Dead Ever After by Charlaine Harris

The devil was eating beignets, fastidiously, when the businessman walked up to the outside table.

-Dead Ever After 

With Dead Ever After, we bid adieu to Miss Sookie Stackhouse, telepath and waitress extraordinaire. Quite a lot has happened to Sookie in the two-year period Charlaine Harris's novels covers. She's known love and death (probably more of the latter than the former, sadly). She's become acquainted with all sorts of fantastic creatures, for better or worse. She's gotten at least a little suntanning in.

Dead Ever After begins with Sookie trying to navigate the tricky politics surrounding her relationship  with Eric, and things only get more dire when she's accused of murder. There's a fair amount of reaching back to the earlier books, particularly in terms of the familiar characters who pop up all over the place. It's definitely not a novel one could pick up without having read the other 12--or at least I couldn't see that being a particularly enjoyable experience.

The story is undeniably over-stuffed, and I'm not sure I love the direction that Charlaine Harris decided to go in with regard to Sookie's love life, though it's not implausible. I don't think it will stand up as one of the best books of the series, but, that having been said, I still enjoyed spending time in Sookie's company.* There's something so comfortable and cozy about Charlaine Harris's books, despite the mayhem that inevitably ensues, and I think a lot of it is just Sookie. I'll probably read Harris's follow-up on the other characters of Bon Temps, which is to be published this fall, and perhaps I'll try one of her other series as well. For now, though, I still have close to fifteen unread books on my shelves, so I  won't be picking up anything new.** At least we still have the weird and wild True Blood.

Up next: Continuing with fantasy, A Discovery of Witches.

*I would be curious to go back through my posts and see how many times I've said that.

**Unless it looks really good. Or I've wanted to read it for a long time. Or, or, or...

Dead Reckoning by Charlaine Harris

He was not the first person to ask me that. I was beginning to think there was something wrong with me, that I hadn't felt the need to rush over to Monroe to watch guys take off their clothes.

"No. I've seen Claude naked. I've never come over to watch him do his thing professionally. I hear he's good."

"He's naked? At your house?"

"Modesty is not one of Claude's priorities," I said.

-Dead Reckoning 


I forgot to remark upon it in my last post, but I've now been writing this blog for 2 years. It's been such a pleasant exercise for me--my only regret is that I didn't start it sooner. Some 150 posts later, one character in particular has writ herself large on this blog: Sookie Stackhouse.

Dead Reckoning is the 12th book in Charlaine Harris's series* and thus the 12th Sookie Stackhouse book I've read in the last two years. I'm pleased to say that it is yet another great installment. As always, Sookie has quite a lot on her plate. She's troubled by a mysterious strain in the relationship between Eric and Pam, which she knows bodes ill. She's still being pursued by the decidedly murderous Sandra Pelt. Even her decision to clean out her attic has ramifications that could dramatically change her life. She deals with vampires, werewolves, shifters, witches, faeries, demons, and, oh yeah, an elf. Just another day in the life of Sookie Stackhouse.

While the plot overall is pretty enjoyable, I'm particularly pleased with the developments in Sookie's romantic life. (Not to mention terribly curious to see how it continues!) Between that and the rumblings in the world of the fae (which I imagine will figure largely in the next book), Harris leaves us in quite a bit of suspense at the end of the story. As usual, I can't wait for more, but I guess for now I'll have to content myself with waiting for the next season of True Blood.

Up next: Back to Young Romantics--you just have to drop everything for a new Sookie Stackhouse, am I right?

*including the book of short stories

Dead in the Family by Charlaine Harris

I love spring for all the obvious reasons. I love the flowers blooming (which happens early here in Louisiana); I love the birds twittering; I love the squirrels scampering across my yard.

I love the sound of werewolves howling in the distance.

No, just kidding.

-Dead in the Family

I'm finally caught up with the Sookie Stackhouse series. It's been a good ride, so I'm a little sad things are at an end (for now). Luckily, Dead in the Family is just as enjoyable as any of the previous books in the series.

