Laurell K. Hamilton (Author), Stacie M. Ritchie (Illustrator), Brett Booth (Illustrator)
Fusing mythology, werewolves, and vampires with a story loaded with mystery, action, and romance, the Anita Blake novels take place in a world where vampires, werewolves, and other creatures of nightmare have been declared legal citizens of the United States. Anita Blake is an “animator” – a profession that involves raising the dead for a living. She is also known as a fearsome hunter of criminal vampires, and she moonlights by investigating cases that are far too much for “conventional” police. But as Anita gains the attention of the vampire masters in her hometown of St. Louis, she also risks revealing an intriguing secret about herself – the source of her unusual strength and power. Watch as Anita goes up against fierce obstacles and is forced to make tough choices. What price will Anita pay in order to save her friend’s life and solve the Vampire Murders? Will she actually kiss Phillip? How far will Edward go in order to find out where the daytime resting place of the Master Vampires truly is?

Collect Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter: Guilty Pleasures #1-12. Published October 14th 2009 by Marvel Comics (first published 2007)

Anita Blake, 24 years old, is an animator (person who raises zombies) and works for Animator’s Inc. In the Guilty Pleasures editions we follow her as she is hired to investigate why vampires are turning up dead throughout the city. She also works on retainer for the local police department and between the two jobs she barely has time to eat or sleep, let alone have a social life. After a night out at a vampire bar called Guilty Pleasures she ends up getting put in a dungeon with Wererats, She escapes and is brought to the young, childlike and meanest vampire of the all, the current master of the city, Nicolaus.

Anita is a stubborn, hardened fighter. She never gives up information, she’s not afraid to shoot first and ask questions later. In her line of business she is always on call and can run for days off a cup of coffee. There were often times that I could see why the night creatures wanted to murder her, she was an expert at avoiding direct questions and escaping danger.  Anita only gets in deeper when she asks a friend to help her get more information on the inside circle of the vampires to find out who may be behind the murders.

By doing her job, she is always putting herself and others in danger. But when it comes to danger, she knows how to play the role and she’s not always lucky. Covered in scars and lucky to be alive, she has more enemies to deal with than allies.

The full colored glossy pages add to the action and visual enhancement to the story. The mature content leans more towards the gore and bad language than sex, although the insinuations are constantly there. I was surprised to see so much dialogue and content and I found it the closest conversion of a novel to graphic novel that I have seen. This particular complete volume had some of my favorite artwork and vibrant colors. It would be hard enough to convert full length novels to graphic art forms, but to be able to keep all the major characters, plot points and even sub-plots is what these graphic novels do well.

Although Anita never seems to miss a beat, and has a major attitude problem, she is good at what she does. She is smart and more likely somebody you’d rather have close to you than as an enemy. She only has one close friend who we get introduced to, but they would do anything for each other. This is a great way to show Anita’s more human side and sometimes it’s a nice break from all the fighting and raising of the dead.

Mandy Wrangles reviews a very special book.

Not Like My Mother is the debut novel from Australian author, Azra Alagic, and begins with a quote from Gregory David Roberts: “…the choices you make between hating and forgiving, can become the story of your life.”

Alagic’s story is one of a family; in particular, its women. Set in the Balkans, it begins with the arranged marriage of fourteen year old Samira to Aziz in the wake of the German invasion and massacre of Bosniaks in the Balkans. A bitter, angry and often violent man, Aziz has never recovered from the mental torture of being forced to fight and kill in a war he didn’t choose. Aziz is a product of both his generation and his experiences, and as a result, his young wife and family pay the price for this emotional turmoil.

Muhammed, Samira and Aziz’s oldest child is often the subject of his father’s brutal beatings. At just twelve years old, Muhammed leaves home at the urging of his mother, as the only way to save his life.

The story picks up many years later, when Muhammed joins Anika and her family as they flee communist Yugoslavia. Together, they hope for a better life on the other side of the world – Australia. But Anika finds oppression of another kind: racism and marriage. Not only is it almost impossible for her to make friends and find her place within her new culture, but Muhammed has carried with him the demons of his upbringing, and she must now survive his often ferocious temper and beatings.

Anika and Muhammed’s daughter, Yasna is the final voice in this story. It’s up to her to break the cycle of abuse and find her way, while not forgetting her heritage, traditions and the family they left behind.

