Touted by Twitter fans as "the best work since OBSIDIAN
BUTTERFLY" and "my new favorite of the series," AFFLICTION
pulls Anita Blake back into the thick of the type of police
investigation old-school readers love, retains the smexy
edge for which Laurell K. Hamilton has become known, and
continues a more mature emotional development for everyone,
including the protagonist.
Anita Blake is still amazing. She tries to balance many
relationships, constantly increasing powers, and her
various negative reputations, particularly with police, FBI
agents, and men in many authoritative roles. However,
although Anita still doesn't balk from any competition of
who might be the biggest and baddest, nor does she allow
people to walk all over her because of her diminutive
stature, but now she is willing to look at multiple sides
of view and figure out what the best response might be for
everyone...most of the time.
In AFFLICTION, Anita needs every last bit of her patience.
She didn't intend to horn in on a police investigation; she
just wanted to support her lover, Micah, while he
confronted the family he left on such bad terms when he was
trying to protect them from the true monsters. Now, they
have to deal with religious zealotry, vampire politics,
human politics, family secrets, and -oh, yeah- zombies who
don't act anything like any zombies Anita, the zombie
expert, has ever seen. And did I mention that Micah brought
Nathaniel along to meet his estranged family as his and
Anita's third partner? The fun just never stops!
AFFLICTION is brilliant. As well as having a great mystery
and excellent character development, particularly
considering some big issues left hanging from the prior
work, AFFLICTION continues to hammer home some themes
Hamilton has encouraged from the start, namely being true
to one's self and a question of what makes a "real"
monster. Finally, there's Edward!
This is the 22nd work of the series, so new readers should
start with GUILTY PLEASURES and read straight through to
AFFLICTION!
Some zombies are raised. Others must be put down. Just ask
Anita Blake.
Before now, she would have considered them merely off-
putting, never dangerous. Before now, she had never heard of
any of them causing human beings to perish in agony. But
that’s all changed.
Micah’s estranged father lies dying, rotting away inside
from some strange ailment that has his doctors whispering
about “zombie disease.”
Anita makes her living off of zombies—but these aren’t the
kind she knows so well. These creatures hunt in daylight,
and are as fast and strong as vampires. If they bite you,
you become just like them. And round and round it goes…
Where will it stop?
Even Anita Blake doesn’t know.