So in the midst of all my reading and writing about Sylvia Plath and after reviewing Seth Kantner's impressive Ordinary Wolves for Bookslut, along with the very political photojournalism book Unembedded and the very literary collection Writers on the Air, I took a break for a delicious guilty pleasure: A Stroke of Midnight.
That's right, I've been reading Laurell K. Hamilton.
Here's the thing about Laurell K. - she has been writing her Anita Blake Vampire Executioner books for over a decade now and started the Meredith Gentry dark fairy tale series several years ago as well. She gets a ton of flack because a lot of the stuff that goes on in these books is either really really violent or really really sexy. I think I need to emphasize that sexy part - we're talking full on erotica type sexy here. When I worked in a bookstore the employees always had their little jokes about the folks who bought Hamilton's books (or any book with any kind of romance in it that wasn't literary enough to impress them) but I was buying her stuff even then. I think it's great that people in dark leather pants with guns and swords are whacking people's heads off and then getting it on - I can't help it, Laurell K. Hamilon is officially my guilty pleasure!
(Why do I feel like I just stepped out of some sort of closet or something?)
For the record, A Stroke of Midnight has a lot of very interesting fairy politics going on - I think it's one of the stronger entries in the Gentry series and I was probably more hooked on who was plotting to kill who then I was on the sex (shocking - I know!). But there's a good story here, good characters, cool folklore and imaginary world development. It's all very well done. I've been disappointed by the last few Anita Blake books but Hamilton has me back with this one, and hopefully she will get the Anita books back on track (at least to me) as well. Regardless how I feel about them though, she has a ton of fans and the one thing that always bugged me in the bookstore was that somehow these fans are not considered as respectable - or impressive maybe - as, say Michael Ondaatje's or Julian Barnes's. It bothered me then, but weirdly I still feel like I have to justify a Hamilton purchase. It's almost like I feel compelled to tell the clerk (or all of you now) that I also own (and have read) The Seven Pillars of Wisdom or Samantha Powers's A Problem From Hell. I want the world to know that I read Hemingway, and Zora Neale Hurston and I just got Rachel Carson for my birthday. I read books that matter, I swear! I just like the occasional fun, smart, sexy and violent book as well (not that T.E. Lawrence's book wasn't violent as hell - or Powers's as well).
Why do I feel like I have to explain myself? Why can't I just take my reading pleasure where I find it and to hell with everyone else?
You'd think I'd be over the need to impress anyone about books by now but still I can't seem to help it. Here's something funny - all my Hamilton books are behind a framed picture on my bookshelves, and the war books are facing out front and center. I didn't even realize I was doing that when I put everything a way 6 months ago. It's bizarre and embarrassing that I still don't feel grown up enough to "own" my reading choices.
So - it's official - I love Laurell K. Hamilton! I like vampire books! I like fairy books! I like sex!
gulp....I might need to take a break now. I think I have blogged too much........
Colleen Mondor is a reviewer for Booklist, Bookslut, Eclectica Magazine and the Voices of New Orleans. I also write fiction and listen to great music. This site is all about the literary world and my place within it.
1 comment:
Wow, I understand her completely. I liked the books from the start, wavered a little in the erotic parts but now going strong in ST and looking forward for book 18th, Bullet next spring.
Liking the books is a fact i don't want to admit but I am very active on the internet. True I like the books cause no one would dare go that far even in books and LKH crossed the line and I'm loving it.
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