Alagic has captured her culture in a beautifully graphic way, both the good and the bad. Each of the women who tell this story made forward strides; they changed their own world one tiny increment at a time, even when it felt like all was lost. They may not have realised it at the time, but their choices impacted following generations in both positive and negative ways. No character in Not Like My Mother is pure. They have many faults, but within these flaws Alagic has found a way for us to understand that even when someone is behaving at their worst, there is still room for empathy and redemption.

Not Like My Mother was a tough book to review – in fact, I needed to let it percolate in my mind as to how it made me feel for almost a fortnight since I finished reading. Described as creative nonfiction, (that is, a fictionalised account of history) it’s a book that captivated me and was read over two very emotional days. It is often graphic, the violence and bloodshed isn’t brushed aside or left off-page. It’s there, where it needs to be, but at no time is it gratuitous.

In many ways, this is a story of forgotten, dismissed and often destroyed dreams; replaced by the sad reality of circumstance and violence. But it’s also a story of hope, determination and love. Alagic shows us the inner turmoil of all her characters with finesse – we’re given a rare insight into the tragic and permanent (both physical and emotional) scarring war brings upon its people, many years and a move across the world later.

I spent much of this book thanking the universe for my own upbringing. It’s set in a world so far removed from mine, that instead of creative nonfiction, it may as well have been a dark, dystopian fantasy. But it’s not. Not Like My Mother is our history, it’s about the people who made our society what it is today. It’s about the way our own individual history, culture and religious beliefs are always lurking there, deep in our minds and hearts, no matter how hard we try to escape.

The sequel to Not Like My Mother, The Comfort Women, is currently in progress. I’ll be reading it as soon as it’s released. This story has a long way to go; there are still life lessons to be learned, loves to be had and pain to be endured. I have a feeling I will be reading about strong women triumphing over their pasts and the hands they are dealt. But most of all, I think I’ll continue to be reading the stories of women who learn to forgive – for their own sakes.

Azra Alagic’s website 

Not Like My Mother by Azra Alagic.

eBook for iBooks version (Purchase Now)

ISBN – 978-0-9872915-1-6

Anita Blake: Circus of the Damned Book 2: The Ingenue (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter: Circus of the Damned #2)  by Laurell K. Hamilton

BEST-SELLING AUTHOR LAURELL K. HAMILTON’S HEROINE IS BACK. Morgues, as a rule, are pretty quiet places. But in a world of vamps and the rising dead, they can be positively hopping. Join animator Anita Blake as her search for a serial killer takes her to the most dangerous after-hours joint in St. Louis.

Collecting ANITA BLAKE: CIRCUS OF THE DAMNED – THE INGENUE #1-5. Hardcover, 120 pages  Published September 21st 2011 by Marvel (first published 2011)  ISBN  0785146903 (ISBN13: 9780785146902)

At 24 years old Anita Blake is no stranger to danger. She is a kick ass animator who shoots first and asks questions later. Something has gone awfully wrong in an investigation. Anita did not put the pieces together fast enough and now there is another newborn vampire on the loose. She feels responsible and her and the police team she works with often take off to the morgue to make sure the vampire does the least amount of damage to the unsuspecting bystanders.

From one fight to another, Anita barely makes it back in time to help train the new animator that Animator’s Inc has hired to help with all the incoming work.( Anita has finally stood up to her boss, telling him that she was too overworked with jobs coming from both the Animator’s Inc and her retainer work for the police supernatural force.)

Her new trainee is just out of school. He’s decided to take on his third animation for the night when Anita shows up just in time to help and explain everything that could have gone wrong. He was trying to do too many animations in a row, which drains an animators power and can cause the zombies to rampage if not controlled.

As if Anita does not have enough on her hands already, the new vampire group in town has finally caught up with her and she barely gets away from their attack with her life.

Even though her new partner has only seen the beginning of what the job may entail, he doesn’t change his mind. Anita thinks he’s just too young, but he’s not giving up after just one bad night. He gains her respect and she thinks that they just may be able to work together after all.

Anita keeps getting pulled deeper into vampire politics. Some are fighting for more rights, and others for less. This drives her into the arms of Jean Claude, the master of the city, yet again. Jean Claude is set on making Anita his human slave. Although Anita does have a growing attraction to Jean, she is unsure if it is because of his powers or not. Plus the fact that she absolutely despises the thought of a vampire believing he owns her. She is a very independent and stubborn woman.

Full colored glossy pages and equal amounts of dialogue and visuals, these graphic novels are intense and fun. Lots of action, blood, supernatural creatures, and a main heroine that has a shoot first ask questions later attitude that will get you addicted fast.