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Digital Cameras - Camcorders - The Laughing Corpse (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter)
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List Price: $14.00
Our Price: $6.34
Your Save: $ 7.66 ( 55% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Berkley Trade
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN: 9780425204665
ISBN: 0425204669
Label: Berkley Trade
Manufacturer: Berkley Trade
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 320
Publication Date: 2005-08-02
Publisher: Berkley Trade
Studio: Berkley Trade
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Very Entertaining!
Comment: Action packed, easy reading..a bit gory in some parts..but worth the time it takes to read. I can't wait to read the next one
Customer Rating:
Summary: Zombie attacks
Comment: Zombies make awesome murder weapons. And when your anti-heroine is able to raise zombies, they make an excellent source for a horror/mystery plot. Laurell K. Hamilton's "The Laughing Corpse" has plenty of grotesque horror and zombie-related nastiness, as well as some clever social questions. But she fails somewhat in creating a convincing mystery story -- not to mention a tolerable heroine.
After rejecting psycho-millionaire client Harold Gaynor (who wants a very old zombie raised, requiring a human sacrifice), Anita is called out to look at the scene of a crime that seems to have been committed by zombies. So she starts investigating possible suspects -- including Dominga Salvador, a malevolent old vaudun priestess who has found a way to keep a zombie ensouled.
Unfortunately some very nasty things -- both living and dead -- are trying to stop Anita's investigations, both into the zombie murders and Harold Gaynor. With the solicitous assistance of Jean Claude and a fellow animator, Anita is able to find more and more information on the zombie-related murders -- and it turns out that Salvador and Gaynor may be working together.
Laurell K. Hamilton was pretty clearly shooting for an "old pulp noir mystery" feel in "The Laughing Corpse" -- acid-tongued anti-hero, grimy urban atmosphere, nasty big-shots, and a series of mysterious deaths. So she fills it with many descriptions of guns, dismembered bodies and creepy-crawly scenes (such as Anita holding a moving bird foot).
Her dialogue-heavy writing does tend to be lean and mildly hard-boiled, with a distinctly horrific vibe (prostitute Wheelchair Wanda tells Anita about Gaynor's sex games). But Hamilton has a rather clumsy style: endless sentence fragments ("Not resurrection. I'm not that good. I mean zombies. The shambling dead. Rotting corpses. Night of the living dead. That kind of zombie"), horrendous dialogue (""F**k you." "I have already offered that." "Damn you, Jean-Claude, damn you") and random rants about whatever bothers Anita at the moment.
In fact, her choppy stripped down style is all the more apparent when Jean-Claude enters the scene , inspiring odes to his vaguely effeminate clothing, hair, "glittering, dark jewel" eyes and "the perfection of his body." It's almost funny to see Hamilton go so completely gaga over a fictional vampire -- and despite Jean-Claude's spooky behavior, she' too in love for him for him to come across as truly scary.
It's too bad, because his manipulative cleverness would make him a brilliant anti-hero, and the question of ensouled zombies is a truly ghastly, thought-provoking one. Unfortunately, we have Anita -- a twenty-four-year-old woman whose seething bitterness is never explained.
It feels like Hamilton wanted to create a Raymond Chandleresque anti-heroine, but tried too hard. Instead Anita is obnoxious, rude, bitter, whiny and despises anyone/anything feminine ("The thought that I had actually spent money on anything pink was more than I could bear"), believing that this makes her "one of the boys." Hamilton uses "zombie rights" to try to make Anita seem compassionate, but her raving, inexplicable hatred of all vampires negates it.
"The Laughing Corpse" has a good story buried somewhere under the sentence fragments and cliche dialogue -- not to mention an awesome vampire and horrific zombies. -- but the heroine is simply too unpleasant.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Entertaining
Comment: This book got me in to this series. It at least has a plot, unlike the later novels.
Customer Rating:
Summary: I liked it, though it had parts that can annoy you
Comment: This is the second book in the series. Once again these books are short so I hope no one expects a lengthy in-depth read. Instead of giving away a lot of plot information I think I'll just give a list of likes and dislikes.
Likes: Jean-Claude. Though this character is rarely seen in this story I crave the next opportunity to see him. It isnt the greatest sexual tension I have read between two charcters, but this is all we're given in these two books so far. I like this character and his interactions with Anita.
I like the first person point of view. Anita is witty at times and can make me laugh.
Dislikes: This list will be fairly long. First of all, the repatitive aspect of this book is quite annoying. I'm seeing phrases that were repeated from the first book word for word. This doesn't happen just once, but many times throughout the book. It's often used for describing peoples characteristics and physical being. Not to mention she does this all throughout her third book I am reading.
Anita's personalitly. It was nice to see the tough girl image in the first book. This book, not so much. It seems she's void of regular emotions a twenty-four year old female would have. She's not girly in any way. If I didnt know any better I'd say she was written as a man. It would be nice to see a vulnerability to this character and have her be feminine every once in a while.
Her hate for Vampires is something that is questionable. She pushes for Zombie working rights and shuns all vampires as evil, when the plot of this story is about a Zombie on a murderous rampage. Why does she hate vampires? It never really says. Sure, she was attacked by them but she was also attacked by wererats and zombies, yet she doesnt seem to harbor the hateful feelings she holds for vampuires. She pushes Jean-Claude away at every turn for what reason? He wants her to be his human servant, I can understand she wouldnt want that. But why does she feel he's so dangerous when has he made any kind of threat to her?
The gore: I'm not one that's grossed out by alot. Yet, this book takes the cake. It's scenes were borderline distasteful. Her playing and making bets to see who can gross out who in a family murder scene is outrageous. The detailing is something that Hamilton doesn't shy away from.
Despite my lack of positive reveiws I gave it three stars. I would really like to see this character develop and a piece of me thinks I should give it time. I think I judge things a tad too sharply. I wasn't bored at all while reading this book. It was a decent read. Like any book it has it's flaws. Hopefully, it will get a shade better as the series continues. More than anything I would like to see what becomes of her and Jean-Claude.
Customer Rating:
Summary: OK
Comment: Although the first bok in this series is really good this on e seemed a little dry and hard to follow for me. I was very disappointed
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Editorial Reviews:
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First time in trade paperback: the second Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter novel.
Nearly two million Anita Blake novels in print.
The early Anita Blake novels find new life in trade paperback-as perfect collectibles for long-time fans or as great ways for new readers to sink their teeth into the series.
In The Laughing Corpse, a creature from beyond the grave is tearing a swath of murder through St. Louis. And Anita will learn that there are some secrets better left buried-and some people better off dead...
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