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

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.