Crimson Death

The author has taken a great character like Anita and turned her into an insecure, angsty, narcissistic, whiny, praise-seeking, preachy, unlikeable twit. Where is the Anita of Guilty Pleasures and the first 7 or so books? This book is approximately 717 pages. More than 80% of it is Anita/Hamilton preaching that her lifestyle is normal and those who disagree are close-minded and bigoted, all while she’s whining about and fixating on how to choreograph the hand holding, the clothes, and uninspiring and poorly-written sex scenes.

Edward, a character I always looked forward to reading more about, has lost his edge and is only in this book to stroke Anita’s ego. Jean-Claude, who plays such a minor role in the book, is relegated to being the forgotten fiance because Anita’s main interest has always been Nathaniel and Micah. It’s like all the other men and women in her sex-life are thrown in to pander to the LBGT and BDSM communities, and it’s written poorly and condescending.

The climax, or what was supposed to be the climax, took less than a few pages and felt empty. The big baddie? Not so bad after all.

The real Anita Blake died several books ago. I’m finished with this ridiculous drivel.

SPOILERS!!!!!!

WALK AWAY!!!!!

SPOILERS AHEAD!!!!!

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The Good: um…some of the Irish characters. And that’s about it.

The Bad: oh, so much bad. Not only does it take over three hundred pages to get to Ireland, but those pages are filled with relationship/poly preaching/rape…etc. AKA, the usual. However, it’s FAR worse in this book than it was in Dead Ice, and I didn’t think that would be possible.

Damian and Cardinale were a happy couple, a monogamous couple, and very in love. So of course LKH had to ruin it by making Cardinale a jealous witch-with-a-b. No one can love anyone outside of Anita, and no one can be happy if they aren’t with Anita. And suddenly Damian MUST HAVE ANITA, because she’s the bestest best ever.

All the men and arguing are pointless. But the worst, by far, is Nate. He rapes Anita and Damian and is PROUD of himself. He’s basically congratulated and patted on the back for it. It was sickening to read. And he never used protection, not once, when he knows Anita doesn’t want to get pregnant and have a baby. Then he has the nerve to get angry with Damian for being mad at him for rolling him. Damian is STRAIGHT- he doesn’t like men. He has a right to be angry and he should be. He was raped, and to make that all incredibly worse, it’s all forgiven, swept under the rug. Damian is now bi-sexual because Nate rolled him, raped him, and forced him into being something he’s not. And Anita? She forgives Nate in the same scene she learns it was him who rolled her. It’s disgusting.

And now Anita WANTS a baby. Not because she actually wants one, but because she doesn’t want Nate to be attached to another woman through a baby. Its made clear in this series that Anita does not like babies, and does not want one.

There’s also ragging on Richard, because he has dared to date other women and not seek Anita’s, JC’s, or the whole guard’s approval. A woman he wants to marry and have children with. Yes, considering what happened to Ellen in Shutdown, I’d keep all potential wives away from Anita and her men. Far, far away.

And what of Ireland? It’s basically generic, as all the out of St. Louis towns are. LKH tried in places to capture Ireland, but it seemed she either stopped trying, or didn’t want to be bothered to finish. She tried her hardest to dumb down the Irish, especially the police, but she failed in some regards. What she thought was Anita making the Irish look ignorant and pathetic, was actually the Irish making Anita look that way. Am I really supposed to side with woman who is misogynistic, hateful, spiteful, racist, and utterly unpleasant? Because that’s what Anita has become, and Crimson Death shows it in all its ugly glory.

Part of me was looking forward to seeing Damian’s story with Moroven, but that was dashed rather quickly. This is not Damian’s story, in any way. He is not made stronger, he has no closure. And Moroven was so disappointing I wanted to cry. I already knew LKH could never do her justice, especially after the MOAD bs. But…I was hoping (foolish, I know). Moroven was a vampire who could feed off nightmares/fears and make them so much worse, but she’s nothing in this book. Weak, ignorant…barely a blip on the villain scale. And she gets her due by way of…ghosts. Yes, Anita raises ghosts and that’s how Moroven is killed. She SHOULD have been killed by Damian. Period.

