Book Review
Title: Circus of the Damned (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter Book 3) by Laurell K. Hamilton
Genre: Paranormal, Romance
Rating: 4.5 Stars
After being a little disappointed by The Laughing Corpse I had high hope for Circus of the Damned. The synopsis sounded interesting and seem to promise a lot more of Jean-Claude than we saw in the first two novels and I’m down for it. We re-join Anita as she is in a meeting with Jeremy Reubens and Karl Inger from Humans First who want her help in killing all the vampires in the city and they also want the daytime location of the Master Vampire of the City which is Jean-Claude. Obviously, Anita refuses and this might come back and bite her later on but she doesn’t have time to wonder since she is called to a crime scene involving a vampire death. When she arrives she assesses that 3-5 vampires killed the man potentially a Master and his pack but she doesn’t know of anyone in the city at the moment that stupid or reckless but she knows she has to speak to Jean-Claude and figure out if there is anyone new in the city. Anita isn’t happy about this as she has spent the last two months avoiding Jean-Claude which after the last book I thought might have eased off but it clearly hasn’t and that frustrates me as a reader.
As we approach the ¼ mark in the novel, Anita is told to meet Jean Claude at a place called Circus of the Damned, which is a circus run by the paranormal society for regular humans. She is led to the meeting by a werewolf named Stephen who is adorably cute but Jean Claude isn’t alone. Yasmeen is another master vampire and she takes an interest in Anita because of her strength and her obvious refusal of Jean Claude which leads to a fight between Anita and Yasmeen’s human servant because she refuses to admit that she is Jean Claude’s human servant. After knocking the servant out, Yasmeen attacks Anita and accidently comes into contact with her blessed cross injuring both Anita and Yasmeen but Jean Claude eventually steps in to settle things down. However, they don’t really get a chance to talk as Jean Claude is informed the massive snake that was a star attraction has killed its handler and they need to get it under control. This snake isn’t only a giant but seems to have some magical ability as well as begins attacking the crowd until the many vampires, werewolves and Anita step in to stop it. Anita is afraid of the snake and Jean Claude tries to help her but she is stubborn as always and gets the snake’s attention emptying her gun into its mouth but it doesn’t seem to do much. Jean Claude eventually takes the snake down by borrowing Anita’s power but she isn’t happy about this especially when police turn up on the scene. Jean Claude, Anita, Stephen and Richard Zeeman are taken to the police station, Jean Claude is obviously jealous of Anita’s attraction to Richard and their strained relationship becomes even more so when Anita questions him about where he was the night before. She eventually explains about the murder and Jean Claude tells her again that many believe he isn’t strong enough to run the city and he is expecting some challenges from unknown master vampires in the city.
As we cross the ¼ mark in the novel, Anita is dealing with the aftermath of what happened at circus of the damned and she is also beginning to have weird dreams about Jean Claude. She doesn’t have much time to think on these events as Edward comes knocking again and informs her that he has been hired to kill the master vampire of the city which she knows is Jean Claude. Edward is aware of Jean Claude but Anita protects him denying that he is the master vampire and refuses to give Edward the name. Anita isn’t aware why she protected Jean Claude the way she did but we know it is because she has feelings for him that she is denying and Edward tells her he will come back that night but she promises him her answer is going to be the same which might lead to violence between them. This is slightly overshadowed by the fact that Richard has asked her out on a date and she agrees to it but she has to rearrange because of a Halloween party at Catherine’s but following Ronnie’s advice she invites him and he agrees. I like the chemistry between them even if it is because Richard resembles Philip who Anita had a bit of crush on in the previous book. Ronnie also gives her a clue for her murder case since she knows a Cal Rupert that was a member of humans against vampires or HAV which might make the case a revenge killing rather than a rogue vampire and passes the information along to the police.
