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Sink your teeth into the first novel in the #1 New York Times bestselling Sookie Stackhouse series--the books that gave life to the Dead and inspired the HBO® original series True Blood. Sookie Stackhouse is just a small-time cocktail waitress in small-town Bon Temps, Louisiana. She's quiet, doesn't get out much, and tends to mind her own business--except when it comes to her "disability." Sookie can read minds. And that doesn't make her too dateable. Then along comes Bill Compton. He's tall, dark, handsome--and Sookie can't hear a word he's thinking. He's exactly the type of guy she's been waiting for all her life... But Bill has a disability of his own: he's a vampire with a bad reputation. And when a string of murders hits Bon Temps--along with a gang of truly nasty bloodsuckers looking for Bill--Sookie starts to wonder if having a vampire for a boyfriend is such a bright idea.… (more)
User reviews
Sookie Stackhouse, blonde, blue-eyed and sassy, has a self-proclaimed ‘disability’ which she promptly explains, from the very first page, in her introduction to vampires, her life, and her home locale; with a Southern receptivity that is smart, interesting and immediately charming. Having to live with her telepathy, considered 'crazy', and hence not easily accepted by most - as vampires are now - Sookie has hidden depths and talents that come to the fore when she becomes a target for a serial killer brutally attacking women around Bon Temps. Possibly related, in part, to her dating the local vampire, Bill, the entire scenario thus presents a truly exotic, unusual and fascinating world – all the more appealing due to Sookie’s remarkable attitude, peculiar aptitude and unique viewpoint of her special province.
This book is a superb assortment of many things. Containing a convincing smattering of mystery, a firm balance of romantic entanglement, a large dash of endearing humour and an exclusive take on dark, urban themes, plus a narrator placed such that she can avail the reader with all the necessary information, background and pertinent point-of-view, this becomes a matchless paranormal tale. Charlaine Harris has used all these components to craft a vastly amusing, cleverly original, well-written piece which flows smoothly, intrigues immediately, and stimulates thoroughly due to this innovative, refreshing variation on the genre.
Consequently this story holds a fast-paced plot and is an absorbing read, engaging one's senses by intelligently mixing a very likeable human character with the no-nonsense horror of her supernatural world; and by bluntly spelling out the best and the worst of this co-habitation, this candour supplies an authenticity, an integrity and thus immeasurable attraction to the tale. And I was so ensnared that this review is now very late in being written; I was too intent on reading the next book! A more glowing endorsement I can’t give…
(Jan 8th, 2009)
I've heard a lot about these books over the years. It seems like they're everywhere lately, what with the HBO show and all, so I figured I'd give 'em a go. See what they're like.
I feel strange saying this, given that the book is chock full of murder and bloodlust and other great stuff like that, but I found it... well, fluffy. It's a cute, fun little thing that reads up right quick.
I think Sookie herself sets the tone here. She's such a sweetie. She's friendly and bright and rather naive. She's not your typical angsty, I'll-kick-your-ass-into-next-Thursday-if-you-look-at-me-the-wrong-way urban fantasy heroine. She hasn't let all the dark thoughts she picks up on corrupt her or make her cynical. She's just a big ol' sweetie pie. I couldn't really consider this a dark, gory murder mystery. Not with a heroine like Sookie. She was my favourite part of the book.
I also liked the atmosphere. This is very much a southern vampire story. It's got a real Louisiana feel to it; the way everyone speaks, the names, the attitudes... I thought Harris evoked the setting very well. I appreciated how she incorporated the supernatural into her alternate world, too. It wasn't quite on a par with any of my favourite alternate worlds, but it still felt fairly realistic.
But the rest of the book... well. It's fluffy. It's good, I don't want you to think it isn't, but it's not really very deep. Sookie and Bill's relationship is sketchy at best. I never felt the chemistry between them. Ditto for her friendships with the rest of the town. They're sweet and all, but I couldn't find the spark. I couldn't find the oomph.
The mystery is much the same. It didn't leap out at me. For the most part, I felt like it was just a vehicle whereby Harris could introduce her characters and their world. Given that the series seems to be a vampire detective kind of a deal, I do think she might have done more to build up the mystery angle and show her characters actually solving the crime. Sookie does do a little bit, but for the most part she seems to just fall into the answers she needs.
I also had some trouble with the tenses. The book is told from Sookie's first person POV. At the very beginning, Harris slips back and forth between the past tense and the present tense in order to show that the book's events are in Sookie's fairly recent past, but it doesn't quite jive with the story. Stuff like that bugs me no end.
My final verdict: a fun book and a decent way to pass the time, but nothing special. It reads like the series opener it is. I'll probably read a couple more of the books, but I'm not really sold yet.
