Book review: Bloody Bones by Laurell K. Hamilton (Anita Blake 5)

Warning: Contains spoilers for earlier books in the series.

Bloody Bones is one of my favorite books in the series, because this is the first book where we really see Jean-Claude as a person, rather than just a scheming master vampire, and it's fun. We also learn more about Anita's deceased mother, and how her death affected Anita. Jason the werewolf is back too, being a pain in the ass as always.

Anita (and Larry Kirkland, animator/vampire hunter in training) goes out of town to attempt to raise centuries-old zombies from a mass grave that's been disturbed. A high-powered law firm is footing the bill; the ground was being broken to build expensive homes, but now the ownership of the land is being disputed. If the corpses are members of the Bouvier family, then the law firm is SOL--but why won't the Bouviers, who are poor, sell this out-of-the-way piece of land? Magnus and Dorcas Bouvier are interesting characters all on their own; it's cool to see another "fairy tale" sort of being living day-to-day in the modern world.

Of course, a simple animating job isn't all the story: the state police call Anita in to look at the murders of three teenage boys, who appear to have been killed with a sword by something with preternatural speed. Then Anita gets another call, to the home of a family who's daughter was found bitten and dead in her bedroom. While hunting the vamp that killed the girl, Anita encounters the sword-wielding beastie, and realizes she might be in over her head. To try to solve these murders (and a kidnapping), Anita needs to contact the local Master of the City--and for that she needs Jean-Claude. He flies into town and bunks in her hotel room (though she, of course, takes the couch). That's a very interesting proposition, considering that in the last book Jean-Claude essentially blackmailed her into dating him as well as Richard--and Anita doesn't deny that JC has "a cute butt for a dead guy".

This is definitely one of the high points in the series. Anita is still struggling with her love life, struggling with her powers, and fighting against her attraction to Jean-Claude. There's plenty of conflict, there's plenty of action, plenty of Anita being sarcastic and hard-asses, and also some naked Jean-Claude!

Book review: "A Is For Alibi" by Sue Grafton

I first read this book a long time ago, like 15 years ago, when my grandmother starting reading them. I read a few of the series, I think through D is for Deadbeat, but eventually lost interest. Grafton's up to S or T now, so I thought I'd give them another try seeing as I'd forgotten the plot. Or thought I had, anyway! Turns out I remembered a lot more than I realized, possibly because it was the first book I read with a sex scene in it. Hey, I was 11!

A Is For Alibi is a short book, but I still had trouble getting through it. Kinsey Millhone, private investigator, narrates in a strange mix of dry facts and occasional fluid imagery. The plot is pretty straight-forward: a woman recently released from prison hires Kinsey to find out who actually murdered her husband. During the investigation, Kinsey discovers a woman was murdered the same way a few days after the dead husband, and tries to figure out the link. Simultaneously she's doing some boring observation of a woman potentially trying to scam the insurance company Kinsey free-lances for.

I can't put my finger on what made this book such a difficult read for me. Perhaps because it's a first novel in the series, it seems sort of choppy in places. I think there's also a lack of emotional connection to the character--Kinsey's narrative is detatched, uninterested, although nicely detailed. I think I'll try the next book in the series and see if it's better.

TV review: Nip/Tuck

Without spoiling storylines, it's hard to fully express how absolutely insane this show is. It's a soap opera on crack with occasional lucid periods. It's absolutely a drama, absolutely outside the realms of reality--but with enough touches of the mundane to make it swallowable. It's depressing sometimes, exploring the vulnerabilities of peoples' lives and neurosis, and then there are touches of humor (usually morbid) that make me laugh out loud. It's touching, and horrifying, and uplifting, and hilarious, and suspenseful, and I absolutely fucking love it.

To give a basic rundown: Nip/Tuck follows the lives of two plastic surgeons and their families. Christian Troy (played by McMahon) is hot and knows it. He's a man-whore, an arrogant jerk, a womanizer, and generally an asshole. Sean McNamara (played by Dylan Walsh) is married with two kids, is vaguely miserable, and is the kinder, gentler member of McNamara/Troy, their plastic surgery business. The contrast between their two lifestyles is made immediately apparent: Christian picks up a model in a bar and takes her home, where he snorts coke off her body and has crazy hot monkey sex with her. Interspersed into that scene are shots of Sean at home in bed with his wife, lethargically humping while she stares at the ceiling.

Of course, that static shot of their lives is only the surface--through the course of four seasons, we've learned that Christian has a lot of secrets he hides from with sex, and Sean has a lot of issues he represses. They both envy what the other has, and make various attempts to live each other's lives with varying degrees of success, and often spectacular failures. This is not a happily-ever-after show.

