I like it, but in a weird way it reads like an old film noir, not like the urban/paranormal fantasy that it actually is.

There's something cliche about Anita, she absolutely reminds me of early Buffy, but in a way she totally isn't Buffy. (And unfortunately, in this book at least, Jean-Claude reminds me of Angel, or more accurately of late Spike, when he is in love with Buffy, and starts to get what may pass for a soul).

Because of the name of the series is really hard to forget the comparison to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and I have read a fair amount of vampire books without comparing them to each other or the tv series. There's something in this book that kept that comparison in mind, and that's not very flattering to the writing.

This book reads, first has a detective story. And as far as the detective plot goes, it's not that good. It had that weird part were we are supposed to know as much as the detective (Anita in this case), but I got the solution before she even thinks that he is a suspect. At one point she is looking for a serial vampire killer AND for a series of people that have been kill... Connect the dots???

And dealing with a 1000 year old master vampire is just trouble and distraction to get the action going.

But the world is well written, the action has a really nice, fast paced action, with about 50 chapters at around 200 pages, so it reads a bit like a movie, going from scene to scene, without boring descriptions, but lot of red herring chasing, when the killer was in the first meeting with the vampire masters. ( )

Didn't really like it. It was hard to follow at times (or not interesting enough to keep my attention enough to follow, as I was listening to the audiobook). I was really put off by the fatphobia in parts of it. Based on the cover and title you'd think it'd be a romance, but there wasn't really any of that. Overall it just didn't make me care about the story or characters. ( )

Just okay. Didn't find the characters very compelling to follow. May or may not read more of these. Too much vamp going on in my reading list of late. ( )

So far I'm loving this series! Anita is great and I love following her around as she gets caught in the mess of vampires. I thought she was interesting and a very strong female character. Shes going to make a wonderful character to follow during this series and I can't wait to see more of her. My favourite part was how honest she was about herself. She admitted when she was scared but decided to do something about it. I really admired her for that and it makes her a really great character.

I was a little disappointed we didn't get to know any other character besides Anita but I think we'll see more of them in the next books (I hope anyways). I'm interested in seeing if there's going to be some romance happening because there wasn't much (if any) in this one.

The plot was quick paced though at times I found myself a little lost when something wasn't explained as good as it could have been. It was still a great start to this series and I'll be continuing with it in the near future. ( )

I love Anita and rereading this book seeing her at her grumpy start makes me kinda nostalgic ( )

Easy read with lots of action. ( )

Totally a "guilty pleasure" ha ha. I do love Anita Blake and a good vampire love story/murder mystery. ( )

Totally a "guilty pleasure" ha ha. I do love Anita Blake and a good vampire love story/murder mystery. ( )

I enjoyed listening to this book, but I didn't like it as much as some other similar series. I was missing something that would make me care.

The story was very cliche but I suppose that's to be expected as this book kind of started the paranormal romance genre?

I enjoyed the setting. I haven't read any book with animators (zombie risers) before and there might be some interesting consequences of vampires getting their rights recently in this world. ( )

I picked up this book because of a recommendation from someone who doesn’t do a lot of reading. Typically, vampire books aren’t my genre of choice, moreso because I haven’t done much work to immerse myself beyond film/tv such as Buffy (which I adored). There were a number of moments I really enjoyed in this book. I did not find myself particularly attached to any of the characters beyond appreciating some quippy humor from Anita.

I did think the story felt rushed, even with the story taking place over 3-4 days. There were times I had to confirm I didn’t miss a page because I wasn’t sure how we jumped from one location to another. I’m interested in Anita’s backstory and what lead her to who she is when the story starts. I also felt that the ending was wrapped up a little too quickly and I would have liked to see another 10 pages to handle the last few scenes.

I did expect substantially more romance for a book categorized under the romance genre. Other than some empathy, I didn’t find this book to have any actual romance in it (which could be a fault moreso of the bookseller than the story itself). ( )

It was ok. Got a bit confused with all the different vampires all up at the front there. Think I got them straight eventually. ( )

I had a friend who passed away who lived to read this series, as weird as this is going to sound I miss her and thought that since she loved them so much I would give this series another chance. My best friend is completely addicted to the series so yet another person pushing me to give them a shot.
One of the things that I loved right off the bat about this book was that all the old vampire clichés are there (they can't go out in the sun; silver, crosses, holy water burns them; sleeping on coffins; etc) More often than not, the author's try so hard to separate their vampires from the typical stereotypes we have associated with them, that they become too much like superhero's and less like what they really are; the living dead. Personally, I found that refreshing. Also, I thought this was a supernatural romance book so I was initially a little let down that there was not dirty stuff.......but I got over that pretty quick.

