HIT LIST, CHAPTER THIRTY TWO, PART ONE

[a_sporking_rat]

Blood Noir is still in the dollar store. I again flipped it to a random place...I came to a scene with Anita, Jason, and a bunch of blonde girls ("they looked like Barbie clones, or Paris Hilton clones") and I think it's a party or something and they're begging Anita to stay and the one with the biggest fanciest hair is all "if you leave now you'll think we're terrible" and oh my gosh, this is totally teen!LKH fantasizing about the popular kids inviting her to a party and caring immensely about what *she* thinks about *them* instead of vice versa.

I know this is such a small, small thing. But the whole 'werebeasts tied to the moon' that everyone and their cousin in modern media of all types uses...is not from folklore. It's from The Wolf Man, or rather, it's sequel. and that's fine. But LKH claims to do so much research, and she also claims she doesn't use anything that's not from folklore or from her own head, that she refuses to get any ideas from any other source (White Wolf, Buffy, etc.). Soooo....how'd you wind up with the moon situation in your books then, Laurell? Someone doesn't do as much RESEARCH! as they claim.

Speaking of that, since I did undead folklore trivia, how about some werewolf trivia?

* As I just mentioned, the idea of werewolves being tied to the full moon was also made popular by The Wolf Man; there is little to no mention of such a connection in any traditional werewolf folklore that I am aware of. This is due to the "gypsy fortune teller" stock character telling the protagonist a rhyme about werewolves that includes the phrase "when wolfbane blooms and the autumn moon is bright". This was originally not meant to indicate the full moon (which is not portrayed in the film as having any influence on the werewolf) but to imply that it happens in autumn, which is when wolfbane does indeed bloom. It was the 1943 sequel "Frankenstein Meets The Wolf Man" that made the full moon connection and changed the rhyme to "when the moon is full and bright". This is what led to the 20th century "full moon transformation" idea concerning modern werewolf depictions.

* The first werewolf film was not, as many people think, The Wolf Man (1941) but a silent film made in 1913 called The Werewolf. It was only 18 minutes long, and featured a Navajo woman as the titular monster who uses magi/witchcraft to shapeshift. This in keeping with Navajo folklore about such shapechangers, and which is more common in traditional werewolf lore on the whole than the biting scenario used almost exclusively in modern media (due, most likely, to its use in the popular 1941 aforementioned Wolf Man film). In fact, it was the only werewolf movie featuring Native American werewolves that transform via witchcraft like in their actual legends rather than through other means like non-Native werewolves are portrayed as using/having. Unfortunately, it was destroyed in a 1924 fire.

* During the time that werewolf legends were originally being told, dogs and real wolves came into conflict often in real life because dogs were guarding flocks of sheep that wolves would want to attack, as well as protected human travelers that wild wolves would also prey on. As a result, some legends depict dogs as hostile to werewolves, sometimes even being able to detect them in human form. The first film example of domestic dogs disliking werewolves (even while they are in human form) was in the 1974 movie "The Beast Must Die" and has been commonplace in media ever since. The movie "Monster Dog" (a 1980s werewolf movie from Spain starring Alice Cooper) turned this on its head and had its werewolf able to control dogs instead.

* The hostile history between dogs and wolves is also the reason that many non-werewolf wolf-monsters are depicted as the enemies of dogs in their respective legends, such as the American shunka-warakin and the crocotta of India and Ethiopia.

A word of warning before we begin this next spork: I called the previous chapter "soul-destroying" and that was wrong. This has shown me the true meaning of the word. It is thirty pages. Thirty pages of destroying my soul and brain. Thirty pages all about Anita. Anita and her thing with Nicky, Anita and Olaf, Anita and how much Edward cares about her and how deeply, Anita and how Lisandro inexplicably wants her to help him stay faithful to his wife (yes, really) and like...there's some that doesn't focus on Anita, in the beginning with Olaf scoping out a new victim, but it just spirals downward and oh my god you guys it's terrible I think I died a little inside.

And I'm taking you with me. Ten pages at a time.


