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Product Description
First time in trade paperback: the second Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter novel.
Nearly two million Anita Blake novels in print.
The early Anita Blake novels find new life in trade paperback-as perfect collectibles for long-time fans or as great ways for new readers to sink their teeth into the series.
In The Laughing Corpse, a creature from beyond the grave is tearing a swath of murder through St. Louis. And Anita will learn that there are some secrets better left buried-and some people better off dead...
Harold Gaynor offers Anita Blake a million dollars to raise a 300-year-old zombie. Knowing it means a human sacrifice will be necessary, Anita turns him down. But when dead bodies start turning up, she realizes that someone else has raised Harold's zombie--and that the zombie is a killer. Anita pits her power against the zombie and the voodoo priestess who controls it. Notice to Hollywood: forget Buffy the Vampire Slayer; Anita Blake is the real thing.
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Customer Reviews: - Fierce..
I was very into the second book of the Anita Blake series. It held somewhat of a mystery all the way up until the end. It was action packed and kept me turning the pages and not wanting to put it down. For some strange reason I really like Jean-Claude. Hamilton gives very detailed descriptions of her characters. I just picked up the third.. and the series continues......more info - Re: Guilty Pleasures
Because I read these books back to back,(GP & TLC), I can say no more than I already have. Please see my review of Guilty Pleasures. I will add that Laurell gets better,(it seems), with each book, although I may just be falling more in love with her characters...NAW, she's getting better!...more info - Still going strong so far.
Laurell K. Hamilton, The Laughing Corpse (Jove, 1994)
Anita Blake returns for the second book in the immensely popular series, and I have
to say, I've started wondering why the series is called Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter. There are very few vampires to be found within these pages, not that that makes it any less of a guilty pleasure.
Anita's company is approached by a very rich, very eccentric man who wants Anita to raise a very, very old zombie-- one old enough to require a human sacrifice, something Anita isn't willing to do for any amount of money. The guy shows no signs of backing down, however. At the same time, there's a nasty series of murders that looks paranormal going on, and the police want Anita's help trying to figure out who, or what, is committing the murders. Anita and co-worker Manny have little choice but to start asking around with the head voodoo priestess of the Midwest, a woman who has little love for, but a good deal of curiosity about, Anita and her powers.
Everything there was to say about the first book in the series there is to say here-- it's well-plotted, interesting, fun. Anita is a richly-developed character, though her narrative voice can get a bit grating at times. If you liked the first book in the series, you'll like this one. *** ?...more info - Anita, you're... spunky.
"The Laughing Corpse" shows that the Anita Blake series does not need the intrigue of vampire to elevate the plot of each novel to the next level. The main story line in the book has nothing to do with vampire, but instead voo-doo, necromancy/reanimation, and murder. This, the second book in the series, is much more of a mystery than "Guilty Pleasures", the first, was. It's nice to have something so different yet consistent with the tone of the first book.
Anita Blake, as a character, is fleshed out a lot in this novel. She is taken in a direction I hadn't foreseen, and we get to know her a lot better as she comes to realize who she is, what she can do. And she is dark. Way dark.
One little problema I have with the book is that, like the first one, there are a lot of secondary characters. The only main character is really Anita. The book pretty much focuses on her, and most other characters only appear once or twice. As I read more of the series, I'm sure each character will be easily recognized, but at this point it's hard to associate a name with a character when I've met the character such a limited number of times. It has to be said, though, that Jean-Claude is a joy.
And I have to add: This book is by far the goriest I've read. But hey, if you can't stand the blood, get the hell away from the vampire hunter.
9/10...more info - Bigger and better!
In the second book to Laurell K. Hamilton's fabulous vampire series, Anita Blake is once again as* deep in alligators. This time around, she earns the ire of a very powerful voodoo priestess, Dominica Salvador, when Anita refuses her offer of partnership. To top it all up, a wealthy old man is offering her big bucks to raise a three-hundred-year-old zombie. Knowing that such case may require a human sacrifice, she turns down the job much to the anger of Harold Gaynor. And just like the voodoo queen, the old cripple will stop at nothing to get what he wants.
