About the Book
My name is Anita Blake. Vampires call me “The Executioner”. What I call them isn’t repeatable.
Ever since the Supreme Court granted the undead equal rights, most people think vampires are just ordinary folks with fangs. I know better. I’ve seen their victims. I carry the scars…
But now a serial killer is murdering vampires—and the most powerful bloodsucker in town wants me to find the killer…
The Long Story
Anita Blake is a vampire hunter in a world where vampires (and other undead) have been given rights, a strange place to be to be sure…
Hamilton is a master author when it comes to keeping the action going. There definitely aren’t any boring bits and I often found myself wondering how the heck we got to point Z when I hadn’t expected to leave point A in that way at all. The characters acted unruly (especially the head vampire, whose strange behaviour bordered on annoying a number of times) and were often just as unpredictable as the action.
Yet, Guilty Pleasures is the first of a series – and it reads that way.
Though it has everything going for it in terms of the reader getting to know Blake (written in first person, her character having some fun quirks, etc) I never felt like I could truly sympathize or even get to know her. Perhaps because the reader allowed into her past a heck of a lot or perhaps because Anita Blake is about as warm and fuzzy as an ice cube. I admire her as a strong, complete character, but I feel like I must get to know her more in the following books because it’s not quite here in the first.
I feel like the book is complete and a set up for the rest of the series at the same time. It’s as if we’re only skimming the surface of not only the characters and the setting as well. I didn’t feel there was enough depth even though the story was complete and was left hungry for something more.
I am certainly going to at least read the second book to see if Hamilton plunges further into the world she created, which is what I would really like to see from her.
The Short Story
I recommend this as a good, light vampire book with flashes of darkness and a good dose of mystery.
***
Rating: 3 stars
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***
Guilty Pleasures
By Laurell K. Hamilton
http://www.laurellkhamilton.org/
ISBN: 9780755374816
Length: 327 pages
