Amazon.com: Customer reviews: Bullet: An Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter Novel

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Bullet

Reviewed in the United States on April 30, 2017

Mommy Dearest is back in Bullet. In this one Anita and all her men are up against the council who have been taken over by mommy dearest and she is trying to kill Anita bc she has not been able to take her over by her self. We also learn that the golden tigers are still out there and they are coming to St. Louis to be with Anita. This is good a good book and part of a good series.

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Blue Fairy

Anita Has Become A Selfish Drama Queen

Reviewed in the United States on July 30, 2021

The character Anita Blake use to be so independent. Now she doesn't know how to text message, log on to a computer, and she can't deal with most situations without all her men begging and pushing her to move forward. Even getting her to get dressed for a party, it takes four people begging her to put on a dress. Every situation in this book requires her men pleading with her. I guess it's all suppose to be cute, but it just seems tedious to me. She use to be able to function better and now she needs to be managed. It's been like that for the last few books and it sucks. Anita use to be a stronger person, even when things got to her, but not anymore. Everyone has to hold her hand and reassure her all the time.

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Blue Fairy

Anita Has Become A Selfish Drama Queen

Reviewed in the United States on July 30, 2021

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2 people found this helpful

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Divided

Reviewed in the United States on December 30, 2017

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So this book was great for the basic storyline and to connect the before and after books, but 70% of it could be erased and we'd be left with the same substance plus some sex fluff. I skipped this and about 7 other books because although I love a good sex scene (and these weren't that good... basic smut), I still like substance to my "no thinking required" books. I have finally gone back to pick up these missing links and have resigned myself to just get past the cheap sex. If you read Laurell for smut, this should work for you. If you follow the story, yuppie can pick up a few gems in here. She's talented, but I think she was distracted and under pressure to meet deadlines.

5 people found this helpful

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Yvonne L. Edwards

Hamilton should retire this series.....

Reviewed in the United States on March 23, 2011

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In the beginning I just loved Anita and her stories. The last 6-7 books have been utterly disappointing. Bullet, is in my opinion, the worst of them all. The character arc Hamilton has made my beloved Anita go through is terrible. There was one sex scene in this book that literally took up 25% of the entire book!!!! And then right after there were about 10 pages describing what everyone was wearing after they showered. The latest books in this series are a hypersexed romance novel with some scant police work thrown in as an afterthought. It doesn't matter how gorgeous everyone involved is, I feel really bad for Anita having to be screwing so many people constantly. And the fact that Anita is "deeply in love" with so many people at one time is ridiculous, given her initial personality. Jean Claude, Richard, Asher, Micah, and Nathaniel. Good lord, I understand maybe loving two at one time, but no one can be "in love" with that many all at once.

Hamilton should retire this series,,,or start writing them like she did in the beginning. I miss Anita describing Edward flamethrowing some rogue vamp to death, or raising an entire cemetery of zombies. I understand giving Anita ONE person finally to love, but to have her constantly sleeping in a naked pile of people because it's a metaphysical "need" is abhorrent to me. If early Anita met her own author, I bet she'd kick Hamilton's rear end.

I've read Hamilton being annoyed with people's recent critiques on her work. Don't care, lady. Stop doing this to my Anita.

27 people found this helpful

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Mary W.

not her best

Reviewed in the United States on June 7, 2012

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When I first read this book I did not review it because I thought it was by far her worst book yet. After rereading all her books again to prepare for the release of Kiss the Dead I deceided to do a review. The story of Anita Blake has always been one of my favorite supernatural series. The thing I dislike about the series now is the constant need to claim her character is always a monster or sex craved. I believe the ardeur was the downfall of the series. It was alright when she first introduced the idea but then it was more and more men and sex. Then the constant belief in herself that she is a monster and a slut. Then the other cops or marshalls comments on her being a slut or her need to have her boyfriends around all the time.The only advice I can give LKH is if you want the ardeur in the book then accept what has happened with the characters and at least stop having Anita's character making comments that she can't sleep with another person or she is a bad person because of it. It is just getting old. As for the book I can not really give a plot or idea about the book it was everywhere. You have Anita killing people, saving people, working out with her guards ( and of course being faster and stronger than them ) and you even have her having sex with a woman which she never would have done before since she does not like women to even hug her. Also JC and Richard have sex with a woman in front of Anita. All this is a contradiction to the characters in past books. Very annoying and nothing like I expected of the book.