I really enjoyed the first book GUILTY PLEASURES, but I thought that this second book was actually much better. Firstly, we learn more about the nature of Anita's powers, how it began and whom she inherited them from. We also learn that she is more powerful than we first thought and no wonder everyone wants a piece of her. What makes this book also better is the interaction between Anita and the delectable Jean-Claude who is now the Master of the City. Having put two marks on her, JC is now putting the pressure on her to act more like his human servant, much to the annoyance of the strong-willed necromancer. It was fun and exciting to see them together. The way Hamilton is slowly building the sexual tension between them really sucks you in with the promise of what's to come.
If the first novel didn't get you hooked, THE LAUGHING CORPSE is certain to change that. It is one hell of a ride featuring bigger action scenes, more blood and gore and twisted sense of humor. Hey, if you had a job like Anita, you need to have a sense of humor to remain sane. ...more info - Zombies & Vampires & Voodoo Priestesses OH my!!!
Great story, very exciting!
This is the second book in the Anita Blake Vampire Slayer series. Anita has been asked to Raise a 300 year old corpse, but in order to raise something so old a human sacrifice is required and Anita refuses the job. In the mean time she is being called to one crime scene after another where mutilated bodies are being found and they are trying to figure out what could be leaving such a brutal path of destruction. There are a handful of people in town who are under suspicion, one being Voodoo priestess Dominga Salvador.
I loved the mystery about the murders and I found Dominga Salvador's character very interesting. It's not everyday you get to read about a powerful Voodoo priestess......she gave me the shivers. I also can't wait to see how Anita and Jean Claude's relationship progresses. How do you resist the Master Vampire of the City.
However....
I have one problem with the book, and it has nothing to do with the story. Laurell K. Hamilton is driving me crazy with her constant descriptions of the guns Anita uses. Who cares??? I don't need to know that her favourite gun is a Browning Hi-Power 9mm, nor due I need her to tell me this same information over and over again throughout the entire story. I don't care that she's wearing a holster over her blue blouse, or she can fit a small what ever the hell kind of gun it was in the zipper pocket of her shorts. All I need to know as a reader is that she has a gun, knows how to use it and prefers to use silver plated bullets. That's it. Short, to the point and sweet.
Good Grief....
Do these useless gun descriptions continue throughout the entire series???
...more info - Not for the squeamish . . .
I enjoyed The Laughing Corpse, although, at times, the blood and guts crime scenes nearly turned my stomach. Way, way too many comparisons between bodies and hunks of meat. What was possibly more horrifying is Anita's taste in clothing . . . just a note to all you writers out there . . . unless you are writing a period piece . . . clothing descriptions are not really necessary. I screamed with horror when I read "acid wash jeans" !!!!! Nearly as annoying are Anita's comments: Ri-ight. Yippee, ect. ect. But these are really just petty problems that I had with the book. Overall, I think that this plot exceeded that of Guilty Pleasures, much more twists and turns, and the characters, both the evil, the good, and those like Jean-Claude (evil or good-who knows?). There was very little vampire action - but I didn't think that it took away from the book. Remember, Anita is an animator first, vampire executioner second. So it makes sense that she would deal with zombies more . . .at least in the earlier books, I haven't read the rest of the series yet. Overall, I would recommend reading this, its a fun and quick read....more info - I don't know why this series is so popular
Who did the author have to b*o* to get these reviews? Anita ain't no Scarlet O'Hara, much less fascinating. Anita IS one of the most irritating characters I have run across in a long time. She has to make crass observations at least four times on the page about everything she observes, and it gets real old real fast.
