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A review by kcrawfish
Bloody Bones by Laurell K. Hamilton
3.0
If the Anita Blake series was written by ghost writers, this is when I’d say an author changed. Quite noticeably.
Anita is just a little off. She’s not as feisty, not as active, less individualistic. The action unfolds around her more in this book, rather than her being the catalyst, and her attitude about monsters seems to have flipped. I get there needs to be a gradual change in perspective for her relationship to work, but make it gradual. It’s like she’s more apologetic about herself. Her spiky edges that made her unique and unpredictable to read have all been smoothed. She’s less vocal and far more cooperative than the other books...
For instance, she follows Jean Claude, and rather than this being a cool growth moment where she asks herself if she trusts the master of the city enough to follow him, then makes a choice, she just doubtfully defers to his lead, something she never did before.
And why is Larry her surrogate son? When did that happen? And why is she far less religious? It’s not like I need religious characters, but it was a big part of her, mentioned fairly often, suddenly dropped like oh so many other things, why...? To make her more digestible for mainstream audiences? And we went from seeing every character every book (Edward, Richard, Ronnie, Burt, Dolf, Zebrowski to name a few) to suddenly having a very limited cast. This isn’t a bad thing, it’s just a noticeable shift in style.
I enjoyed getting more of her relationship, but she’s not herself here. The book feels completely different. It was weirding me out.
The book got this rating for the plot and her boy, but Anita herself was a bit off. I feel I might be overblowing it now, because as I wrote this more and more odd things kept coming to mind. It was still enjoyable, but disappointing on a character level.
Anita is just a little off. She’s not as feisty, not as active, less individualistic. The action unfolds around her more in this book, rather than her being the catalyst, and her attitude about monsters seems to have flipped. I get there needs to be a gradual change in perspective for her relationship to work, but make it gradual. It’s like she’s more apologetic about herself. Her spiky edges that made her unique and unpredictable to read have all been smoothed. She’s less vocal and far more cooperative than the other books...
For instance, she follows Jean Claude, and rather than this being a cool growth moment where she asks herself if she trusts the master of the city enough to follow him, then makes a choice, she just doubtfully defers to his lead, something she never did before.
And why is Larry her surrogate son? When did that happen? And why is she far less religious? It’s not like I need religious characters, but it was a big part of her, mentioned fairly often, suddenly dropped like oh so many other things, why...? To make her more digestible for mainstream audiences? And we went from seeing every character every book (Edward, Richard, Ronnie, Burt, Dolf, Zebrowski to name a few) to suddenly having a very limited cast. This isn’t a bad thing, it’s just a noticeable shift in style.
I enjoyed getting more of her relationship, but she’s not herself here. The book feels completely different. It was weirding me out.
The book got this rating for the plot and her boy, but Anita herself was a bit off. I feel I might be overblowing it now, because as I wrote this more and more odd things kept coming to mind. It was still enjoyable, but disappointing on a character level.