I was a little overwhelmed at the start of the story, I'll admit, since it had been a few months since I finished the previous book (and I've been watching True Blood, so my time line is all mixed up). Suddenly I found myself inundated with names—particularly those of fairies—which it sometimes took me a minute to place. After a few short chapters that served as a refresher in Sookie-ology, though, the story ran smoothly.

So let's see, what's Our Sookie up to? Well, for one thing, she's still dealing with the aftermath of the Fae War, which left her injured and in mourning. Although the fairies supposedly left the human world at the close of battle, it seems that a few were left behind—and at least one of them has no love lost for Sookie. She's still getting used to the commitment she made—albeit unknowingly—to Eric. And since that's not enough to deal with, the Weres come back to the forefront in a big way. Hello, Alcide! Although his halo's been tarnished a bit, I still like having him around.

Speaking of Alcide, I do wonder where Charlaine Harris is going to go with Sookie's men/supernaturals. I like Eric, but I liked him better in small doses, in all honesty. He adds more spark when he's there for a couple of intense scenes than when he's lecturing Sookie on vampire politics. Bill is probably still my favorite, despite his past behavior. Even though he didn't get too much face time in Dead in the Family, he shared in a couple of the most powerful moments of the book. (I especially liked the subplot with the family bible). I'll be very curious to see what the next story brings.

Up next: Eat, Pray, Love, which I am enjoying way more than I expected.

A Touch of Dead by Charlaine Harris

"Have you ever seen It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown?"

I stopped in my tracks. "Sure," I said. "Have you?'

"Oh, yes," Pam said calmly. "Many times." She gave me a minute to absorb that. "Eric is like that on Dracula Night."

-A Touch of Dead

A Touch of Dead is a small collection of short stories by Charlaine Harris, all centered around her most famous heroine, Sookie Stackhouse. These stories fill in gaps in Harris's novels, providing us with background information and some important plot detail, along with a fair amount of fluff.

There are only five stories, which makes this quite a quick read. In "Fairy Dust," we learn more about the fairy siblings Claude and Claudine as Sookie is brought in to investigate their triplet Claudette's death. "Dracula Night," which I quoted from above, describes Fangtasia's annual celebration of Dracula's birth. The third story of the collection, "One Word Answer," was the most interesting one in terms of its impact on Sookie. In my review of Definitely Dead, I wondered if there was a story that dealt with Sookie learning of the death of her cousin, Hadley, as well as her introduction to Queen Sophie-Ann Leclerq. "One Word Answer" is that story.

"Lucky" gives Sookie a chance to team up with her witchy roommate Amelia to solve a mystery, and "Gift Wrap" details an interesting Christmastime adventure for Sookie. Both stories are amusing, and the latter provides more insight into the supernatural world—for us, though interestingly not for Sookie.

In general, the stories are diverting, and worth reading for a Sookie Stackhouse fan—particularly "One Word Answer." I think it would probably be best to read them in between the novels in the order they were written —Harris indicates the proper sequence in her introduction—but I assume most readers, like me, will read these stories after finishing the rest of the series (save one, in my case). In any case, they're enjoyable, but I didn't get quite the satisfaction I've gotten from the novels, probably because there simply isn't so much space for dramatic arcs or character development in this format. Still, it was a pleasant way to spend an hour or so.

Up next: I think The Botany of Desire by Michael Pollan, but that could change.

Dead and Gone by Charlaine Harris

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

From Dead to Worse by Charlaine Harris

"There is much you don't know about Sookie," Bill said. It was the first time he'd spoken since Madden had entered. "Know this: I will die for her. If you harm her, I'll kill you." Bill turned his dark eyes on Eric. "Can you say the same?"

Eric plainly wouldn't, which put him behind in the "Who Loves Sookie More?" stakes. At the moment, that wasn't so relevant.