Also, the idea that vampires are out of the closet and everyone knows about animators (Anita is not a necromancer, necromancers talk to the SPIRITS of the dead for divination purposes) is just plain silly. Zombie rights? The mythology of the series (which I guess that is what you call it) is inane. Also the fact that Anita kills vampires AND raises the dead is a bit much. Isn't one super supernatural talent enough? But I forget this anitheroine is crafty and uber observant. As Anita would say, yipee!
I was really disappointed with this book because I had always heard so much about Anita's vampire hunting. And I wanted to read and learn more about vampire fiction. However, all this book contained was crap about zombies. The one vampire, Jean-Claude (and who can think of a more cliqued name for a head vampire?) only makes what, two appearances? I can just hear his Euro-trash French accent now ma petite... Where's the vampires in a vampire series? Maybe they are prominent in her other books, but I was hoping for more.
Hamilton really disappointed me. I had always heard so much about her, and how she had created Anita Blake, vampire hunter extraordinaire. And the guns, always the guns - I mean pistols. But Anita comes across as a gum snapping smart mouth. Was Hamilton responsible for the snarky writing that is so popular today (especially in chick lit)? Please let's trash it and do something better.
As far as the plot of this book, if you were looking for a zombie book it was ok. As for the complaints of the gruesomeness of the crime scenes and violence, it's really no worse that what happens in movies. I guess if you have a weak stomach, this book may not be for you. Also, I'm not really sure about Hamilton's knowledge of voodoo. It's a legitimate religion, and she makes it look rather evil. I know it's fiction, but in Haiti they don't do zombies like the world of the Laughing Corpse. And speaking of the Laughing Corpse, it was a bar or comedy club and was mentioned twice or she went to it once in the book, and it was the title of the book? I think she just had an idea for a cool title and used it even though it had nothing to do with the plot.
Another thing that didn't make sense if I recall, she said that when a body was brought to the morgue under suspicious circumstances, it couldn't be staked even though it was likely it would turn into a vampire. Why wouldn't they stake those bodies when they knew the bodies would rise up and feed on humans? Logically they would be exterminated. That's the confusing thing about her mythology. Why would vampires live openly among humans if they feed on humans? I didn't read her first book so maybe she addresses this, but it wasn't made clear in The Laughing Corpse, which wasn't funny.
I guess the Laughing Corpse is a good argument for starting out with the first book in a series so you understand the author's set up. But I just don't think I could take more of Anita Blake. She's just too mouthy....more info - Anita Blake is a great character!
After reading "Guilty Pleasures", I was definately interested in the series. After reading "The Laughing Corpse" I am hooked. This book, the second in the series, is so much better than the first. Not that the first book was bad, this one is just that much better. It has more to do with her powers as an animator, than with the vampires nickname for her, The Executioner. Anita is a great character, and she has you laughing, and feeling her pain through the whole book. Definately a great read!...more info - Crime scenes, vampires and zombies. Just another day for Anita Blake!
The second book in the Anita Blake series is where things really come together. I loved the first book "Guilty Pleasures" and thought there was huge potential for things to come, particularly with the character Anita herself. But I did come away with a whole bunch of questions and hoped that Laurell Hamilton wasn't just writing fictional action with no desire for explanation or history that would take this series to another league altogether.
One of the things that weren't focused on in the first book to my liking was Anita's daytime job as a necromancer. We all knew that she could raise the dead, but how and why and what were the consequences of such actions? "The Laughing Corpse" goes a long way to answering these questions and I feel as though this supernatural, intrigue-filled, horrific, action packed and down-right sexy puzzle is coming together incredibly well.
The plot involves Anita being brought in to help police track down a killer. But this is no ordinary murderer and appears to be a flesh-eating zombie. Everything points to the local voodoo priestess Dominga Salvador, but how to prove it and how to stop this rampaging monster from taking down more victims. On top of all that, she has her own job to look after, the master vampire of the city has decided to take Anita as his human slave, and she's also required to attend a good friend's wedding in an embarrassing pink frilly dress.
