Book Log #60: Dead Until Dark, by Charlaine Harris

[annathepiper]

Dead Until Dark, the first of the Sookie Stackhouse series by Charlaine Harris, remains one of the strongest of the series. This is the one that sets the atmosphere and tone that make it stand out against so many other vampire fantasy series, and which drew me in in the first place--this being an urban fantasy set in a tiny town in the South, and populated with characters both human and supernatural that are products of the region in which they live. As one who grew up on the northern fringes of the South, it's refreshing to me to see urban fantasy that isn't exactly urban, and it's particularly fun to see Southern vampires and weres.

The main plot of Dead Until Dark is fairly simple, all things considered: women with a known history of having sexual encounters with vampires are being strangled, and Sookie's brother Jason is among the prime suspects. At the same time, Sookie meets her very first vampire: Bill Compton, who's looking to "mainstream", i.e., live as normal a life as he can manage among humans. Sookie's telepathic gift makes her highly intriguing to Bill--and other vampires for that matter--and Sookie herself is powerfully drawn to Bill on the grounds that she can't hear any of his thoughts. Yet vampires remain dangerous, and the more she associates with Bill, the more apparent this becomes.

Fun all around, especially now that HBO is running the True Blood series; I was particularly pleased to see that the first few episodes are closely following the plot of this novel. Four stars.

Comments

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Does anyone in the books ever call her Sooty Smokestack? Because, y'know...

[annathepiper]

Har. No, they don't. :)

[ssha.livejournal.com]

I did not know this series had been ported to TV. I read Club Dead way, way back when. I should re-read it/read more of her stuff. I've seen at least one new title from her at the grocery store in the past couple of months, so I imagine the library has her books...

[annathepiper]

Yeah, it's only gotten ported to TV as of this year, and the first few episodes are good and solid... but it's only on HBO, so unless you have access to that channel, you may have to wait until the first season DVDs are out. (I'll be buying 'em, I expect.)

And yeah, the series is fun, particularly if you're from anywhere close to the South. :) Hopefully you'll be able to check 'em out from your local library!

[ssha.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that would be cool. Or, if I ever get a Netflix account set up for the complex as I have been intending to do for a while, I'll have to add them to it.

Out of curiosity, how/when did you get into Charlaine Harris? I don't remember exactly how I got into her. Was it from you? I just know it was back when I lived at 5026, and I purchased the one book for some reason from somewhere.

[annathepiper]

I'm pretty sure that I picked up the first book just because I liked the gist of the setting: i.e., a vampire novel set in the South. But I don't remember when I started reading 'em, in relation to when the series came out. I'm kind of thinking that I started after there were two or three of 'em out; I have this idea that Book #4, Dead as a Doornail, was the first one I bought shortly after its initial release.

And you certainly could have picked it up from me. :)

[ssha.livejournal.com]

I know the first one I picked up was Club Dead, which isn't actually the first in the series, I don't think.

[annathepiper]

It's not, it's Book 3!