HIT LIST, CHAPTER THIRTY TWO, PART ONE

"Olaf was outside, under a little covered area to one side of the hospital entrance. He was talking to a woman who was shorter than I was" That's possible?! I thought Anita was the most teeny-weeny woman possible! Is she a dwarf, maybe? "in pink hospital scrubs. Her black hair curled" it didn't spill? "over the shoulders of all that pink." The shoulders? Not her shoulders? The shoulders of the pink? A color has shoulders? Olaf is smiling, and whatever the woman says makes him laugh. "I'd never seen him laugh. It was a little unnerving, like seeing your dog sit up and try to hold a conversation with you. I mean, you know the dog communicates, but it's not supposed to speak the queen's English." LKH. Please. You do not need to explain the similie. Especially like that. We all know that dogs communicate but do not talk, and thus we know why it would be unnerving, and that's why the similie works, and you don't need to explain why a similie works. It ruins it, and it's bad form. Olaf's face looks kind and Anita thinks that "Either he really liked this woman, or he was a better actor than Edward." GEE, I FUCKING WONDER WHICH. Anita really, really does not 'get' what Olaf is, or how serial killers in general are, as much as she claims to if she is fucking seriously having this thought sincerely, which she seems to be.

Olaf looks over at Anita and "he let me see in those cavernous eyes that he did like her, he liked her lots, just not in a good way" and how he was thinking about her "not without her clothes on, but eventually without her skin" and "the darkness in his eyes for a blink or two" and also he is mentioned as having "strangely handsome face" which I don't think he ever has been before and which I take as a bad sign that we'll have him around for awhile to come, especially if he starts growing his hair out to go with the stupid van dyke beard that just so happens to be the kind LKH likes. Then he turns back to the woman and Anita knows "she hadn't seen his eyes, hadn't seen what he'd showed me." Unless his eyes turned glowing red or something like that, how the fuck do you honestly show all that through them, let alone deliberately turning it on and off? Does every have really big anime eyes in this, and when they want to show something like this to another person they just turn into little TV screens? Actually, absurdly face-filling huge eyes would explain how Anita is able to see every tiny detail about what flecks of color or rings around the iris and what all they have there. I just assumed she was always peering really close into their faces and wigging them out.
Mood Ring Eyes: 1

The woman looks over at Anita to see whatever Olaf had been looking at, and of course "she had that expression on her face that let me know she was looking at me as a potential rival, doing that girl thing some women do of assessing who's the prettiest, who's a threat." That girl thing. Because men are never competitive with each other, especially not over the opposite sex. I also love how Anita phrases it to sound as if she'd never dream of being this way herself, when she's the biggest case of this in alll the multiverse. And of course Anita is judged as pretty enough for the woman to move closer to Olaf and put a hand on his arm. "She was marking territory." ABverse: Where wereanimals don't mark territory, but human women do! "If I reacted badly, she'd know I was interested in him, too." I'm interested in your awkward comma obsession. Olaf puts his hand on the woman's and presses on it "in a terribly normal flirting." Nicky spots this too and says he thought Olaf "wasn't allowed to hunt anything but monsters on the job." Anita says he's not, and Nicky says Anita had better do something then "because he's shopping for a victim."
Guy/Girl Stuff: 1

Anita starts to go toward the pair when Lisandro comes up to her and says "Anita, please don't do that again." Anita asks what, he says "Leave me alone with a beautiful woman who is obviously trying to pick me up." Um. What? I admit at first my reaction was scathing ("What, you can't resist on your own?"), but then I thought for a moment, and if Lisandro was a woman and some guy was trying aggressively to flirt with her when she didn't want it, I wouldn't think anything less of her for her asking someone to stay with her around guys doing that, in fact I'd encourage it. But I guess Anita didn't have that same self-check moment, because her response is to tell him he's a big boy and can handle it (you know, like my reaction was BEFORE I REALIZED ALL OF ONE SECOND LATER THAT'S SOME SEXIST SOCIETAL HORSESHIT). And then Lisandro says "if I fall off the wagon again, my wife will divorce my ass. Help me avoid the temptation."