I think involving Anita in police activities brings a whole new level to proceedings. Each crime scene is meticulously described (right down to the gory details) and the reader experiences the gritty world of crime scene investigation with all the clues and mystery that go with it as well as the supernatural excitement that the series thrives on. Prospective readers should definitely be aware that there is a high level of gratuitously gory description in this book. While the characters may use comedy to draw their attention away from the sickening scenery, the faint of heart may find themselves' rather distressed at times. If it doesn't bother you or you're like me, someone that strangely enjoys horror and gore quite a bit, then you've nothing to worry about.
"The Laughing Corpse" is another successful entry into this awesome and unique series and I can't get enough. Bring on book three!...more info - Great Read
This was an excellent book, Laurell K. Hamilton writes so intricately giving the reader an in-depth look at the world she is building. The Laughing Corpse is the second book in the Anita Blake Series and takes place a year after the previous book. I don't want to give out too much but it involves werewolves, vampires (of course) and voodoo priestesses. A wonderful book altogether and I would recommend it to anyone who likes to read....more info - Zombie attacks
Zombies make awesome murder weapons. And when your anti-heroine is able to raise zombies, they make an excellent source for a horror/mystery plot. Laurell K. Hamilton's "The Laughing Corpse" has plenty of grotesque horror and zombie-related nastiness, as well as some clever social questions. But she fails somewhat in creating a convincing mystery story -- not to mention a tolerable heroine.
After rejecting psycho-millionaire client Harold Gaynor (who wants a very old zombie raised, requiring a human sacrifice), Anita is called out to look at the scene of a crime that seems to have been committed by zombies. So she starts investigating possible suspects -- including Dominga Salvador, a malevolent old vaudun priestess who has found a way to keep a zombie ensouled.
Unfortunately some very nasty things -- both living and dead -- are trying to stop Anita's investigations, both into the zombie murders and Harold Gaynor. With the solicitous assistance of Jean Claude and a fellow animator, Anita is able to find more and more information on the zombie-related murders -- and it turns out that Salvador and Gaynor may be working together.
Laurell K. Hamilton was pretty clearly shooting for an "old pulp noir mystery" feel in "The Laughing Corpse" -- acid-tongued anti-hero, grimy urban atmosphere, nasty big-shots, and a series of mysterious deaths. So she fills it with many descriptions of guns, dismembered bodies and creepy-crawly scenes (such as Anita holding a moving bird foot).
Her dialogue-heavy writing does tend to be lean and mildly hard-boiled, with a distinctly horrific vibe (prostitute Wheelchair Wanda tells Anita about Gaynor's sex games). But Hamilton has a rather clumsy style: endless sentence fragments ("Not resurrection. I'm not that good. I mean zombies. The shambling dead. Rotting corpses. Night of the living dead. That kind of zombie"), horrendous dialogue (""F**k you." "I have already offered that." "Damn you, Jean-Claude, damn you") and random rants about whatever bothers Anita at the moment.
In fact, her choppy stripped down style is all the more apparent when Jean-Claude enters the scene , inspiring odes to his vaguely effeminate clothing, hair, "glittering, dark jewel" eyes and "the perfection of his body." It's almost funny to see Hamilton go so completely gaga over a fictional vampire -- and despite Jean-Claude's spooky behavior, she' too in love for him for him to come across as truly scary.
It's too bad, because his manipulative cleverness would make him a brilliant anti-hero, and the question of ensouled zombies is a truly ghastly, thought-provoking one. Unfortunately, we have Anita -- a twenty-four-year-old woman whose seething bitterness is never explained.
It feels like Hamilton wanted to create a Raymond Chandleresque anti-heroine, but tried too hard. Instead Anita is obnoxious, rude, bitter, whiny and despises anyone/anything feminine ("The thought that I had actually spent money on anything pink was more than I could bear"), believing that this makes her "one of the boys." Hamilton uses "zombie rights" to try to make Anita seem compassionate, but her raving, inexplicable hatred of all vampires negates it.
