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February 2007
Danse Macabre by Laurell K. Hamilton
Paula Chaffee Scardamalia is an author, speaker, coach and weaver. Her new book, Weaving a Woman's Life: Spiritual Lessons from the Loom was released in April. She also writes book reviews for Foreword Magazine. A dream inspired her to write her fantasy novel, The Shadow Weaver, loosely structured on the fairy tale, Sleeping Beauty.
It was the middle of November. I was supposed to be out jogging, but instead I was sitting at my breakfast table talking about men, sex, werewolves, vampires, and that thing that most unmarried but sexually active women fear most of all — a missed period. In this latest novel in the series, Danse Macabre, Anita has more to worry about than just the latest bad-guy vampire to hit town. She has missed a period and the pregnancy test from the drugstore indicates she may be pregnant, not a desirable condition for a Federal Marshall who executes vampires and is a necromancer to boot. Adding further to her woes is her inability to be sure just who the father might be. Among her many lovers lining up to fill the role is Richard, her on-again, off-again werewolf lover who wants nothing more than to forget he is a werewolf, and to have the kind of marriage that includes the white picket fence, something Anita can't imagine being part of her life. "I'm happy behind my black wrought-iron fence. The one with the pointy spikes on top. White never really was my color." But Anita can't spend too much time worrying about her possible pregnancy since she is supposed to be playing co-host that evening with the other lover in a triumvirate of vampiric power, the Master Vampire of the City of St. Louis, Jean-Claude. The evening is supposedly a social one, but at the largest gathering of Master Vampires of the City in American history politics and power have to be more on their minds than watching the new vampire dance company perform the following night. Before the evening is over, Anita's powers and patience are tested by a master vampire, a shapeshifter and even a mermaid. The mermaid, a siren and the wife of a Master Vampire, wants to ensure that her sons are brought fully into their power as sirens by mating with Anita, a succubus with special powers. But first the siren tests Anita herself with a kiss… And even writing about a kiss, Hamilton conveys all the heat and arousal of intense passion. As with her previous novels, sex, sexuality, and love are key to both plot and character development in Danse Macabre. There are numerous sex scenes throughout the novel — numerous imaginative, unusual, and frenzied sex scenes that the author writes with flair and originality. Each sexual encounter is an opportunity for Anita to understand, accept and work with the ardeur — to accept and use its ability to heal and empower herself and others while dealing with the unexpected urgency for sex at inopportune times. The ardeur, the result of her psychic link with Jean-Claude, is an intense sexual hunger that can only be fed through arousal and sex, but since Anita won't have sex without love (a hangover from her Catholic upbringing), it has forced her to accept numerous lovers into her life. As Anita increases the number of lovers with each novel, she appears to play to the male myth of multiple partners and free love, but in actuality, because of her determination to only have sex with those she loves, she seems to become more and more fully female, a kind of archetypal woman who is lover, mother, sister, and warrior. Even when, in this novel, she has sex with Requiem, a vampire who she does not love, she does so out of love for Jean-Claude, as a safeguard for him and others. One of the things that keeps these novels so interesting is not whether the good guy, or in this case gal, beats the bad guy, but how the good gal's inner battle with her conscience and her desire to do good and to love well shapes and changes her. Here is the true shapeshifting. What gives depth to the story is Hamilton's ability to use the genre of paranormal or paranormal romance to explore contemporary social and political concerns. Themes of prejudice, fear, political and personal power, religion, and personal individuation and responsibility are issues Anita confronts in this novel through her possible pregnancy, her own growing psychic powers and accompanying physical demands, and her willingness to sacrifice beliefs and desires for her friends and lovers. This is Hamilton's fourteenth book in the series and each time the newest one is released I wonder how Hamilton could possibly keep me turning pages as fast as I can read them yet again. I wonder if her sex scenes in this novel will still be arousing and passionate. I should know better. Danse Macabre proves once again that Anita is as addictive as her bite, and only leaves me wanting more Anita Blake — and Laurell K. Hamilton. |
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