My Favorite Horror Novel

My favorite horror novel is actually a series of novels by Laurell K. Hamilton that tell one continuing and continuous story. They are the Anita Blake Vampire Hunter novels. Now don't let the Buffy-esque title fool you. Vampires are legal and a court order is needed to execute one. With each installment, the stakes get higher and our heroine is drawn deeper and deeper into the world she thought she abhorred.

Anita Blake's greatest fear was once that she would not be able to best the monsters she hunted. Soon, however,  this develops into a phobia that she will become one of the monsters herself. In this world where vampires are legal and raising the dead is her "day" job, Anita is finding the lines between monster and human blurring more and more as the story unfolds.

Of course it doesn't help that she is the official girlfriend of the master vampire of the city, that she has an ongoing love-hate relationship with a werewolf, or that she lives with a shape shifter who keeps her house by day and is a stripper by night. Oh, and did I mention it? He's in love with her too. Ms. Hamilton does a fabulous job of getting her readers to identify with and empathize with her characters. They are three-dimensional, dynamic people who engage the reader in their conversations and exploits. These aren't just props for Anita's character. These characters could sustain their own stories. They do , in fact, have their own stories, woven throughout the novels.

And lest you think this is one of those paranormal romance series, all one has to do is read about one of the bloodbaths brought on by Anita unleashing her necromancer abilities. The situations in these novels are graphic, real, and draw the reader into a horrific world where "people"  we love are hurt and killed. Some of the most gruesome scenes in the books involved shape shifter's being tortured because of their rapid healing ability.

It is during the times when Anita is either protecting or rescuing her friends (and those to whom she believes she owes protection) that she begins more and more to question both her morality and her faith. She fears for her sanity as well as her status as a "human". Suffice to say that Anita goes through quite a few "spiritual" changes during the course of these books. And Ms. Hamilton takes us right along with her, in agony.

The most amazing thing about these novels is the pace. The sheer velocity with which the story moves keeps the reader turning pages hungrily from the first to the last, even in those volumes that reach an excess of 700 pages! And yet, we are left starving for more.

©TSW 2007