-From Dead to Worse

Well, I've learned that one difficulty of reading Sookie Stackhouse books back to back is that it makes it a little trickier to keep the storylines straight when it comes time to write about one. Each flows so well into the next - and I'm currently in the middle of Dead and Gone, which follows From Dead to Worse - that it's getting a little harder to remember each individual story. Nevertheless, I'll press on.

Big things are happening in From Dead to Worse. Sookie is recovering from the tumult at the end of All Together Dead. The vampire community of Louisiana, already weakened after Katrina, is incredibly vulnerable after this latest blow, setting the stage for a possible coup. Meanwhile, local weres are grappling with the aftermath of the regime change from a couple books back, which seems to have led to a recent spate of were killings. Oh, and Sookie meets her great-grandfather: he just happens to be a fairy prince. It's a very eventful book, though slightly peculiar in that most of the climactic events are done when we're still 100 pages out, and then there's just a lot of smaller stories to tie up. All the same, I was utterly absorbed, which seems to be happening more and more with these books as the series progresses. Well played, Charlaine Harris.

One thing that I think works particularly well in the Sookie Stackhouse books is how complex her universe has gotten, and thus how many storylines are going at any particular point. Harris can move something aside for one novel, then weave it right back into the next. It's really no surprise this series has worked so well on television; there's just so much for the True Blood team to work with. Speaking of, I can't wait to start watching Season 2 (yes, I'm a season behind). I barely remember what happened that far back in the books at this point. Well, I suppose I can go back and check my blog post (handy!).

Up next: Dead and Gone

All Together Dead by Charlaine Harris

Here was the truth of it: I'd had so little chance of having the kind of life my classmates had achieved - the kind of life I'd grown up thinking was the ideal - that any other life I could shape for myself seemed interesting. If I couldn't have a husband and children, worry about what I was going to take to the church potluck and if our house needed another coat of paint, then I'd worry about what three-inch heels would do to my sense of balance when I was wearing several extra pounds in sequins.

-All Together Dead

Gosh, I love Charlaine Harris.

The story of All Together Dead begins at a difficult point in recent American history, in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Our Sookie is not so directly affected, living in northern Louisiana, but in Harris's world the disaster had a dramatic impact on the supernatural community. It may seem silly to think about the ramifications a real-life event like Katrina would have in fantasy fiction, but Harris has made New Orleans so central to her vampire world that it would seem far weirder to ignore it. She handles it with appropriate gravitas and her approach never seems exploitative. It's simple and matter of fact: this happened, it was terrible, and here's how we're coping.

So, given that background, the political state of vampire Louisiana is pretty much a shambles when we pick up the story. The Queen of Louisiana, Sophie-Anne Leclerq, who featured heavily in the previous book, is suddenly vulnerable in the wake of Katrina and her ill-fated marriage to the King of Alabama. The latter, you may remember, came to an inauspicious end with his sudden death in Definitely Dead. Sophie-Anne has hired our favorite barmaid to accompany her to a vampire summit in Rhodes, where she hopes to use Sookie's telepathic powers to her advantage.

The whole merry gang - Sookie, Queen Sophie-Anne, Eric, Bill, Pam, and assorted other hangers-on - treks to Rhodes via the vampire-friendly Anubis Airlines, hoping to reestablish some of Louisiana's former power. Of course, readers of this series learned long ago that Sookie can't go anywhere without troubles being close on her heels. Things in Rhodes quickly get very, very dangerous for our heroine and her vampire pals. In addition, Sookie has to cope with an interesting development in her relationship with Eric, which I loved. It definitely drew me in more than any part of her relationship with weretiger Quinn has.

I found All Together Dead to be, in terms of plot, one of the more complicated and interesting Sookie Stackhouse outings. Although Harris was a bit heavy handed in some of her foreshadowing, I remain impressed by her ability to create such a rich, exciting, and often just plain fun world. While on some occasions I have been perfectly happy to allow some time to pass between reading books in this series, in this instance I was very glad to have From Dead to Worse at my disposal.

