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US Mall 1 - The Laughing Corpse (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, Book 2)
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List Price: $7.99
Our Price: $3.89
Your Save: $ 4.10 ( 51% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Jove
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780515134445
ISBN: 0515134449
Label: Jove
Manufacturer: Jove
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 304
Publication Date: 2002-09-24
Publisher: Jove
Studio: Jove
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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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
Customer Rating:
Summary: Gruesomely Great
Comment: Boy, and you thought the first one was bloody? This one was easily the goriest, most gruesome piece of writing I've seen outside of Stephen King and some of the schlock-fest fiction I've read in the past when no better option was available -- you know, the kind of thing where you're trapped in a waiting room and the magazines are old and water stained, but hmm, what's this paperback without a cover? Oh, Attack of the Lung-Eating Leper Beasts? What's this about?
But unlike those books, this gore had reason and purpose, and it made the book better than it would have been without it -- surely the requirement for any given element's inclusion in a novel.
Anyway, the second Anita Blake book was as good as the first, and that is a good sign. Because the second book is in some ways very unlike the first: in the first one, the murder mystery takes a backseat -- way back, like hanging off the rear bumper of one of those double-length buses with the accordion joint in the middle -- to the vampire stuff, which is very scary and shows that the vampires are incredibly nasty and overpowering and no human really has any chance. At the end of the first book, Anita feels small to the reader. And that's good, because it makes the character human, and when she says at the very end of the book that line -- "I don't date vampires. I slay them." -- it sounds desperate, like she's whistling in the dark and she knows it, because Jean-Claude already has such a claim on her, both in terms of his mind control and because of her attraction to him, and because she never should have won the fight with the evil vamps. The poignancy of that line, and her desperate situation, makes her sympathetic.
This book made her bada$$. The murder mystery took center stage, because at every pause in the action, back it came with an even bloodier and more horrifying murder scene -- and since the very first murder scene begins with a corpse that is nothing but a section of ribs, and a blood-soaked teddy bear, saying that each scene is more horrifying than the last is saying a lot. And more so than the first book, the murder mystery and the intrigue element complemented each other, because this time, the intrigue involved the killers with Anita (The same held true of Guilty Pleasures, granted, but in a much more coincidental way.), and so her dealings with the evil folk brought her closer to solving the murders. I appreciated that the gory scenes helped to build hatred for the villains, as well as building up to the final scene; I think the last monster that is thrown at Anita would have seemed much more of a joke if we hadn't already had the sheer bloodiness of the murder scenes before then. There's also a wonderful moment when Anita catches up to the killer, and it asks her for mercy, in a way; one thing that I feel is an absolute requisite for monster fiction of any kind is the humanization of the monsters: if the monsters aren't human, then I can't care about them and I don't want to get involved in their existences, even peripherally. When the murderer asks for Anita's help, it makes me pity it, just a little -- and that makes the blood spilled by this thing that much more horrible. Which makes Anita's final victory over those responsible for this not only impressive, because this time she's the strong one, but also righteous, because the evil was contrasted with pitiable, tragic figures. Human figures. Something that is lacking in far too many paranormal fiction novels.
I definitely enjoyed this one, even more than the first, and now I'm eager to read on.
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Editorial Reviews:
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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
Customer Rating:
Summary: Gruesomely Great
Comment: Boy, and you thought the first one was bloody? This one was easily the goriest, most gruesome piece of writing I've seen outside of Stephen King and some of the schlock-fest fiction I've read in the past when no better option was available -- you know, the kind of thing where you're trapped in a waiting room and the magazines are old and water stained, but hmm, what's this paperback without a cover? Oh, Attack of the Lung-Eating Leper Beasts? What's this about?
But unlike those books, this gore had reason and purpose, and it made the book better than it would have been without it -- surely the requirement for any given element's inclusion in a novel.
Anyway, the second Anita Blake book was as good as the first, and that is a good sign. Because the second book is in some ways very unlike the first: in the first one, the murder mystery takes a backseat -- way back, like hanging off the rear bumper of one of those double-length buses with the accordion joint in the middle -- to the vampire stuff, which is very scary and shows that the vampires are incredibly nasty and overpowering and no human really has any chance. At the end of the first book, Anita feels small to the reader. And that's good, because it makes the character human, and when she says at the very end of the book that line -- "I don't date vampires. I slay them." -- it sounds desperate, like she's whistling in the dark and she knows it, because Jean-Claude already has such a claim on her, both in terms of his mind control and because of her attraction to him, and because she never should have won the fight with the evil vamps. The poignancy of that line, and her desperate situation, makes her sympathetic.
This book made her bada$$. The murder mystery took center stage, because at every pause in the action, back it came with an even bloodier and more horrifying murder scene -- and since the very first murder scene begins with a corpse that is nothing but a section of ribs, and a blood-soaked teddy bear, saying that each scene is more horrifying than the last is saying a lot. And more so than the first book, the murder mystery and the intrigue element complemented each other, because this time, the intrigue involved the killers with Anita (The same held true of Guilty Pleasures, granted, but in a much more coincidental way.), and so her dealings with the evil folk brought her closer to solving the murders. I appreciated that the gory scenes helped to build hatred for the villains, as well as building up to the final scene; I think the last monster that is thrown at Anita would have seemed much more of a joke if we hadn't already had the sheer bloodiness of the murder scenes before then. There's also a wonderful moment when Anita catches up to the killer, and it asks her for mercy, in a way; one thing that I feel is an absolute requisite for monster fiction of any kind is the humanization of the monsters: if the monsters aren't human, then I can't care about them and I don't want to get involved in their existences, even peripherally. When the murderer asks for Anita's help, it makes me pity it, just a little -- and that makes the blood spilled by this thing that much more horrible. Which makes Anita's final victory over those responsible for this not only impressive, because this time she's the strong one, but also righteous, because the evil was contrasted with pitiable, tragic figures. Human figures. Something that is lacking in far too many paranormal fiction novels.
I definitely enjoyed this one, even more than the first, and now I'm eager to read on.
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