• The Laughing Corpse

  • An Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter Novel
  • By: Laurell K. Hamilton
  • Narrated by: Kimberly Alexis
  • Length: 10 hrs and 1 min
  • 4.6 out of 5 stars (3,707 ratings)

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The Laughing Corpse  By  cover art

The Laughing Corpse

By: Laurell K. Hamilton
Narrated by: Kimberly Alexis
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Publisher's summary

The early Anita Blake novels find new life in trade paperback-as perfect collectibles for long-time fans or as great ways for new listeners to sink their teeth into the series.

In The Laughing Corpse, a creature from beyond the grave is tearing a swath of murder through St. Louis. And Anita will learn that there are some secrets better left buried-and some people better off dead...

Love in vein: listen to more tales of Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter.
©2009 Laurell K. Hamilton (P)2009 Penguin

Critic reviews

"Anita Blake is one of the most fascinating fictional heroines since Scarlett O'Hara." (Publishers Weekly)

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What listeners say about The Laughing Corpse

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
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    2,776
  • 4 Stars
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  • 3 Stars
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  • 2 Stars
    49
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    27
Performance
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    2,393
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    465
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Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
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    2,428
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  • 3 Stars
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  • 2 Stars
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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Love the book, but hate the Sound Effects!

One of my favorite series (at least the first ten books), but the sound effects are way off and come up at odd times and seem to be destracting rather than add to the story. The narrator is okay, not my favorite, but not horrible either.

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23 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

It took a book and a half buuuuut..

Any additional comments?

But I came around to this narrator.

I started reading the Anita Blake series in high school. As the series progressed, as some of you know, I fell out of love and into contempt with our little heroine. But I love the world that Hamilton wrote around Anita. Now if only I hadn't started feeling as if I were reading a fanfiction-style story about the author herself she had somehow conned people into publishing and buying. But, as I've gotten into driving trucks, there was more time than I knew what to do with to keep myself awake and interested while driving through mountains and plains were radio signals are.. lacking. So, after some 200-some-odd hours of the current Game of Thrones series, I decided to give this one another chance.

It took me a while to get used to Alexis. When I read Anita, I read her in a lower tone.. And angrier. Always angry. The amount of sarcasm that comes through, as mentioned in other reviews, is a little daunting. In my head, Anita had held more of a droll tone as opposed to teenager-worthy sarcasm, so at the time it didn't translate as much as it does with someone reading it to me. Though, having been a teenager myself when I began reading her, I'm not sure it would have mattered much in the beginning. The story itself is interesting. Some of the interactions between characters lead me back to the whole 'Mary Sue' problem, but Alexis' tone kept me interested. There is a fair amount of replay--or of the exact same words and phrases to reintroduce characters we met in Guilty Pleasures. Anyway, as of this book, it all seems like a bunch of little things coming together to annoy me and distract me from the story itself. That and trying to forget the direction I remember the series is heading in.

I would recommend this book, and the one before it. 'Preternatural' things have always been interesting to me, and she writes them all out, some in new ways and, to an extent, in depth with powers and histories and ancient vampires acting like spoiled brats. I would tell anyone to give this series a chance. You might fall in love with it like I did. And maybe you won't be so bothered about what's to come. I might not either as I listen to them again. Alexis does give me a complete separate perspective about Anita's challenges with the way she reads. I'm not sure if that's normal.. If you've read the series and aren't sure about spending the credit, do it. Start from the beginning and remember the good times! Maybe what Hamilton has been giving all of us disgruntled fans and former fans in more recent years has been lost to the way we read and perceive things in our own tones and opinions.

Maybe that's just me.

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16 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

Good but not perfect

I understand that this is supposed to be a dark story but the narrator accomplishes this a little too well. While most of the things said are supposed to be taken seriously there is also supposed to be some dark humor that seems to be missed entirely. The main character is supposed to be snarky and sharp tongued but the narrator makes her seem mean and self righteous. Add to that, the laughable sound effects and music and you have moments in this book that are very frustrating. The music is so cheesy and misplaced that it rips you right out of the story at the good parts. Its distracting and turns what should be a suspenseful moment into something straight out of a soap opera. All in all the story is good the narration could use a little work.

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11 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Audiable: Stop the background noise

At first the background noise was at the end of a chapter. Now it is in the middle of the chapter, in the middle of scenes, etc. Very Annoying especially when you are driving and the noise appears out of no where. I thought a car with a bad muffler was coming up beside me.

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7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

LOVE ANITA BLAKE

I absolutely love the bada$$ crime fighting Anita Blake...the later books that are nothing but sex sex and more sex are my least favorite.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

I Enjoy Anita Blake Books

I have read the majority of the Anita Blake series and my favorite books are the first few because it is more about the story and figuring it out.

I also like the Anira Blake character. She is not perfect nor is she trying to be. She is honest and humorous. I like her sarcasm and comments. She is easy to like.

I believe the voice actor is very fitting. She is Anita Blake in my mind. She does good voices too which makes the story fun and easier to listen to.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

A really really bad book. I want my credit back!

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

I would not recommend this to a friend. The heroine has such low self esteem; she tries to be to be tough and it comes off as a joke. I picked this one in hope it would be comparable to my beloved Sookie Stackhouse books, but not even close! I honestly didn't even finish the book. It lingered too long on the very gory death of a 4 year old. It had very, very strong details of he and his family's death. I'm no angel, and have read lots of gory and sexy books, but this book was gross. I wish I hadn't wasted a credit on this book. I am waiting for my Feb. credit so I can listen to Hunger Games #2. Waste of time, and I hate to be so judgmental, but even the narrator sucked. Sorry :(

What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?

Gory death of a child, heroine acting tough but vomiting and shaking through out the whole book. Glad she carries a gun because maybe she'll turn it on herself. K that was mean, but this sucks really!

Did the narration match the pace of the story?

SLOW!

Could you see The Laughing Corpse being made into a movie or a TV series? Who should the stars be?

If the Laughing Corpse was made into a TV series I would nominate Susan Boyle as the main character .Or some other lame ass.

Any additional comments?

I want my credit back!!!!

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars

Just can't get into this series

I listened to the first book and didn't love it but decided to keep trying with the second since the series is so popular. I find the story too slow and the characters uninteresting. I know a lot of people like this series, and this is the kind of series that normally I would enjoy, but I just think the writing is dumb.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Good Book!

Good solid plot! Plenty of action, she does her actual job. Warning if you like the Anita in this book, be warned by book 9 she is 100% different.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Not a fan of the music

book 2 of the Anita Blake series, as Anita deals with her new marks from jean-claude, she fight unknown dead and a voodoo priestess, at 5'3 shes tough as nails..

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3 people found this helpful