Cerulean Sins

Rating:
Summary: That 'ol Feelin'
Review: Well, this has been overdue...but Wow.

At 27, Anita is not only getting older, but...Gasp, do I dare say, she's getting wiser? Oh hell yes... Now, in OB & NiC, Anita was still stuck in her moral code that she used like a freight train to shield herself. But, she would teeter back and forth and started to question everything-she allowed herself to be afraid. She would be uncomfortable about being a and being with the 'monsters,' she would blush about sex (and she still does) but now she admits she doesn't mind it and in fact, is beginning to enjoy it all, a little bit at a time. She has a stronger sense of who she was way back when and who she is becoming--as a human with emotions of fear, love, hope and, anger (of course). She takes herself less seriously and opens herself up more but without completely compromising everything she believes in or in the Anita we all love. She's still witty, but ahhhh, there are definitely parts where it feels old school.

CS delves into everyone's pain: a lot of Jean-Claude, Asher, more of Nathaniel, Dolph, & Zebrowski and tiny bit of Richard & Micah. SO, it's this explosion of all these high emotions that has built up since at least the middle to last half of the series. It's much more serious and heavier than any of the books before, including NiC, which I thought was pretty emotionally charged. I personally like the emotional element, because it in itself is very intense and fast paced-there is a lot of substance it. Plus, this growth makes sense is a long time coming...maybe a bit to much too soon, but not wholly unbelievable. I think LKH did a good balance with Anita's character growth but everything else...

Unfortunately, the whole book lacks a stable structure because what plot is there seems to only exist to explain and express all these emotions, from everyone. So it spins out of control by about the middle of the book and there isn't always time to process all the things that are happening because things are just left hanging. Which is fine, but on top of the emotions, LKH attempts to make a stronger plot but not really managing it too well--so it's obvious and you might not be paying much attention to it, like I did.

Thus, the Main Theme is all about those emotions and revelations on everyone's part but especially about relationships, mainly one's with Anita and all her men. The 'main plot' encompasses Belle Morte's minions attempting to re-establish her lost line of Jean-Claude & Asher. This is the impetus for all the really powerful emotions among her 'monster' friends and lovers. The 'secondary plot' is an investigation involving gross murders of humans by a werewolf--this is the story line that I had a tendency to glaze over: this plot didn't always fit in with the context of the rest of the book. But it's not entirely superfluous: this too is about Anita's relationships with her human friends: Zebrowski, Dolph and the preternatural gang.

There are definitely some surprises that are introduced and will throw you and make your eyes pop, but they are never fully explained, at least in this one. I can't even explain much without making allusions to the emotional parts of the book. It feels very unfinished, but looking at the next one, I'd say that LKH split up this behemoth of a book into 2 separate books, because ID is so huge and what I've read, feels like a continuous story from CS. And finally, you won't be disappointed, dispite it's flaws (hey, nothing is perfect) I couldn't put it down once I started; but, don't be surprised if the story feels disjointed-but trust me, you'll get some real interesting moments of Anita with-ahem--her harem...wink, wink...Enjoy :D