The Harlequin

I just finished reading The Harlequin by Laurell K. Hamilton. I believe it is something like book 15 in the series.

So, what is there to say?

Jiminy FUCKING Cricket, RICHARD, can you just not get your shit TOGETHER??!

*cough*

A short synopsis of the book is that Vampires, while in America are seen as legal citizens and have to abide by the laws, there is also Vampiric laws in which they must abide as well. They have a governing council (albeit, it is corrupt and self-serving) and they have The Harlequin. The Harlequin are basically vampire vampire executioners. They are the police of the bloodsuckers if you will.

The Harlequin too have rules and standards they have to abide by. They are to remain completely neutral. In the event that they are "called in" by The Council they communicate only with harlequin masks. Different colored masks mean different messages. White means that you are under observation and if you're lucky... that's the only mask you'll get. Red means punishment (I think, don't quote me) and black *gasp* means death.

So our heroine and her many heros are served up a white mask by the Harlequin. They spend the length of the book trying to find out just exactly what they are being observed for. There are a few sub-plots dealing with Anita and her need for metaphysical food, one of her boyfriend's being more assertive and asking to be dominated in the bedroom (isn't that a contradiction?) and Richard. Always with the Richard and his anger, jealousy, self-doubt and most of all self-loathing.

Ok so now... I'm reading this book and the beginning is off to a really good start. Nathaniel seems so much more grown up and confident and surer of himself. Enough that he asks Anita to satisfy his needs in the bedroom. Too bad for Anita that he likes to be dominated because that is just so not her thing. I was proud of him that he was of the mind that he really wouldn't allow himself to live with a relationship that wasn't meeting his needs when he was doing everything for her. Personally, I don't know what I'd do if my squeeze told me to abuse him or he'd want to find someone that does but, hey... gold star for Nathaniel that he no longer is the doormat he's been in previous books. A doormat that I'm sad to say Anita has used readily.

Richard had such promise... such... hope... such light.... I, like a lot of Anita fans, had a hard time deciding who we would like to see Anita with more. Jean-Claude, the sexy Machivellian vampire or the warm, optimistic, gorgeous jr. high science teacher Richard who just happens to be an alpha male werewolf. The love triangle tension was amazing. All indicators pointed to Richard. He was honorable, sweet, understanding and most of all he didn't manipulate Anita into dating him like JC did.

Those, I'm afraid to say, were the good ol' days. Things started going down hill when Anita realized that he was too idealistic for his own good. In the pack society, it is all well and fine if you don't want to kill but this isn't the boyscouts. Their ways are often bathed in blood. Richard was second in command of the pack and the only way he could become Ulfric (wolf king) was to kill the current Ulfric, Marcus. He basically was too boyscout to do it. Anita pushed and pushed, fearing that his boyscout was were going to get him killed (and they would have) so when he finally did kill Marcus, Anita was there to witness. She saw him basically change into a half wolf, half man deal and eat Marcus after he killed him (which was their custome for all pack members to eat the fallen and take him back into the 'flesh' of the pack sort of thing).

Scared and discomforted and, well, creeped the hell out by Richard eating Marcus and then changing shape on top of her, Anita ran into the arms (and huge bubble bath) of JC where they finally had sex. That's when it all went downhill. Of course Richard was hurt, furious and knew that Anita could never accept his beast because he couldn't. He saw himself as a moster and her actions only proved that he was.

He never recovered. His anger only grew more, his jealousy only grew more and sadly his self-loathing of his beast only grew more. He's mean and cruel to Anita and in the next moment is heartbreakingly vulnerable. He nearly killed himself by way of passive-aggressive actions in that he just didn't fight back when things were trying to kill him. He also shaved all his beautiful hair off. The boy had it bad... and was in a really bad way.

He finally got a backbone and decided he wanted to live but his anger, his rage at Anita and her seemingly new occupation of needing sex to feed her mystically just put him over the edge. He became even more harsh and ruthless and not at all the warm, outdoor loving Richard that had endeared himself to me.

Each book I think... ok this is the one that they will just somehow manage to find *some* common ground and for like 10 minutes it seems they do but then Richard is reminded that Anita has a growing list of boyfriends now and he gets upset all over again. I guess I can't blame the guy but he knows she's not going to discard Jean-Claude or her other boyfriends (they are all mystically bonded and would take way to long to tell you the logistics of it now).

What seemed to be Anita as the unbending, uncomproming one in the beginning and Richard being the sensative, understanding and flexible one, they have completely swapped places. Richard is just too unbending to fit into her life and she doesn't know how to fix him. She knows she can't and has given up on even trying. He interprets this as her not wanting him anymore.

And through it all, Poor JC seems like the father of 2 dysfunctional children that just can't get along. They are all three bound in a triumvirate and JC is just trying to survive the both of them. If they could just get along, their power could be immesurable with Anita as JC's human servant and Richard his animal to call.

No go. Richard can't deal with reality. I don't know why Laurell K. Hamilton chose to take this route with Richard. I could understand it for a few books but it's been going on since the end of book 6 and we're on book 15. I know that Richard represented the more human aspect of life for Anita... the picket fence dream, watching musicals and eating popcorn on the weekends and now that she seems less and less human their ties hold less and less. But geeze, come on! Give this guy some relief! Either make him accept Anita's world and her life as it is or.... I don't know! I want her to have both Richard and JC. I want their triumvirate to WORK. I want JC to be able to embrace them for what they are, and not to referee the fights. I want JC and Anita to stop feeling like they are the 'evil doers' of their little group and I want Richard to stop being upset.

I really thought this was the book that would do it, that would bring him back into the fold. He tried... he tried really hard at first but once he got mad, that was it. His trying was over and the only thing he could do was be hurtful and caustic.

I do have to say that while Anita had no official police cases to solve or zombie raisings (which I kind of miss from back in the days of the early books before her love life complicated everything) there was much, much less sex in this book and it centered more around plot than feeding the arduer (a metaphysical hunger she has that needs to be fed through sex or bad stuff happens). There was sex (with a wereswan king! and the wererat king!) but other than those two moments, I can't think of any other situation. Unlike Cerulean Sins where it seemed she was having to have sex every few pages. Not that I minded... you know.. for plot purposes... and such.

So in conclusion... well there is no conclusion. They were spared from The Harlequin, people died, and Anita realized that touching Richard no longer has an affect on her. They are no longer dating. Again. But she thinks that this time it might stick because she actually doesn't feel anything. All the other breakups had been very painful.

I don't know what is going to happen the next book exactly, but I'm thinking there still will be no resolution with Richard and his demons. I believe the next book will focus more around Jason. He's a great character so maybe I won't be so dissapointed that things just still aren't working out for Richard.