11 people found this helpful

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hwilson

no real character progression

Reviewed in the United States on July 28, 2013

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A lot of people complain about the amount of sex in these books. Doesn't bother me. That's the good part IMO. I think what we should complain about her last few books is the lack of STORY. Although this book has a major plot changer with Richard doing a 180 in his personality, it was so abrupt it seems unbelievable. We spend lots and lots of time in boring details and moments where action might happen if they didn't have to talk everything to death. It is literally exhausting to read.

It feels like there is little forward progress, little character development. Another complaint is that we don't see much of important and favorite characters lately. Nathaniel and Damien, where art thou? Aren't they a triumvirate, too? I don't know if she's just run out of story to tell with Anita Blake or what has happened.

When I finished this book, I really thought that it could be my last Anita Blake book. I felt like I'd wasted my time and money. I certainly won't rush out to buy another hardcover. But I'll probably read more, because I keep hoping that we'll see my favorites come out to play, or maybe something really interesting will happen to reinvigorate the series. Probably a wasted hope.

6 people found this helpful

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C Thilmany

Story buried in descriptions

Reviewed in the United States on June 3, 2010

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The story takes place approximately 1 year after both Skin Trade and Flirt. Anita and gang are still living at the Circus. Asher threatens to leave town, taking the hyenas with him since he's not getting his needs met by either Jean-Claude or Anita's men. Throw into the mix the return of the Mother of All Darkness, thought to be dead, now possessing some of the Vampire Council Members. And the only way to stop her from taking over everything is for Anita to become Master of Tigers. Oh, and the American Masters of the Cities have petitioned the Vampire Council to execute Jean-Claude and company because they're becoming too powerful.

There are a number of interesting things that happen in this story; some long awaited. And some things took me by surprise. I enjoyed those aspects of the book as well as seeing old friends and look forward to seeing what happens next. But many of the scenes are so padded and drawn out with descriptions that parts of the book can become boring. Although that same style of writing is what has the characters seem so real that you wouldn't be surprised to see them walking down the street. The story could have gone a lot further if some things were left to our imagination, and we're totally missing what should have been an entire scene but was only mentioned as an aside in the last chapter wrap-up.

Richard has been in therapy and has made huge advances in the year since Anita took her anger back. The explanation given by Richard of what he experienced and why he acted the way he did really fit what's taken place in prior books. From that aspect the author has done a good job of keeping things at a reasonable pace. Unfortunately the reader doesn't get to see his progress over the past year; he's just suddenly more accepting of himself and now a team player. The turnaround is rather sharp.

If you've become disillusioned with the series due to either metaphysics or the sex, then you aren't going to enjoy this one either. I still find the characters, challenges and storyline an interesting world to escape into, even with the drawn out scenes.

5 people found this helpful

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David L. Smith

Lots happens - it's just offstage

Reviewed in the United States on September 11, 2010

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I've read all of the books at this point. I started with Obsidian Butterfly that I picked up at the airport. I liked it, though I thought it was a bit gory. I went back, started with Guilty Pleasures and have worked my way through all of them now.

In the beginning, there was not enough sex. Anita was always conflicted about something. Then, it became all sex, all the time. I'm fine with sex but something with 3 chapter descriptions of sex scenes is erotica, not fiction.

Skin Trade made me hope that Hamilton had realized what was cool about her books and was planning to return to it. Not too much sex, some weird violence and Anita being her annoying little self.

Then, Flirt. Too short and too contrived.

Now, Bullet. Lots happens, but she doesn't write about any of it. Instead it's page after page of Anita sex angst, then sex with everyone. I don't think Anita ever leaves Circus of the Damned in this book. All the interesting things are happening off-stage and Anita gets emails. Oh, and she can't figure out the Internetz. When did Anita become a 50 something?

The whole major conflict is resolved off-stage in the last 2 pages of the book. 3/4's of the sex stuff could have been trimmed down. It's OK if Anita is having sex with everyone, all the time. Just don't waste so many pages writing about it.