"The Laughing Corpse" has a good story buried somewhere under the sentence fragments and cliche dialogue -- not to mention an awesome vampire and horrific zombies. -- but the heroine is simply too unpleasant....more info - It's a Dirty Job...
It's a dirty job and Anita Blake is the one that has to do it. This time two problems that seem completely unrelated unite to challange Anita, necromancer and Vampire Executioner.
First, she turns down the offer of over a million dollars to raise a zombie. Why? Because to raise a nearly 300 year old zombie it is believed she will need a sacrifice in the form of an unwilling human. The cost to Anita is too high. But her erstwhile employer won't take no for an answer and he has the goons to back up his plans.
Secondly, a man eating zombie is running around the suburbs of St. Louis eating families. Men, women, children...no one is safe. In order to stop the killing Anita will venture into the lair of a powerful and evil voodoo priestess who wants to use and kill her. She lays to rest a fellow animator only to find out he was in league with the evil preistess and that she's in league with the man who wants to raise the 300 year old zombie. Small town, huh?
Can Anita find the man eating Zombie, survive, take down the voodoo queen, the richman and his goons, watch her back from others, protect her friends, and live to fight another day? Oh, and don't forget Jean- Claude is stil lurking in the shadows insisting she is his human servant...
This is another great story from Laurell K., the second in the Anita Blake series. Warning: it is not for the squeamish or weak stomached! You may want to read this in daylight!
Other books in the series are:
Guilty Pleasures
The Laughing Corpse
The Circus of the Damned
Lunatic Cafe
Bloody Bones
The Killing Dance
Burnt Offerings
Blue Moon
Obsidian Butterfly
Narcissus in Chains
Cravings Anthology
Cerulean Sins
Bite anthology
Incubus Dreams
Micah
Danse Macabre
...more info - A must read...
Laurell K. Hamilton has this character down. I know want to be Anita Blake. Bad things may happen, but she always comes out on top. Plus she always gets the guy, sometimes two. : )...more info - !!!!!!!
"The Laughing Corpse" is the second book in Anita Blake series. It is as exciting, thrilling as the first one (if not more actually). I am amazed at L.K. Hamilton's wild imagination, the way of writing which binds the reader to the story so strongly, that putting the book down seems simply impossible.
Treat yourself to yet another wonderful adventure together with Anita and her ..... colorful crew :) ...more info - Entertaining
This book got me in to this series. It at least has a plot, unlike the later novels....more info - Very Entertaining!
Action packed, easy reading..a bit gory in some parts..but worth the time it takes to read. I can't wait to read the next one...more info - A real page turner
Anita Blake novels are one of my favorite series. I can't put them down and usually finish the book in a day or two. I would definetly advise anyone to read guilty pleasures before laughing corpse considering its a series and you may be a little confused by the references but the book is great and Ilook forward to reading may more....more info - Good book overall - if you like a lot of blood and guts
It takes a LOT for me to give a book 4 or 5 stars - so 3 stars still is a worth while read.
Story had potential to be great - but the author is redundant. As other reviewers point out - you quickly tire of the main character repeatedly saying 'Ri ight' - gets old very fast.
The blood and gore is very overdone and not needed. The intrigue is much better. The possibility of relationship between the main character and the Master Vampire is great - always wondering what will happen. Also the main character isn't a saint - which is refreshing.
I enjoy the series - and will continue to read more of it. Not the best book I've ever read - but far from the worst. I recommend it....more info - gory
A word of caution: there is so much gore (blood shedding, dismembering, etc.) you do NOT want children or sensitive people to read this.
All in all it is curious: this series is celebrated for being essentially a bodice ripper but in the first two volumes there is very little sex -not to mention a rather prudish attitude towards gay sex- and heaps of violence instead.
