I'm up at 02:31 because I've just finshed this book. Believe me when I tell you that not only is this book harrowing, it is shocking and chilling.
I have a tendency to be unnerved of what goes bump in the night. The fact that I had to wait at the bottom of the stairs, come up and decide the hallway to my bedroom freaked me out, go back downstairs, turn the light on to the landing and then run to my room and smack the light switch to make sure there was nothing in my room, should tell you how much this book got to me. Even now, all the lights are on, and I find myself looking behind my shoulder to make sure there are no monsters. I'm 20. Writing this makes me feel a little ridiculous, but I suppose procrastination makes us all tick.
Now, to the actual review.
Laurell K. Hamilton has done it again, once more only with relish. The amount of imagery this novel is steeped in is incredible. She has outdone herself with the plot and made it genuinely creepy, exhilerating and most importantly, human.
Anita goes to New Mexico to meet Edward for a favour she owes him for killing one of his back ups. There she meets some people that give us and her more insight on this previously enigmatic character. I myself was as shocked as Anita was when some of the personal revelations were discovered. Hamilton cleverly incorporates these people creatively into the fray and I have no idea how she does it. She creates believeable characters, people that you or I might know, and charges the book with emotions. You can completely understand how Anita is willing to pull a trigger for people she has just met. Now, that is scary.
I have to say, this review is more of an exorcism for me, so it probably hasn't made much sense. There are more detailed plot reviews below. But because I am failing to be fully conherent, let me leave you with this.
It is by far the best Anita Blake book I have read. Unlike one of the reviewers, I was glad from the break of Jean-Claude and Richard - I've read a later book and all there is sex and very little plot and as much as I hate to disparage an Anita book, I can't shy away from it either.
Be glad of Anita without ardeur. Be glad her conscience is so prominent, her story still about her life as an Executioner and all the other gory bits and horrors that befit her life. It is a fantastic book that will stay with you for a long time and if you're anything like me, glad for dawn to break so that some of the monsters will be hampered for the day.