Liviania’s review of Skin Trade (Anita Blake Vampire Hunter, Book 17) by Laurell K. Hamilton
Urban fantasy released by Berkley 2 Jun 09
I started Skin Trade with high hopes. The last Merry Gentry book, Swallowing Darkness, was high on plot and low on sex scenes that didn’t advance character development or plot. Skin Trade also started like a redux of Obsidian Butterfly, sending Anita away from her harem to hunt monsters with Edward. While everyone did seem unnaturally preoccupied with Anita’s love life, the first two-thirds or so were surprisingly devoid of any actual sex. – DO NOT READ REVIEW UNLESS YOU WANT TO BE SPOILED –This wasn’t a great book, but far more solid than the rest of the Anita Blake books have been lately. And then it all went downhill. For those who want to read the book, I’m going to give away the entire ending. Why? Because I want to explain why I think it makes the book not worth reading. If you want to read the book no matter what, feel free to skip this review. If you have already read the book or want to know why I was pissed off when I was finished, feel free to continue. (you were warned about the spoilers yes?)
Let’s start with the plot problems. Laurell K. Hamilton has been building up to a confrontation between Anita and Marmee Noir for books. I don’t remember how many, but for several the plot has stopped dead for the Mother of All Darkness to try to take over Anita/get her to sex someone up/etc. and have everyone talk about what a badass she is. So how does their final confrontation go? They chat on the astral plane, unnamed assassins destroy her physical body, Marmee Noir disappears. Anita does fuck all to get rid of her.
But now we need a bad guy! Why not turn serial killer Vittorio into her counterpart, who has been bound by her and forgotten? There’s nothing like an all-powerful foe no one’s ever heard of! But how will Anita get rid of him? What will be really badass since the confrontation with Marmee Noir didn’t happen? What if she uses . . . the power of ORGASM? You see, the ardeur is an important plot point, not an excuse for pr0n! LKH is a great author.
And you know, that’s not even why I hated the book. I could’ve dealt with that – it tied off several plot points and provided Skin Trade with a self-contained story. Not the world’s best, but somewhat entertaining. And a disappointing climax would be better than the absolute lack of climax (well, plot climax) some of the Anita Blake books have had.
ANITA MENTALLY AND PHYSICALLY RAPES A SIXTEEN YEAR OLD. Don’t say it wasn’t rape; the kid had no way to give informed, rational consent. That’s rape. And so what if Anita is skeeved out that the kid is sixteen, which shows how much better she is than the characters who aren’t? (Although I’m not sure she even angsts about him for half a page before moving on in a series that devotes chapters to angst.) It’s the fact that LKH felt it necessary to put it in the book. It wouldn’t have affected the book if the character hadn’t existed, much less been aged up. And it’s doubly creepy since LKH is proven to have drawn on her own life for some of Anita’s sweeties and what happens to them. Yes, I do find it more disturbing since Anita is a self-insert Mary-Sue rather than a well-rounded character.
But I kind of want to thank LKH for having Anita rape a sixteen year old. I can finally give this series up. (Let’s just hope she doesn’t do something similarly awful to the Merry Gentry books.)
Grade: D-
Summary:
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When a vampire serial killer sends Anita Blake a grisly souvenir from Las Vegas, she has to warn Sin City’s local authorities what they’re dealing with. Only it’s worse than she thought. Ten officers and one executioner have been slain—paranormal style. Anita heads to Vegas, where’s she’s joined by three other federal marshals, including the ruthless Edward. It’s a good thing he always has her back, because when she gets close to the bodies, Anita senses “tiger” too strongly to ignore it. The weretigers are very powerful in Las Vegas, which means the odds of her rubbing someone important the wrong way just got a lot higher.
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Read an excerpt here.
Other books in the series:
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God, I can’t believe she did that!! I read Bloody Bones (at least I’m fairly certain it was) years ago and didn’t read any Anita book and I’m SO glad about that.
I don’t think I’ve ever re-read Bloody Bones . . . which I suppose makes it a good one to test the series with since it won’t get you addicted. I admire the people who can read the first, good books and make a clean break.
I just started reading this book. Masochist? Why yes, thank you. 😉
I can’t NOT read it. You LKH fans out there (and you know who you are) know of what I speak. It would be unpardonable for me NOT to read it.
I had to do some serious ‘membering to remember Edward. For some (good) reason(s), the last few Anita books just haven’t lingered long in the memory banks.
And you have to admit that she has the coolest book titles on the planet.
Some of the titles are cool. I laugh that the series has both a “The Killing Dance” and “Danse Macabre.”
And yeah, I couldn’t NOT read it either. But I think I’ll be able to skip the next one.
But Edward has been around since book one!