Up next: From Dead to Worse, clearly.

Definitely Dead by Charlaine Harris

"You got a cell phone?" I asked, rising to my feet as I spoke. Amelia nodded. "Call the queen's place. Tell them to send someone over right now."

"What?" Her eyes were confused, even as her fingers were punching in numbers.

Looking at the closet, I could see the fingers of the corpse twitch.

"He's rising," I said quietly.

It only took a second for her to get it. "This is Amelia Broadway on Chloe Street! Send an older vampire over here right now," she yelled into the phone. "New vamp rising!" She was on her feet now, and we were running for the door.

We didn't make it.

-Definitely Dead

Yes, we're revisiting the world of Sookie Stackhouse, which means many a scene of our plucky heroine in imminent peril. And as resourceful as Miss Sookie is, she rarely manages to come through unscathed.

So how does Sookie wind up in the hospital this time? Well, she heads down to New Orleans to wrap up the affairs of her cousin, Hadley. Does that name ring a bell? It should. Charlaine Harris has mentioned Sookie's wayward cousin pretty consistently, to the point where she had to show up sooner or later. In this book, however, Hadley is revealed to have become a vampire since Sookie saw her last and, more recently, joined the ranks of the "definitely dead." The latter is revealed so casually that I almost thought I had missed a book - and I still feel like I should see if there was a short story that fills in the gaps. Sookie mentions that she has met the Queen of Louisiana, Sophie-Anne Leclerq, and witnessed the punishment of Hadley's killer in such an off-hand way that it almost seems as though she's summing up something we should already know. Details, please!

Other than that, Definitely Dead hums right along. Sookie is navigating a new relationship with the weretiger, Quinn, and, more interestingly, having to reevaluate what she knows about Vampire Bill. She spends a fair amount of time with Queen Sophie-Anne, who loved Hadley dearly, and watches an ectoplasmic reconstruction - a neat addition to Harris's bag of tricks. Sookie's also still coping with the ramifications of the whole Debbie Pelt fiasco from Dead to the World. While I'm confused about how Harris handled the Hadley storyline, I admire her persistence in not letting the Debbie Pelt story wrap up too neatly. Many authors would be tempted to let Sookie off more easily, without having the Pelt family doggedly pursuing her for answers. It took her longer to finish the arc this way, but it was better done for it.

I have to admit, I'm not too excited about Sookie's relationship with Quinn. He's presented as a stand-up guy, which ranks him ahead of some (cough, Alcide, cough, Bill), but it's not nearly as fun as her relationship with Eric has been, nor as intense as her time with Bill. If she's not going to end up with either of the latter two, then I hope Harris can at least dream up someone a bit more interesting than Quinn. (Yes, I want someone more interesting than a weretiger. What can I say, I have high standards.)

I read an excerpt from the next book at the end of this one, and I have to say I found it a little dry. Nonetheless, I'm sure I will pick it up at some point.

Up next: Back to Keats. Slow, but steady on that one.

Dead as a Doornail by Charlaine Harris

I'd been able to read minds all my life. The ability is no great gift. Most peoples' minds don't bear reading. Their thoughts are boring, disgusting, disillusioning, but very seldom amusing. At least [Vampire] Bill had helped me learn how to cut out some of the buzz. Before he'd given me some clues, it had been like tuning in to a hundred radio stations simultaneously. Some of them had come in crystal clear, some had been remote, and some, like the thoughts of shape-shifters, had been full of static and obscurity. But they'd all added up to cacophony. No wonder lots of people had treated me as a half-wit.

Vampires were silent. That was the great thing about vamps, at least from my point of view: They were dead.

-Dead as a Doornail

Oh, Sookie. Remember when things were simple, and the only thing Sookie had to worry about was her burgeoning relationship with Vampire Bill - well, that and that pesky serial killer? By the onset of Dead as a Doornail, the 5th novel in the Sookie Stackhouse series, our heroine has become hopelessly enmeshed in the supernatural community, and her life is just getting more and more complicated.