17 people found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

The Final Time

Reviewed in the United States on September 10, 2010

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Ok. I have hung in there with this series up until this point. I am finished with the Anita Blake Series. How did we go from a hard as nails vampire executioner to a short dress wearing hooker? I loved the first books in this series. I couldn't get enough, but this...
This book was absolute drivel. The influx of characters and shape shifters with little to no explanation or development in this book was at an all time high. The repetitive phrasing, (...creamy goodness ....a kiss that was all..., ...the metaphysical crap), Anita and her magic vagina. I am so disappointed that a series with so much potential has turned into little more than erotica and not good erotica at that. I really hoped that after Skin Trade she was on a road to redemption.
Unfortunately, I now feel as if Ms. Hamilton is simply making fun of her readers and laughing all the way to the bank. She keeps writing garbage and we keep purchasing to see if things will get better.

20 people found this helpful

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Noore

Might have been a good short story

Reviewed in the United States on June 22, 2010

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Perhaps the author just needs a new publisher. Unfortunately, I agree with so many previous reviewers that this book (as so many of her recent books just does not live up to the standards that she set with her earlier writing. It seems more and more that the author's target audience is a young, teenage male; but one has to ask...why would a teenage male want to continue reading a series of books that have an older female protagonist, when there are many other books that would better fit their specific demographic?

Reading Ms. Hamilton's earlier writing in this series (and her Meredith Gentry series) one finds a good writer who's a pleasure to read. Her earlier books are nicely written, they have plots and subplots, actual character development, actual story development. The plot is a progression that involves this ongoing in depth development. Not flat, one dimensional verbiage that uses porn and violence to fill in space. The earlier books tell a well rounded story (complete and satisfying in itself, which also lends itself to further development of the story, through future books). Indeed, if her earlier books had been written/edited like her recent books, each book would have been split into three to four books (instead of one book), and the empty space would have been filled with vicarious sex and violence, instead of plot and character development. That is, it seems that if a good editor took Ms. Hamilton's last 3-4+ books in her series, and actually edited them into just one book (that told a story with character development), after eliminating the extraneous; the reader would be left with a good book. Unfortunately, this has not been happening. As it is, we have been having to slog through page after page of empty space that's filled with comic book like sex and violence at the expense of the story and characters.

In Bullet, for example, the reader is stuck reading page after page of "empty space" (i.e., space lacking in plot and character development/interaction, and filled with extraneous scenes of sex and violence) in hopes of eventually getting a snippet of actual well written story that eventually provides information that ties the story line together. So much could have been done with this story's' development. Only to find, after reading almost the entire book this occurring in the last 2 1/2 pages of the 356 page book. For example, on page 353 the author basically writes: 'the tiger did ... `(perhaps 2 sentences), 'this also happened...' (perhaps a half of a paragraph), ' this other important person in the book did.... '(maybe 4 sentences)..... etc.

In Ms. Hamilton's earlier writings, she would have expanded upon these sentences to build an actual story that included not only plot but characters interacting and growing in more than a superficial manner. Instead of a sentence or two, she would have written whole pages (often whole chapters) that brought the reader into the activity of the story, not just summed it up into one ro two sentences. Even a child's fairy tale is a story told with some development. It's as though the author might have written one good well written book, but then had to split it into three to four books (that could each be sold separately), and then used sex and gratuitous violence to fill up the resulting short story. The end result will be loss of readers, and this will be unfortunate because Ms. Hamilton's earlier writings show her to have been a good writer. Since this seems to now hold true for her other series, perhaps it's not just author burn-out or boredom. Perhaps she just needs a better editor, or a new publisher. One can only hope.

26 people found this helpful

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Laurad9

Disappointing

Reviewed in the United States on September 17, 2010

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After a hint of an actual plot and storyline managed to rear its head in Skin Trade, I began to hope that Laurell K. Hamilton might find her way back to the Anita I loved in the beginning of the series. Unfortunately, this was not the case. Instead, she's gone back to the 'story intro, sex, sex, sex, minor plot progression (often in the form of a confrontation), sex, sex, sex, blather, sex, sex, sex, quick wrap up' formula of the later books. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy a good sex scene as much as the next person, but when the story itself is so obviously just a flimsy framework for the author to share his or her dirty fantasies, I lose interest. Plot and character development should be the primary focus, NOT how many times, in how many ways, involving how many people, the characters can bang.

Also, Hamilton seems unduly impressed with the phrase 'creamy goodness' in this one. If I'd had to read it one more time...well, I might have done something unfortunate.

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