I actually thought this book was a little better than some of the other recent stories because it didn't have as many sex scenes and the supernatural took a bit of a lesser role.
I think the problem I have is the supernatural didn't have a lesser role - it was just all crammed into the second half. And there was so little of the supernatural stuff in the first half it felt really weird. Things I would have expected to come up - like Jason's emotions causing him issues with his inner wolf - weren't even mentioned. It was so very mundane that although the first half was good (by LKH standards at least) it didn't feel like an Anita story. And then it's like someone flipped a switch and we were ass deep in supernatural gang rape and stuff that didn't make any sense at all. Not to mention the rookie error of the memory-loss plot device in a first person narrative. If her editor didn't catch that, she probably didn't bother to read it.
I guess it is no surprise that Richard is portrayed so badly because it does seem that she associated his with her ex-husband. When she was happy with him, he was a sympathetic character and then after the divorce he just goes down hill.
Yes. But the real problem isn't Richard's character, it's that LKH doesn't have the guts to make everyone else act in-character around him. After what he tried to do to Anita in The Harlequin, Jean Claude should have built a silver cage in the basement and shoved Richard into it. Feed him alternate Tuesdays and full moons but never let him see daylight again. He proved himself too much of a threat to everyone to do otherwise. And after what he did in Blood Noir, Anita should be planning to kill the bastard because, frankly, the risk that his death might kill her and JC too would be worth it for them to be free of him. That would be in character for everyone...but because LKH has no idea how to construct a plot, she doesn't see it.
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I think the problem I have is the supernatural didn't have a lesser role - it was just all crammed into the second half. And there was so little of the supernatural stuff in the first half it felt really weird. Things I would have expected to come up - like Jason's emotions causing him issues with his inner wolf - weren't even mentioned. It was so very mundane that although the first half was good (by LKH standards at least) it didn't feel like an Anita story. And then it's like someone flipped a switch and we were ass deep in supernatural gang rape and stuff that didn't make any sense at all. Not to mention the rookie error of the memory-loss plot device in a first person narrative. If her editor didn't catch that, she probably didn't bother to read it.
I guess it is no surprise that Richard is portrayed so badly because it does seem that she associated his with her ex-husband. When she was happy with him, he was a sympathetic character and then after the divorce he just goes down hill.
Yes. But the real problem isn't Richard's character, it's that LKH doesn't have the guts to make everyone else act in-character around him. After what he tried to do to Anita in The Harlequin, Jean Claude should have built a silver cage in the basement and shoved Richard into it. Feed him alternate Tuesdays and full moons but never let him see daylight again. He proved himself too much of a threat to everyone to do otherwise. And after what he did in Blood Noir, Anita should be planning to kill the bastard because, frankly, the risk that his death might kill her and JC too would be worth it for them to be free of him. That would be in character for everyone...but because LKH has no idea how to construct a plot, she doesn't see it.