Author: Laurell K. Hamilton
First published in 1993
Page count: 368 pages
In short
When St. Louis's most powerful vampire comes to Anita Blake for help, she is faced with her greatest fear-a man capable of arousing in her a hunger strong enough to match his own. Anita Blake lives in St. Louis, Missouri, in a world where magic, vampires, werewolves, and the like are, and have always been, "out of the closet" and, in some cases, even legal. Anita is an "animator," with the ability to raise or inter zombies. She uses this ability in employ at "Animators, Incorporated," where she raises the dead for various purposes including murder investigations, will explanations, and other legal services. Anita also works as a "vampire executioner," killing vampires (by court order) and advising the police on supernatural crimes.(www.goodreads.com & www.wikipedia.org)
My two cents
This first Anita Blake novel I tried, delivered me with mixed feelings. For a first novel I didn't find it captivating enough to read on, but since it thrives on such a large fan base I probably will try the next novel, just in case it should get better.
Anita is portrayed as a strong female doing a dangerous job in an equally perilous world, we can hardly imagine. She's an animator, which in short means she can raise the dead and she is known as the executioner, for she occasionally takes part in the taking down of dangerous vampires. Also, she seems to be working along side with the police in helping with the supernatural crimes.
My thoughts with all this information is that is feels like I picked up a novel somewhere in the midst of the series, instead of the very first, that's how much information is being thrown at you.
I read a couple of reviews of this novel and all seem to be perplexed Anita doesn't like vampires, as Sookie, Bella or even Buffy does, but that doesn't bother me. We can't all love the lethal toothy ones and Anita has a right to feel about them as she want, but what would've been great if we knew a reason why. It doesn't even need to be a fully explained reason, just a peak into something traumatising would've been good too.
The anita blake series haven't had that WOW-effect with me, but overall it wasn't an all too bad read.
