Finished reading
Crimson Death
(Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter #25)
by Laurell K. Hamilton
★★★★
Expectation
I always get excited when I see new book of Anita Blake coming out. After over a decade with this book series it is automatic response. Things I look forward to most are page time for some of my beloved characters. I enjoy intricate world the author has created and many characters that inhabit it. And since this series has gone longer than any other book series I read – it has many beloved characters and things I look forward to.
I do not own this picture and can never hope to draw anything that looks as good as this
Summary
This one took longer to read than I anticipated. While I was glad to see how Anita tackled Ireland and some new supernatural creatures; I’m not so sure how much I liked the development this book brought to the series as a whole. Usually I refrain from any spoilers or plot revealing details
Actual sculpture from Victor’s Way Park in Ireland
Spoiler alert!
Here are the things I have issues about:
First, since it is still fresh that last death of Rodrigo was so convenient that it just left a bad aftertaste for the whole 700+ pages book!
Second, I’m not sure if this was the authors intention (?) but the fact that second part of the book actually happens outside of the USA my EU native feels started to show up. I have a nickname for Anita – Happy Trigger. When the clash of cultures between gun loving American stereotype came full on against the peace loving Irish Gardai who mostly don’t even carry weapons the whole shoot first approach came in to light full swing.
I’m going to make a “benefit of the doubt” theory that the author has finally decided to open the character up to stop being a cop-like type of a character.
Otherwise the main character just comes of like a paranoid and delusional counterpart of the monsters she has battled for the last 25+ books…
Also the cop and military, AKKA boys and their toys references are really starting to be cringe worthy. I don’t know if these repetitive extra lines and explanation on police and other mostly male dominant professions are induced by the editor or the author but somebody should intervene for them to stop…This would take out at least 100 pages out of the book. If somebody did not get that in the first 25 books they never will. Constantly explaining the same things over and over makes the readers feel treated as idiots. This way author comes as insecure woman that needs to keep mainspalining to her readers same thing over and over…
Last but not least – for a book that has been promoted as a trip to Ireland it took way too long for the actual travel to happen in the book. As usual once the action got started it all got over really quick. This kind of approach makes me feel kinda cheated on in the end…
Conclusion
Last few books character development was centered around other characters than Anita and I’m really interested in those. With all above said and vented out I still got happy to see the announcement for the next book in the series on FB. There were some really questionable moments in this book. My relationship with this series is longstanding and very complicated and I have decided to see this series trough.
anastasiaadamov 