Obsidian Butterfly (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, #9)

by Laurell K. Hamilton

'I was covered in blood, but it wasn't mine, so it was okay.'

Edward is a hit man. He specialises in monsters. Vampires, shape-shifters, anything and everything. There are people like me, Anita Blake, who do it legally, but Edward doesn't sweat the legalities or, hell, the ethics. He is an equal opportunity killer.

I may be one of the few friends that Edward has, but it's like being friends with a tame leopard. It may curl on the foot of your bed and let you pet its head, but it can still eat your throat out...

• ISBN10: 0755355377
• ISBN13: 9780755355372
• Publish Date: 4 February 2010 (first published 3 October 2000)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Headline Publishing Group
• Imprint: Headline Book Publishing
• Format: Paperback (B-Format (198x129 mm))
• Pages: 704
• Language: English

Reviews

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

Obsidian Butterfly is the ninth full-length novel in Laurell K. Hamilton’s Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter series. This was not the first time I read this book, but it will be the first time I review it. I first read this book back in 2009 and found this book was not my favorite in the series. Now in 2020, I still have that same opinion but gave it a higher rating after rereading it. I’ll share my thoughts why below in my review. 

Storyline: Anita has been called to New Mexico on the favor that she owes Edward due to killing one of his back-ups in a previous story. Edward, though, is going by Ted Forrester and has another life that Anita was not aware of because Edward does not come off as friendly and family-oriented. Anita is to help Edward by being fresh eyes on the cases that he has been working on with the police in his town. This case is nothing that Anita has ever encountered, and she is on her own on figuring it out without Jean-Claude or Richard to help her. This is due to Anita taking a hiatus from them both. Unfortunately, she will find out the villain(s) in this book are something from nightmares. This is the case that will test Anita not only physically but mentally. Anita will also have to deal with Edward’s other back-ups in this case. One who thinks he’s a sex-god to women and the other who despises women. Anita has her hands full in all areas in this book.

My Thoughts: This book is not my favorite in the series. (so far that I’ve read in the series because I am playing catch-up later on in the series.) First off, this book is over 600+ pages long, and a lot of the pages were going into so much detail that it was overloading at times. I do enjoy a long book, but sometimes the scenes went on too long. It took forever to figure out who or what was behind the craziness. The characters were not only having to find out who was behind the hideous killings, but they also were dealing with a gang of human guys, the Master Vampire of the City and her minions, and several other evil characters that I won’t give away. This book will give you nightmares about what was happening. I know I had trouble sleeping the first time I read this book. I did enjoy seeing Anita without the guys (Jean-Claude and Richard). She was trying to find herself and get a break from them, but she’s going to find out that she needs them more than ever in this book. There was also the issue of a particular character named Olaf that freaked me out. Edward put Anita in danger when he asked Olaf to help him with the case. Don’t get me wrong; there were things I enjoyed about this book. I loved that it had a villain that was not like any other villain that Anita has encountered. This one is Ancient. There was also action-packed scenes in the book. Laurell K. Hamilton does a fantastic job on those kinds of scenes. It also helps when you have a female heroine who kicks butt all the time. 

Forewarning because this book has triggers to it that will make readers uncomfortable. Most of it comes towards the end of the book, where it involves children and violence. This was a very awkward chapter(s) for me. I don’t like reading about children getting hurt, and these scenes made me so mad. There were sexual assault and violence towards children. There was also mention of rape, but Anita fights back in the book, which is one of many reasons why I love her character.

Would I recommend this book? Yes. If you are a fan of the Anita Blake series and have read the previous books in the series, you will enjoy it. If you have not read the series before, then you need to start from the beginning. This is not a series where you start reading in the middle. You will miss out on a lot.

Laurell K. Hamilton brings a lot to this book with the action-packed and scary scenes. I may need some time to re-read the next book. I need a book with some HEA because this book was dark. I love this series, though, and I look forward to diving into the next book.

