Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I love her. When I first began reading the series, I couldn't put LKH's books down. I would want nothing more in this life than to pick up a newly released Anita Blake book, read it, set it down on my night table and write this review starting with, 'Thank you, Mrs. Hamilton. Thank you. You've brought me back into the fold. Bravo to you.' Before I begin I feel the need for a disclaimer. It is quite possible that because I don't understand LKH's attempt to utterly destroy the title and humiliate herself that perhaps I am just as shallow as she indicates for 'not understanding' where she's going with the series and not wanting to force myself to 'think too hard'. Perhaps I don't understand good story-telling or exploring character development through hardcore sex and whiny conversations (which all males enjoy having with one another around the the woman they're all plugging comfortably) at lunch. Ah, the lunch scene. Prepare yourselves, boys and girls, for the lunch scene. The singular event in my life in which I can point to and demand those minutes back. What a waste of pages. If I have to read about the waiter's smile one more time....I digress. Perhaps I'm so obtuse that I shouldn't even be buying these books anymore, because their value on the market seems to decrease every time one of us morons gets a hold of one of them, reads it and says to ourselves, 'This book is absolute horse manure. The writing is amateurish. The plot is non-existent. I don't care about almost any of these characters and frankly, I'm forced to skip about 58-64% of the material due to hysterical fits of laughter over the ridiculous language used to describe people having sex, which normally I'd be secretly changing my underwear afterwards. Now I'm just changing my underwear because I laugh so hard at the sex scenes I pee a little.' If the series had started out with writing and 'plot' like this, no one would be buying it. It never would have caught on. The only reason anyone buys this series now is pure hope only a small child who still believes in the Tooth Fairy could appreciate. I loved this series. I recommended this series. Now I have to hide the book under the sleeve of my arm around the bookstore before I read it and subsequently put it back, glad that I didn't waste my hard earned $26.00 on it. Did I ever read an Anita Blake book in the bookstore when I first started this series? No. Of course not. I trusted that the writer cared about her craft and her character. I trusted I might not enjoy this book as much as the rest, but I know I'll at least have fun reading it. Now I dread. I especially get angry at the sheer disdain Laurell K. Hamilton has for her readers and ultimately her critics. I truly admired her for her creativity and writing style when I first started reading this series. But after reading her comments on people who don't want to be made to think too hard (meaning people that paused for a moment and said, 'Um. Mrs. Hamilton? Ma'am? Maybe if Anita could do something other than just have sex with everything and perhaps if the entirety of your books now weren't just about conversations between her and her 'men' involving whining and crying and emotional drainage, perhaps that would make the series better? No? Oh. Oh okay.) I can say that I am no longer concerned about communicating any kind of respect towards her, as she apparently has no respect for some (if not most) of her readers. Flirt is not exceptional. It was given to me as a gift (from some well-meaning person who didn't understand how much I've come to loathe the series I spent years boasting about). It's not good, it doesn't further any plot and it doesn't make me care to read anymore from this series. This series ended with Obsidian Butterfly and no one can convince me otherwise. My suggestion? Don't be a serial killer. Don't keep strangling the life out of this book only to wake it back up to partial consciousness so you can watch the life drain out of it again. Do what Anita would do. Put a damn bullet in it.