Bloody Bones

Read: 2006
Re-read: January 2016
Rating: 5/5 stars

The plot: Anita is asked to work two cases at once; a mass zombie raising for a business dealing as part of her necromancer work, and a missing persons/vampire case for the police.

What I liked:
- The one and only introduction of the Fae in the Anita Blake series. I read an interview a few years ago where LKH said that as the Merry Gentry series and the Anita Blake series would never cross over she didn't want to write any more about the Fae in Anita's world. As Bloody Bones was written before the start of the Merry Gentry series, this is the only book where we can see Anita encounter Fae creatures. It is interesting to see the differences between the two series here; for example in Merry show more Gentry's world America is one of the few countries where the Fae are legally allowed to live, while in Anita's world the Fae are in hiding because they are not allowed to legitimately live in America.
- More Jean-Claude and less Richard. Anita needs JC's assistance with the vampire/missing persons investigation which means we get to see a bit more of the vampire politics and some development of the relationship between Jean-Claude and Anita.
- More Jason. Although Jason has featured a lot in previous books, Bloody Bones is the first time he comes into his own. We find out more about his character and also his links to Jean-Claude.
- Once again LKH's creativity and knowledge of myths and folktales astounds me. The use of Rawhead and Bloody Bones as an adversary not to mention the spontaneously rotting vampires really captured my imagination.
- It was interesting to see how Seraphina used Anita's past and her mother as a weapon against her it made the ending scene very emotional and dramatic.
- The story was fast paced and engrossing.

Things I didn't like:
- I thought Stirling and his associates deaths were a little too convenient for Anita and Larry.
- It would have been nice if Jeff could've survived but I suppose it goes to show that even Anita cant save everyone. show less

I enjoy the Anita Blake series immensely so far. Just finished this one and starting the next in the series. I like how you could read these as stand-alone novels without really missing anything, or read the series in order to get all the snippets about Anita and her powers and her love life and her friends, co-workers, frenemies, and monsters.

She sometimes has misgivings about what she does--Is she one of the monsters, too? She's dating a werewolf and a vampire (long before Twilight) and she kicks ass.

In this book she introduces fairies to her world, which are NOT cute little Tinkerbells. There are multiple monsters to deal with including another Master Vampire and her clutch of minions, a vampire child molester, and a very very nasty show more fairies who likes to eat naughty children.

I'll give the author a pass on some of her favorite phrases like "completed the ensemble" (almost) every time she describes what someone is wearing. show less

Still a delicious read. Another book that is hard to put down. On rereading, the only problem I had with this one is she killed the toy poodle...I really hate stories where some animal is gratuitously killed. I have no problem with human death. On the other hand, having a doggy door as a point of vulnerability was very interesting. I actually kinda felt sorry for Bloody Bones. Anita is still human enough for me.

I really loved Laurell K. Hamilton's early Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter series books but I did feel like she lost the thread a bit in the middle of the series. I am glad to say that it seems like she is focusing more on the story line and less on the sex of late which makes the books better in my opinion. I think Anita is a great character and Laurell K. Hamilton can write a great plot but her overly complicated sex scenes can somewhat take away from the book.

Uno dei migliori capitoli di questa saga, sono tutti belli ma questo... Non ci sono parole per definirlo! Finalmente vediamo un'Anita più 'umana', comincia ad avere dei cedimenti, si vede e si percepisce... perfino dalla sua ammissione a proposito della paura di volare! Inoltre la nostra Risvegliante inizia fare sfoggio dei suoi poteri da Negromante che fino ad allora aveva temuro e, sì, nascosto. Vediamo una giovane donna che inizia a prendere consapevolezza di sè, che non si affida solo alle sue sue amate pistole (anche se sono sempre e comunque onnipresenti XD)
Altro elemento che sinceramente dobbiamo tenere presente è che in questo volume lo scontro fra Jean Cloude e Richard ha inizio, senza esclusione di colpi e sì, ne vedremo show more decisamente delle belle!
Richard apparirà in modo piuttosto fugace e quindi sarà comunque Jean-Cloude ad essere presente in tutto il racconto dimostrando un lato nuovo di sè stesso, quello più umano (per quanto sia possibile per un vampiro esserlo) ma non soltanto! Qua vediamo finalmente Anita mostrare i suoi reali sentimenti per... Beh, diciamo che finalmente Anita stessa si rende conto che non tutto è bianco o nero.Coinvolgente, intrigante e sì, decisamente sensuale questo libro è a mio avviso uno dei migliori dell'intera saga, per il momento ovviamente! show less

Anita finds herself called out of town for an elite Animator gig. Some eccentric millionaire needs her to raise an entire cemetery of zombies in order to prove his ownership of a piece of property. He's prepared to pay handsomely for it because literally no one else can do it. Anita's not even sure if she can do it, but Bert insists that she try. Naturally, while she's out there she's called in on a serial murder case. This one appears to be a vampire with a taste for young boys and manages to kidnap one right out from under Anita. With absolutely no choices left, Anita calls upon Jean Claude for an introduction to the local master.

This master is an old acquaintance of Jean Claude's but she turns out to be more than either of them show more bargained for. They barely manage to escape with their lives. To further complicate matters, the land that the cemetery is on is the ancient burial mound of a legendary Fae monster. The local master is intending to resurrect the beast to feed upon it. When Anita kills it, she's happy to have the necromancer instead. Anita will have to push her already shaky moral code to the breaking point if she hopes to survive this one.

The cracks in Ms. Hamilton's writing style are really starting to show in this book. She has the most tedious way of constructing her dialogue that seems intended to take up as much time as possible. Everything is repeated at least twice and usually four or five times. No one talks like humans. Everyone is constantly going, "What?!" "I don't understand what you mean?!" and "What's that supposed to mean?" in order to draw out prosaic and tedious explanations of patently obvious things. Every pivotal decision is endlessly drawn out until every possible dramatic moment is squashed to utter boredom. show less

While not perfect, I think this has been the best of the series so far. I've always loved the plot action in these books but found the over-the-top caricaturization of the main character incredibly annoying. In this installment Anita actually makes mistakes, she experiences doubts, desire, and even some defeat which goes a long way towards making her a character rather than just a caricature. Giving her a side-kick, and thereby a mirror in which to see herself differently, really helped add dimensions to her. Yes we still have to hear about her black Nike's and her inner-pants holster (time after time), but she comes across as much more natural in this book. That, along with a wide and varied host of new monsters, made for an excellent show more read. show less