As we approach the halfway mark in the novel, things begin to get more interesting as there is another murder which means Anita is late for her animating job but she needs to be with the police. As she is investigating the corpse of the woman she sees it change subtly and realises that Cal’s body could also be rising as a vampire since it is the third night since he was killed. She immediately gets the police to contact the hospital for them to put the body into the vault and warns them all that it is going to be extremely dangerous. These vampires bitten multiple times and under the control of a master vampire end up going absolutely crazy and are more animal than person and they immediately head over to the hospital to kill the vampire because of Cal’s dying will allows them to this without a warrant of execution. In the hospital they find several guards murdered and the doors to the vault are busted despite being silver, Anita clarifies that these types of vampires don’t really feel pain so short of destroying their hearts nothing is going to stop it. Inside the vault the vampire manages to sneak up on them and kill the rookie cop with them but they eventually manage to put the vampire down for good which means they are going to keep a close eye on the woman as well. Anita goes to her rising and meets Larry, the new animator that Bert hired raising his third zombie of the night but he can’t control it because he’s not strong enough so Anita takes over. Afterwards she has to explain to Larry whose only 20 the reality of being an animator and a lot of what she knows is fact he thinks are legends and don’t really happen. They don’t have time to debate as they are attacked by Reubens and his men but they manage to escape without injury but it seems he isn’t going to leave Anita alone until she agrees to help him like Edward who I’m sure will be making a reappearance soon.
As we cross into the second half of the novel, things are beginning to get really interesting as Anita and Larry are attacked by Reuben’s people and escape but are then cornered and attacked by the rogue vampire group who seem to be more interesting in Larry than Anita until she starts fighting back. The master vampire of this group, Alejandro is absolutely crazy and it shows in how he controls his vampires but he seems older than Jean Claude and has iron control. Anita and Larry are in a very bad position but they are saved by Reuben and his people because they have a common enemy in vampires. After going to the hospital and returning home Anita has a run in with Edward for the master vampire’s name and she gives him Alejandro’s instead of Jean Claude’s and he offers her the chance at killing them if he is able to find them and she takes him up on it because of what they did to her. She later gets a call from Inger telling her she needs to meet someone called Mr. Oliver and she agrees but what she finds there is something amazing, deadly and completely unexpected. Mr. Oliver is a vampire that is 100x stronger and older than Jean Claude and he explains to Anita she can control all manner of the dead with her necromancer power if she was able to control them. He also explains that he wants to kill the master vampire of the city in order to take their place and reverse the legislation that make vampires people allowing them to be openly hunted again in order to protect the human race from extinction. Anita agrees with this but she can’t hand over Jean Claude and for the first time admits to herself that she is his human servant the same way Inger belongs to Oliver but now she has a difficult decision to make in whether or not she discusses this with Jean Claude and tries to protect him the way he has tried to protect her when he can.
As we approach the ¾ mark in the novel, things are moving heavily towards the conclusion of the novel and things take a really dramatic turn. After the attack she is essentially summoned by Jean Claude claiming he has information on Alejandro so she goes only to learn he doesn’t have the information she wants. He explains that Alejandro was around at the time of the Aztecs making him a true ancient and miles older than Jean Claude and he among other are challenging him for control of the city. He can tell that Alejandro has put a mark on Anita like his first one essentially challenging for her and he all but pleads for Anita to take his third mark and she refuses even when Jean Claude explains she will Alejandro’s slave if he gets three more marks on her whereas she would be his partner. In spite of her refusal Jean Claude does tell her a paranormal war is coming for control of the city and he is caught in the middle of it without a damn clue about what to do. This is made even more complicated as Yasmeen is challenging him but isn’t strong enough to beat him but he doesn’t let Anita hurt her since he needs her to deal with the other masters. At this point Anita is looking forward to sleeping but is summoned by Mr. Oliver only to learn she has lured into a trap by the lamia. She has led Anita to a cave where Alejandro is waiting for her and now Anita is facing down an ancient vampire, a lamia and her three controlled servants with minimal weapons and no backup so things aren’t looking good for her but I can’t wait to see how the novel ends.
As we cross into the final section of the novel, things get absolutely wild and I am still not sure how to process them. First Anita takes on Alejandro, the lamia and her henchmen but it isn’t going well but she is saved by Edward at the last moment. However, Richard arrives and takes over Anita’s care only for her to start suffering the effects of lamia venom and to save her life he takes her to Jean Claude who gives her the third mark which makes Anita extremely angry. In response, Anita betrays Jean Claude handing him over to Oliver but when she learns Oliver plans to slaughter many humans in order to get the vampire laws revoked she phones Jean Claude to warn him. The final battle between them was intense and while both Anita and Jean Claude survive I don’t think their relationship is going to be the same for a long time but Anita seems more focused on Richard right now. Overall, I really enjoyed Circus of the Damned but I also felt a lot of Anita’s problem could have been solved by her seeing Jean Claude’s mark as a blessing not a curse since they make her immune to most things including poison and other vampires and most of the problem she had wouldn’t have happened so I am not sure I feel about Anita as a protagonist.
Buy it here:
Paperback/Hardcover: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
Kindle Edition: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
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