As I hoped, this second novel is decidedly better than the first. It is true that the attempt at making a stand alone of it leads to a lot of annoying repetitions but the improvement is clear.
First of all the writing is better, more to the point. Characterization is deeper as well: Anita is still the only focus of the story, a fact enhanced by the first person POV, but all characters are now given full attention.
We also have a real plot here. -Too- Many pages are still centred on Anita's choices of outfits but she also has to face full scale villains while solving the mistery. It is true that the reader can guess the whos and whys halfway through the story but it is still an improvement and after all, one could quote Anita's words: "life's imperfect"....more info - Zombie attacks
Zombies make awesome murder weapons. And when your anti-heroine is able to raise zombies, they make an excellent source for a horror/mystery plot. Laurell K. Hamilton's "The Laughing Corpse" has plenty of grotesque horror and zombie-related nastiness, as well as some clever social questions. But she fails somewhat in creating a convincing mystery story -- not to mention a tolerable heroine.
After rejecting psycho-millionaire client Harold Gaynor (who wants a very old zombie raised, requiring a human sacrifice), Anita is called out to look at the scene of a crime that seems to have been committed by zombies. So she starts investigating possible suspects -- including Dominga Salvador, a malevolent old vaudun priestess who has found a way to keep a zombie ensouled.
Unfortunately some very nasty things -- both living and dead -- are trying to stop Anita's investigations, both into the zombie murders and Harold Gaynor. With the solicitous assistance of Jean Claude and a fellow animator, Anita is able to find more and more information on the zombie-related murders -- and it turns out that Salvador and Gaynor may be working together.
Laurell K. Hamilton was pretty clearly shooting for an "old pulp noir mystery" feel in "The Laughing Corpse" -- acid-tongued anti-hero, grimy urban atmosphere, nasty big-shots, and a series of mysterious deaths. So she fills it with many descriptions of guns, dismembered bodies and creepy-crawly scenes (such as Anita holding a moving bird foot).
Her dialogue-heavy writing does tend to be lean and mildly hard-boiled, with a distinctly horrific vibe (prostitute Wheelchair Wanda tells Anita about Gaynor's sex games). But Hamilton has a rather clumsy style: endless sentence fragments ("Not resurrection. I'm not that good. I mean zombies. The shambling dead. Rotting corpses. Night of the living dead. That kind of zombie"), horrendous dialogue (""F**k you." "I have already offered that." "Damn you, Jean-Claude, damn you") and random rants about whatever bothers Anita at the moment.
In fact, her choppy stripped down style is all the more apparent when Jean-Claude enters the scene , inspiring odes to his vaguely effeminate clothing, hair, "glittering, dark jewel" eyes and "the perfection of his body." It's almost funny to see Hamilton go so completely gaga over a fictional vampire -- and despite Jean-Claude's spooky behavior, she' too in love for him for him to come across as truly scary.
It's too bad, because his manipulative cleverness would make him a brilliant anti-hero, and the question of ensouled zombies is a truly ghastly, thought-provoking one. Unfortunately, we have Anita -- a twenty-four-year-old woman whose seething bitterness is never explained.
It feels like Hamilton wanted to create a Raymond Chandleresque anti-heroine, but tried too hard. Instead Anita is obnoxious, rude, bitter, whiny and despises anyone/anything feminine ("The thought that I had actually spent money on anything pink was more than I could bear"), believing that this makes her "one of the boys." Hamilton uses "zombie rights" to try to make Anita seem compassionate, but her raving, inexplicable hatred of all vampires negates it.
"The Laughing Corpse" has a good story buried somewhere under the sentence fragments and cliche dialogue -- not to mention an awesome vampire and horrific zombies. -- but the heroine is simply too unpleasant....more info - Tough as Nails Vampire Slayer
This book is a hundred times better then Guilty Pleasures. It had a good gripping story, Jean-Claude, and not a lot of corney cliches that the 1st book had.
