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   The Cry of the Sloth

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livresque, February 26, 2009 (view all comments by livresque)
For the longest time I was reluctant to read this series. Why? A stupid reason, really: the heroine's name. I thought Sookie Stackhouse was a really silly name. Well, I'm glad I overcame my moniker snobbery, because this is an incredible series. I love Sookie and her world, the fictional yet fully-realized Bon Temps; I love how Harris has tied in the paranormal with the plain world we know.

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readersrespite, December 12, 2008 (view all comments by readersrespite)
Welcome to Bon Temps, a small town in northern Louisiana. Here you'll meet the adorable Sookie Stackhouse, a local barmaid with a "disability," and her boyfriend Bill. Bill the Vampire, that is. Yes, vampires are a part of society in Dead Until Dark, the first book in the Southern Vampire Series written by Charlaine Harris. In fact, vampires have come out of the coffin, so to speak, and live openly - if not fully accepted - in society.

But a series of young women have been found dead in Bon Temps recently and suspicion naturally falls on Bill the Vampire. Worse, it looks as if Sookie might be next on the killer's agenda. Sookie and Bill must find the killer themselves if they want to live happily ever after, if indeed one can live happily ever after with a vampire.

When an author creates a paranormal world like the one in Dead Until Dark, they must also create so-called rules for their paranormal creatures. Fiction about human beings, by and large, need not state their rules because as humans, you and I know those rules quite well. What the paranormal rules are specifically doesn't really matter. What is important is that the author stick to their rules to give the story legitimacy. Harris, I'm happy to report, excels at this (unlike another well-known vampire author who has been all the rage recently), which brings a cohesiveness to the story and keeps you comfortably ensconced in her world.

Harris also creates an amusing vocabulary all her own when it comes to vampires.

Vampire groupies?
They're called 'fang-bangers.'

A vampire's ability to hypnotize?
They're simply 'glamoring' you.

And assimilation, or 'mainstreaming,' into society eerily parallels the difficulties experienced by other minority groups in the American south. As light-hearted as this mystery is, there is a dark undercurrent of small-town American prejudice there for any who care to look for it.


The Recommendation
For a reader who professes not to care for westerns or the paranormal, I sure seem to be picking up an awful lot of them recently. But in the case of Dead Until Dark, I'm glad I did. The book is much more light-hearted than HBO's adaptation and the characters are far more sympathetic when you meet them on the pages instead of the screen.

Dead Until Dark could be considered what is often referred to as a light read, but I just consider it plain fun. Enjoyable for a plane ride or a fun interlude between more serious novels, I highly recommend it.

There are currently eight available books in the series. If you suffer from series OCD like I do, you might want to collect them all.

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Product Details

ISBN:

9780441016990

Author:

Harris, Charlaine

Publisher:

Ace Books

Subject:

Fantasy - Epic

Subject:

Mystery & Detective - General

Subject:

Mystery fiction

Subject:

Occult fiction

Edition Description:

Paperback

Series:

Sookie Stackhouse Novels

Publication Date:

September 2008

Binding:

Mass Market Paperbound

Grade Level:

General/trade

Language:

English

Pages:

292

Dimensions:

682x418x82 32