[Chelsea]

I'm starting to skim chunks of these books. There's big parts that are just full of too much information and it's losing me. The plus side of this book was lots of Edward who is easily a favourite of mine.

[celinenyx]

The ninth book in the Anita Blake series, Obsidian Butterfly is the odd one out.

In this instalment Anita leaves Richard and Jean-Claude behind in St Louis, and goes to help Edward who she is in debt with. It gives her time to think about what to do with the boys, and to contemplate whether or not she's turning into a monster herself.

I get what Laurell K. Hamilton was going for with Obsidian Butterfly. It's the typical break-novel that every series needs in a while. There were a bit too many characters appearing in the series, and the reader needed a break from them. This book focusses much more on Anita herself, and her dilemmas. If you read this series for Anita, this will be your favourite book, and it is for many people. I don't read the series for Anita, because I think she's arrogant and a complete jerk (especially in the last few books) that happens to kill baddies to feel better about herself. I like the books because they're action-packed and for the social dynamics between all the men we met throughout the series. There was no social dynamics, and the biggest part of Obsidian Butterfly wasn't action-y enough to satisfy me.

The Anita Blake books have always been very explicit violence-wise. The thing that makes many people uncomfortable and often lets them drop the series is how Ms Hamilton combines violence with sex. Most sexual encounters in the books are close to rape. It doesn't happen to Anita herself usually, but she does watch it happen. Ms Hamilton always walks a very fine line with this, and I think she completely crosses that line in Obsidian Butterfly. This book contains graphic mutilation of babies, death of babies, the torturing of a seven-year-old girl, and the rape of a fourteen-year-old boy, people wearing intestines as skirts (literally), descriptions of crime-scenes where the bodies look as if they've been taken through a meat grinder. It was all just too much for me, and I skipped through the baby-part. I think in this book Ms Hamilton went from gore to sick, which is not something I enjoy reading.

It also seemed to me that Obsidian Butterfly was drawn out unnecessarily. My version almost reaches seven-hundred pages, and I felt it could easily have been half the bulk. It's very repetitive, and it's like most of the book is just filled with Anita walking around, thinking she's badass, while provoking every male she meets. At one point she talks about this to someone, saying that by making sexual jokes she becomes "one of the guys". As a girl who has been "one of the guys" for years, objectifying yourself and flirting with them isn't a requirement to get along with them. She made it seem as if you can't be friends with guys without there being sexual innuendos between you. Well, I guess that's the story of Anita's life.

My biggest problem is how offensive this book is in a very sneaky way. For one it's extremely condescending towards women. I can't believe how mistreated about every woman in this series is. Not a single woman gets some respect, except Anita who is a class one ass-hole. I won't get further into this, because this review says it all. Ms Hamilton alienates her audience, especially in this paragraph (which I think should not have been published, ever):

I'd been chunky in junior high, close to fat, so I knew what I was talking about. So that no teenager out there will get the wrong idea and go all anorexic on me, I was a size thirteen in jeans, and that was at five foot nothing. See, I was really chunky. I hate women who complain about being fat when they're like a size five. Anything under a size five isn't a woman. It's a boy with breasts.

Why THANK YOU Ms Hamilton, apparently I'm not WORTHY of being called a women just because I'm a size four? How the hell can I help being petite? If you're concerned about teenagers, you should consider first that many of them will be small, and won't like to be called a frigging boy with breasts. I'm a girl, and proud to be one, thank you very much.

I still have a few Anita's left, but if something like this is said again, I'll quit the series. I don't read books to get called a boy with breasts.

[Melanie]

I really enjoyed this book. It is the book where you really get a glimpse into Edward's real life. We also meet Bernardo and Olaf. Bernardo drives me crazy. His ego is enormous and it get tiresome. Olaf also has an ego, but it isn't tiresome. I think it is because Olaf gets pissed and Bernardo whines. This series has several male whiners and I get really sick of it.

We also meet Peter. I won't go into detail about who Peter is and what he experiences in this book. I really like Peter. Donna and Becca are not as big of characters to me. They are just victims that Edward and Anita have to save or console.