Depressing. How horrible that what started out as a great series has gone in the toilet. And it made the number on spot on the best selling list this week. Can I ask why Anita has rape, sex or whatnot with a 16 yr old? Why was that needed?
Next if Anita has sex with a squirrel or an actual dog, not a were, I wouldn’t be surprised.
*SPOILERS FOR KATIEBABS*
So, the bad guys want Anita to sleep with a tiger of every color. But the only blue tiger left is . . . dun dun dun . . . a 16 yr old. So once more Anita has a blackout orgy. And since he doesn’t have much power/defenses/whatever the kid ends up one of her lobotomized men. I wouldn’t call it ‘needed’ by any means.
*END SPOILERS*
I really can’t believe that it was number one. All the friends I originally read the series with have given it up. Why are so many people buying it?
Ugh. Double WTF ugh. I gave up after 10 books where Anita has sex in the shower with some werewolf goof using shower gel.
If someone can explain how this book made number one, I would love to know!
I am so happy that I managed to break my addiction after Incubus Dreams. I took part in a round-robin with friends – we all took a couple of chapters and went through and red-pen / analysed them. I ended up doing 6 as someone else dropped out. (Actually it was more like threw their hands in the air and shrieked ‘NOOOOO!’ but I digress.) We got together at the end and swapped notes.
The experience killed off any residual desire I had to read the next one. It was almost the worst book I’d ever read. Cerulean Sins was the worst book I’d ever read, and still is, although I admit I’ve come across a few ebooks that I’ve read three chapters of and given up on.
The difference is they cost me between £1 and £3, and the Blake books at that point cost between £16 – £19, depending on the seller.
See? I told you couldn’t remember him.
I’m going to break with the general direction of the comments here. I’m about 2/3’s of the way thru the book and, well, I’m enjoying the read. Perhaps the frustrating parts happen in the last third, but so far so good. She hasn’t had sex with anyone yet, though, but has had some seriously weird woo-woo stuff occurring.
There is a reason I didn’t give it an F. As I said in the first paragraph, I was fine with the first two-thirds or so. Everybody was a bit too preoccupied with talking about Anita’s love life, but it was still plotty and entertaining.
Well, I will say I know why it was number 1. How many people still love LKH? Me, me, me! I enjoyed it thoroughly and while Anita “raped” a sixteen year old, I am glad it was not done in detail. Being that she was under the influence allows me to forgive the tiny portion devoted to it. So I am why this book is #1. =D
The whole Marmee Noir was such a let down that I was ready to believe in magic and make myself appear before LKH and ask her WTFH? Cuz that was a stupid let down. And the Day Father, again agree, the power of an Orgasm is what takes him out. BOO
So overall my personal enjoyment was high and yep I am a zombie raised by Anita cuz I will seriously buy the next book in the series. Can’t help meself. I am too deep into her world. =D
I enjoyed it as well. Granted the last bit with Marmee I didn’t care for, but from what I understand and they’re only rumors mind – Marmee is still “alive”. I will be buying the next Anita and of course Merry.
While it was an “ick” I can overlook it – and before someone asks how the heck can I do that? Fairly easily cause when you take into account today’s real world where kids younger than that are having sex then the ick factor is halved. Granted the kid “apparently” didn’t give consent, but think about Jolly Old England for a second – how many child brides way back in the day (\Victorian times appx) had a say when they were basically “sold” by their fathers into a marriage? To me it’s the same thing.
I liked it. Sorry, but it was a good book. A few quibbles and wishes but it worked for me. Review coming soon…
YAY Gwen!
I do so love it when one person loves a book and another hates it. I am odd like that I know you are both shocked.
Yeah, I can kinda forgive Anita for being under the influence . . . I’m more bothered that LKH put it in, especially since there’s been some blurring between her personal life and the series.
But I’m glad even a die-hard fan felt the resolution was somewhat off too. I’m the kind of reader where the ending is the most important part. If it’s off I start to forget how much I liked the beginning and middle. (And I should say there was nothing wrong with those in this one.)
Tammy, I didn’t see them as rumors. I saw it as something Anita witnessed in the mindscape-thing. But whatevs. As for the “ick” of younger kids than that having sex . . . I’m grossed out by a sixteen yr old having sex with a woman in her late twenties. (She is in her late twenties now, right?) And everyone was sold into marriage before modern times – it was a political institution, with nothing to do with love. And those “child brides” did give consent and were considered women by their times standards. Nowadays below seventeen is a child.
And Gwen, I look forward to your review.
Sybs – I like it best when everyone loves the book. ^_^
I was so taken with the comment from katiebabs
“If someone can explain how this book made number one, I would love to know!”
that I seriously did! I also started reading other reviews from estatic love to hate filled expostistions! lol So I know I could not be the only hard core fan who not only loved the series, flaws and all, but could overlook certain things. So I answered. We’ll see if I get hate-filled rhetoric, I do so love sparking a controversy!
