Guilty Pleasures: An Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter Novel (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, #1)

by Laurell K. Hamilton

Meet Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, in the first novel in the #1 New York Times bestselling series that “blends the genres of romance, horror and adventure with stunning panache”(Diana Gabaldon).

Laurell K. Hamilton’s bestselling series has captured readers’ wildest imaginations and addicted them to a seductive world where supernatural hungers collide with the desires of the human heart, starring a heroine like no other...

Anita Blake is small, dark, and dangerous. Her turf is the city of St. Louis. Her job: re-animating the dead and killing the undead who take things too far. But when the city’s most powerful vampire asks her to solve a series of vicious slayings, Anita must confront her greatest fear—her undeniable attraction to master vampire Jean-Claude, one of the creatures she is sworn to destroy...

“What The Da Vinci Code did for the religious thriller, the Anita Blake series has done for the vampire novel.”—USA Today

• ISBN10: 0425197549
• ISBN13: 9780425197547
• Publish Date: 3 August 2004 (first published 1 October 1993)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Berkley
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 320
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9780425197547

Reviews

[layawaydragon]

Finally gave this a shot. It's like a new classic. The writing is dated and jerky. Felt nothing for the love interest.

Read about 100 pages and knew I wouldn't continue the series so there was no point finishing the book.

[FranJessca @ A Book Lovin' Mama's Blog]

I read Guilty Pleasures back during my binge-reading days in the Navy in 2009 – 2011. Let’s say I had a hard time diving back into reality after reading the Anita Blake series. I loved every bit of this series and still do. I would listen to the books in audio this time around.

Anita Blake will always be a favorite female character of mine because she kicks butt, and I love kick-butt female characters. I also enjoy reading Urban Fantasy because it gets me out of reading funks all the time. UF and PNR are my go-to genres to get back into binge-reading like a man woman, even when working full-time again.

I was a little nervous about having someone narrate Guilty Pleasures to me and bring the characters to life, but Kimberly Alexis did a fantastic job of telling the story. She even did a tremendous job of giving certain characters accents, and she made Anita sound kick-butt too. Anxiety averted, and now I’m anxious to listen to the second book in audio. Thanks to Kimberly Alexis, I have found yet another female narrator that can bring my favorite characters to life and make me enjoy the story even more.

If you haven’t read this series, I do highly recommend it to UF readers, but if you don’t like reading long series, then maybe this series is not for you. Laurell K. Hamilton does change up the series often with a lot of sexually explicit scenes that can be uncomfortable to some readers, especially in later books. BUT…Laurell K. Hamilton has stated several times that she has no control over her characters at times, and she lets them take the reigns. She also writes from the heart, so if something happens in her life, it can affect the story a bit. This is why I LOVE Laurell K. Hamilton’s writing style and everything she writes.

The first time I read Guilty Pleasures, I knew I was addicted right away due to LKH’s world-building and introducing the characters in the series. Anita Blake is known as the famous Vampire Hunter, so every vampire out there knows what they are up to against when they go up against her. In Guilty Pleasures, we get introduced to Jean-Claude and several other characters. Jean-Claude has always been a favorite of mine, so I’m glad I’m re-visiting his character again. I’m discovering things I missed the first time.

I will say this, the bad guy in Guilty Pleasures is friggin’ scary. I still have nightmares over the bad guy from Guilty Pleasures because of how Laurell described her and what she did in this book. This book had me upset at the end, but I invested time in a specific character, and well, let’s say Laurell did not make it easy. Anita has a full life of crazy in front of her, thanks to Jean-Claude. She’s supposed to be helping solve the murders of vampires in Guilty Pleasures, but she also ends up being in between a Master Vampire and everyone else. It’s crazy how she gets thrown in with vampires when she’s a Vampire Hunter.

Overall, I loved this book due to how Laurell K. Hamilton introduces a little bit of Anita Blake’s crazy world already. These books are not for everyone, but I enjoyed these books the first time, and I’m enjoying listening to them a second time. I need more time in my day to listen to them in an audio version. Work is taking priority.

If you are a fan of UF, I highly recommend reading the Anita Blake series. This series is what got me addicted to reading UF. I look forward to re-reading the rest of the books whenever I can find free time. =)

[liz089]

Reread 2020.

