"Guilty Pleasures" by Laurell K. Hamilton

 

Publisher: Jove Books

Copyright: 1993

ISBN: 9780515134490

This was a very different book that I normally read, and the reason I read it is because I happen to have 

picked up another book in the series without realizing it was a series, so I figured I'd better start at the beginning to attempt to figure out what the story was all about. Unfortunately this book did not accomplish this.

"Guilty Pleasures" is the first in a relatively large series of novels featuring Anita Blake who is a vampire hunter. While this might sound like a rather interesting profession  to have a character have, the story unfortunately it didn't live up to expectations. We are thrown into a world where for some unexplained reason vampires, along with various were-creatures, zombies and ghouls all exist albeit with a fair bit of tension. There are human groupies who idolize vampirism, and there is a church of the undead where people who wish to become vampires can you join. 

Unfortunately, we are given virtually no information with regard to backstory and world building as to how this happened. In addition, as this book is written in first person it will likely be rather difficult for the reader to comprehend what could possibly have brought about the societal changes to allow something like vampires etc. to exist alongside humans.

Now I concede that this may be the accepted standard for this genre, however in my opinion it is stretching the "willing suspension of disbelief" past the maximum. 

Outside of this, the characters are quite two dimensional and very difficult to like, or comprehend. In addition there are lots of characters, most of whom are just a name and a brief description.

Sorry, Anita Blake fans but I'm very much on the fence whether I will read anymore of this series.