Oh. So my gender-reversal scenario actually does not apply after all and my initial scathingness does; his issue isn't feeling intimidated and harassed, it's that he doesn't trust himself not to cheat if someone is hot enough, in which case I would totally side-eye him regardless of his sex. I guess at least he's trying to avoid it? Actually, come to think of it, his usage of 'off the wagon' and the fact he supposedly didn't tell his wife about him and Anita suggests he cheats as a regular thing, even though clearly he doesn't seem to want to? Maybe he honestly has some kind of issue/problem/addiction here beyond just being shallow and disloyal, because reaching out to someone to intervene suggests he really sees it as beyond his power. I'm both sympathetic and intrigued now.

"I would have said it was ironic, his turning to me for help in avoiding the temptation of sex with other women, but we were up with Olaf and the woman. There wasn't time to worry about Lisandro's lack of logic." Actually, I don't find it so ironic. After all, Anita never 'tempted' Lisandro at all, she just raped him. He never wanted it, not even in the potentially-sex-addict type of way he wants to cheat now. And I don't think it's illogical for him to see Anita as the best way to keep him in line. As I said, she raped him, so her presence is going to inspire both fear and probably shut down any arousal he's got going on. She's like a portable cold shower. Of course, I'm sure Anita and LKH don't see it this way, and the reason the latter is including it is so Anita has the chance to beat back, insult, and slut-shame any woman who comes near Lisandro, as well as possibly being a response to people who were upset that her ardeur made someone break his marriage vows. "See?! She's making it up to him, she's defending it! From evil hussies who don't have the ardeur as an excuse!"

Olaf is still smiling and looks normal except for "the faintest flash in his eyes" that Anita says is easy to miss if you're not looking for "and how many women would be looking for serial killer sex in anyone's eyes?" Um, a lot, actually. Remember that study that showed the biggest fear men had about women was that women would laugh at them, while vice versa was women being afraid men would kill them? There was a more recent study that showed a the biggest fear among men concerning online dating was that the woman they met would turn out to be fat...whereas for women, their biggest fear was meeting a serial killer. Not every rapist or killer is a man, nor is every victim a woman, but the numbers are heavily slanted that way and most women, even if they may not know the exact percentages, are aware of that. It's why we do things like watch our drinks, spend money on a cab instead of walking home alone at night, etc., and just all sorts of things it never even occurs to most men to do because, while they may experience rape and assault and such as individuals, they don't live under that threat as a group the way women do and thus it isn't even on their minds unless it happens to them or they're in a place like prison. So yeah, a good fucking deal of women will be trying to look for signs of whether there's anything 'off' about someone who is trying to pick them up, especially a strange man, especially a very big one like Olaf.

That said, I'm not surprised that LKH, a woman herself, does not consider this, because most of us are not even aware of the degree we go out of our way to protect ourselves from predators because it's just sadly become that automatic to us...or, perhaps, LKH thinks that she and only she does this and that no other women ever do because she alone knows how dark and evil and scary the world is and the toughness to face it regardless, that she alone knows the signs, that all other women are foolish helpless victims-in-waiting who live in blissful ignorance until it's too late. This would sadly go very well with the victim-blaming "if only they could see him like Anita does!" attitude that's been thrown at the women Olaf kills. Can anyone find that blogflog where she freaks the fuck out over a guy asking her for a quarter in the parking lot? I realize I just did a whole long paragraph about how "everyone should be cautious, especially women, especially with strange men" but trust me when I say this just goes above and beyond rationality.

The woman touches Olaf's arm again, asks if he has to go to work, he says he told her he was here to hunt monsters, picks up her hand, holds it, and says "This is Marshal Anita Blake and her deputies." Anita tells us that "The "deputies" part wasn't exactly true, but it wasn't exactly untrue either, so I ignored it." Um. What? Did we just have that whole fucking scene with Raborn about her making these guys into deputies? Anita tells Olaf that "we have to go hunt bad guys now." The woman says "So you just work together" and Anita nods but Olaf says it's only because Anita won't date him. Wow, Olaf, smooth, I'm sure she'll be all over you now. The woman tries to see if it's a joke, and he makes his face "very carefully full of wry humor" and that woman says Anita must be a fool and puts her arm around his waist and he "cuddled her against him" and then "he let me see in his eyes, his face, that he wasn't thinking anything safe, sane, or consensual." Not like you ever do either, Anita.
Bad Guys: 1

