Skin Trade, Laurell K. Hamilton
to be honest, i don't even know what exactly made me reach for this book; i was certainly not in the mood for a letdown, and i don't think i had any faith in the ability of this book to even entertain in any way--the last one was quite bad. i'm not sure any fans believe in Anita Blake anymore, and i would have to agree with them, lately. however, once i started reading, i did find myself pulled along despite myself, and i might actually be excited enough to say that LKH might be back. i'll probably regret saying it when she comes out with crap again though, but i sincerely hope not.
the first big sign that something was different about this was the presentation of an actual mystery within the book, and there were actual unknowns that anita has to solve, instead of just randomly knowing all the answers like some god. she actually spends almost the entire book trying to figure out where and what this villain is, unlike the past couple of books where the villain is just a pretense, because of course we know that anita is all-powerful and will kick his ass anyway. there is actually suspense in this book, and there is actually danger. i think we're beginning to get some of the elements from the earlier books back, and she does blend both together.. i wouldn't say exceptionally well, but decently by the end of the book. i wasn't disappointed, much, and that's a definite step for me and LKH's books.
secondly, a HUGE change between this and the more recent predecessors is that anita has insecurities. she questions herself constantly, and while i've read that some people on amazon are complaining that it's too whiny, come on: fans who have followed this series for a while will know that just having anita question anything is a huge step. i personally was sick and tired of reading about this omnipowerful god in a human body, and who knows exactly what she's doing, and anyone who's friends with her just somehow ends up okay no matter what. there's no believability in that, because we keep hearing that she's human, and she doesn't even begin to act like it. sure, in this book, we still keep hearing the 'holy crap she's powerful' stuff, but that i can deal with. i'd be annoyed from time to time, but i wouldn't hate the book so much i'd pour gasoline all over it. so, that's that.
and now i guess i'll move onto faults, some of which i've brought up already. there is one prevailing problem with her writing that i can't help but notice: all her characters seem to have the same voice. i mean i know, and it's nice, that LKH puts all of herself into her characters at all times, but the one thing that takes away believability is that people must have different ways of talking, different mannerisms and such. they can't all refer to the same thing the same way, or otherwise you begin to see the seams of the dialogue, and that's not good. for example: during sex, they all talk about 'prepping' her, and how many people in the world actually call foreplay that? these random strangers will say she's not 'prepped,' and she'll respond like it's completely normal that they happen to all use the same terms to refer to the same things. sometimes, that makes it so that the 'individual' characters i'm reading about appear to all be the same character--and it makes me wonder if that one character just so happens to be our author, Laurell K. Hamilton. if so, then it makes all the sex parts of it almost disturbing, because it would mean i'm reading someone else's sexual fantasies (or realities), and there's a certain sense of voyeurism in that.
secondly, when it comes to faults: i've read books that curl my toes with their sex scenes. this one does a little bit at some points, but mostly doesn't, which i'm sorry about. she takes all the passion out of her sex when she has everyone just pause in the moment and talk about it--and again, i bring up the 'is she prepped?' instance, because it shows up a LOT. not to mention that randomly a side character will just be like 'oh, are you too big?' and then 'no, it's okay, because if you do it this way she'll be okay'--what? is this dialogue even necessary? i know it doesn't do anything for me except make me roll my eyes, because you're gonna pause a sex scenes to talk about all the angles you can take? are you serious? maybe this process helps her write herself into it, i don't know, but the biggest issue with this is obviously that passion (we are talking about her theory of the ardeur here) shouldn't feel like a science. the moment she breaks passion down into the how and why, it is no longer passion, but again, a science.
and now that i've got that out of my system, i'll just state all the small things that might otherwise not have been worth a mention, but i remembered them, so why not. this book breaks continuity in some places, which makes it obvious that the editor wasn't combing too hard; or maybe the editor was concentrating on other areas so hard that she couldn't help missing one or two here and there, in which case it wouldn't be a biggie at all, because this book turned out well in comparison to her recent works, in my opinion. an example of this break of continuity is her cell phone ringtone; i don't even know why i noticed it, but she says she doesn't know how to change her ringtone. it starts out with her having a duran duran ringtone outside the circus, and then when she lands in vegas it had changed to a different ringtone. however, by the end of the book, she's still in vegas, and somehow it changes back to the duran duran song, without nathaniel ever being there with her--how? little things like that shouldn't even be worth mentioning, but i thought it wouldn't hurt. maybe they'll find the error and change it for the paperback edition.
she also closes the book by saying lust and love are really the same thing if you think about it--and i can't say enough how disturbing that is. because if we applied this theory to family members and other people we love, it's just downright gross. and if i'm taking it the way she meant it, that lust and love are the same thing when we're talking about significant others, NO, it's NOT the same thing. i can be completely lusting after someone i barely know at a bar, because they're attractive, but it doesn't mean i love them. i love my other half, because he's him. lust plays partially into it, but they are NOT to be equated. and because it's so obvious to me, i believe that that is possibly the most shallow comment i have ever heard from someone who's lived through that much, and i would've liked to think that she knew better than to write a closer like that.
*** SPOILERS *** i also felt that the last section of the book was a cheap way to get rid of a major god-like villain, but i don't know if anyone feels the same. and maybe it doesn't matter anyway, but if you get rid of the biggest and baddest already in this volume, then who's gonna be the villain for the next books? it kinda leaves her in a dead end as a writer, no? i mean it's nice that they're gone now, but really, what could possibly happen from here on?
but finally, i want to go back and say again that i am impressed with this book, because anita is once again human enough for me to relate to, and vulnerable enough for the suspense and danger to actually somewhat get to me. a character needs to be vulnerable, or otherwise what good is the plot? we also won't care for her otherwise. so i honestly think that this is a step forward, but again, others may disagree. it's my hope that LKH will keep improving from here, because she has given me hope that there is something to salvage out of this series again. and that's the best compliment i could possibly give a series i thought was long dead.
