Bullet- Laurell K. Hamilton
Back in St. Louis, Anita is trying to have as normal of a life as possible with multiple men sharing her bed, not to mention her other responsibilities that include vampire executioner, necromancer, head of her own triumvirate, and so on. Things were going well until Mommie Dearest comes back from the dead to haunt her. Both Anita and her beloved Jean Claude aren't just going to sit around and wait for her to bring them down; they have to act quickly if they are to survive. Anita must dig deep putting her own personal feelings aside and use their powers of seduction to their advantage, and that's just what she plans to do.
I, once again, find myself reading another Anita Blake book. When I started this series a little over a year ago, I remember a time when the books were amazing and I loved Anita. She was sassy, strong, and kicked some serious ass! Flirt was the last one I read back in March of 2010 and I was not impressed. So, I had been putting off reading this one for some time. I had such high hopes for Bullet since she got Flirt "out of her system." Now, that I have finished this one, I have a lot to say and some of it won't be nice. Tough love.
Starting from the beginning, there was a dance recital that she attended and I was hoping that something would happen like an attack or that she would get called away on official police business. This was disappointment number one, instead of some type of cool start we got a lot of useless chapters about her guys dancing and a petty argument with Monica. What happened to Anita doing police work? Which brings me to disappointment number two, we get a glimmer of hope (after reading more than half of the book) when she gets a call saying that her expertise is needed on a case. The only thing she gets to do is look at some gory video! Where's the fun in that? I want to see Anita kick some butt! Disappointment number three, besides the beginning the whole book is set in the Circus. I swear she never left "for her protection" but that didn't stop her in previous books. I'm just so confused.
This book raised a lot of questions. Why did she feel the need to reintroduce every single character she has ever added to this series, except Edward? He would have made this book much better. It got confusing with all the overly detailed descriptions of every single person. She still continues to use the same words and phrases to describe everything, especially the sex. It's like beating a dead horse. Okay, I understand being descriptive is all apart of good writing but seriously to go on and on about what everyone is wearing and what their hair looked like got, well, boring. What happened to the plot? It's so scarce in between the sex. I will say this, there wasn't as much sex in this book as I thought there would be. She pushed the sexual aspect for Anita a lot in this book. I mean she made it seem as though Anita would actually do oral on a chick. She didn't, but really? That would be very out of character for her. Also, out of character she is actually extremely less argumentative with her guys. I'm scratching my head about that one. On top of that, I can see her maybe being okay with Richard being in bed with someone else but Jean Claude too? I don't know about that.
Okay, I can't complain about everything. It was okay that we got to learn more about the tigers and lions. Although, I thought even that could have been more interesting. And, at least we got to see her kill one person. But then that became somewhat annoying since she agonizes about his death throughout the rest of the book; even though he's not really that close to her. I wish the person who died would have been someone closer to her, someone who should give her more grief. She did show us that Anita is still tough in certain parts of the book, though I wish we saw that side of her more. Maybe, I'm being a little harsh or nit-picky but, in my defense, I have her earlier books to compare it to. So, did like that The Mother of Darkness isn't dead, which is what I hoped for in a previous review. I can't give too much away but she will definitely be harder to kill this time. Then there's Richard. In this one, he's finally come around is a good, cooperative little wolf. Haven't we seen this before? I hope it's for good this time but I still have my doubts. A major thing I liked was talks of Jean Claude being the head of an American Council! If done right, that could prove to be really interesting.
With all that being said, I have invested so much time into this series. I LOVE Anita Blake! Despite some of the changes in character I've seen, she like my first born because Guilty Pleasures was my first time exploring this genre. I finished this book with every intentions of quitting the series. I guess you either have to accept it or stop reading it and I know I can't stop. Like Anita, I thought about it a lot and I decided Anita wouldn't quit on me so I won't quit on her. I'm begging!! LKH please please make them better! Give us more plot and since you're going to do sex, make it better too!! So, book 20 is called Hit List and I will be reluctantly reading it.
2.5 ★s
PS. I am so excited that this is my 50th review since I started last year!
2 comments:
Quite the review here. You've summed up some of my feelings on the series very well.
Congrats on the 50th review! It's a good one. Your comments are astute and capture some of what I'm feeling. Though I haven't yet finished Bullet (I got to the halfway point and put it on ice....that was in June ^_^), I have a feeling it'll still be an overall underwhelming experience. But dag nabbit, I love Anita and her crew! Love em! ^_^
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