There's a new threat to Sookie's world in Dead as a Doornail: someone is shooting shifters. This hits particularly close to home now that Sookie's brother, Jason, has been tentatively welcomed into the shifter community. And after fire is set to her home, Sookie has to face the fact that someone wants her dead as well. Not to mention that Merlotte's has a new vampire-pirate(!) bartender, Alcide Herveaux is pushing Sookie's involvement in the campaign for a new leader of the Werewolf community, and Vampire Bill has a new girlfriend. Definitely complicated for our girl Sookie.

The plot really rolls along in this one, which I found to be the biggest page-turner of the series since the first book. Now, once you're about three-quarters in, things start to become a bit easier to figure out, but Charlaine Harris does an admirable job of keeping the reader guessing for the bulk of the book. The confluence of these different supernatural communities and persons, all with their different allegiances and motivations, makes it challenging to suss out a culprit for quite a while. It was definitely an enjoyable read.

That having been said, I was a little disappointed in the route Harris went with Alcide Herveaux. When he was first introduced, Alcide seemed like a strong match for Sookie, particularly once we learned how flawed (to put it kindly) Bill was. By this book, Alcide has become much less sympathetic, which I think is too bad. I'll be curious to see whether Alcide can redeem himself in the future, or if Harris is more interested in the new romantic interest she introduced in Dead as a Doornail (whom I didn't find terribly exciting, to be honest). If not, I'll be happy if we get more of the ever-fascinating Eric.

Up next: I've started reading Susan Orlean's book of essays, The Bullfighter Checks Her Makeup.

Dead to the World by Charlaine Harris

The vampires have a public face and a public explanation for their condition - they claim an allergy to sunlight and garlic causes severe metabolic changes - but I've seen the other side of the vampire world. My eyes now see a lot of things most human beings don't ever see. Ask me if this knowledge has made me happy.

No.

-Dead to the World

So feels Sookie Stackhouse, our heroine and telepathic waitress extraordinaire. At the beginning of Dead to the World, Sookie is on the outs with former boyfriend Vampire Bill (again), thanks to his behavior in the previous book. Coming home from work late one night, she is astonished to see a nude man running along the side of the road. She is even more astonished to discover that it's Eric, the vampire sheriff (!) of her part of Louisiana. She quickly ascertains that Eric has lost his memory, rendering the vampire best known for his power almost helpless. What sort of mischief is afoot? Why, it's the work of witches, of course! Sookie takes Eric in, and then must help the vampires and werewolves who have banded together in an attempt to fight off the evil, power-hungry coven. All this, and Sookie's roguish brother Jason has gone missing....

The addition of witchcraft to the mix once again widens the universe of Sookie Stackhouse. It's not quite as fun as the werewolf storyline from Club Dead, but there is certainly potential. Just to clarify, by the way, not all of the witches involved in the goings on of Dead to the World are evil. Only the V-addicted, were-vampires. Naturally.

I actually don't have a ton to say, I'm realizing. This book is very much in line with the previous books I've read in the Sookie Stackhouse series, and it hits all of the points that have made the previous books entertaining: Sookie's spunk, supernatural hijinks (as well as some mayhem), Southern Gothic atmosphere, and sexy vampires. I mean, it's a pretty good combination. It was rather contrived to have an amnesiac Eric shacking up with Sookie, of course, but it doesn't mean the results weren't enjoyable.

Up next: When Will There Be Good News? by Kate Atkinson - I've been waiting for this one for awhile, so I'm quite ready to start reading (After Glee, of course. Or perhaps during the commercial breaks.)

Club Dead by Charlaine Harris

"You never told me all this before," I said, by way of explanation. "You all have divided America into kingdoms, is that right?"