Anita sometimes gets a little irritating, you don't have to say your a 'tough as nails vampire slayer' twenty times, we got it. I also don't quite understand how bloody murder scenes make her puke but she can lop off a vampires head without a hint of an upset stomach ... vamps bleed too.
Anita also had her good moments ... that and the story line kept me reading and I'm glad I did....more info - I felt soiled and victimized by bad writing and nauseating gore.
I tolerated the first book because I needed to be introduced to what all the fuss was about ANITA BLAKE VAMPIRE KILLER. She had some human decency in the Guilty Pleasures book when she went rampaging to save her friend Catherine from psycho vampires and finally doing the right thing with poor scarred up Phillip, after he had been raised up as a zombie. But this one, The Laughing Corpse is just a gag fest with zombies on the loose and voo-doo craziness running the show. It scares me to think that so many readers think this is good stuff.
"I had performed human sacrifice. and it had felt good. The rush of power was like the memory of painful sex."
Anita Blake has lost her little bit of decency and it is hard to root for a heroine who isn't heroic....more info - OK
Although the first bok in this series is really good this on e seemed a little dry and hard to follow for me. I was very disappointed...more info - Where are the vampires?
"The Laughing Corpse" is the second book in Laurell Hamilton's "Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter" series, about a young woman who has a full time job raising zombies form the dead, and a part time job killing vampires. It follows "Guilty Pleasures" and focuses on a runaway zombie that is terrorizing the city.
I have read the first and third Anita Blake novels and was somewhat intrigued, so I picked this book up. I am not much of a vampire fiction fan, and Anita Blake was my first foray into the genre. After reading my third Laurell Hamilton book, I will probably move on to another author.
The difference between this book and "Guilty Pleasures," is that there is no focus on vampires. The book does go into some of Anita's relationship with Jean Claude, the master vampire of the city, but spends maybe 10 pages on their relationship. Hamilton could have easily removed every bit of story involving vampires from this book and it would not have changed the plot one bit. It is 95% about zombies and voodoo. Unless you're into that, the only good thing about that is the male readers are thankfully spared all of the "vampire erotica" that fills her other books. "The Laughing Corpse" has only one mention of a vampire's nipple in the entire book, which is a surprise if you're familiar with the other books in the series.
I have to give it three stars because the story was pretty enjoyable, but I won't be reading anymore of Hamilton's novels due to the writing. It's not too bad if you can get over the incredibly annoying use of the first person narrator. I got so sick of Anita's comments and having her every thought vocalized. How many times does she have to say "Bully for me," "gag me with a spoon," and "point for him?" It gets real old after the third or fourth chapter. My other big complaint was that this book needs a new editor. It wasn't loaded with mistakes, but I found at least 6 or 7 pretty glaring grammatical or spelling errors. There is no reason why a published novel that has an editor should misspell "too" as "to" or leave out entire words in sentences by mistake. I've also started to notice that Hamilton reuses many things from other books. Of the three Blake novels I've read, all three have very similar crime scene stories. We hear the same comments about how bloody they are, and how sick she gets at them. It's hard to describe, but if you read several of these novels you will get an eerie sense of deja vu.
For those that enjoyed Guilty Pleasures but aren't into the zombie scene, I would recommend skipping this book and jumping straight into book 3, "Circus of the Damned." ...more info - Book two continues the fascination
The Laughing Corpse is a comedy club run by vampires. Anita Blake is a vampire hunter. Why is she hanging out there? Oh so may reason, she has found herself linked psychically to the head vampire of St. Louis, she's not happy, but she's coping, more or less. She finds herself in way over her head when she refuses to raise a long dead family member of a wealthy, but disturbing man, who may be connected to the mob. With his enforcers following her around, a murderous zombie on the loose and Jean-Claude demanding she act as his human servant, Anita is running in circles and getting nowhere fast. But she finds the zombie and continues to defy the Master of the City, without losing either her life or her humanity, for now.
[...more info - More bloody than the first.