It has been a VERY long time since I've read this book.. Even before I started using GR in 2011.
But I have a major bookslump for the last couple of months (or well most of 2020 so far..) and I was in the mood to reread an old favourite.
Do have to say, that even though I still enjoy the characters, the humor, the writing.. I notice a lot more flaws this time. Like the super fast pacing, how the "End boss" fight went (built up too much for the way it ended), how I did not connect as much as I remembered doing the first time around...
All in all still entertaining, easy to read through... But not THAT addictive anymore?

[Berls]

This book/series has been recommended to me a Zillion times over the years - and I've even owned it periodically - but I've never managed to read it. But I exchanged books with a coworker and this time seems to be the charm because I finally opened it up and read it. And not at all shockingly, I loved it. Anita Blake is a great character. I love her strength and also her humanity - she gets scared and freaked out, which I love. I found the mystery pretty obvious - I knew pretty much as soon as the possibility was on the table who was doing the killing and why. And Anita practically tells us, and yet she misses it. I think she should have seen it too. Otherwise really happy to finally be reading this series.

[Chelsea]

So far I'm loving this series! Anita is great and I love following her around as she gets caught in the mess of vampires. I thought she was interesting and a very strong female character. Shes going to make a wonderful character to follow during this series and I can't wait to see more of her. My favourite part was how honest she was about herself. She admitted when she was scared but decided to do something about it. I really admired her for that and it makes her a really great character.

I was a little disappointed we didn't get to know any other character besides Anita but I think we'll see more of them in the next books (I hope anyways). I'm interested in seeing if there's going to be some romance happening because there wasn't much (if any) in this one.

The plot was quick paced though at times I found myself a little lost when something wasn't explained as good as it could have been. It was still a great start to this series and I'll be continuing with it in the near future.

[Stephanie]

2.5 stars

I only decided to listen to this audiobook because
1. A friend has been telling me to read it for over a year now because she LOVES these books and she's read every book that I've shoved into her hands, so naturally I felt the need to read the one book she recommended.
2. It's set in St. Louis.

The audiobook wasn't bad, and I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have liked Guilty Pleasures as much if I actually read the book. One thing that I'm sure played a role in my feelings for the book was that I'm starting to really get burnt out on vampires. This was my 3rd audiobook about vampires this year and it's all starting to sound the same.

The audio kept me entertained while I worked though. I was interested in the storyline, but also didn't really care what happened either. I wasn't attached to any of the characters and was only listening to hear what happened.

This was one of those rare audiobooks where I found that I could concentrate on something else entirely, but still know what was going on. There was only one moment where I didn't hear what happened, and I didn't care enough the go back to actually listen, and it didn't really matter anyways because I still had an overall understanding of what was happening.

There was also little things that bothered me. The writing seemed too description-y for me, which is why I think I wouldn't have liked this if I actually read the book. I mean, why did I have to know how many fake trees were in Anita's office building? No, I don't care what clothes any of the characters are wearing. Also, there were times when I felt like information got repeated, down to the same phrasing and all. There was one moment when I thought to myself that I just heard that same sentence not 10 minutes ago.

So yeah, overall the audio was very entertaining, but if I start to really think about it, I start to nitpick little things that bothered me.

[Amber (The Literary Phoenix)]

The necromancy in this book is so good.

The vampire stuff, though, is not great.  But it's not the worst ever.  To be honest, I actually like Guilty Pleasures.  I've read it a few times.  I really like Anita Blake as a character and while the series lost me after a while, the early books make good stories.  Anita is still an animator and the necromancy scenes are so gruesome and well-written.  The sex is super limited.  The first handful of books are great.

However, this is the first time I have listened to the audiobook... and good god y'all.  If this was my first read-through, I'd've stopped here and now.  The narrator of this first book does Anita no justice at all.  Anita is a four-foot-something spirited necromancer and vampire hunter, with a sharp sense of humor and ruthless attitude.  In the world of paperback paranormal romance, Anita sets precedents by defending herself, drawing lines, and being totally kick-ass without melting at every pretty face.  This narrator makes her sound like a two-dimension lusty woman.  It's just sad, because reading this book is loads of fun.  Listening to this book was boring and disappointing.

I think she'd do better narrating historical fiction, or something a little less snarky and humorous.  All the jokes fall flat.

