Book Log #64: Definitely Dead, by Charlaine Harris

Definitely Dead is an interesting turning point for the Sookie Stackhouse series, and if you're at all interested in reading these books, this book is not the place to start. With this novel, the Sookies have reached a point I've seen in the Dresden Files as well: enough has happened to the main character that she's had to grow emotionally, and in some ways she's not entirely comfortable with.

Sookie spends most of this book heading down to New Orleans to clean out the apartment of her formerly undead--and now permanently dead--cousin Hadley. This provides a nice opportunity to see how New Orleans is handled in the Sookie universe, and it's intriguing to see a version of the city where vampires are a huge tourist attraction. Plus, there are interesting politics between the Queen of Louisiana and the King of Arkansas. Sookie is drawn big time into these politics--especially when they result in her learning a highly unpalatable secret about her very first lover. Moreover, a secret about Sookie herself is revealed, one that goes quite a long way to explaining many of her life experiences, both past and recent.

Meanwhile, we have a distinct winnowing of the field of Sookie's suitors. A new love interest introduced in the previous book seriously comes on camera in this one; I have to admit, too, that I give Harris props for a were-creature that isn't a wolf, and furthermore, making Quinn bald. You don't see too many bald love interests in either romance or fantasy, that's for sure. That said, I'm still rooting for Eric, who isn't about to give up on the events that he still can't remember from Book 4.

All in all this is kind of a lopsided read for me. The Eric mileage is fun, as is the glimpses of New Orleans and the introduction of a new friend for Sookie, as well as a disturbing development for one of the minor characters in the staff at Merlotte's. However, Quinn as a love interest just doesn't push my buttons much. Three and a half stars.

Book Log #65: All Together Dead, by Charlaine Harris

If Book 6 of the Sookie Stackhouse series was a turning point, then Book 7, All Together Dead, is the drawing of battle lines. Vampire politics, were politics, and an upsurge of human fanatic reaction to the undead are all in the forefront of this plot, making it arguably one of the most substantial of the Sookies to date.

Sookie is called upon to join the party of the Queen of Louisiana for a vampire summit in the (fictional) city of Rhodes. Once there, she has all sorts of competing pulls for her attention. The only other telepath she's ever met, from way back in Book 2, makes another appearance here. Rumblings about a civil war among the weres are growing stronger. And the politics between not only various factions of vampires but also between vampires and humans take center stage--forcing Sookie to question whether her life can truly be "normal" again, and in fact, to which vampire she's willing to bind herself now that she's seized the Louisiana Queen's attention.

There's a glaringly obvious "oh for fuck's sake" moment that gives away the intentions of the antagonists in this plot--or at least, obvious to the reader; I did wonder how exactly this escaped the attention of all of the significant characters in the book. Granted, they've all got other things on their minds at the time, but it's still enough to make one go "wait, what?"

But that's the only bump in an otherwise thoroughly solid story. Three and a half stars.

Book Log #66: Echoes from the Macabre, by Daphne du Maurier

I picked up Echoes from the Macabre at a library sale for only a buck or so, and it was certainly well worth that price, just for the sake of reading horror-flavored stories from an older era. I vaguely recognized the name of Daphne du Maurier--but only as I actually cracked open the book did I discover that she was the original author of the short story that became Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds.

Most of the stories in this volume are fairly low-key horror-wise, by modern standards; they felt to me rather akin to Twilight Zone episodes. This is not a bad thing. The issue I had with several of them, though, was that in at least a couple of cases the main characters were actively dislikeable. This of course leads one to wonder whether the entire point of such stories (such as "The Apple Tree", which is pretty much all about an irascible older gent flipping out as he equates a stunted apple tree in his yard with his now-deceased wife, or "Not After Midnight", wherein a standoffish tutor has a disturbing encounter with a treasure-hunting couple) is that these characters are getting their just desserts.

"The Blue Lenses" stood out for me very strongly, enough that I wondered whether I'd seen a dramatization of that story before--perhaps even as a Twilight Zone episode or something similar. "Kiss Me Again, Stranger" was also solid, with its depiction of a young man having a passing encounter with a captivating and unsettling young woman.

The final story in the volume was, of course, "The Birds". It's a different experience reading the short story than it is seeing the film; the story is much more claustrophobic, focusing on a single family under siege in their house. The tension and uncertainty of what's brought on the mysterious bird behavior makes the piece quite effective, and a suitable closer for the book as a whole. All in all, three stars.