A cross between vampire fantasy and detective mystery. Hamilton continues creating a world where vampires are real, but shady, part of human society.

Like the previous 2 books, "Circus of the Damned" refers to a building located in the vampire district where story events unfold in Hamilton's fantasy St. Louis. Anita Blake, zombie animator and vampire executioner, lives here as well. The main cast plus some new faces return to fight new ancient foes.

Jean-Claude attempts to seduce and coerce Anita in to accepting final two vampire marks thereby making her his human servant. Anita first hears she has great untapped powers that Jean-Claude covets. This book might be sub-titled "Jean-Claude Challenged."

Series is at 14 books and counting. Hamilton writes books to stand alone. She at times repeats lines near verbatim. Reading in sequence allows you to see Anita's powers and relationships emerge.

According to Wikipedia. Anita is celibate in first 5 books. After "Obsidian Romance" (Book 9), series is said to veer more heavily toward romance and strong sexual content.

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Great story! Did a really good job of keeping you on your toes trying to figure out who exactly is the bad guy. The characters/creatures in the story are wonderful. Hamilton is easily becoming one of my favorite authors.

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I divide Circus of the Damned into 2 parts: the part that sucked and the part that didnt. Aside from one or two nasty run-ins monster/undead and a zombie rising gone awry, the first 150 pages were just filler. Do I need a detailed head-to-toe description of Anitas outfit every time she changes her clothes? No, no I don't. She likes Nike shoes and wears them all the time, I get it! Those are actually funny since the book was written in the 90s and even then Anita seems a bit behind the times, fashion-wise. Maybe she just spends too much time raising zombies and killing vampires and not enough time on her personal style.

Do I need a description of exactly what workout she did at the gym along with the layout of the place? No, definitely not. I kept hoping something would jump out from behind a weight bench and attack her just to make it all worthwhile. SPOILER ALERT: Nothing jumps out from behind a weight bench.

I was really disappointed and was almost ready to bid Anita an early farewell when things started really happening. By the end Hamilton had me hooked again.

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thjis was one of my favourite books in the series i like the action to keep moving and this one was action packed from start to finish and my ulfric comes in here love him he is so much trouble.

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This book was very very good. I was shocked but pleased at the end. Can't wait for more to come!

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LOVED IT!!

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Love, Love, Love ALL the Anita Blake series!

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Vintage Anita at her best! I read this book with non-stop gusto, and loved every minute of it. I was sad when I reached the end...luckily there was another in the series right after. :) A great re-read for any AB fan who has missed the "old" Anita. A terrific read for any newcomers open to, or looking for, a kick-ass female who means business, takes crap from no one, and is funny (sarcastic) to boot. Plus, the added supernatural bonus of vampires, wereanimals, and other preternatural creatures. I would recommend reading the first of the series, "Guilty Pleasures," to began.

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Ok now we are getting somewhere. WE GET MORE VAMPIRES...Love it...I was so ready to see some action there. You have alot of new characters introduced (and go away).

We start to see the first love triangle...You start to really be intrigued by Jean Claude. My mind goes crazy wondering what he would look like.

Anita is really a hard A$$. But you see a change in her.

Question is : Does she doubt? Could she really?

I enjoyed this book better the first 2. It made me gobble this one and get ready for book #4 in 1 day time.

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After reading the first book in this series, I thought it wasn't really up my alley but am so glad and decided to try the second. From the second book on I have found the content more engrossing and entertaining and find my self plowing through each book in a day. Although some of the content can be graphic and very disturbing at times, there is enough humor and relationship interaction to balance it out. I will be disappointed to read the last book for thankfully have a ways to go since I am only on Book 7!

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Loved it!

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I am really enjoying my rereading of this series. Going back to the beginning of the series has reminded me why I continue to read along even though it has morphed into another beast entirely. These early books were so great because the men and the sex werent the focus of the entire freaking plot.

Here Anita is still working as an animator and an assistant to preternatural police force. Anita has a full plate, as usual, after a full night of corpse raising, shes then hounded by members of the vamp hater Church or somesuch to give up the resting place of the Master of the City (Jean Claude), then a body turns up drained by what appears to be a rogue pack of vamps which leads her to The Circus of the Damned and into close proximity with vampire Jean Claude, a sexy vampire shed rather avoid. Hes been trying to make her his human servant but she stubbornly refuses, even when it means putting her own life in jeopardy. Theres a whole lot of that Ma petite I have marked you, you are mine I kill vampires, I dont serve them nonsense going on. She must train an apprentice animator, face down an angry lamia, crazed humans, out of control zombies and deal with a dangerous master vampire. It sounds exhausting but I have to hand it to Hamilton because I was never lost. Were also introduced to Richard when he was still sweet and sexy and not quite so angry and rigid as he appears in the later novels..

Once again there is way too much focus on clothing (who cares) and the gun descriptions (snore). Personally, I am still not dying to discover what color Anitas Nike swishes will be every other page and if the match her t shirt. I already know that she is not a girly-girl because its mentioned over and over. We all know Jean Claude has a preference for lacy floofy blouses and his own nipples. Do we need to be constantly reminded of this? Its a little painful to read this stuff the second time around but the quick pacing and intriguing characters carry the book for me and I enjoyed the many plotlines here, none of which focus on sex I might add.

Despite a lame-ass villain and too much arguing from Anita, I enjoyed this as much as the previous two in the series.

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Love this book and pretty much any book by Laurell K Hamilton.

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