Beyond all that, I still can't get past how much I genuinely like this book.  It's sneaking around the corner of "out of my genre" but the world is really well formed.  There's a scene in the middle of the book where Anita is helping Zachary raise a zombie, and the way it is written is so poignant and stunning, you're draw right into the cemetery.

My main complaint would be that the characters outside Anita are a bit flat.  Nikolaos definitely comes off better in the books, but she still feels a bit like a Claudia (a la Interview with a Vampire) clone.  The boys in particular are really flat, and that's an issue that continues throughout the series.  I do find Edward interesting, but he's a barely-contained serial killer.

Overall, I do still like this first book.  I think it's much better read than listened to, and it's a relatively short book, so it's an easy weekend read.  For anyone interested in paranormal romance (like the Kate Daniels books or Sookie Stackhouse), I'd definitely recommend Guilty Pleasures.
__________

2012 REVIEW

This review comes from a different perspective than many of my other reviews because I have read this book before - not once, but three times.

I was introduced to Anita Blake by a faraway friend who thought that with my love of (traditional) vampires, I may enjoy it. He was right. I argue though that it may not have been appropriate reading material for a 16 y/o, but what happened happened and I loved not only reading this series in high school, but passing the books around in my group of friends. Guilty Pleasures is the second-most tattered book I own, and that is saying something considering the fact that I love to keep my books looking shiny and new.

I love, and always have loved, Anita's cattiness and witticisms. I think she is delightful in a sort of I-am-so-glad-I-don't-know-her-in-real-life-but-I-love-reading-about-her sort of way. Of the series, I will endlessly argue that Guilty Pleasures is the best because it has (to me) the most substance. My personal downfall as the series goes further is that Hamilton's focus switches from the supernatural to supernatural sex, which is well and good for some readers, but not really my forte. I love Animators, Inc and the way Hamilton has crafted Anita's necromancy abilities into a sort of business. I love her ideas and her writing as well... I don't often get into first person but Anita has so much passion and so much life, how can you not gobble the story up?

I recently bought this book for a friend with similar tastes and she told me, halfway through, that "something seemed not quite right about it" and as I reread it, I think I understand what she meant. Despite the fact that at the end, I still want to pick up The Laughing Corpse, in the middle there is a lot of information and people and yet nothing is happening, and the stuff that happens, you wonder why. As a reader, I try to push past knowledge out of my mind so I can enjoy the book without already knowing the ending but that's almost impossible. I think that maybe the reason that Hamilton changed the plot of her books is simply there was too much - vampires, were-animals, sex, zombies... a girl can't have everything.

I would still recommend this book because despite the fact I have stopped reading her books, I love Hamilton's writing style and I think she is worth a read to anyone who enjoys fantasy, urban fantasy... and seriously, any fan of the Sookie Stackhouse series.

[Linda]

Good book, a different kind of vampire hunter, who is strong and capable, and very loyal to her friends. There were quite a few things that were repeated a lot throughout the book, though, and that kind of annoys me a little, I can totally remember what happens between the first and the fifth chapter. Sometimes, I even get a little annoyed if things are repeated too much in different books, even if I can understand that better, since it's for readers who haven't read the whole series. I don't see the point of in-book repetitions.

Apart from that, the book was very exciting, Anita is a great heroine, and I will definitely read more!

[celinenyx]

I liked Anita very much. She isn't the whiney kind of protagonist, but an independent woman with a lot of guns. The zombie-raising stuff was fun and the investigation part was exciting.

I did think the vampire-addicts were a bit creepy, but maybe that's the whole point. I just think the idea of being covered with scars is kinda disturbing.

Still, Jean-Claude is interesting, and I would like to see where this series goes. I know they really change after a few books, but we'll see how that turns out.

A very strong first enstallment.

[Melanie]

I've read this book many times. I've also listened to it many times. Even though this is not my favorite narrator and there are additional music and stuff that I don't like in my audiobooks, I enjoy this story/series enough to over look it.

I love this series. I think Anita is a kick ass heroine. Jean-Claude is oh so sexy. I love the characters. There are some things that drive me crazy. We get a little too detailed on descriptions, clothing and people, especially eyes. This is true for the entire series. Once again, these issues do not detract from Anita and her friends.

LOL moment.
"I told her why we are here. I told you wouldn't hurt Jack."
"The coffin?"
I smiled. I couldn't help it. He was a 'jack in a box'.