Thanks for the review. My hard line is child rape and this book went over that line from your review so the series is officially dead to me now. I will never read it again.
All child molesters justify their behavior and Anita just joined their ranks.
I started this series with Obsidian Butterfly, which does have pretty explicit child torture and implied child molestation, so I am kind of shocked to hear about the protagonist raping a child (sixteen is a still child in my book). Disappointing, I miss the old Anita.
I don’t see 16 as a “child” – Teenager, sure, but not Child. These days it’s pretty common for a 16 year old to be sexually active. I’m certainly not condoning it, but it’s common is all I’m saying.
This is my first time posting but this book forced me to look around the net for other people talking about it to see if I was alone and being so dissapointed with L. Hamilton. She has lost her way. I loved the first several books so much. I loved the strong, butt-kicking female character. Then the books drifted from being exciting action-type books to soft porn and anguished morality issues! I had hopes that L. Hamilton would pull it back together and God knows it was way better than Blood Noir (did that even have a plot?), but for the most part, this book was such a bust. I hated that Anita Blake is walking around, letting people talk bad about her to her face and spending far more time explaining herself than fighting the bad guys. Instead of reacting to the really bad situation happening in the book, they sit around and discuss her sex life? That is just ridiculous. Ugh! I miss the old Anita who would have just kicked some butt.
In reference to the also dissapointing ending – does anyone else feel confused by the final show down with Vittorio? How was it that Max, Vittorio, and Requiem were even awake? It was daytime! Let me know if I’ve got this confused. I also thought the ending was so abrupt – no goodbyes to Edward and the ever-menacing Otto. What the hell? This was really no ending at all but more like a writer who had finger cramps and decided to call it a day. Thank goodness for free books from the library.
Sorry, Gwen, but I have to agree with Liviania on this one. If it was a 16 year old willingly having sex with an 18 year old, that’s different. But Anita should be OVER 30 now. And it was NOT exactly consensual. Sorry, but that’s rape. In every state in the US, that’s rape. And frankly, even if he was perfectly sound in mind and consenting, I’d still have an issue with it.
I’m even more disturbed at the number of people who are perfectly OK with the fact that she raped a 16 year old and are even trying to justify it. LKH only added the whole ‘she can’t control it’ in there so that people WOULD excuse Anita and all her would-be-incredibly-wrong-otherwise actions. To me, LKH’s excuse of ‘but she is under the influence’ isn’t enough in this case. Rape is rape. And that’s never ok.
I think this may have been my last book. I used to be a hard core LKH fan, but after NiC I’ve slowly started loosing my patience with the gaping holes in her writing. I still craved each new book like it was a drug, but this one may have just cured me of that.
Ya know, I was almost relieved. She almost… ALMOST went back to her old writing style. I have HATED every book since Obsidian Butterfly, which was a horrible horrible idea to humanize Edward. Everytime I finished a book, I said that would be my last one. The one just before this book was the worst of all. An entire book takes place in a hotel room having arguments and sex. OMFG… she kills me. I only keep reading them because my wife keeps buying them.
So this book was an almost-pleasant surprise. LKH brought back a little bit of her old talent. Thanks, LKH.
My problems with the book.
I miss Anita kicking a** and taking names with her guns, knives, and hand-to-hand skills. She didn’t do anything interesting or action-packed.
The whole Marmee Noir thing angers me. But not because of the way Marmee was supposedly taken out… but that Marmee isn’t DEAD for sure. I HATE Marmee. The whole Marmee thing is stupid and I’m sick to death of tigers inside of Anita. I was overjoyed at the prospect of Marmee dying, but I’m sure LKH will do something horrendously stupid and bring her back somehow.
Zero wrap-up. None. It just all ended so quickly with a pitiful epilogue. I don’t mind the cliff-hangers… I just mean wrapping things up. It’s like she forgot what was in the book and wrote an ending.
And there’s the biggest fallacy of LKH of late. She’s bored. She’s bored with the series, and with Gentry too I guess. The characters are bland, the plot is thin, and things just don’t happen in-real-time anymore. I have a tough time describing this, but it just feels like she’s going-through-the-motions of writing. It feels like she’s pumping out books without telling a story.
So although this book was a nice reprieve from the usual junk, and more back-to-basics, it still fell woefully short of her early books. There’s a simple reason for that. And the reason is that the story needs to end. All stories need an ending. She has to FINISH the series, and come up with a new story. She’d have more success and more fans. She should have ended Anita Blake loooooong ago.
This was the best book in the last 10 or so books… and the only one in the last 10 or so books I liked reading. But it may also be my last.
End it, LKH. End your series on a good note, on your terms. Too many former fans have ended your series for themselves – have put it down and never looked back. That’s not the ending anyone wants.