The ending, I thought, was a little lacking. There was a lot of drama that led up to the last fight scene, and when it came time for her to kill some vampires, I thought Anita took the easy way out. It was kind of a letdown and my actual reaction was, `Really? That's it?' The only other thing I didn't care too much for was the amount of unimportant side characters. There were a BUNCH of them and I found it a little confusing to keep up with everyone. Fortunately, a bunch of them die in this one so hopefully the next book won't have this same problem. (Sorry for the spoiler, but I don't think it gave anything away) Other than those two little things, I really enjoyed this book!! On to book two after work! ( )

I admit it. I like books like that, with witty main character that give black humor remarks left and right, save the world every day, live dangerously, have The Code, have death in their friend list and so on. That is to say my "guilty pleasure"... But every pleasure (and especially guilty! :) must be rightly dosed or... it's not a pleasure anymore, its routine. I read several books in this series and I think that simple understanding of "enough is enough" principle can give many positive emotions. Just don't read more than you like :). ( )

This series was good for quite a few books. I mean really good. But then over time it developed into a bunch of sex romps. I think the author really wants to write erotica, which is great but that's not how this series started. I read quite a few of them. The 1st 7-8 are where it's at. I keep reading because I really liked the characters and wanted to know how their stories progressed. It just kept getting worse. Unfortunate. ( )

“a good, creative read about a vampire hunter who is drawn to Jean Claude. this series of books is a great adult take to vampires and well worth reading ( )

This was surprisingly good. I got into the Anita Blake series in college, right around when people began to complain about the series growing too smutty and romance heavy and Anita becoming out-of-character. I read a couple of books and never continued because I've always been bad with continuing series. This first book is such a good series opener. It's told in first person, which I usually hate, but Anita has a pretty pleasant mind to visit. She's funny and cool and likeable, while also having obvious flaws and making questionable decisions. She takes too long to figure out who's committing the crimes she's trying to solve and the motives of the Big Bad don't make a lot of sense, which is why it wasn't a five star read for me. But the ending line about her killing vampires and not sleeping with them is such a fist pump moment, even if you know that stance won't last for long.

This book is straight urban / paranormal fantasy, without any romance. I read this right after trying to read Pleasure Unbound and Angels' Blood, two series openers to PNR series. And I DNFed both because the main characters were unlikeable and the romances were so rushed and relied on the "not like other guys" trope. I think I prefer this low-romance start to a paranormal series. It gave me more time to appreciate the protagonist and to set up a frenemy dynamic between her and her first love interest.

Little things I also liked about this: so much diversity. I'm not sure it was perfectly executed but I appreciated that every other side character that was introduced was a POC. I also loved that Anita dressed like a 12-year-old hot mess. With the exception of two scenes, she put almost zero effort into her appearances and I loved it a lot. Very much looking forward to continuing the series this time around ( )

Anita Blake is a narcissistic, stone cold, over confident leading character. I’m sorry but I don’t like her. She just isn’t very likeable. She has a friend who she wants to save which is honorable of her but she doesn’t act like she even likes her friend. I got no feel for the connection or the relationship between Anita and her friend. She is invited to go out for a impromptu bachelorette party but acts like she is too put out to spend time with her friend.
The book is written in first person and the first few chapters feel like one of those old black and white detective movies with the narrator who is a hard-hearted cynical detective who delivers clever one line quips. I don’t know if it is supposed to have that feeling but that is how it came off to me.
Thankfully, the book started getting better about 30% through the book and it lost some of the old Film Noir detective feel. I still didn’t like Anita Blake but I started liking the story and some of the other characters.
The book was probably written in the early 1990’s before cell phones and digital technology were popular. It brings back memories of pagers and telephone booths. It seems like so long ago.
The setting is in St. Louis, Missouri in the sweltering heat. Anita Blake is an animator, a person who brings the dead to life in the form of a zombie. It sounds creepy and gross and it is but supposedly there are a lot people willing to pay good money to speak to a zombie for various reasons. Humans know about Vampires but I was confused on if it was a recent development or if the world had always known about them. It seemed like a more recent development since it was mentioned that St. Louis had a large tourist industry because of the Vampire District. Anita Blake hates vampires and is known as the Executioner because she kills vampires as a side job. She only kills them if there is a warrant for their death so it is legal. She doesn’t go around killing indiscriminately.
Her friend Catherine is getting married soon so another friend of Catherine’s, Monica, calls Anita and asks her to go out with them for the bachelorette party. Monica takes them to Guilty Pleasures, a vampire strip club. Things get really weird at the club which is owned by Jean-Claude, a handsome and powerful vampire. A scarred up human stripper named Phillip goes up on stage and dances, then a vampire named Aubrey goes on stage and tries to mind control everyone and succeeds except for Anita who has a higher immunity to mind control than most humans. Phillip likes to be bitten which seems painful and leaves scars all over his body.
At one point, Anita gets called away to investigate a murder for the police. She leaves her two friends at the weirdass vampire club even though she thinks vampires are dangerous and then returns later. It turns out that Monica had purposely lured Anita to the club because the master vampire of the city wants Anita to find who is killing vampires in the city. Aubrey does something to Catherine that puts her under his control and he threatens to kill her unless Anita works for the master vampire who turns out to be a really creepy, one thousand year-old vampire who looks like a twelve or thirteen year-old girl. Jean-Claude, who seems to have some deep feelings for Anita, tries to help her out but the master vampire punishes him by putting him into a coffin with a silver cross on it so he cannot escape. He manages to give Anita some of his powers but by doing so, he has made her his human servant. He apologizes to her and tells her it is the only way he can help her. Anita is more pissed at him than grateful.
Anita ends up going to a freak-party with Phillip in order to find information about who might be killing vampires in the city. Phillip is your basic addict who uses his looks and charm to get what he wants. At the party, there is an over-weight woman who Anita describes as a beached whale along with all kinds of other unflattering descriptions. Anita is 105 pounds and somewhere around 5’3” tall. To me, that sounds anorexic but I guess the author thinks that is the perfect size. The description of the over-weight woman just made me like Anita even less. What a condescending bitch! Anita and Phillip develop and friendship. I get a deeper feel for the relationship between Anita and Phillip than her relationship with Anita and Catherine who she is supposed to be helping. It just feels like she is helping her out of duty more than friendship or love. The master vampire thinks Phillip and Anita are lovers and to hurt Anita she captures Phillip. Now, Anita has to save Phillip and her friend Catherine.
There is a lot of action in this book and the storyline or premise is pretty good. Even though I’m not to keen on Anita, I like the story enough to give the series a try. I’m going to read the next book in the series.
www.paranormalromanceslut.com ( )