Pam and Chow looked at Eric with some surprise, but he didn't regard them. "Yes," he said simply. "It has been so since vampires came to America. Of course, over the years the system's changed with the population. There were far fewer vampires in America for the first two hundred years, because the trip was so perilous. It was hard to work out the length of the voyage with the available blood supply." Which would have been the crew, of course. "And the Louisiana Purchase made a great difference."

Well, of course it would. I stifled another bout of giggles.

-Club Dead

Let's see, where did we leave off in the adventures of Sookie Stackhouse? She'd just survived a massacre in Dallas, and she was not psyched about Bill revealing his more animalistic, bloodthirsty side there. Also, some craziness went down with a maenad. Club Dead picks up only a few weeks later.* Bill is acting secretive and spending a lot of time on the computer (...), and Sookie is feeling a little put out. Then Bill leaves on a mysterious assignment...and disappears.

Bill is gone for pretty much the whole book, which worked out better than I might have expected when I started the series. I've grown a bit disenchanted with Bill.** Instead, we get the always awesome Eric, who comes to Bon Temps to lay out the situation with Sookie once he realizes Bill's disappearance is serious. This results in Sookie heading up to Jackson, Mississippi, where she plans to use her telepathic abilities to pick up leads on Bill's whereabouts. Sookie, accompanied by capable werewolf Alcide Herveaux*** heads to Club Dead, a local vampire/shapeshifter/werewolf haunt. Naturally, events unfold in a way that leave Sookie triumphant but in pretty rough shape. Again. Poor thing.

I found Club Dead a lot more enjoyable than Living Dead in Dallas. The plot was more engaging, even if Bill's computer project ended up being a bit of a McGuffin. I liked the new characters - particularly Alcide, but I was also intrigued by Russell Edgington, the king of Mississippi. I liked the ambiguity of the ending, which leaves me ready to read the next book.

Up next: I've made it a bit farther in Brief Interviews with Hideous Men, but I have to confess I'm finding it a bit of a slog. When I read a sentence like, "Kundera here would say 'dancing,' and actually he's a perfect example of a belletrist whose intermural honesty is both formally unimpeachable and wholly self-serving: a classic postmodern rhetorician," I feel like I'm being poked in the brain. Repeatedly. I'm not calling it quits (yet), but it's slow going.

So, to spell myself from DFW, I got The Lost City of Z by David Grann from the library. In case you've missed the press on this one, it's about a journalist's quest to uncover the fate of a long-lost team of Amazonian explorers and learn about the ancient city they set out to find. Only a few pages in and I'm already finding it pretty riveting.

*I actually wish Charlaine Harris would space out the books in time a bit more, as when you realize that prior events have happened so recently, you feel as though you should still be hearing more about their ramifications. This was better handled here than in Living Dead in Dallas, though.

**Particularly given some of the stuff he gets up to in Club Dead. Bill is getting pretty sketchy, you guys.

***Although it is never stated, you have to imagine that Sookie is loving that moniker, considering she laughed herself silly over the ordinariness of Bill's name.

Adaptation: True Blood, Season 1

When you came in, the air went out.
And every shadow filled up with doubt.

So begins "Bad Things," the devilishly catchy theme song of True Blood, HBO's adaptation of the Sookie Sackhouse novels. Is there any better way to describe that first meeting between Sookie and Vampire Bill? Him, sitting in Merlotte's, glowering, looking about as monstrous as he ever has. Her, delighted, bubbling over with excitement and anticipation. A vampire! Right here in Bon Temps!

True Blood loosely follows the arc of the first of Charlaine Harris's novel, Dead Until Dark. The writing and editing have been carefully done, with showrunners excising the superfluous (the Bubba character, most notably) and beefing up roles for interesting characters (especially Jason, Sookie's brother, and Lafayette, her coworker). They've also played up the political angle of the story, which gives some of the goings-on a bit more weight and real-world credibility.

