Book Reviews of Circus of the Damned (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, Bk 3)

Great story! Did a really good job of keeping you on your toes trying to figure out who exactly is the bad guy. The characters/creatures in the story are wonderful. Hamilton is easily becoming one of my favorite authors.

As promised, each book in this series just keeps getting better and better! The characters personalities are fleshing out more and more. It makes you want to read all night long to the very (exciting) end! Once I finished this book, I immediately grabbed the next book in the series (Lunatic Cafe book 4) off of my bookshelf and began reading! These books are a must read and Circus of the Damned is wonderful!

but thankfully not one of her later sadistic works of animal pornography and sheer solipsistic degradation.

In short, readable if not a great book. Avoid the later books unless you're into the nastiest sort of porn imaginable, stuff that if photographed would get you arrested anywhere in the country. I still cannot believe that WalMart will sell this crap!

Book 3 in the Anita Blake series. Another great Anita story!

SYNOPSIS:
The third novel of Hamilton's Anita Blake series has the petite necromancer fighting a giant cobra and a rogue vampire, Alejandro, who wants her for his human servant. Anita is still resisting the advances of Jean-Claude, St. Louis's master vampire, but she does need him on her side, if not in her bed. Anita's reluctant involvement in the odd goings-on at the supernatural Circus of the Damned introduces her to Richard, the werewolf of her dreams, and Larry, her powerful but nervous partner in zombie-raising.

Anita continues her vamipre slaying and gets more involved with Jean-Claude. What happens when there is desire between the hunter and the hunted?

I continue to be engrossed in Anita's story. So far I haven't been let down by any of these books. Imaginative, engaging, just great. I highly recommend.

received for my son and he thoroughly enjoyed it.

Loved it!

I am really enjoying my rereading of this series. Going back to the beginning of the series has reminded me why I continue to read along even though it has morphed into another beast entirely. These early books were so great because the men and the sex weren’t the focus of the entire freaking plot.

Here Anita is still working as an animator and an assistant to preternatural police force. Anita has a full plate, as usual, after a full night of corpse raising, she’s then hounded by members of “the vamp hater Church or somesuch” to give up the resting place of the Master of the City (Jean Claude), then a body turns up drained by what appears to be a rogue pack of vamps which leads her to The Circus of the Damned and into close proximity with vampire Jean Claude, a sexy vampire she’d rather avoid. He’s been trying to make her his human servant but she stubbornly refuses, even when it means putting her own life in jeopardy. There’s a whole lot of that “Ma petite I have marked you, you are mine” “I kill vampires, I don’t serve them” nonsense going on. She must train an apprentice animator, face down an angry lamia, crazed humans, out of control zombies and deal with a dangerous master vampire. It sounds exhausting but I have to hand it to Hamilton because I was never lost. We’re also introduced to Richard when he was still sweet and sexy and not quite so angry and rigid as he appears in the later novels..

Once again there is way too much focus on clothing (who cares) and the gun descriptions (snore). Personally, I am still not dying to discover what color Anita’s Nike swishes will be every other page and if the match her t shirt. I already know that she is not a girly-girl because it’s mentioned over and over. We all know Jean Claude has a preference for lacy floofy blouses and his own nipples. Do we need to be constantly reminded of this? It’s a little painful to read this stuff the second time around but the quick pacing and intriguing characters carry the book for me and I enjoyed the many plotlines here, none of which focus on sex I might add.

Despite a lame-ass villain and too much arguing from Anita, I enjoyed this as much as the previous two in the series.

Love this book and pretty much any book by Laurell K Hamilton.

I reviewed the first two books in this series rather harshly. I flat out did not like Guilty Pleasures, but The Laughing Corpse was better, although still not up to what I expected from this author. Therefore, it took me a long time (with my overflowing TBR pile) to pull Circus of the Damned off the shelf. I am very glad I did as I loved this book! I could not put it down, the pace is perfect and the writing very engaging. I have always loved the way LKH writes Jean Claude, he is without a doubt the only literary vamp sexy enough to rival Charlaine Harris' Eric Northman. But in this outing I also fell in love with the main character, the famed Anita Blake. I am now completely, happily hooked on this series.

This book is excellent,I'd recommend it to anyone who enjoys anything about vampires.It has it all, vampires, zombies, and werewolves.I couldn't put it down.Full of action from beginning to end.You'll love it!I just wish Anita had chosen Jon-Claude....wow.

I love this book. You just don't know what's coming around the corner for Anita.

love this series!

I really enjoyed this book. I love the whole series so far :] This was definitely a good addition.

Good books. Great Series

I liked this book. I would recommend you start with book #1 in order to follow the story better. This book has Anita fighting not only for her life and freedom, but that of the people of St. Louis. An ancient vampire wants to be the Master of the City and Anita has to decide to either help the Current Master of the City, Jean Claude or take this opportunity to get rid of him.
Lots of action and surprises. This is the book where she meets Richard. A definate page turner. Enjoy!

The Anita Blake series is sharp, witty and action packed. Hamilton adds a dash of romance, beautiful vampires and a no nonsense heroine who just plain kicks butt.

Love it. very addictive characters.

My favorite paranormal romance novel writer.

good books and great scene at the end with the "circus war".

Another good one. There is a sense of "sameness" to the stories, but there is enough new to keep me interested. I would recommend them for fun reading!

Book #3 in the Anita Blake vampire hunter series.

Very hard to put down.

Great series!

The third book in the Anita Blake vampire killer series. Great wit, intereesting additional characters introduced.

Loved it

Other vampires try and take over St Loius, can Anita will this fight>?

This was a fun entertaining book, in an imaginative series.

Awesome Reading.

This one was GOOD. Lots of Jean-Claude. Great read. You'll be hooked!

Loved the lamia,the imagination can run wild
with this author

I love this series and am finally willing to part with some of the books that I have kept on my shelf for the last 2 years. Enjoy!

Although I enjoyed the earlier Anita Blake books, the later in the series are VERY graphic and for a mature audience only.

3rd in the series

Awesome book, definately a page turner. Anita rocks!

Great set of books. Anita Blake is way cool.