This freaks Anita out so much that it stops "the breath in my throat" and she sort of stumbles and "that one raw look let me know that Olaf hadn't change at all; if anything he'd been hiding more from me." NO, REALLY?!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxlhyX-4qKI
Nicky tells Anita "Don't let him spook you; that's what he wants" so Anita keeps walking, Nicky beside her and Lisandro behind her. Anita, this time calling him Otto instead of his real name unlike her fuck-up last chapter, repeats to Olaf that they need to rejoin with Marshal Forrester and the others. She then gives us a paragraph about how her voice sounds so calm and empty and how she's "one step away from going to that empty staticky place in my head where I used to go when I killed people." Used to? "Lately, I didn't have to disassociate to pull the trigger." This is worrying. "That probably should have worried me, but it didn't." More worrying still! She repeats to Olaf that it's time to go. Olaf says the woman wants to date him. The woman asks if something is going on between them. Olaf says yes, Anita says no. The woman tries to pull her hand out of Olaf's hand, but he holds on, and says that Anita has refused every offer from him and smiles at her again.

The woman asks Anita if she's his ex, she says no, the woman says great and puts her other hand on Olaf's arm. "It was sort of the girl version of the double-arm squeeze that some men use on women, except the guys always seemed aggressive and the woman just seemed like a victim clinging to his arm." THERE IS SO MUCH GROSS SEXIST STUPID HERE I CAN'T EVEN BEGIN. Anita shakes her head and says no, the woman says Anita had her chance, Anita asks her name, it's Karen Velazquez (zomg she must be mestiza like Anita!), Olaf says that won't help, Karen asks what, Anita says "Giving him a name to personalize you" and Karen is confused. Yeah, Anita, Olaf is right, I doubt that helps given that he seems to hunt for his victims by getting them to go on a date with him, which would involve LEARNING THEIR NAMES. It clearly does not bother him that they have names, or interests, or jobs, or the other things you talk about on a date or while flirting.
Guy/Girl Stuff: 2

Bernardo calls to "Otto" that he has a call from Forrester and "his voice was all cheerful and normal" and he says they found a clue and we're all supposed to regroup. Anita's first thought is "Edward would have called me first, I was ninety-nine percent certain of that, but I appreciated Bernardo trying to help get the woman away from Olaf." Does anyone else think this reads as her being insulted? Like "I'm glad you're trying to help but ugh Bernardo you know if he really did call he'd call ME dammit not you!" She tells us she doubts Olaf would hurt Karen right here but if he made a date there was "only one kind of date that Olaf wanted from a woman. One with blood and death" Yes, we know, that's the whole reason why you're trying to stop it.

Olaf kisses Karen's hand but stares at Anita while he does and Karen is all pleased and doesn't even notice...ugh, even Olaf preparing to victimize and kill a woman can't be about the woman herself, it has to be about Anita. It's like a variant on fridging. Olaf tells Karen she's lovely and he wants to see her again, she says call me, says he will, Bernardo says ok let's go we've got "bad guys to catch", and they go to the cars and Karen calls across the parking lot for Olaf to call her again, and after Olaf waves back to her "his face was its usual self except for the new beard." This cracks me up, like his beard just grew during that conversation or something. Bernardo reminds Olaf that "if you do your hobby on American soil you lose everything. Your badge, both your jobs, everything, and Edward will kill you, so really everything" and Olaf says Edward will TRY to kill him and Anita "ignored that last comment, because Olaf had to make it, just like I'd have had to make it. We couldn't let anyone, not even Edward, think he was automatically better." So...you're a couple of thirteen year old boys? Actually, wait, that sounds right. Actually, wait, the one boy around that age I know is actually really polite and well-behaved, this is more like my nephew, who is seven.
Bad Guys: 2

Anita asks Bernardo if this means that "more people than just you, me, and Edward know what he is?" Hey, come to think of it, shit, do her bodyguards even know? Bernardo says "A few, but it all hinges on him not doing his serial killer thing here" and Anita tells Olaf he must be really good at something then and Olaf says he's very good at many things. NONE OF WHICH HAVE SO FAR BEEN SHOWN TO REMOTELY JUSTIFY THIS RIDICULOUSNESS. And Anita yaps to us about how he doesn't fake-flirt with her like his victims and gives her "the real deal" because he likes her "for real" and how that's "a mixed blessing" because it's "flattering" since it means she's so much more special than other women but also scary. God I hate this Anita/Olaf plot so fucking much. Anita says she believes him, he asks "Do you?" and she says yes, he says it bothered her to see him with another woman, she says of course it bothered her because "you let me see in your face what you wanted to do to her" and Bernardo says that bothered all of them.

