The Laughing Corpse (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter: Book 2)
by Laurell K. Hamilton
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Book Summary Information
Author: Laurell K. HamiltonEdition: Paperback
Published: 2002-09-24
ISBN: 0515134449
Number of pages: 304
Publisher: Jove
Book Reviews of The Laughing Corpse (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter: Book 2)
Book Review: Gruesomely Great
Summary: 5 Stars
Boy, and you thought the first one was bloody? This one was easily the goriest, most gruesome piece of writing I've seen outside of Stephen King and some of the schlock-fest fiction I've read in the past when no better option was available -- you know, the kind of thing where you're trapped in a waiting room and the magazines are old and water stained, but hmm, what's this paperback without a cover? Oh, Attack of the Lung-Eating Leper Beasts? What's this about?
But unlike those books, this gore had reason and purpose, and it made the book better than it would have been without it -- surely the requirement for any given element's inclusion in a novel.
Anyway, the second Anita Blake book was as good as the first, and that is a good sign. Because the second book is in some ways very unlike the first: in the first one, the murder mystery takes a backseat -- way back, like hanging off the rear bumper of one of those double-length buses with the accordion joint in the middle -- to the vampire stuff, which is very scary and shows that the vampires are incredibly nasty and overpowering and no human really has any chance. At the end of the first book, Anita feels small to the reader. And that's good, because it makes the character human, and when she says at the very end of the book that line -- "I don't date vampires. I slay them." -- it sounds desperate, like she's whistling in the dark and she knows it, because Jean-Claude already has such a claim on her, both in terms of his mind control and because of her attraction to him, and because she never should have won the fight with the evil vamps. The poignancy of that line, and her desperate situation, makes her sympathetic.
This book made her bada$$. The murder mystery took center stage, because at every pause in the action, back it came with an even bloodier and more horrifying murder scene -- and since the very first murder scene begins with a corpse that is nothing but a section of ribs, and a blood-soaked teddy bear, saying that each scene is more horrifying than the last is saying a lot. And more so than the first book, the murder mystery and the intrigue element complemented each other, because this time, the intrigue involved the killers with Anita (The same held true of Guilty Pleasures, granted, but in a much more coincidental way.), and so her dealings with the evil folk brought her closer to solving the murders. I appreciated that the gory scenes helped to build hatred for the villains, as well as building up to the final scene; I think the last monster that is thrown at Anita would have seemed much more of a joke if we hadn't already had the sheer bloodiness of the murder scenes before then. There's also a wonderful moment when Anita catches up to the killer, and it asks her for mercy, in a way; one thing that I feel is an absolute requisite for monster fiction of any kind is the humanization of the monsters: if the monsters aren't human, then I can't care about them and I don't want to get involved in their existences, even peripherally. When the murderer asks for Anita's help, it makes me pity it, just a little -- and that makes the blood spilled by this thing that much more horrible. Which makes Anita's final victory over those responsible for this not only impressive, because this time she's the strong one, but also righteous, because the evil was contrasted with pitiable, tragic figures. Human figures. Something that is lacking in far too many paranormal fiction novels.
I definitely enjoyed this one, even more than the first, and now I'm eager to read on.
Summary of The Laughing Corpse (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter: Book 2)
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.Now available in hardcover for the first time, The Laughing Corpse takes readers back to a time when Anita's life was a bit less complicated. As the best Animator in the business-she's as good at raising the dead as she is at slaying the undead-she crosses paths with a creature from beyond the grave, a super-powerful zombie who is tearing a swath of murder through the city. And she discovers that there are some secrets better left buried-and some people better left dead.
Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter for Animators, Inc., is offered a cool mil to raise a 283-year-old corpse. But she knows that "the older the zombie, the bigger the death needed to raise it". Only a human sacrifice is "big" enough to raise this old soul-and Anita's no murderer.
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