Strange Candy

Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, Book #0.5

By Laurell K. Hamilton

ISBN# 9780425212011

Author’s Website:  https://www.laurellkhamilton.com/

Brought to you by OBS reviewer Heidi

Synopsis:

The #1 New York Times bestselling author’s short story collection-including an all-new Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter story.

From a woman who marries into a family of volatile wizards to a couple fleeing a gang of love-hungry cupids, from a girl who seeks sanctuary in the form of a graceful goose to the disgruntled superhero Captain Housework, readers will revel in the many twists and turns of fortune in these fantastical fairy tales and lush parables. Even hardened vampire hunter and zombie animator Anita Blake gets blindsided by the disturbing motives of her clients in the new “Those Who Seek Forgiveness” and in “The Girl Who Was Infatuated with Death.”

Review:

I’ll start off by saying that I’m not a big fan of short stories.  I didn’t realize that’s what this book was going to be.  And, they were some of the shortest short stories I’ve ever read.  It was nice that the author gave a little introduction to each story though.  

There were too many stories for me to break them down individually, but I’ll touch on a handful that I enjoyed.

A Lust of Cupids was a little different.  It made the cupids that we usually envision as cute sweet little cherubs out to be something much darker.  They were predators looking to stick innocent bystanders, especially older unmarried bystanders, with their blasted arrows.  In this story, they were targeting a couple of thirty-somethings that had no interest in love or marriage.

The Edge of the Sea featured some mysterious deaths right along the seashore.  Women were being drawn to a mysterious merman that came right out of the sea.  The man seduced the women and killed them while making love to them.  The main character in this story caught the man with her friend, and she was trying to reject his pull.

A Clean Sweep, was really short, but it was so much fun.  It featured the superhero, Captain Housework!  The villains were Dr. Grime and the Dust Bunny Gang.  Captain Housework hadn’t had much hero work to do which left him open to being misused by bored housewives that needed a quality maid service.

House of Wizards shows us what happens when a non-magic user marries into a spellcaster family.

I absolutely loved Irving in A Scarcity of Lake Monsters.  There were a lot of interesting things in this story.  The Sea Monsters and the Satyr Breeding grounds for starters.  Although I found it did start to drag a bit.

A couple of the stories in this book feature Anita Blake.  One also includes some spiciness with Jean-Claude.

I did read this book thinking it would prepare me to start the Anita Blake series.  However, I don’t think it really prepared me for it.  I probably should have dived right in.  It did teach me that Hamilton lives in the St. Louis area, which I wasn’t aware of.  Being someone that lives in the St. Louis metro, I found that interesting.  It’s even more interesting that it’s where the series takes place.  I’m interested to see how this series plays out and to see what a vampire-riddled St. Louis looks like.