(A slightly different version of this review originally appeared on my blog, Stella Matutina).
This is a delightful book. It is a quick, easy, breezy read that is fun. Sookie Stackhouse is bored with her
When murders occur, Sookie finds herself smack in the middle of some rather creepy unworldly characters.
This is the first book of the series and, much to my surprise, I can't wait to read more!
In the beginning of the book I thought I had perhaps made a mistake - the vampire theme was still slightly sketchy to me, and lots of characters were being introduced, making it more of a complicated read. Eventually I got everything straight and found myself loving the plot - Sookie Stackhouse, a waitress in a bar, meets a vampire (Bill). In this novel, vampires are allowed to live among humans, and everyone is aware that they are vampires (something different from the Twilight series). Bill has been trying to "mainstream," or drink artificial blood and actually be a part of a community. Shortly after Sookie and Bill meet, several murders happen around the town to women who have been known to associate with vampires, and have been found with bite marks, making it slightly more difficult for Bill to blend in.
There is a great mix of romance and mystery in this book, and I did not figure out the mystery bit until it was revealed to me in the manuscript (which I love, as some mystery novels have rather obvious outcomes). I am very much looking forward to reading the remaining books in this series - I find myself wondering how Bill and Sookie are doing as I am in between books, so I am glad there are several others for me to read!
But a series of young women have been found dead in Bon Temps recently and suspicion naturally falls on Bill the Vampire. Worse, it looks as if Sookie might be next on the killer's agenda. Sookie and Bill must find the killer themselves if they want to live happily ever after, if indeed one can live happily ever after with a vampire.
When an author creates a paranormal world like the one in Dead Until Dark, they must also create so-called rules for their paranormal creatures. Fiction about human beings, by and large, need not state their rules because as humans, you and I know those rules quite well. What the paranormal rules are specifically doesn't really matter. What is important is that the author stick to their rules to give the story legitimacy. Harris, I'm happy to report, excels at this (unlike another well-known vampire author who has been all the rage recently), which brings a cohesiveness to the story and keeps you comfortably ensconced in her world.
Harris also creates an amusing vocabulary all her own when it comes to vampires.
Vampire groupies?
They're called 'fang-bangers.'
A vampire's ability to hypnotize?
They're simply 'glamoring' you.
And assimilation, or 'mainstreaming,' into society eerily parallels the difficulties experienced by other minority groups in the American south. As light-hearted as this mystery is, there is a dark undercurrent of small-town American prejudice there for any who care to look for it.
The Recommendation
For a reader who professes not to care for westerns or the paranormal, I sure seem to be picking up an awful lot of them recently. But in the case of Dead Until Dark, I'm glad I did. The book is much more light-hearted than HBO's adaptation and the characters are far more sympathetic when you meet them on the pages instead of the screen.
Dead Until Dark could be considered what is often referred to as a light read, but I just consider it plain fun. Enjoyable for a plane ride or a fun interlude between more serious novels, I highly recommend it.
There are currently eight available books in the series. If you suffer from series OCD like I do, you might want to collect them all.
A fun and easy read.
This is the first book in the Southern Vampire series,
This is a great beginning to the series. There were a couple of descriptive parts that I prefer to skip over regarding the relationship between Sookie and Bill; however, the book held my interest quite well.
I agree with my friend Jessica that Sookie's outfits are distractingly horrible. She wears a BANANA CLIP in her
The fashion notwithstanding, this book was a lot of fun to read and I am now hooked on the series.
Dead Until Dark is a quick and fun read - I devoured it literally in one sitting over the course of a single night. The story is interesting, and I loved the setting of Bon Temps, Louisiana, a charming small town trying desperately to hold on to its conventionality despite world events. The characters in Dead Until Dark are quirky and off-the-wall, in the best possible sense, and are decidedly different from their television counterparts.
Dead Until Dark is a delightful mixture of horror, psychological thriller, humor, and romance, that will engage and entertain the reader from page one. The twists and turns of the plot leave you wondering "who done it," while the characters will have you laughing out loud out at the hilarious dialogue. Read Dead Until Dark and you will fall in love with Sookie Stackhouse and Bon Temps, Louisiana. I think I'll read the rest of the series over Spring Break!
Then she meets Bill, the vampire. Oh, Bill's not the only vampire; for two years, now, vampires have been out of the coffin ("as they laughingly put it") and living among humans. Bill Compton has returned to his hometown of Bon Temps, Louisiana and is living in his old family home and attempting to mainstream into human society. As things will, one leads to another, and Sookie and Bill become involved.
Charlaine Harris has created a charming, strong, self-aware heroine in Sookie Stackhouse. She also creates a strong sense of place in her depiction of Bon Temps and its environs