Olaf asks Nicky (whom he calls Nick) if it bothered him, Nicky says no, Anita asks if they know each other, Nicky says sort of, Olaf says yes, Anita asks how, Olaf says they might want the other men to step away, Anita asks why, Nicky says plausible deniability, Anita asks what, Bernardo says to Lisandro they should give them some privacy, Lisandro says he will only because Nicky is here and he won't leave Anita *alone* with Olaf ever. I realize they're all just still standing in the hospital parking lot by their cars. Olaf says Lisandro will do what Anita says, he's seen it, Lisandro says he won't leave Anita alone with him even if she orders him to. I guess that answers my question of if the guards know about Olaf. Anita starts to say something, Lisandro says all the guards have agreed on this. Anita is snitty that she has no say in this (as if that ever bothered her before concerning all the shit JC has done, and done for reasons a lot less justifiable than protecting her life because she's too dumb to realize she isn't actually Olaf's magical misogyny exception). Olaf says Lisandro doesn't respect her, Lisandro says he does but Anita is allowed to be alone with him, Olaf says if Anita truly leads then that's up to her, Lisandro says not on this.

Olaf asks Anita if she's gonna "let him rule you?" and Anita says this question is a trap because if she says yes then "it could turn me from serial killer girlfriend to serial killer victim for Olaf. As uncomfortable as it was for him to think of me as a girlfriend, it was a lot better than just being meat for him." Anita says no one rules her but Edward doesn't leave them alone together either, Olaf says if Anita wanted it then Edward would allow it, Bernardo tells Olaf that Edward would not and has told him that if Bernardo leaves them alone and something happens to Anita, Edward would kill Bernardo. Which Bernardo says with a smile that "never reached his eyes" showing that "he was so not happy about it" and that's all I can take for now, you guys.
Smile Doesn't Reach Eyes: 1
Sooo: 1

Next installment: All about how Edward cares so much about Anita and would be so sad if she died and would have to go on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge to block out the pain!

TALLIES FOR THIS SEGMENT
Bad Guys: 2
Guy/Girl Stuff: 2
Mood Ring Eyes: 1
Smile Doesn't Reach Eyes: 1
Sooo: 1

Comments

[lliira (from livejournal.com)]

Nicky has to tell Anita to do something about Olaf. It is clear that Anita would really rather not, whether because she's murderously misogynistic or because she's lazy to the point of evilness. I'm surprised Nicky has enough of his own mind left to think it would be a bad thing if a non-Anita woman were tortured and murdered.

The whole thing with Lisandro being worried about "cheating" again is an obvious retcon based on LKH seeing criticism the fact Anita raped him -- or was it a mutual ardeur rape? Whatever, he was raped. Lisandro did not cheat in the first place. A gender-reversal of the way his wife reacted is how sharia law treats female rape victims. (I don't know how they treat male rape victims; as the vast majority of those are raped by men, I fear they may be sentenced to death.)

and how many women would be looking for serial killer sex in anyone's eyes?

Serial killer sex. As in, RAPE? How about, I dunno, 99% of us? LKH is just so fucking strange. She so often writes the opposite of what is true about women as being fact. I don't think this can be by chance or simply because she has weird ideas, because then she'd either hit on something true once in a while or write things that are just plain strange, rather than being the opposite of reality. It's like she gets off on these lies -- not sexually necessarily, but in the way a small child might enjoy saying something outrageous to provoke a reaction.

he let me see in his eyes, his face, that he wasn't thinking anything safe, sane, or consensual.

