The Harlequin, the deadly and secret Wild Hunt of the
Council, the ultimate police force and nightmare of the vampire world, has
arrived in St. Louis. Ostensibly there to examine Malcolm after his refusal to
Blood Oath his followers, they are casting their eyes on Jean-Claude
And they are not playing by the rules
The biggest, scariest enforces of vampire kind! Created
to strike fear in even the most powerful Masters of the City! Scary! Powerful!
A force that should make even Anita quake in her boots.
Except… not.
Because they’re not there. The book is called The Harlequin, everyone refers to them
as the scariest things ever ever ever but… they don’t actually do a whole lot.
The main thing they do do is mess with people’s emotions causing minor
overreactions which are dealt with the minute everyone realises they’re having
an overreaction
Do you know how tense and dramatic a scene if where people talk for several pages about various angsty issues and then spend some more pages deciding whether or not their issues were legitimate or not is? If you guessed “not even slightly” then you’d be right. Epic shows downs involving everyone sitting in a circle and wringing their hands rate somewhere between “watching paint dry” and “going through Aunt Mildred’s holiday photos” in terms of excitement.
Of course, this is also an Anita Blake book. So when the
enemy attacks by making the characters extra dramatic, extra whiney, extra
angsty or extra moody – HOW ARE YOU SUPPOSED TO TELL?! This is their ground
state of being! If it weren’t for Anita occasionally saying “I’m way too
afraid” or “he’s acting too angry” I’d completely miss it. And did, repeatedly.
It’s impossible to portray these characters as more emotionally uncontrolled
than they already are.
Requiem is being pouty and moody… and this is news? Byron
being catty and poking at people – yeah, that’s kind of his only defining
character trait (because it’s a stereotype). Richard being surly, uncooperative
and angry? Oh, must be Tuesday.
In fact, Richard losing his ever loving mind because of
the Harlequin messing with him is the major “attack” of the Harlequin. But
Richard perpetually loses his ever loving mind! He attacked Jean-Claude? Yeah,
not the first time. He wants Anita all to himself? This is hardly news. He
hates being a werewolf? Yup, we knew that as well. Exactly what did the
Harlequin do to Richard that was discernibly different from how he has behaved
from the last several books?
Or even in this book. Anita, using her woo-woo, slams the messing Harlequin across the room and they stop meddling with their emotions. And later they head to a huge show down – I’m talking a massive dramatic show-down with Jean-Claude, Anita & co on a stage opposite the big bad Harlequin also on the stage, watched by a huge audience. Faced by this Richard decides to… lose his ever loving mind.
I kid you not, for pages he sits there and wails about
the Ardeur and how he can’t be part of it and waaaah his issues. The big bad
vampires are RIGHT THERE watching him. Anita, Richard and Jean-Claude have a
big argument while the bad guys, I don’t know, check their watches and tap
their feet and wait to be noticed again, I guess. And this isn’t the first time
Richard has lost his ever loving mind while the bad guys are in mid-attack –
it happened when Musette visited in Cerulean
Sins as well.
Richard attacking Jean-Claude isn’t proof of the
evil-bad-nasty Harlequin. It’s par the course with his characters.