In addition to the frequent and gratuitous sex, there are graphic surgery scenes in every episode--definitely not for the squeamish. I think that's the thing that turns most people off the show; when I mention it, people either love it or say they can't stand surgery scenes. But the fact is, the surgery scenes are an underscore, a way of drawing to attention to the bloody, painful, ridiculous lengths people go to for beauty. And although each episode is named for the patient being operated on, the storylines are rarely about the patients. They're there, but always in relation to how they affect Sean or Christian.

One important thing with Nip/Tuck: start from the beginning. If you come in anywhere else, you'll be confused. You'll also not have as good an appreciation for the characters and their motivations--one of the things that makes this a great show is the fact that the characters don't make their choices in a vacuum. Their actions make sense in light of their past (for the most part--nothing's perfect). When Christian blatantly, intentionally fucks up a relationship, we understand why even though we think he's a stupid ass. If you're new to the show, you'll see the superficial motivations for things, but not the finer points.

For all the T&A, flashy production, and bloody surgery scenes, Nip/Tuck is a thought-provoking show. Fast-forward through the surgery scenes if you have to, but give it a try.

Book review: Bitten by Kelley Armstrong (Women of the Otherworld 1)

I had looked at this book series at the bookstore several times in the last few years, but was never really interested enough to buy and read Bitten. It didn't help that I had trouble determining what the first book in the series actually was, seeing as the covers don't say. But when people at work recommended it to me, I decided to give it a try.

Our main character is Elena Michaels, a werewolf in hiding in Toronto. She tries to live a normal life as a journalist, while living with her boyfriend--who of course doesn't know anything about her furry side. This is tricky for a lot of reasons, ranging from simple (she requires a lot more food than a normal person would) to more complicated (having to slip out at night to change form and run around the city as a wolf). In addition to being a supernatural creature in a normal world, she's also the only female werewolf. In the world. This is because the genetic mutation is passed down on the father's side, and only to sons; being bitten by a werewolf infects the person bitten, but the process is so violent and painful that the new wolf rarely survives.

I found the premise interesting enough; and the plot gets going relatively quickly with Elena's former pack leader calling her for help. Elena's character was a little grating sometimes. I know that the struggle to accept oneself is pretty standard for supernatural stories, but in this case it's sort of obnoxious because Elena has very clearly already embraced her werewolf nature. She enjoys her wolf form; she talks about killing with little remorse; she slips easily back into Pack life. Her desire for a normal human life seems at odds with how she actually feels.

The actual action of the book takes a while to get going, despite being set into motion early. The head of the Pack (always capitalized), Jeremy, has called Elena to help the Pack track down a non-Pack member, a Mutt, who is killing humans in the area where the Pack lives. Although this storyline does start very early in the book, it also takes a long time to unfold. I got frustrated at times and would put it down to read other things. I think this is partially a result of this being a first book in the series, which naturally requires a lot of exposition to explain how Elena became a wolf, her relationship with other Pack members, her life pre-wolfing, etc. It's normal to need this in a first book, of course, but it makes me wonder what the other books in the series will be like, seeing as the narrator changes, so the third book will require all that exposition again from the new narrator.

Overall, I enjoyed the book enough to continue reading the series, but it's not at the top of my list.

Book review: The Lunatic Cafe by Laurell K. Hamilton (Book 4)

Contains spoilers for the previous books in the series.

The Lunatic Cafe feels, to me, to be where Hamilton really hits her stride writing about Anita Blake. I can't put my finger exactly on why; things just seem to flow better. We start out with Anita meeting a client whose werewolf wife is missing, but he won't go to the police because she'll lose her job if anyone finds out she's a lycanthrope. After doing what she can for the client, Anita goes to the theater with local werewolf Richard Zeeman, who she met in the last book. She's then called away to visit a murder scene in a neighboring county. The local police were calling it a bear kill, but Anita thinks it's a rogue shapeshifter.

And of course, her night isn't over yet. Her reporter friend Irving is waiting at home to take her to a meeting demanded by the werewolf pack leader at a place called The Lunatic Cafe--turns out her client's wife isn't the only missing shapeshifter, and they want Anita to help them find out what's going on. Anita also discovers that her boyfriend has fought the pack leader twice, but refused to kill him--and considering how practical Anita can be when it comes to survival, that's something she doesn't understand. To top it off, while leaving the cafe, Anita spots her assassin friend Edward in the crowd, and he asks for her help identifying his target.

One thing I like about this book is how the storylines mesh, but don't all meld. In Circus of the Damned, all the storylines ended up leading to the same point, which was a little too convenient. I also like the dynamic set up between Jean-Claude, Anita, and Richard, and how Anita is struggling to choose what she wants her life to be: to continue with her current lifestyle, "covered in blood and corpses", or to try for a more normal life, with more normal hobbies. While she's struggling with this idea, she's also getting more ruthless and pragmatic, and less bothered by killing.

This is definitely one of my favorite books in the series.