Finished: Narcissus In Chains

Narcissus In Chains, by, Laurell K. Hamilton


Classification: Supernatural urban fiction.

First Impression: A steaming pile of garbage writing trying to hide behind a lot of homo-eroticism.

Final Verdict: Decent action and an interesting story balance out bad writing moments and unlikable characters. I'm considering delving more into the series, so it wasn't god-awful, but I can't say it was great either.

Extended version: I dunno. Maybe never having read any other book in Hamilton's Anita Blake series (or any book by Hamilton for that matter) I shouldn't have started with the tenth in a series of, I believe, fourteen and counting novels. Then again, I really enjoy reading series' out of order. However, I couldn't help but feel that Hamilton was just not that good. I can see how her books would appeal to the same crowd that devours the trashy romance novels, but I never suspected that was the same crowd that loved vampires, werewolves, and violence.

Why am I being so harsh? Well the majority of her characters were really annoying. Especially the heroine Anita Blake, for some reason, Hamilton really wanted to beat the idea into the reader that Blake had a problem with nudity. Never mind the fact that she was often finding some kinky excuse to take off her clothes and get down and dirty, she still had to drive the point home that she was very uncomfortable with it. Over, and over, and over again.

I got the idea the first time she told me. Rereading it every few pages just got old fast. I suppose I should give her credit for her consistently trying to show her character's quirk, but I can't help but feel there was a much better way she could have conveyed it without such monotony.

To be honest, after six hundred plus pages I really felt like the only things Blake ever thought to herself were "I don't like getting naked" and "I'm afraid I'm a sociopath." I guess we could say I just didn't like Anita Blake, but I really feel like the reason for that was simply the author's unoriginal attempts at trying to show her struggle with her humanity, or lack thereof as the case may be. Especially because the rest of the novel showed Anita's internal struggle and her intricacies fairly well without the commentary akin to being beaten over the head with a mallet. Maybe her typical readers are used to having the same thing reiterated over and over. Maybe it's just me. I don't know...

The other thing I really could not stand about Hamilton's writing is how despite having numerous graphic sex scenes she manages to shy away from ever giving name to either the male or female genitalia. Instead of naming the parts she was so eloquently describing she would use such lovely nouns as "it" or "him". She actually managed to go the entire book without a single direct reference to either the male or female reproductive organs although she could describe how they looked. I would have even preferred something as bland as "his penis was inserted..." to a complete avoidance of the fact that these things have names. I can only read "The sight of him..." so many times, when it was clearly referring to a penis, before I just wanted to gag. That or give Hamilton a serious lecture on the importance of refraining from monotony in her writing. Either way, it felt almost juvenile in delivery. It reminded me of prepubescent school children snickering behind the teacher's back in health class when they discussed the human anatomy. I don't know how else to say it; it bothered me.

All complaining aside, however; the action and the story though not anything spectacular was entertaining enough to keep my interest despite the story's flaws. I even will go as far to say I may give more books in her series a chance later on.

That's it for me right now. I also just finished Jodi Picoult's Perfect Match I'll have that review up later.