The second in the Anita Blake series, I'm not sure The Laughing Corpse would be as good without having first read Guilty Pleasures. It doesn't strike me as a coherent stand alone novel, but having read Guilty Pleasures first I can't say for sure.
There is a lot going on in this novel. Master Vampires, a killer zombie, voodoo and guys in wheelchairs, most of them out to get our heroine. The action is fast paced and rarely lets up.
The mystery aspect is well written, but the perpetrator is revealed about halfway through the novel, which made me second guess that outcome. The remainder of the book focuses on why and what went wrong.
We see a more vulnerable Anita in this novel and I liked her. We also go on a journey with her to a very dark, very gruesome place. If you're squeamish at all this one could give you nightmares....more info - Anita Blake kicking [...] again! More GORE/VIOLENCE.
The death scenes in this one was more graphic than the first. Jean-Claude scenes were limited. Anita actually admitted she lusted after him. So that mixes in just enough tension between the two. They argue about her not acting like a human servant and how she just wants to be left alone. She threatens to kill Jean-Claude if he forces anything else on her. He always seems to be surprised during these conversations. I found the vandun priestess a very interesting character. She shed a nice light to the bad/good side of the practice. I still love the sarcastic humor and the human side of Anita. She needs to constantly remind herself that she's a tough-as-nails vampire hunter but still has heart enough to cry at a murder scene. It makes her character more believable that she would toss her cookies during the investigations.
Murder, mystery, a slight bit of romance. Another great story. I'm glad there's more of Anita past in this novel. You get to find out some stuff about her roots....more info - Very Entertaining!
Action packed, easy reading..a bit gory in some parts..but worth the time it takes to read. I can't wait to read the next one...more info - I liked it, though it had parts that can annoy you
This is the second book in the series. Once again these books are short so I hope no one expects a lengthy in-depth read. Instead of giving away a lot of plot information I think I'll just give a list of likes and dislikes.
Likes: Jean-Claude. Though this character is rarely seen in this story I crave the next opportunity to see him. It isnt the greatest sexual tension I have read between two charcters, but this is all we're given in these two books so far. I like this character and his interactions with Anita.
I like the first person point of view. Anita is witty at times and can make me laugh.
Dislikes: This list will be fairly long. First of all, the repatitive aspect of this book is quite annoying. I'm seeing phrases that were repeated from the first book word for word. This doesn't happen just once, but many times throughout the book. It's often used for describing peoples characteristics and physical being. Not to mention she does this all throughout her third book I am reading.
Anita's personalitly. It was nice to see the tough girl image in the first book. This book, not so much. It seems she's void of regular emotions a twenty-four year old female would have. She's not girly in any way. If I didnt know any better I'd say she was written as a man. It would be nice to see a vulnerability to this character and have her be feminine every once in a while.
Her hate for Vampires is something that is questionable. She pushes for Zombie working rights and shuns all vampires as evil, when the plot of this story is about a Zombie on a murderous rampage. Why does she hate vampires? It never really says. Sure, she was attacked by them but she was also attacked by wererats and zombies, yet she doesnt seem to harbor the hateful feelings she holds for vampuires. She pushes Jean-Claude away at every turn for what reason? He wants her to be his human servant, I can understand she wouldnt want that. But why does she feel he's so dangerous when has he made any kind of threat to her?
The gore: I'm not one that's grossed out by alot. Yet, this book takes the cake. It's scenes were borderline distasteful. Her playing and making bets to see who can gross out who in a family murder scene is outrageous. The detailing is something that Hamilton doesn't shy away from.
Despite my lack of positive reveiws I gave it three stars. I would really like to see this character develop and a piece of me thinks I should give it time. I think I judge things a tad too sharply. I wasn't bored at all while reading this book. It was a decent read. Like any book it has it's flaws. Hopefully, it will get a shade better as the series continues. More than anything I would like to see what becomes of her and Jean-Claude....more info
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