I couldn't decide if I was surprised or angry. "Why are you being so mean, Jason? I don't need you arguing with me or saying bad things about Niall. You don't know him. You don't...Hey, you're part fairy, remember!" I had an awful feeling that some of what he'd said was absolutely true, but it sure wasn't the time to have this discussion.
Jason looked grim, every plane of his face tense. "I'm not claiming kin to any fairy," he said. "He don't want me; I don't want him. And if I see that crazy half-and-half again, I'll kill the son of a bitch."
-Dead and Gone
I have reached the end of my Sookie Stackhouse reading extravaganza—not to be confused with my Sookie Stackhouse tv extravaganza, which I hope to begin later this month. I wouldn't call this my favorite of the three books I've read recently, but I certainly could not have asked for a more eventful story.
Dead and Gone is also the most suspenseful of the recent books in Charlaine Harris's series. The level of danger has definitely been ratcheted up a notch. A long-simmering feud between fairies has finally reached a breaking point, leaving our Sookie in peril. Sookie, whose great-grandfather Niall is a fairy prince, is a prime target for the fairies who oppose him. Also, the were community has finally made itself known to the world at large; perhaps unsurprisingly, reactions from the general population have been decidedly mixed. A body shows up in the parking lot of Merlotte's: a werepanther. She was crucified.
With that whodunnit at the beginning of the story, Dead and Gone reminded me of an older Sookie Stackhouse story like Living Dead in Dallas, if in the latter story Sookie had seemed more invested in solving the murder. This death is much better integrated into the story as a whole, perhaps because the various supernatural elements of Sookie's world have become so intertwined with the rest of her life.
Probably because I'm gearing up for True Blood, I noticed a couple of scenes in Dead and Gone that struck me as particularly vivid and easily adaptable to Sookie's televised universe. One was the first conversation Sookie and her brother Jason have had in months, ever since she had to stand in for him in a werepanther ritual. It was just so easy to picture the Sookie leaving her house on a cool, sunny day to meet the unusually somber Jason, bedecked in dark sunglasses and sitting on her chaise longue.
I also really liked a scene toward the end of the book, which I'll take care not to spoil, in which a vulnerable Bill steps up to protect Sookie. Hugely dramatic moment, and it really sealed my growing affection for Bill - whom I liked initially, for sure, but it took a long time for him to win me back after Living Dead in Dallas and Club Dead. I really do love his courtliness, though, and I love that he truly loves Sookie.
Well, I've finally just about caught up in this series! The newest book came out last month, so I reckon it will be a while before I get my hands on it. I think there's also a book of short stories out there. But for now, I think I'll take a bit of a break from Sookie. She really has become one of my very favorite heroines, though. Props to Charlaine Harris for creating a woman so spunky and resilient, but also so funny and so interested doing the right thing. After everything she's had to do to defend herself, Sookie worries a lot about the state of her soul in this book - I have to say, I think she's golden.
Up next: The Man From Beijing by Henning Mankell
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