Ummmm...no thank you. ( )

This was a complete waste of time. The obscenely poor writing drove me crazy. If it hadn't been a library book, there were several occasions when I would have thrown it across the room. ("Bully...naw...dammit...goosebumps marched up my arms...")

Hamilton never took the time to set up the world we're reading about, or give any sort of motivation to the characters' choices/actions. This was confusing and annoying.

The lazy editing was incredibly distracting; I found at least four typos in the book.

I didn't like a single character in this book. Was Anita Blake supposed to be endearing? Cute? If so, I disagree. She alternated between insufferable bitch and whiny adolescent. Was Jean Claude supposed to be sexy? Was Edward? Was Phillip supposed evoke sympathy? I think that was the intention, but I was just disgusted with them all.

I don't understand the devotion so many people seem to have to this author/series. Needless to say, I will not be wasting any more time on the following books. ( )

Anita Blake is a reanimator and vampire hunter by trade, living and working in St. Louis. She gets a job offer that she literally can't refuse from the local vampire master to find out who's been murdering vampires in town. Things get...complicated from there on out.
And I mean ridiculously complicated, or at least it seemed to me that the plot was overly convoluted. It could just be that I couldn't ever quite manage to care enough about Anita to bother with following along in all the details. She annoyed me. To be fair, I listened to the audiobook and it could be that the narrator was the annoying part and that if I had read a print version I wouldn't have been so not taken with Blake. At any rate, I don't think I'll continue with the series. For me, there are better vampire/monster stories out there and much more interesting vampire/monster hunters. ( )

I have two huge pet peeves when reading books. First, I hate when words are repeated over and over. In this book the words/phrases were proverbial and "like a kitten with cream" there were other repeats but these stuck in my head. Second, if a book claims to be set in an area, I want to know the area, I want it to be a secondary character. This books claims to be set in St. Louis, I live in St. Louis, so I wanted to feel like the author knew about the city. Other than saying it's set in the city, we don't hear another description or hint that we're in this city until nearly 30 chapters in - when they mention another city and a highway. I'm not saying beat me over the head with it, but if she's driving downtown, should she mention the Arch or the stadium. If she's talking about what she likes to eat should she mention that her favorite pizza is the thin crust from Imo's? Aside from saying, "I live in St. Louis" there are no other clues that she is actually in St. Louis, she could be anywhere!

