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sorry but if you really hate this series how come you came to #9?
why bother reading them at all?

The simple answer is that a friend recommended the series and loaned me the first few. I thought they were okay (though if you look back on my review its clear I was already down on the series by books 3 and 4 - if I'd written each review separately 1 and 2 would've gotten higher marks), and for her to recommend them there had to be something interesting in there, so I kept reading. Then they started getting seriously weird and bad. I read fast so it's not a huge time investment, and I was morbidly curious about whether or not the series would pull out of its nosedive. It didn't.

But the broader answer is that when I start reading a series, I tend to finish it. This one I didn't, but it takes a REALLY bad series to stop me from plowing through. I've heard it referred to as being a "completist" - I don't walk out of bad movies and I've only once left a play (CATS - ugh). For me, abandoning a series is like abandoning a book on chapter 7 - there's so much book left, and that means there's story still happening to these characters, and I want to know what happens. Habit.

That said, in a previous life I reviewed books professionally, and I'd get this question whenever I wrote a critical review. I often found it meant "I liked this book/series, if you can't say anything nice then shut up". I don't get that mindset. People treated the critical reviews as a personal affront, and seemed to think that as soon as I'd hit a book in the series I'd disliked, I should bail and leave it to people who appreciate it.

People have different reasons for reading. I never pick up a book because I want to hate it - I'm always hoping that I'll like it, or there will be a scene or character who really pops for me. And in a series that I feel is decaying, I'm genuinely hoping for redemption. I want it to be good. But when it's bad, I enjoy ripping into it. The Anita Blake series has gotten so repetitive in my view, it's not even entertaining to critique. One review might as well cover multiple books: "Anita meets an atypically emotional long haired man. She has sex, someone turns into an animal, Anita gets a new power, Jean-Claude calls, she has sex five more times and then a cop story is tacked on. 60% of the book is filler of Anita talking to herself in her head." The majority of the series is now made up of porny sub-par writing. That's finally enough to make me give up on the patient and call time of death.

I almost always read the second in a series, because if its good I want more, and if its bad I hope it's just freshman nerves. It's especially true if I'm getting books from a library or someone's loaned me a series and they're all stacked on my coffee table. That's how I ended up reading so much of the Darkover series, and it took two for me to abandon the Glimmerglass books. Then again, I vehemently bailed on Capturing Sleeping Beauty, because I literally could not stomach another word of that crap. Beyond that, it's really just what I have access to/time for.

Hi Grace

Thanks for such a detailed answer, I was just curious how come you came so far and hated the series almost from the start...but now I know a new word - completists :)

I have to say I hate not finishing the books I start, but there happened maybe 5 books in my life that I had no will to finish. One of them recently was Fifty shades of grey, it has just driven me crazy, almost no plot except the one he has to make her his slave (and she's a virgin, yeah right), the plot was going soooooo slow, half of the book its just them having sex or emailing each other...I still read 10 pages sometimes because I want to see if this BDSM ever starts happening?? I dont want to make the fans angry at me so-peace ;)

I loved Anita's series from the start, especially the first 2-3 because this was the first vampire series without any sex! And as the books progressed there was always something new wich was a complete novelty to me! So I just loved it from the start. Then the books started changing a lot, it's true, but I loved them as well, it was about time that she finally had sex with someone! Not before marriage - come on!

There was some repetition but not too much...I personally if I read a series and make a long break then I like these little bits of remineders to bring me back into the story.

I know almost everyone keeps on saying/writting that the series goes really down as from #10...but I can't wait to read no.9 as it seems it's very similar to the first 2 books, no sex just business. I'll read the other ones as well...and if it turns out I'm not happy with them anymore I'll be dissapointed because I found these books very original---maybe it's not the best work of art or the style of writting, but they have something and they are never ever boring...

There is a good saying about tastes: you don't discuss about them :))) but about books - you have the right to say your opinion or remain silent lol

Have you ever tried Kim Harrison's Hollows books? My friend who loves Anita Blake also loves those, and while I'm not really into them I definitely don't hate them. They're lighter, and have a wider variety of relationship types than Hamilton goes for.

In this genre, I am a True Blood person. I have no idea why, but I can read those Sookie Stackhouse books on a loop. And they're the ones I'd peg as better-written sex scenes, too.

I actually read "Master of the Universe", which is the Twilight fanfiction that turned into 50 Shades. I think I enjoyed it more that way, because I was able to play two games: the "catch the out-of-place Britishism" game and the "catch the Twilight mannerism" game. Like Christian constantly opening the door for Ana, and Ana biting her lip. MotU seems to cover the first book and a half of 50 Shades, and I was pretty well finished at that point - between the totally warped BDSM relationship (like, it doesn't resemble actual BDSM relationships at all) and the Mrs Robinson side-story... bleh!