Lolwhut. This is a bizarre way to deploy this phrase. It's something one might say about Christian Grey, not about a SERIAL KILLER WHO TORTURES WOMEN TO DEATH. Also wtf about Olaf and this woman being all over each other after a 5-minute conversation. And at her place of employment! Oh god this is because LKH is trying to show us this woman is a slut who deserves what she gets isn't it ew ew ew.

The woman tries to pull her hand out of Olaf's hand, but he holds on

Oh that wouldn't freak out a woman who'd just met him at all, nope! WHAT THE HELL. If I tried to pull my hand away from my husband and he wouldn't let me and we weren't doing a roleplaying thing, I would freak out. Actually, scratch the roleplaying thing, since I have a safe word and if I used it he would let go -- this woman can't get away, period, and she's surrounded by people who do not care.

Anita finds it "flattering" that a man who rapes women and tortures them to death "likes" her. How can LKH not realize what she's revealing about Anita and about herself. Or maybe she does realize, and think what it reveals is good.

I am in awe of you for being able to stomach any of the stuff with Olaf in it at all. I'm having a fantasy in which this poor woman he's victimizing is actually an undercover agent -- and a therian, so she will rip Olaf into small pieces. I don't know whether I want her to be a wererat, a wereswan, or a werebear.

[ex-naomi-ja.livejournal.com]

Also wtf about Olaf and this woman being all over each other after a 5-minute conversation. And at her place of employment! Oh god this is because LKH is trying to show us this woman is a slut who deserves what she gets isn't it ew ew ew.

I think it's also LKH trying to lay it on that Olaf is a genuinely attractive, charming man, thus excusing Anita not blowing his fucking face off. I think she's paving the way to redeem him in the way that only LKH can redeem an irredeemable character - by making them sexy.

[guardians-song.livejournal.com]

Werehoneybadger.

Carpe scrotum.

[lady-fellshot.livejournal.com]

LOL! This needs to added to Sue v Sue and I can't believe none of us thought of it sooner.

[a-sporking-rat.livejournal.com]

HAHAAHA

[evilgrayson.livejournal.com]

Played a werehoneybadger on an Anitaverse game.

No-one messed with that character. Ever.

[a-sporking-rat.livejournal.com]

OMG ARE YOU SERIOUS? TELL ME ABOUT IT!

[a-sporking-rat.livejournal.com]

or was it a mutual ardeur rape? Whatever, he was raped. Lisandro did not cheat in the first place.
It was a mutual ardeur rape, so I'm inclined to cut Anita slack for it, but she's just so callous about the whole thing and acts as if he totally decided to cheat with her that I don't.

FOR REALS. TRYING TO PULL AWAY AND HIM NOT LETTING GO? NOPE NOPE NOPE. WOULD SEND OF ALL THE BAAAD SIGNALS!

I'm having a fantasy in which this poor woman he's victimizing is actually an undercover agent -- and a therian, so she will rip Olaf into small pieces. I don't know whether I want her to be a wererat, a wereswan, or a werebear.
God, that would be beautiful

[duamuteffe.livejournal.com]

I vote werebear! Then she can crush his head in her jaws!

[ex-naomi-ja.livejournal.com]

I can't. I just can't with this chapter. There's so much here to hate.

that woman says Anita must be a fool and puts her arm around his waist and he "cuddled her against him"

I can't imagine being this physical with a man I just met, literally minutes ago, in a fucking hospital of all places. Is American dating just really different to English dating?

[lliira (from livejournal.com)]

No, LKH is just strange to a degree unmeasurable by science. This is not how American dating goes either, at all.

[ex-naomi-ja.livejournal.com]

She clearly learned to flirt by watching nature documentaries, is all I can think of.

[uf-addict.livejournal.com]

Then she missed the point entirely.

In nature, it is the male that is usually preening, singing, ramming their heads together, roaring, marking and so on, usually with great displays of beauty and prowess. While the plain jane female looks on with contemplation and amusement.

[uf-addict.livejournal.com]

Ummm - no. Maybe if the woman was in a bar and drunk and flirting. And hopefully she has a designated sober friend that will interfere. That is the norm.