The acting is across-the-board great. I've heard some complaints about the accents (three of the leads, Anna Paquin, Stephen Moyer, and Ryan Kwanten, are from New Zealand, England, and Australia respectively), but nothing sounded radically off to me. Of course, I'm no great expert of the accents of northern Louisiana. Also, I think it's cute that Stephen Moyer says Sook-EH instead of Sookie, so I may be biased.

The real standout of the cast is Rutina Wesley, who plays Sookie's friend Tara. As I mentioned in my previous post, I love Tara. She's a fantastically complicated character; a woman who's strong, scared, funny, angry, and vulnerable. It's a huge oversight that Rutina Wesley does not have an Emmy nomination this year. I also have to recognize Ryan Kwanten, who plays Jason Stackhouse. He takes a character who seems pretty dumb and unlikeable, who continues to do idiotic things throughout the season, and injects him with enough warmth that you kind of have to love him. It's a bit of a tightrope act.

I also really love the mood of the show. The ambience. Vampires fit in quite nicely among the swampy backwoods and the antebellum homes. It's a funny show as well though, particularly because of Tara and her scene-stealing cousin Lafayette. The funny moments are offset by moments of outright horror, including spouting blood and - well, whatever else it is that might come out when a vampire is staked in the most spectacularly gory manner possible. It is not always advisable to eat when watching True Blood, fair warning.

Having finished the first season and being in possession of some iTunes credit, I was all set to settle in with season 2. I'm quite curious to see what direction they go in, considering that by the end of the season 1 finale, they've set up two storylines from the second book (but I'm pretty certain that they aren't planning to follow them too closely). Anyway, imagine my disappointment when I discovered it wasn't online yet. I'll have to console myself with season 2 of Mad Men - a fine show in and of itself, no doubt, but seriously lacking in vampires. (Time travelling crossover special, anyone? You know you want to see Sterling Cooper marketing TruBlood.)

Living Dead in Dallas by Charlaine Harris

"He wasn't working last night," I said. "Anthony was working, Anthony Bolivar."
"Who is that?" Alcee's broad forehead wrinkled. "Don't recognize the name."
"He's a friend of Bill's. He was passing through, and he needed a job. He had the experience." He'd worked in a diner during the Great Depression.
"You mean the short-order cook at Merlotte's is a vampire?"

-Living Dead in Dallas

Remember what I said in the Bleak House entry about having trouble finding a good quotation sometimes? Yeah, it's like that here. I'm not reading the Sookie Stackhouse novels for the prose. I do like the idea of a vampire who worked in a diner in the Great Depression, though. I think one of my favorite things about vampires is all the history they've experienced. They're like one-way time travelers!

When we last left Sookie Stackhouse, the telepathic waitress dating vampire Bill Compton, she was recovering in a hospital bed after a nasty fight with the serial killer who had been preying on local women. The fate of that killer, who was hanging between life and death at the end of Dead Until Dark, is curiously never mentioned in this book. I mean, he was well known to Sookie and her friends, so you'd think it might be interesting to see how his death/recovery/existence in general had affected them. No dice. Forget he was ever there.

Instead this book expands Sookie's universe considerably. After the death of another one of her co-workers, as well as another brutal attack on her, Sookie is whisked off from the tiny town of Bon Temps, Louisiana to Dallas. There, Sookie is expected to fulfill certain professional obligations: she must use her telepathy to find a missing vampire. Along the way she has quite a time with the frightening Fellowship of the Sun church and begins to more fully understand the ways in which Bill is not human. She meets some shapeshifters, ends up in the hospital again, and manages to get home in time for a football game and a hasty resolution to that co-worker's murder.

This was a very strangely paced and organized book. Now, granted, I may feel that way because I've just finished watching season 1 of True Blood (which I plan to get to in another post). For 75% of the novel, Sookie is in Dallas, which means the only familiar characters she is interacting with are Bill and charismatic vampire leader Eric. True Blood regulars Jason and Sam are barely on the radar. Not to mention the fact that the book opens with a murder, which could have propelled the story in and of itself, but instead is dropped as a plot until Sookie returns to Bon Temps in the last few chapters. I felt like the entire time Sookie was in Dallas, I was waiting for the story to get started, until I eventually realized that Dallas was the story (yes, the title should have been a clue). As far as stories go, it was okay, but I don't think it used the characters to their best advantage.

