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2.0étoiles sur 5
Zombies!, Janv. 11 2009
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.
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1.0étoiles sur 5
Indeed the Laughing Corpse!, Juil 7 2004
This book sucked. I think that Laurell K. Hamilton is the worst author yet. The book was boooooring. It only had like 4 scenes, and one scene lasted 30 pages. It was ridiculous. I could hardly keep my eyes open. For an animator, Anita is really stupid, she doesn't explore any of her powers. All she does is get smart with everybody she not supposed to get smart with, and by mistake discovers more powers. She repeats the same phrases over and over again till you wanna reach through the book and slap her. The scenes with Jean Claude are unoriginal. All they do is repeat the same thing. Anita - I'm not your servant. Jean Claude - yes you are. NO I'M NOT, YES YOU ARE, NO I'M NOT, YES YOU ARE. No dialog at all. Her friends lack personality, she has no back bone at all and a stupid sense of humor. The only action is at the end, but you won't make it past the boring scenes! The cop, Dolph, is just as bland as she is. Don't expect any action to come from there. Dominga Salvador is the only interesting person in the book. I say, if you want a good suspense/mystery, go to the book store and get J. D. Robb's In Death series. I guarantee, you will not have to read about Eve Dallas finding outfits with penguins on them in which to conceal her weapon.
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4.0étoiles sur 5
not that good after readin Guilty pleasures but still ok, Juil 3 2004
The Laughing Corpse was ok but after reading Guilty Pleasures it kinda let you down. you still get to read about Anita and Jean-Claude (whom i think is great). this book was not as good becuause all she does is kill a zombie that was raised and was killing people...other than that there is a little more to keep the plot going. i would still read it because it is crucial to the series and though there isn't as much desired from it you still need to read it and it is ok.
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