But we all know what that little scene was supposed to show us. That Anita inspires jealousy so severe that other women will cling to any man within reach. They will automatically start competing with her and displaying ridiculous behavior while Anita will stand around mystified and irritated until some woobie explains her hotness to her. That is what this part of the scene is about.

[writtenelision.livejournal.com]

A. Where is Odile when we need her? She is tiny, dark haired and can borrow one of Detty's very pink outfits. BRING IT ON OLAF

B. ...This reminds me of my serial killer couples. Except they're never portrayed as anything other than creepy. With the lone exception being when both people are serial killers. And then I like making it a lovely mix of creepy and fluffy.

C. LKH. Come here. No. Really. Come here. This here is the DSM V. It contains a wealth of information that easily diagnosis nearly every one of your characters with serious problems. Now stand still while I hit you with it.

[a-sporking-rat.livejournal.com]

YES ON ALL COUNTS

[mocha-latta.livejournal.com]

Blegh. Five bucks says that this chapter's about setting it up so Anita HAS to keep flirting with Olaf to keep other women safe.

[duamuteffe.livejournal.com]

It would be so easy to solve the Olaf problem. Anita could shoot him herself, or she could make a call to Jean-Claude and ask to send a crew out to eliminate him. We have never seen him display any skills that are any more useful than any other character she already knows. He's never told them anything any other "expert" couldn't, and he's never done anything in combat or the field that Podward, Benardo, Anita, or any of the wererats couldn't do. Even given the often bizzaro in-universe laws and equally bizzaro characters it would make perfect sense to more than one of those characters to decide to put two in his head and get rid of a major problem. Other characters have been gotten rid of for much less provocation. Logically, then, he's only still alive at all because the author wants him in the story for her own interests. Ick.

[aikaterini.livejournal.com]

I love werewolves, so thanks a bunch for all of those interesting facts! :)

/doing that girl thing some women do of assessing who's the prettiest, who's a threat."/

Oh, like YOU do? Every single time you meet a woman, you do this exact thing.

/she'd know I was interested in him, too./

So…Anita just admitted that she’s interested in dating Olaf. Wow.

/"if only they could see him like Anita does!"/

Um, maybe Anita can see him like that because SHE’S SEEN HIM KILL PEOPLE. It’s not some special intuition that she has, it’s first-hand knowledge of what this guy is like, which is more than any of these women have. And despite knowing this, she has yet to put him in prison. Who is the “foolish, helpless victim-in waiting who lives in blissful ignorance,” again?

/The woman tries to pull her hand out of Olaf's hand, but he holds on,/

Um, yeah. I don’t care how vapid and silly this woman is supposed to be. That right there would be a cause for – at the very least – annoyance, if not outright alarm. She should not still be smiling and giggling here.

/because it's "flattering"/

…A known serial killer being interested in you is “flattering.” Dear Lord, I thought that nothing could trump the idiocy of Bella Swan cooing that Edward stalking her was “flattering,” but once again, Anita Blake proved me wrong.

[rodentfanatic.livejournal.com]

Oh, like YOU do? Every single time you meet a woman, you do this exact thing.
I know! Oh, the irony! Oh, the projection!

Um, maybe Anita can see him like that because SHE’S SEEN HIM KILL PEOPLE. It’s not some special intuition that she has, it’s first-hand knowledge of what this guy is like
Seriously, she acts like she's a detective who brilliantly figured it out or something when the info was, if I recall right, just presented to her up-front, and she later saw him in action herself too.

That right there would be a cause for – at the very least – annoyance, if not outright alarm. She should not still be smiling and giggling here.
More proof that human behavior is alien to LKH

A known serial killer being interested in you is “flattering.” Dear Lord, I thought that nothing could trump the idiocy of Bella Swan cooing that Edward stalking her was “flattering,” but once again, Anita Blake proved me wrong.
WHEN YOU HAVE TRUMPED BELLA SWAN, SOMETHING HAS GONE VERY, VERY WRONG

[evilgrayson.livejournal.com]

Why should Bella Swann get all the luck and all the stalkers? I mean, her stalker wasn't a serial killer, so Olaf's automatically cooler to have as a stalker than some sparkly vegetarian vampire.

(I do hope that actually has nothing to do with it.)