Dead Until Dark (Sookie Stackhouse Series)

I wasn't really inspired on picking up Charlaine Harris' books for a while. I would look at them, the cover wouldn't really appeal to me and then I would put it back on the shelf. It wasn't until my husband encouraged me to watch the True Blood T.V. series that I decided to pick up a copy. I did not want to watch the series not knowing the book at first. That's me, usually I would like to read the book before watching a movie or a T.V. show. So, that is how I got my first Sookie related book.

Dead Until Dark is the first of 10 books based on the life of Sookie Stackhouse. Written by Charlaine Harris and published on 2004.(One can't help but wonder how the hell does this woman manages to write so many books in such a short period of time)

Sookie Stackhouse is a waitress that works at a local bar in the town of Bon Temps. She lives with her grandmother since her parents passed when she was 8 years old. She seems a common girl in a common and simple small town. However, Sookie does have an unusual talent that sets her apart from the people she knows. She reads minds, something that she wishes she wouldn't be able to do. Instead of helping her, this gift, usually gets her in trouble because she knows more than she wishes to know.

She lives in a world where vampires are "accepted" by the society which means that they have revealed their existance to the humans and began the process to fight for equal civil rights since the Japanese invented sinthetic blood therefore they do not need human blood anymore.

The story begins when Sookie gets to attend her first vampire costumer: Bill Compton. Soon she learns, after saving his life from a local couple of junkies, that the only minds she can't listen and/or read are the ones of the vampires. Obviously, she falls in love with him because she could be herself around him and not walk on eggshells trying not to listen to anyone's mind.

While Sookie and Bill are busy falling in love and fighting against those who disagree on their relationship, a bunch of local women die. All eyes seem to focus on Bill, the new vampire in town. However, the police's eyes seem to turn to Jason Stackhouse, Sookie's brother, whose "ladies man" fame and previous relationships with the victims make them believe he might have done it.

The book takes us through Sookies atttempts to clear her brother's and boyfriend's innocence and Sookie's attempts to fight off her love for Bill. It seems that for her dating a vampire is too much and quite often she needs time to digest ( he he) whatever happens in Bill's world.

My take on the book is simple. It is an entertaining book that gives you a few laughs and lets you find some interesting characters that will become more interesting as the series develops. For me it is easy to read, to understand and to like. Sookie's mind is gentle, straightforward and at times naïve. It makes you see the world through a telepath's eyes and makes you fall in love with her world.

I usually find myself a little bit more into Sookie's world than Sookie itself. Sookie is not an ordinary girl, even though she keeps on trying to make everyone believe she is the girl next door. I think Harris in the attempt of creating a character that would make all women empathize with, built a girl that sometimes I get to dislike.

Sookie describes herself as: "I'm blond and blue-eyed and twenty-five, and my legs are strong and my bosom is substantial, and I have a waspy waistline. I look good in the warm-weather waitress outfit Sam picked for us: black shorts, white T, white socks, black Nikes". That instantly lets us know that every single male character will have a crush on her and every single vampire she meets will want to get in her pants.

In my opinion authors usually write the main character according to everything they ever wanted to be, it might be that Harris always wanted to be that stunning girl with a twist. There is always a twist: you are the chosen one, you have a talent, you are an outcast,etc..

The truth is that Sookie might get you to roll your eyes from time to time but the book gives you a whole lot of entertainment and a good time.

From my point of view, this is not a book for kids or pre-teens since it might get a bit too sexual and well, I wouldn't like my 10 or 12 year old kid reading about sex among vampires or mortals.

So, I give a thumb up to this book for young adult readers that like vampires written in a more adult way.

Have a Fangtastic Tale

True Blood 3rd Season Premiere

Yes, obviously, I do watch True Blood. I'm not obsessed with it but I find it quite interesting and entertaining. In Mexico the new season won´t premiere until the 27th so my husband, as the pleasing husband he is, has the task to download the episodes and then burn it on a DVD-R and then I can keep up with my favorite series. So, yesterday (Monday) I got to watch the first episode on this season. I was expecting to see what I read on Club Dead (Charlaine Harris book) but by now I should know that I shouldn't expect to see what I read.

Anyway, last season we were left with the shock of Bill being missing after a rather stupid Sookie left him hanging with a marriage proposal. So, in this season we pick up things exactly where we were left. Sookie trying to explain to a cop how she left Bill at the table waiting for an answer and how he is missing. The cop refuses to file a missing person report.

Meanwhile, we see how Jason Stackhouse fled Eggs' murder scene (that always makes me laugh, eggs, ha ha!) and Bellefleur takes the responsability. Tara is in a zombie-like state of shock and everyone gives their account and declarations of the scene. Bellefleur recomends Jason to get some tail and Jason does so. He can't do it because as always Jason sees gun marks on the girls forehead. Why is Jason always having these visions when he is about to get laid? I begin to think he has a real problem.

Sookie seeks Jessica's help in case she sees Bill and Jessica is more worried about Hoyt, who left some flowers, and the guy she semi-killed and then tried to help by feeding him her blood. Too bad he was already dead by the time that happened.

Of course, a True Blood episode wouldn't be a True Blood episode if we did not have some nudity and sex scene. Sookie walks in Eric having some fang-banger sex with a dancer from the club, a session that suposedly had lasted some 6 hours ( uh? I get it he is a vampire but her? How could she endure 6 hours hanging by those chains?). Sookie demands Eric to find Bill and Eric is worried that someone is going to find out that he is the responsible vampire for the V traffic that had being going on in Bont Temps.

Jessica receives Bill's calling, who is somewhere in Mississipi feeding off an old lady who thought he was Stanley, and takes Sookie to the place she thought Bill was calling out to her. They find Bill's car all wrecked and find out that his kidnappers are werewolves. And then the episode ends with Bill about to get in a fight with a bunch of werewolves.

Oh, yeah, by the way, Sam is looking for his family, Tara tries to kill herself, her mother is trying to hook up with the Reverend and Arlene seems to be pregnant ( did she get pregnant on the orgy they had last season?)

My take on the episode? Well I have to admit that I missed Bill's legendary ( maybe) Sookieeeeeeeeeeeeeee ( you all have noticed, right?). But all in all I think it is a good start. We have a glimpse of what the season will be: Werewolves Vs. Vampires. We get to see that Eric and the Queen ( who I loooooooooooooove) will be very much involved in a dealing kind of war. And that maybe Arlene is having the evil's child (that's my guess).

What I do not like? I think too much happened on the first episode. Everyone's business was revealed and all we wanted to know is who had Bill and how would Eric intervine on this specific case. I just hope that they were trying to fix the lose ends they left last season and that next episodes we'll be watching some episodes dedicated entirely to Bill, Soookieeeeeeeeee, Eric and the Werewolves. I think that by now they have too many characters and they do not what to do with them. In the books you do not have so many characters developed so deeply as we have in the series and now that the Weres are about to go in they'll have more. So, I think they will kill Tara and I think that Jason eventually will be over his trauma during sex.

The characters I'm looking forward to see more are: Alcide, The Queen, Eric and obviously Sookie and Bill.

We'll see. So far I'll give an 8 out of 10 for the first episode.

Have a Fangtastic Tale