∎ [PDF] Guilty Pleasures hamiltonlaurellk 9780755355297 Books

Guilty Pleasures hamiltonlaurellk 9780755355297 Books

Download As PDF : Guilty Pleasures hamiltonlaurellk 9780755355297 Books

Guilty Pleasures hamiltonlaurellk 9780755355297 Books

This is maybe my 14th time of reading Guilty Pleasures. It was first given to me by a friend. Who was of the opinion that Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake Vamipre Hunter Series was better than the "Vampire Chronicles" by Ann Rice which I had been reading at the time.

Hamilton's Anita and Jean-Claude are much more interaded into human society then that of Lestat. They may be in the same genre . However, I think of the Anita series as a grown up mix between murder mystery/detective novel and twilight. As much as Anita see 's vampires as evil soulless creatures and not the living challenged humans as some of the characters do, she is drawn to Jean-Cluade.

I would recommend this book to others who like paranormal and vampire series. Although they can be read as stand alone books , there is some progression of main characters .


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Guilty Pleasures hamiltonlaurellk 9780755355297 Books Reviews

This book is now a bit dated, with answering machines and pagers and people scrambling for change to use pay phones. And it is not among the best constructed, most well written, or even most entertaining works of paranormal fiction I have read. What it is, is revolutionary, and I recommend it as much for its place in the history of vampire novels as I for its own merits.
Hamilton adds a postscript to the end of this edition (from the hardcover edition) which talks about how a publisher rejected Guilty Pleasures because the vampire novel was dead. I have heard this myself in reference to a vampire novel that I am working on and scoffed derisively. You can’t kill vampire novels (even with a wooden stake and silver bullets).
What Hamilton did was take the (previously resurrected at least once) genre and move it away from both the horror and romance poles, doing something completely different with it. She made vampires ubiquitous and used mystery and a sleuth as the plot driver. She went further, creating a central character who is connected to a completely different branch of paranormal lore (zombies) and throwing in werewolves and others for good measure.
There may be older examples of this treatment of vampires as object rather than subject (I am not pretending to be a historian on the subject) but this is a well known, successful exemplar.
As a novel, what Guilty Pleasures does well is develop the lead character. Anita Blake is a great character. Part sleuth, part reluctant vampire slayer, all cranky, under-slept and slightly (just slightly) over her head, she is tough, smart and funny. It is a compelling character that I would want to follow in other novels.
The supporting characters are developed with different degrees of success. There are slightly too many transient secondary characters, which distracts a bit from the narrative and leads to a bit of confusion. Some of the vampires are strong, compelling characters, others are a bit exaggerated, but some not inappropriately so. It is largely in the human characters that I feel improvement could take place. Some are characters that are important for the plot (Catherine, for instance) but are not developed, rather, used as plot objects.
Plot development resembles traditional sleuths, hunting for clues, hitting dead ends, death treats... the difference is the death threats are coming from the undead. The plot is peppered with occasional paranormal-relevant asides which adds to ambiance. Without spoiling, I will say that the plot could be stronger.
Description and ambiance is very good, particularly for the paranormal sections. St. Louis is an unexpected setting for a vampire novel. However, except for the stifling summer heat, Hamilton does not spend much ink describing the city itself, and the novel could have taken place elsewhere.
As far as internal coherence is concerned, I am on the fence a bit. There is an enormous challenge that Hamilton has to overcome, somehow normalising vampires, zombies, and weres, and making them part of society, while still keeping them frightening. This leads to some contradictions and logical traps which the book is too short to be expected to deal with. Maybe in a sequel.
All-in-all this is an entertaining read and certainly one that has a certain historical importance in the genre.
I am re-reading this series to remember what enthralled me about it now that the 25th book is coming out. I remember finding Jean Claude cold and ruthless. Most of the characters were not very likeable, but that is their appeal. They are all too human, and often the worst monsters of all.
The world created is fascinating and draws you in waiting for the next event.
So after at least two decades, I am still hooked.
I found this recommended on an UF website, and made it half way through and lost interest. I thought it was going to be a supernatural police procedural with a kick ass protagonist, but she winds up being pretty much a beta that things happen to. And there is no PP detecting. And it is all about the sex. Hoping the series would get better--it is 25 books long so there has to something there, I thought--I read reviews which took me to the author's blog post stating "if you don't like it, or where I am taking it, stop reading." So I stopped.
You have to understand one thing in particular before you get into bed with this series. It's addicting. It's good. It's imaginative and fun, involving tons of action, romance, and paranormal elements.

However, the Author is a sham in my opinion, and a deceiver. Around the 10th book in this series, Anita Blake, the main character, basically does a 180 as far as her morals go, and starts screwing every person she finds attractive and lusts after. Words cannot do justice to how disappointed I am by Laurell K. Hamilton. This Author spends 10 books, and over 3,500 pages depicting Anita's character for us, establishing her beliefs, morals, and guidelines, particularly towards sex, then she just completely disregards that later in the series. It's as if between books, her publisher or someone demanded she change her characters to become more appealing to a completely different audience. Either that or the Author was planning this from the get-go. This is a 26 book series thus far, and the last 16 books depict basically a slutty main female lead that sleeps with anyone she happens to lust after.

I thought this series would be different. I thought Laurell K. Hamilton would be different. There are countless "New Adult" series out there that depict badass female leads that sleep with whoever they want. Why the Author decided almost halfway through the series that Anita Blake needed to be like that too, I don't know. If Anita was just sleeping with random people that would be one thing, but she HAS a MAIN LOVE INTEREST. As in, she's in a relationship with a certain individual WHILE all this other sleeping around goes on. Screw that. Call me old fashioned, but fuc*ing every person you find attractive, while you date someone, is wrong in so many ways.

I wish, desperately, that someone would have told me that Anita Blake does not continue to be a loyal lover throughout the series. I am very careful about what series I start, precisely because I don't want to read series with an disloyal, whore of a main character. I thought I was thorough enough in my investigation of this series, and I was wrong. It never occurred to me that the Author would turn the female lead into a slut more than TEN FREAKING BOOKS into the series. Sadly, that's not even the only issue. The series basically turns into an erotica series as well. What this author did is just wrong.

So, to summarize, if you are somebody who values loyalty, particularly in regards to sexual/romantic relationships, don't read this series. If you are expecting Anita Blake to stay loyal to her main love interest throughout the series, don't read this series.
This is maybe my 14th time of reading Guilty Pleasures. It was first given to me by a friend. Who was of the opinion that Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake Vamipre Hunter Series was better than the "Vampire Chronicles" by Ann Rice which I had been reading at the time.

Hamilton's Anita and Jean-Claude are much more interaded into human society then that of Lestat. They may be in the same genre . However, I think of the Anita series as a grown up mix between murder mystery/detective novel and twilight. As much as Anita see 's vampires as evil soulless creatures and not the living challenged humans as some of the characters do, she is drawn to Jean-Cluade.

I would recommend this book to others who like paranormal and vampire series. Although they can be read as stand alone books , there is some progression of main characters .