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4.5
For the purposes of my Anita Blake Book Challenge, I only reviewed the three Anita Blake related short stories that are part of this collection.Strange Candy gives us three brief glimpses into the wonderful world of the Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter series. The introductions that accompany each of the chapters gave us a glimpse into Laurell K. Hamilton’s creative process. We get to understand what inspired her to write about Anita and the many different directions she has taken the series.The first story, Those Who Seek Forgiveness, showed the birth of the Anita Blake character: a mere animator (zombie raiser). I love the story because it showed how simple Anita’s life would've been had she not been seduced by Jean Claude. I would use the term “normal”, but as the story shows, Anita’s job as an animator comes with its own inherent risks. In someway, the story actually acts as an introduction to how Anita met the Regional Preternatural Investigation Team squad. I could just see Dolph and Zebrowski coming to interview her on what happened in the cemetery, and then asking her, “Hey since you’re so good with the weird, can you help us with this case?” I love how Laurell K. Hamilton has kept shots of pure animator-Anita throughout the series. We get to see Anita dealing with clients who lie about their true motivations for having a zombie raised, or the different reasons for having zombies raised.See the rest of this review at: https://theribbonmarker.wordpress.com/2015/04/25/book-review-strange-candy-by-laurell-k-hamilton/
