The Lunatic Cafe (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, Book 4) |
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List Price: $7.99
Our Price: $7.99
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Jove
Average Customer Rating:  
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PRODUCT DESCRIPTION
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780515134520
ISBN: 051513452X
Label: Jove
Manufacturer: Jove
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 384
Publication Date: 2002-09-24
Publisher: Jove
Studio: Jove
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Related Items
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- Circus of the Damned (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, Book 3)
- Bloody Bones (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, Book 5)
- The Laughing Corpse (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, Book 2)
- The Killing Dance (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, Book 6)
- Burnt Offerings (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, Book 7)
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Editorial Reviews:
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In Laurell K. Hamilton's New York Times bestselling novels, Vampire Hunter and zombie animator Anita Blake is an expert at sniffing out the bad from the good. But she's about to learn that nothing is ever as it seems-especially in matters of the not-so-human heart...
Dating a werewolf with self-esteem issues is stressing Anita out. Especially when something-or someone-starts taking out the city's shapeshifters.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Great Series
Comment: Anita isnt the kind of girl you warm up too, however her friends of all kinds keep you busy to only think about her thousands of failings occassional. Books are in good condition and ready for me to fall into each ending.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Character growth, great writing
Comment: I started reading this series about three weeks ago, and though I have interspersed the books with other reading, I keep coming back to these. Since I started, every other book I read has been Anita Blake. Should I be worried that I'm growing a little obsessive with these? Have I spent too much of my time reading this series, when I could be reading something else? Should I change this system of alternating other novels with Anita Blake books?
Nah.
One nice thing, actually, about reading this series so quickly, and without many other novels coming in between these, is that I've been able to pay close attention to the ways that the characters have grown and changed. My wife brought it to my attention, as the largest complaint against this series is the way Anita changes somewhere in the next few books; many of Hamilton's fans found the change unwelcome, and they have spent the last few years going off the deep end, becoming a sort of internet Inquisition, always on the lookout for both the faithful few and the heretics who disagree with their assessment of the series' fall from grace; anyone who continues to like the series after the change, as my wife does, are in for torture, excommunication, and burning at the stake. Considering how much I like this series so far, and how often I agree with my wife's assessment of books -- and how much I, as a writer and observer of human behavior, enjoy watching good writers deal with genuine characters -- I can pretty safely assume I'll like the coming change. I expect my own crucifixion will be coming soon -- maybe on this review. At any rate, knowledge of the controversy has made me more aware of the steady changes happening in Anita, and I love that those changes are there for me to observe.
The big changes in this book: she agrees to marry Richard, sort of -- which was a huge mistake; she said yes in the heat of the moment, when he's looking all hot and sexy, and that's always a bad time, though she rightly points out that he shouldn't have asked her then -- and then takes it back shortly afterward when she has second thoughts. I liked that because it was very real and very human; I also like that I feel a little conflicted over Anita's largest personality clash with Richard. That clash is over her absolute refusal to bend to his will, while simultaneously demanding that he bend to hers. I understand it: she has fought very hard for control of her life, and she still fights, against forces that are constantly arrayed against her: the police bureaucracy and general attitude (not shared by the RPIT cops, thankfully) that a woman and a civilian should be doubly separated from police matters; the overwhelming presence of Jean-Claude and his desire for her both as lover and servant, and her own traitorous desire for him; Bert and the demands of her job, both those that genuinely come with the territory and also those Bert unreasonably puts on her against her will. All of these things, along with the several other monsters who keep trying to control her and force her to do their bidding, have made her hypersensitive to giving in to anyone in anything; look at what happened when she allowed Jean-Claude even a moment of control over her. This means she has an incredibly difficult time in compromising with Richard, in allowing him into her life, since that means allowing him to have power over her -- and what's worse, accepting that control willingly, not begrudgingly as she does in every other instance that someone controls her. I understand that desire for independence, though I . . . can't remember where I've encountered it before.
Even though I understand her desire for independence, I can't help but think, Jesus, Anita, you don't have to bristle and argue about EVERYTHING. What the heck kind of relationship is that? Plus, she's just too dead set against the idea of monsters -- though I love that she has the honesty to admit that, even though she hates it about herself, she is indeed prejudiced. That neither Richard nor Jean-Claude are human enough for her, and it's unfair of her to think so, but she still does. It is unfair, of course; she's a little too inhuman for a normal man to put up with. I could probably handle marrying an animator, but not an animator who hung out with so many truly dangerous monsters. At least, it would be hard to handle, and so Anita has no room to criticize Richard, who at least doesn't want to be a monster and is honest about his feelings with her.
The other interesting moment with Anita was when she realized that she didn't go for her cross when Gretchen attacked her, but went straight for her gun, instead. She says she won't skip church any more, but I doubt that: her faith did not protect her in the last book, when, what was her name, Yasmeen, grabbed her; instead she ended up with another cross-shaped brand. What worked was the gun, so naturally that's what Anita would go for. Her real core belief is about survival, anyway; if she was a Christian first she wouldn't be so willing to do anything to survive. But she is willing, and so her Christianity is falling away, bit by bit -- and don't think her attraction to Richard and Jean-Claude, combined with her unwillingness to sacrifice her independence through marriage, can lead anywhere but sin. She'll get there, eventually. And I says, more power to her: the sexual revolution has come and gone, and it's a brave new world.
Otherwise: I liked Konrad and I'm ticked about how his part in the story ended up; I absolutely loathe Marcus, Raina, and Gabriel -- especially the masochist, there; that's just freaky. I liked the witch subplot, and wish more could have been done with it. I'm not sure how long Hamilton can go on whacking every single serious bad guy in these books; that's a real high turnover rate for villains. But since this book includes mentions of things like trolls and dragons, I suppose we have the near-infinite variety of all of the fantasy world to draw enemies from. All I know is, I'm going to keep reading these. A lot.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Anita Blake Series
Comment: I can barely go two days between books, thank you Laurell Hamilton you have a brilliant mind.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: yellow spot
Comment: The book was wonderfully inexpensive but there is a strange yellow dot on the cover. Im not sure if they all look like that or if mine is specially flawed. Just throwin that out there
Customer Rating:
Summary: Finally a story about werewolves!!!
Comment: this is one of my favorites from the series. Mostly because it deals with werewolves as the main characters this time. There's been a werewolf in the first three books, but they didn't transform into one until the third book. I think from this book you can see how far Laurell has grown as an author.
The only thing dumb about this book i would say is the cover!!! Just bogus and dumb. I'm a guy and I've gotten a lot of funny looks when i leave this thing lying around. (i've since learned to put a book on top of it or turn it over. The artwork is so irrelevant and dumb) My only beef but that's the company's fault. I don't think Laurell has a say over artwork.
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