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A review of Burnt Offerings

by Laurell K. Hamilton

The seventh novel in the bone-rattling challenges of Anita Blake, vampire hunter.

Reviewed by: April Dawn Duncan
About April Dawn Duncan

Burnt Offerings A "firebug" or pyrokinetic is on the loose and has been setting fire to empty buildings throughout St. Louis. Captain McKinnon, firefighter and arson investigator, wants Anita's help to stop them before someone gets hurt or worse. Sometime not too long ago, Anita's clients were just normal people who needed the dearly departed raised as zombies in order to settle legal or personal matters. But lately, her clients have been getting more and more outside her job description. She could thank her boss for that. He had no compunctions now about hiring her out to anyone who thought she could help them, even if it had nothing at all to do with raising corpses. Thankfully, Anita's growing powers are becoming more versatile as she faces the new problems some of her clients bring. But how the hell any of her abilities qualified her to help a fireman hunt down a pyrokinetic was beyond her. If people's lives hadn't been at stake, she might have just told him she couldn't help. But since they were, she'd be damned if she wouldn't give it her best shot.

All in all, the business side of her life wasn't too complicated, she had seen far worse many times before. But the personal side was an absolute mess. And things are about to get a whole lot messier. Larry Kirkland, a fellow animator and her personal vampire hunter student, had nearly gotten himself killed. Now Anita is having to play nursemaid. But wait, there's more. The wereleopard pack is falling to pieces under its new leader. Its old leader had been a sick and twisted bitch, so Anita had put an end to her. Now one of its youngest and weakest members has been seriously injured. His friend and pard-mate is asking for Anita's help. Just call her mommy.

With all these distractions, it was a little hard for her to see the consequence of a past action sneak up on her. But before she could even turn around, it had pounced. The Council has come to town to pay a little visit to the Master of the City and his human servant. No one kills a Council member without answering for it. Vampire-kind plays one long, cruel game, and Anita is about to have a crash course on the rules. If you're going to interfere in monster affairs, you've got to play by their rules. If not, they just kill you. And though lately she's been feeling more secure about Jean-Claude's love for her, this encounter will shake her to the core. Her lover is one of them, after all. For Anita, the line between monsters and humans has completely vanished. And that, perhaps, is the most frightening thing of all.

"Burnt Offerings", by Laurell K. Hamilton, takes place right after Anita's life and morals have all been turned inside-out. And for all of the intense and horrifying action, I still find myself transfixed by the character development of Anita Blake. Her vulnerability and self-doubt are almost palpable. As if I could reach out and caress them, try and protect her from them. She clings to the shreds of her humanity, but finds herself being overcome by both her lack of control over her own inhuman powers and the outside powers that are being forced upon her. Though in the real world, we may not have such strange and horrifying things to deal with, we still face very real and difficult situations and moral quandaries. Like Anita, we all will travel a journey of self-discovery through trial by fire sometime in our lifetimes. The "marks" she shares with both vampire and werewolf are tearing her apart. I think those "marks" symbolize any close connection we might have with someone. Relationships always require work, and are often complicated. Only once those involved in the relationship have accepted each other for what and who they are, can there be peace. But if you can't even accept yourself for who and what you are, the relationship is doomed. If Anita doesn't stop running from what she is and is becoming, she might not survive, or worse yet, she might lose herself completely. I know what she hasn't yet accepted because I'm on the outside looking in. Being something other than human may make you a monster, but it doesn't make you evil. Using your abilities, natural or supernatural, for evil makes you evil. Once she gets that, she can move on to the next Question. What is evil?

Click here to buy this book, or read more about it at Amazon.com: Burnt Offerings

Copyright © by April Dawn Duncan, 2003

Reviewed by April Dawn Duncan:
--Threshold: A Novel of Deep Time - by Caitlin R. Kiernan
--Yarrow: An Autumn Tale - by Charles de Lint
--The Morgaine Saga - by C. J. Cherryh
--Tigana - by Guy Gavriel Kay
--Ender's Game - by Orson Scott Card
--Foreigner: A Novel of First Contact - by C.J. Cherryh
--Guilty Pleasures - by Laurell K. Hamilton
--The Laughing Corpse - by Laurell K. Hamilton
--Circus of the Damned - by Laurell K. Hamilton
--The Lunatic Cafe - by Laurell K. Hamilton
--Bloody Bones - by Laurell K. Hamilton
--The Killing Dance - by Laurell K. Hamilton
--Burnt Offerings - by Laurell K. Hamilton
--Blue Moon - by Laurell K. Hamilton
--Obsidian Butterfly - by Laurell K. Hamilton
--Narcissus in Chains - by Laurell K. Hamilton









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