I still love the prim and plucky Sookie, but I felt the characterization faltered a bit in this one - again, this could be in comparison to the show. Bill came off as too possessive and controlling (shades of Edward Cullen, yuck) - I can't tell if this is because he's 150 years old, he's a vampire, or if he just has no idea when it is appropriate to give a lady topaz earrings. (Hint: always better to err on the side of not giving gifts to match the outfit in which your lady friend just survived a massacre. Chances are she's not wearing that dress again.)

Then there's the newly introduced Tara Thornton. Tara is possibly - probably - my favorite character on True Blood. There is a character by the same name in Living Dead in Dallas, but she's so far below Tara's level of awesomeness that they're really not comparable. Or if I were to compare them, it would just be to bemoan how lame book Tara is.

It will be interesting to see how much of this plot they use in season 2 of True Blood, and how much they'll go off in their own direction - I'll get to this more in the promised True Blood post. In the meantime, I have to say this has put a bit of a damper on me reading more Sookie Stackhouse books right away, but I'd be surprised if I didn't get to the next book eventually.

Up next: I've decided to go for the sequel to The Mysterious Benedict Society, which has been sitting on my shelves long enough.

Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris

I'd been waiting for the vampire for years when he walked into the bar.

Ever since vampires came out of the coffin (as they laughingly put it) two years ago, I'd hoped one would come to Bon Temps. We had all the other minorities in our little town - why not the newest, the legally recognized undead? But rural northern Louisiana wasn't too tempting to vampires, apparently; on the other hand, New Orleans was a real center for them - the whole Anne Rice thing, right?

It's not that long a drive from Bon Temps to New Orleans, and everyone who came into the bar said that if you threw a rock on a street corner you'd hit one. Though you better not.

But I was waiting for my own vampire.

-Dead Until Dark

I can say right off that your appreciation of Dead Until Dark is absolutely reliant on your tolerance for silliness. For instance, that joke about coming out of the coffin: corny or cringeworthy? If you cringed, this is not the book for you.

Dead Until Dark is the story of Sookie Sackhouse, a telepathic waitress with a charmingly outdated sense of style and quite a bit of moxie. She's the one who's been waiting on a vampire; the one who finally arrives is Bill Compton. He's handsome (if a bit pale), a former military man - the Civil War, naturally. The stop-start relationship that develops between the two is one of the most engaging parts of the story, and largely the reason that disc one of True Blood (based on the Sookie Stackhouse novels) is on its way to me from Netflix.

The twosome must contend with prejudiced locals as well as vampires who are less inclined than Bill to make nice with humans. All the while, the town is terrorized by a serial killer who seems to be preying on women who consort with vampires. So: Is the killer a vampire? Is Sookie the next victim? You get the idea.

The plot is easy to follow, but still got in some good twists. It doesn't take itself too seriously, which is perhaps one of its greatest assets (ahem, Twilight*). I enjoyed the Louisiana setting, which allowed for some snazzy Cajun names and a good number of people being called "cher." And although, like I said, it has its dorky moments (synthetic blood in bars, anyone?), it was totally a fun read and I am looking forward to the sequels. They would definitely provide welcome entertainment on a plane or at the beach, but since I don't have plans that involve either of those things in the forseeable future, I may make due with park/subway.

Up next: I was feeling patriotic after the 4th, so I've started Burr. I also bought Bleak House at Barnes and Noble with almost-the-last of my gift card, and I am psyched for my upcoming reread. Killer book.

*I feel like I am being rather good by not putting in about four million digs at Twilight, but actually, other than the female human/male vampire relationship, the two books really don't have much in common.