? Possibly Bullet was the last one I attempted but gave it up in disgust? Maybe having skipped the ones between? I'm not sure. By The Harlequin it had already been a hateread series for at least a couple books, though.

[bronzed.livejournal.com]

I dont know why but I am still reading with the faint hope that somehow they will improve. But also its kind of train crash syndrome. And I need to keep up on the books so I can get the most enjoyment out of this community, even though I am new to the series, I read them all in one week just so I could fully enjoy myself here, and oh how I do!

[desert-vixen.livejournal.com]

The last one I actually read because I still considered myself an LKH fan? Blood Noir (although that was only because I was in Iraq and it was in PB).

Slogging through them to snark on them is different. I mean, I keep hoping that one of these times she'll put out a book that makes sense but until then I'll just enjoy the train wreck.

[dreamstrifer.livejournal.com]

Incubus Dreams. I hadn't liked it after Obsidian Butterfly, but that one just made me throw my hands up in the air and stop reading. There are so many other books I'd rather devote my time to.

[aramuin.livejournal.com]

The book before that (I think it was Cerulean Sins?) had been bad but that was the book that made me think that the series was just getting worse.

Cerulean Sins had be uneven but Incubus Dreama was the one where the plot just dissolved into bad porn.

[dwg.livejournal.com]

I don't think I've officially quit ;___; I mean, I've skipped books from Danse Macabre onward, but I read Hit List (which was weirdly enjoyable the same way the first Human Centipede movie is actually a cinematic masterpiece compared to the sequels) and I'm going to slog through Dead Ice if/when I'm done with A Shiver of Light.

Though I stopped buying the books at Danse Macabre for ABVH and Seduced by Moonlight for MG. It's kinda neat to be reunited with my book collection to find out that the most worn copies of the series are Guilty Pleasures and Circus of the Damned, everything else is virtually mint condition.

[snarky-imp.livejournal.com]

I flipped through my Goodreads reviews and each book I'd think, "Oh, must be this one" because you can only give so many one-stars, y'know? Apparently I hung in there longer than I thought because my official "I give up!" didn't come until Kiss the Dead.

Apparently it was the weird Cyn relationship, the whole Nicky thing, Larry's character assassination (I still wonder who he was based on and what they did), and treating Asher's more reasonable complaint like it was completely ridiculous. Plus everything else, really. I'm not sure which book made me stop liking the series, though.

I haven't read beyond that, though I've peeked at sporks and I keep hoping on some level that maybe she'll go back and do something interesting with the better parts of her series. I wish it were possible to rescue fictional characters when their creators just clearly don't give a damn about them. :P

Oddly enough, none of LKH's books made me throw them, but I did throw Order of the Phoenix. Luckily I threw it across the room so by the time it hit the wall it didn't break either the book or the wall.

[openidwouldwork.livejournal.com]

Blue Moon was the last one I really got involved in, I SO wanted Richard to get killed off already... no such luck...

I did read Obsdian Butterfly, was disgusted by the mercyless deconstruction of Edward and pretty much gave up.

Long hiatus after that, did skim through the one or other newer book when stuck in hospital or reha and things like that, but nothing made sense any more. I kept reading about dramatic developments in worldbuilding, politics, power structure, relationships and wondering 'when did this happen' ... until I realised none of that DID happen, we just get told about it. (I remember doing a pretty desperate online search for the book where JC gets to be king of the US, but... *cough*)

Now very much enjoying sporks! *HUGS and CUDDLES and SENDS CHOCOLATE to all sporkers*

[aramuin.livejournal.com]

I didn't want Richard dead - I really wanted Richard to leave St. Louis. His family seemed nice! His mom was nice and frankly if I had the choice between Anita or a quiet life back with my family, I know which I'd choose.

I think the thing about Blue Moon that I remember nostalgically was that it looked like there was going to be a resolution to the triad. There seemed to be some hints of character development and the relationship being stabilized somehow.