I'm not sure I would've finished the book had I not listened to it on audio. I liked the narrator and when things got tense, they used music to drive that home. I listened to this on a solo road trip and it kept me awake and entertained as I was alone in the car. If I was in need of some fluff, or on another solo trip, I would probably try the next book in the series. However, I'm not overly impressed with the writing or the story. That being said, I needed to read a book that was set within 100 miles of where I live. This met the challenge, was an easy enough read, and isn't so terrible that I wouldn't try the next book after reading some heavier topics. ( )

Synopsis: As an animator and licensed vampire hunter, Anita Blake raises zombies for a living, consults with RPIT on supernatural crime along with killing vampires in her spare time as a vampire executioner. One of the top vampire hunters in the country, Anita has earned the nickname "The Executioner." So when Willie McCoy, a vampire, wants to hire her to investigate a rash of vampire murders, Anita is suspicious.
Anita learns how persistent the vampires intend to be when she attends her friend Catherine's bachelorette party, held at Guilty Pleasures, a strip club run by Jean-Claude, one of the city's most powerful vampires. Shortly after a stripper named Phillip takes the stage, Anita is called away to consult with the police on another case. By the time she returns to the club, Catherine has been mesmerized by Aubrey, a vampire working on stage. To protect Catherine, Anita agrees to meet with Nikolaos, master vampire of St. Louis. When Aubrey attacks Anita, Jean-Claude saves her by establishing a metaphysical bond, called a "mark," that allows him to give Anita some of his power.
While unconscious, Anita is taken to the master vampire's daytime resting place beneath Circus of the Damned, an indoor amusement park. Nikolaos has employed Zachary to raise a witness to one of the murders as a zombie. When she learns of Rafael's interference, Nikolaos tries to use her supernatural power to force Anita to agree to her demands. When she is able to withstand the onslaught, Nikolaos realizes Jean-Claude has given Anita his mark.
Anita returns home to find Edward, a hit man who specializes in vampires and lycanthropes, waiting in her apartment. He demands the location of Nikolaos’s daytime lair and offers to help Anita kill the vampires in exchange for information. Anita bargains for time and Edward leaves with a promise to bring her more weapons. Anita dreads his return because she knows he will torture her if she refuses to reveal the location.
Following leads, Anita goes undercover at a freak party for vampire junkies like Phillip. While she's there, she stumbles across Zachary trying to raise a zombie for Nikolaos and a group of vampires. Together, she and Zachary raise the zombie and Anita notices a magical charm tied around his arm. When she tries to touch it with a bloody hand, Zachary reacts with fear. Anita realizes she attended Zachary's funeral and the charm keeps him alive. Anita returns to the party but she and Phillip must flee when it's disrupted by religious zealots.
The raid on the party makes Anita suspect The Church of Eternal Life, which promises its followers immortality by making them vampires, may be involved in the murders. Anita questions Malcolm, master vampire and leader of the church, and is convinced he hired Edward to kill the murdered vampires. Anita must decide whether she is capable of sacrificing a fellow human to a monster like Nikolaos, even to save her own life.
Before she can reach a conclusion, Anita learns Phillip has been snatched by vampires and is being tortured. She attempts a rescue, but Nikolaos has Phillip killed. In retaliation, Anita stabs one of the vampires who helped with the torture. Nikolaos bites Anita to punish her defiance. While Anita is unconscious, Nikolaos dumps her at Guilty Pleasures.

When she wakes, Anita returns home to find Edward, who has come to get the location of Nikolaos’s daytime resting place. Anita agrees to tell him in exchange for his help cleansing her wounds and killing Nikolaos. Anita wants to sneak into the Circus undetected, so she arranges a meeting with Rafael to ask for help.
The wererats lead Anita and Edward to an entrance beneath the Circus. Once inside, Anita and Edward kill two vampires by injecting them with silver nitrate and another with a shotgun. The noise attracts Nikolaos and her human servant. Zachary is with them and has raised Phillip as a zombie.
Together, Anita and Edward execute Nikolaos and her human servant, destroy Zachary's charm, and rescue Jean-Claude, who takes Nikolaos's place as Master of the City. Anita uses her magic to lay Phillip to rest. The novel ends with Edward and Anita being treated by a were-rat doctor and Jean-Claude asking Anita on a date.

Review: This was an excellent first novel. The characters are sharp, if not particularly likable. The plot keeps you turning pages. ( )

I love this series. This is probably my fourth or fifth time re-reading this. It's been a few years since the last time and I had been itching to get back at it. Per usual, I loved every second of it. Anita Blake is freaking awesome, she's such a badass character. The intricate plot and amazing array of characters are also some of the things that keep me coming back or more. Vampirism is legalized in the United States and with that brings a whole slew of problems. Anita is on a retainer for police as their resident expert. Besides being a vampire slayer, she is also a full time animator, raising corpses from the dead for clients to settle wills and say goodbyes. At only, 24 she has quite the reputation. She's known as the executioner. Her newest case, a series of bloody murders around the vampire district is going to be challenging in more way than one. If she doesn't figure out who is wasting vampires, her best friend's life may be in danger. Wonderful from start to finish, I love Anita's sarcastic, cocky bravado. ( )

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. ( )

Vampires have civil rights and hire animator to find killer of vampires