Reviews with content warning for Body horror - Guilty Pleasures

Content Warnings: Violence, blood/gore, gun violence, murder, torture, body horror, animal death, animal cruelty, emotional-physical-mental abuse, sexual assault, sexual harassment, fatphobia, addiction, fire, and grief.
Mention of: child abuse, pedophilia, death, death of a parent, and death of a child.

I first started reading the Anita Blake series the summer I turned 14 *whispers* in 2001. Not realizing it was part of a series I picked up Narcissus in Chains, which is book 10, and read it. Now if you’ve read the series…you know that that was a lot for my 14-year-old brain to take it but I was instantly intrigued and needed to know more…so realizing it was a series I went back and devoured the first 9 books.

I’ve read, and re-read, most of the books in this series a few times. I made it to the book Serpentine before I kind of forgot about the series so I decided it was time for a re-read.

Having not read this book in years it was interesting diving back in, to a world I know so well, and looking at it as an adult and through a different lens than I had years ago. With that said…in some ways I found this book to be better than I remember and in others, I was left feeling somewhat disappointed.

The story itself was just as great as I remember, our introduction to Anita and quite a few key players [though you don’t realize that until the series progresses] is really interesting. We get to learn some of the lore, and different categories of city residents through Anita…that being said we’re forced to look through the eyes of someone young and deeply prejudiced.

Having not fully read this book in years I forgot how narrow-minded and prejudiced Anita is in the beginning. From fat shaming [literally describing another woman’s thighs as two beached whales…like WTF] to sex shaming, and even the feeling that, though never stated out loud, it’s like Anita subconsciously feels better than pretty much everyone she knows. Maybe other people don’t get that feeling…but for me the way she describes others I just felt like there were a lot of comparisons where Anita always lands on top.

Granted having read a majority of the series I know that her thoughts and ideas change as she grows in age, maturity, and experience. I just worry for people who’ve never read the series and try to jump in at the beginning…that they might get put off by Anita’s close-minded 24-year-old self. So if you’re new to the series just know that she does evolve and mature. I actually plan to re-read the entire series so I can see when her perceptions start to shift and evolve.

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yogomagpie's review

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adventurous dark fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

1.5

I’m disappointed. I like urban fantasy and really wanted to like this book but there were too many issues for me to give it 2 stars. I give it an extra 1/2 of a star because it had all the ingredients for a good story but the execution was too choppy and sloppy. I finished the book with so many questions, and looked up wiki pages about the story and characters. The wikis were clearer than the book itself.

Every character felt flat and boring, and I think it may be because there are so many of them and not enough time/pages to really develop them beyond the most basic personalities. I didn’t care about any of them.

The whole Nikolaos thing was infuriating. She hired (well, forced) a vampire slayer to find out who is slaying vampires. Why? Did I miss something? And then she meddles and interferes with Anita’s efforts to solve the case. After a long slog through this book, and Anita going on and on about the terror she felt towards Nikolaos, the final fight scene was pathetic. Two humans against a 1000 y.o. mega-powerful vampire, over as quickly as it started. Okay.

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