[miladygrey.livejournal.com]

I made it to Danse Macabre but between the drama that was Marmee Noir, the out-of-left-field threesome, and the siren trying to pimp out her son to Anita (I hope I'm remembering all these correctly, it's been nearly ten years!), I shut the book with about 100 pages to go and decided I was done with Anita Blake, and done with LKH as well.

[bronzed.livejournal.com]

you are indeed remembering those correctly!

[dagonista.livejournal.com]

Incubus Dreams was the last book I paid for, and I didn't finish it. I haven't read Blood Noir, Skin Trade, Affliction, or Kiss the Dead, but I've read enough sporks that I feel I pretty much have read the books themselves. But I think Burnt Offerings was the last one I really enjoyed. Blue Moon was a bit rapey for my tastes, OB was a jumbled mess, and everything after that was just worse and worse.

[aramuin.livejournal.com]

Read Incubus Dreams in the library and I remember being so confused. It felt like the opening chapter or so and the last three pages were an Anita Blake book and then there was all this ....stuff about sex and changes and all the rest of it.

I don't think I lost hope until Danse Macabre but this was where I first realised that this wasn't just going to be a dip in the quality of plot.

[nialla]

I think I read books 1 - 7 in a binge read when I first heard about them (Guilty Pleasures through Burnt Offerings). I distinctly remember getting an ARC of #8, Blue Moon, when I was doing a fan site and email list.

I could tell things were sliding then, not only in the books, but in her personal life, because of her split with her former agent (whose agency sent me the ARC) shortly thereafter. Hearing about that breakup by letter made the new contract she was getting make much more sense with the "no editing" clause. They were so desperate to get her at the time, because she was a bit of a "crossover" author that attracted from romance, fantasy, and horror readers, and was "in" at the time. I think we've all been regretting the deal ever since. Even LKH, as it's become more obvious she doesn't enjoy writing anymore.

Pretty sure I made it through Narcissus in Chains through sheer stubbornness, then skimmed Cerulean Sins and Incubus Dreams. I kept hoping she'd get over the idea that she was a groundbreaker with all the poorly written sex scenes taking up 90%+ of the pages, and the advertised plot being in the first chapter, mentioned somewhere around the middle, the wrapped up quickly at the end.

Hope is long gone now, and I actually kind of feel bad sometimes that my site and email list probably got a lot of people reading the series who now are either disappointed in how it went, or reading to see the ongoing train wreck.

[world-dancer.livejournal.com]

You have no control over an author slipping or not writing up to her potential.

I liked the Sookie Stackhouse books up to #7 or #9. Didn't quite like the way they went once there was a supernatural war, but that's because Charlaine Harris is not GRRM: She can't write a good war story. She also seemed not to be enjoying them any more. But I don't regret recommending the books. The early ones were quite good in my opinion.

So don't feel bad. It happens to all of us.

[uf-addict.livejournal.com]

Highlights as I remember them:

Blue Moon - getting tired of Anita

Cerulean Sins - Really?!?

Danse Macrabe - Wow this is bad! Can't stand Anita but still curious what else is going on. Where are JC's balls??

Flirt - Author hitting bottom. Can't get any worse than this! Anita truly unbearable, want to hurt her violently.

Bullet - Sickened at death of all good characters. Now Richard suffered the neutering knife. The AB world just died.

Hit List - Read 1st page about 5 times, marveled at how bad the opening scene was written, deleted off kindle. Couldn't do it. Dead to me.

Shut down - It was free. Deeply regretted reading it. Had to read about 10 good books to cleanse it from my brain.

Now I can barely get through the sporks. Apathy is setting in streaked with mild amusement and head shaking wonder.
I honestly don't know how anyone gets through her books anymore, even for the train wreck aspect!

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

The last book I remember stuff about is Obsidian Butterfly. If you poke my brain with a cattle prod, I might be able to cough up a detail or two about something between that and Dead Ice, but don't count on it.

