On the Bookshelf

Sookie Stackhouse is a cocktail waitress living in the small Louisiana town of Bon Temps. Although she's pretty, Sookie doesn't date. In fact, Sookie has a "disability" which makes dating pretty much impossible. She can read minds. Then one night Bill arrives in town. Sookie can't hear his thoughts at all and she soon finds herself falling for him. There's just one hitch: Bill is a vampire. Then women start showing up dead. Women with old bite marks on them. Someone is targeting "fangbangers" and it looks like Sookie is on their hit list. Is dating a vampire such a bright idea?

The Southern Vampire Mysteries has been enjoying a boom in popularity thanks to True Blood, the television show based on the series. I decided to jump onto the bandwagon with Dead Until Dark, the first book in the series, originally published in 2001.

I really enjoyed Sookie's perspective. Maybe it's just because I'm Australian and haven't had much exposure to it, but I found the Southern setting absolutely quirky and charming. I also liked Harris' portrayal of vampires. As a fan of the good old classics, I couldn't help but love the bit where Bill levitated. I also liked that, even though he was trying to "mainstream" (live a life among humans), Bill wasn't all apolagetic about the fact that he was a vampire. He has drunk human blood and even killed people. "Deal with it."

The word that I would use to describe this book would have to be fun. I am somewhat reminded of Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series but this book is much lighter in content. It's perfect if you are looking for an entertaining, light read and my only real complaint would be that it was over too soon. Lucky for me the books were on sale down at my local Big W and I was able to zipp down and grab the next two, Living Dead in Dallas and Club Dead. I still haven't seen True Blood yet. I've been hunting for the dvds but it seems to be sold out everywhere so in the meanwhile I intend to keep working my way through the books.

Terra