Dead Until Dark (Sookie Stackhouse, book 1) by Charlaine Harris
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Edition Reviewed: Paperback
Amazon: Paperback | Kindle
Goodreads: Dead Until Dark (1)
Sookie Stackhouse is a small-time cocktail waitress in small-town Louisiana. She's quiet, keeps to herself, and doesn't get out much. Not because she's not pretty. She is. It's just that, well, Sookie has this sort of "disability." She can read minds. And that doesn't make her too dateable. And then along comes Bill. 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. He hangs with a seriously creepy crowd, all suspected of--big surprise--murder. And when one of Sookie's coworkers is killed, she fears she's next....
Review:
Ah, a reread of one of my favorite series. After finally forcing myself to finish the True Blood TV series I knew my time had come. The time to rinse out the horrid taste of said HBO series from my mind after it went terribly wrong. Though the truth is I've been meaning to reread the series for a while. It's been on my mind especially since I've only read up to book 7. (After I got annoyed waiting for the paperback releases all the time.) It also didn't help that a Goodreads friend (who shall not be named) spoiled the ending.
I was 13 at the time of first reading this book. Having stumbled across my copy of the third book in a local thrift store. I bought it despite it's crappy cover and then even had faith to buy the first book brand new after reading a few pages. The world of Sookie Stackhouse is still one of my favorites to visit. (Though I think my older copies say A Southern Vampire novel on them.) After many Urban Fantasy, and vampire, books inbetween I still find Sookie's to be a refreshing and unique take.
I adore Sookie and love how her mind reading skills are realized. Her disability—as she calls it—is something you can understand and sympathize with. It doesn't make her all powerful, I find it makes her more human. I love her humor and wit. Which is good as it is told from first person and Sookie's take on the world is open and hilarious.
The whole cast is fabulous and while some characters pasts aren't revealed readers can get a good feel for them. Many favorites will be discovered by the end. (They're so good you can see why the writers of True Blood wanted to expand on them.)
Dead Until Dark is the perfect blend of humor, wit, mystery murder, romance, urban fantasy, and great writing. No really. The Sookie Stackhouse books are pioneers of the Urban Fantasy genre, and when I read them for the first time I was sooooo thankful for the incredible writing. Now I feel like the genre suffers from uncreative and soulless writing in attempts to simply crank out another UF title. Not to mention the mindless dialogue of “tough” leads, so the natural course for the writing is to be sparse character development and world building.
Now that I'm older I can now appreciate that while Bill is sexy as hell there's some issues. He's not human and boy does Harris make it clear. To Sookie and readers. Bill may still be hot but I found him creepy. Perhaps knowing what he does in later books adds to it, but I can see the foreshadowing. What I can now see as well is that Sookie doesn't see him as some White Knight. She can understand why she's willing to date him, and I love that Sookie sees in shades of gray. (Though things are gonna get shadier.) The parts that her telepathy does make her different from everyone else. Sookie understands why they work as a couple now and the reasons why they don't.
Oh, boy though. The chemistry is just as powerful as I remember.
To be honest the mystery of this book doesn't feel like the main focus, and it really solves itself. I do remember at the time how surprised I was when the murderer was revealed. Don't get me wrong the mystery is personal and close to home to Sookie. It does shapes the entire book. It's also a treat to know that if the murder mystery part wasn't there I'm positive that Dead Until Dark would still stand on it's own two feet still. For whatever reason if you haven't tried out these books, do. I implore you.
Sexual Content: Plenty of sexual humor and frank conversation on the matter. Sex. Yes. Not overly graphic, but it's still hot as all get out.
5/5- Fabulous, a beautiful obsession!
| Previous book(s) in series: | ||
| Reviewed on BW: | Amazon: | Goodreads: |
| Dead Until Dark (1) Living Dead in Dallas (2) Club Dead (3) Dead to the World (4) Dead as a Doornail (5) Definitely Dead (6) All Together Dead (7) From Dead to Worse (8) Dead and Gone (9) Dead in the Family (10) Dead Reckoning (11) Deadlocked (12) Dead Ever After (13) | Dead Until Dark (1) Living Dead in Dallas (2) Club Dead (3) Dead to the World (4) Dead as a Doornail (5) Definitely Dead (6) All Together Dead (7) From Dead to Worse (8) Dead and Gone (9) Dead in the Family (10) Dead Reckoning (11) Deadlocked (12) Dead Ever After (13) | Dead Until Dark (1) Living Dead in Dallas (2) Club Dead (3) Dead to the World (4) Dead as a Doornail (5) Definitely Dead (6) All Together Dead (7) From Dead to Worse (8) Dead and Gone (9) Dead in the Family (10) Dead Reckoning (11) Deadlocked (12) Dead Ever After (13) |
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