[mystickiwi.livejournal.com]

The last one I enjoyed was Obsidian Butterfly, and that was after not enjoying several before that (too lazy to look it up). The last one I read was Narcissus in Chains and when I read the Amazon reviews for the next one decided not to pursue it.

[alondra-del-sol.livejournal.com]

I either stopped at Cerulean Sins or Incubus Dreams because I know everything after that I ingested via lashouts. Goodwill entirely spent. I would not pick up another Anita books unless the series takes a hard one-eighty back in the direction it was going.

[magdalen77.livejournal.com]

I stopped reading after Bullet, but the Anita Blake series was ded to me after Incubus Dreams. I couldn't get over how she let the "bad guy" go because she was too busy having inappropriate sex. I started reading and posting on the Amazon forums after Danse Macabre. It was such a relief to find other people who were saying, "WTF, Laurell!!!???"

[viridian5.livejournal.com]

I skipped Blue Moon out of being tired of Richard and his issues, came back for Obsidian Butterfly, and was too turned off by everything after that that I never came back for more, since Obsidian Butterfly introduced Olaf and had already started to destroy Edward and you know the rest of what followed.

[elialshadowpine.livejournal.com]

Cerulean Sins is the last one I read. Sorta. I got halfway through it, and gave up because it was badly written porn after porn after porn. And I like erotica. But LKH can't write a sex scene to save her life, I swear. I thought Narcissus In Chains was bad, but... *shudder*

I keep saying that one of these days, I'll read through the series to current, but I'm not sure if I want to torture myself that much...

[uf-addict.livejournal.com]

And I like erotica. But LKH can't write a sex scene to save her life, I swear.

Right! I don't think I have ever come across another author that can kill a sex scene like LKH. I not only found them nauseating but very tedious. The godawful amount of talking and infantile mental anguish of Anita made the pages unbearable to get through!

I was always thinking there is no way any guy, or woman, would possibly want to dissect their feelings before and during to such degrees that all sexual tension is deflated. Sexy talk or verbal assurances - fine. Intense therapy with tears and revelations, not fine.

Did anyone else realize how many of the sex scenes begin and then stall out while the new/old lover reveals that he was sexually assaulted/abused and suffered for years, Anita wipes the sad look from their eyes and then she's like "lets bang!". Ick!

[glimmerfox.livejournal.com]

I was a strange case. I read Guilty Pleasures up to Bloody Bones, b/c my husband at the time was a big fan of the books, but he bought the newest one which I think at that time was Danse Macabre. I have a bad habit of in long series books to skip ahead to see what I have to look forward to. (It's strange but usually it helps me build anticipation since i can get bored with a long series) so decided to skip ahead when he was done with DM, and read it. That was a mistake. I hated how badly Anita treated Ronnie in the beginning of that book, I hated how Richard was written as a clingy jealous guy. I hated how there wasn't any plot at all. I remember Augustine and the siren were introduced and then nothing happened. I remember Merlin as a vampire was introduced and then nothing happened. That was the last book of her that I read fully. I occasionally went to the library afterward and picked up another one, but never finished it. I read some of the Merry books (Swallowing Darkness, and Divine Misdemeanors, since that was what the library had) and i didn't like those. I feel like i should go back and read some of the earlier good Anita books, but I just can't knowing how it's going to go.

[ramlatch.livejournal.com]

I think my moment was probably when she ends up naked on the floor (gross) surrounded by men and has some vampire she met ten seconds ago start having sex with her because ~*mAgiCaL rEaSoNs*~. I think that was the 14/15 year old looking vampire, and that they were also like "I prefer men, but whatever". It pissed me off in multiple ways. This idea of LKH's that Anita must be so attractive even gay people will turn straight for her. That and her lack of sexual agency left me incredibly grossed out, and the fact that she doesn't actually care about having any, she just lets herself get treated like a fleshlight all the boys fight over.

I will seriously buy the book though if she ever writes a book where Anita realizes what Jean Claude has done to her and kills him and Micah and Nathaniel (for being manipulative creeps and a rapist), and most of the rest of her squadron of mobile erections on demand.