Anita loses a guard in this book, but that doesn’t matter. What matters is the most evil thing Moroven ever could have done- CUT NATE’S HAIR. Seriously, that’s worse than death or anything else in the world.

Anita now has rat as an animal. And, as is said more than once in this book, she has the highest vampire kill count in the world *eyeroll* Even more than people who have been doing this much longer than her. How does she know this? Does every country in the world keep track of everyone who goes around hunting vampires and how high their kill count is? Do they report annually to every country in the world so everyone knows? And of being the most powerful necromancer? As is said in Dead Ice, necromancers and animators in Eastern Europe and other places in the world tend to try to stay hidden because they’re still burned at the stake. So how would Anita know she’s the most powerful?

Other Bad Stuff: I know they tried to edit this book, but LKH refused to do so. And it’s apparent in the conversations. It takes pages of going around in circles to come back to what was said on the page the conversation started on. Over half this book could have been cut just by tightening the conversations and descriptions. As a matter of fact, this book is more like a novella than a novel…if that. The first half of this book should have been cut altogether.

Overall: if you like this series because of the sex, or because of the poly/poly/poly, than you’ll like this book. But do not read it if you want a book with a plot, or a story tightly written and edited. This was a horrible book which preached about how rapists should be patted on the back, and how monogamy is the root of all evil, and if you are straight than you deserve to die or, worse, be raped into being bi-sexual.

This never should have been published in the condition it was in, and the content was beyond wretched. I expected more from a book that was rewritten twice and a year late.

I’ve read all of this series and have been seriously disappointed with the last few books. To be book 25 we are still getting long descriptions of how characters look. And Anita is very judgemental of monogamous relationships when in reality it’s the poly lifestyle that is the rare occurrence and unappealing to the majority of people. I’ve been having serious issues with Anita continuing to add more and more people to the group and how all the men “who love Anita” are thrilled to be sticking it in to some other woman. That’s NOT love that’s just sex. And we have Anita a straight woman now bi-sexual and straight men who are becoming Bi-sexual. Why not have just left it with the core group of people? And it’s past time to kill off a major character. I assume LKH was attempting it with Domino but I’d rather see Asher go.
Sorry I know I’m all over the place but I just finished the book and I am highly irritated.
I was hoping this book would bring back Anita “of old books” but that was just a pipe dream. And now along with many other people, judging from other reviews, I’m getting off the Anita train now. I wish I had back all the money I’ve forked out for these lackluster books!!

Too much useless detail and very little plot. Not as much sex as in the past but talked about relationship issues so much that I was bored and not sure I could even finish. I miss the Anita from earlier books. Even when you got to the part in the book where she faces someone who is supposed to be so evil she defeats her in just a few pages. Its just sad to see the series go downhill and it seems like the author has just lost interest in making the books as entertaining as they once were.

I suggest you read the first chapter and then jump to 54% of the book to continue the story! The rest is metaphysical bulls**t and talk about more possible/potential new powers along with the usual relationship carp that completely sucks the life out of the book!

Even after the 54% Mark, we have the usual hostility and explanations Anita has to face with EVERY new law enforcement agency she has to work with!! In fact, I’m sure in some parts Ms Hamilton has simply cut and pasted passages from old books and simply changed the character names!!!!! We’ve read ALL this before, like in everyone of the last 7-8 books!!! Story abruptly ends again, at 80% I already knew it was going to! Anita also manages to collect more ppl!!!!! Coz, that’s what these books need, again – really!?!?!?

I wanted to give the benefit of the doubt, purchasing this book……… but it will be my last!!!!! I’m not paying more good money for this carp anymore …… the story could have been so much more! The story could have filled the entire book, but yet again, the storyLine and flow come very far down the list for Ms Hamilton……. I feel like I’m reading her therapy notes at times!!!!!

So sad to see such a wonderful set of characters collapse into such a mess! Anita Blake as we knew her is dead as is this franchise……….. maybe another author can resurrect a similar story line, much closer to our original love for these characters!

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