~REVIEW of Charlaine Harris's DEAD UNTIL DARK~

~SO THIS IS WHAT ALL THE FUSS HAS BEEN ABOUT~

Dead Until Dark (Sookie Stackhouse, #1)

Opening Line:"I'd been waiting for the Vampire for years when he walked into the bar"

I must be one of the last people on the planet to read Dead After Dark. I also haven’t had a chance (yet) to watch True Blood, although because it’s been all over the media I had a pretty good visual reference for the characters here without actually having to compare the two. I was able to just go along for the ride, and what a ride, I can definitely see now what all the fuss has been about.

Honestly I had a hard time putting this down. Harris has created the perfect mixture of paranormal romance, mystery and action. With intriguing, humorous characters and situations and an absorbing, fast moving plot. Her take on Vampiric society is fresh and fascinating and I appreciated how we were continually reminded that despite “coming out” vampires are still very much predators.

I also found Sookie to be incredibly relatable despite her “disability” and supernatural circumstances. Harris just has a way of making her feel all girl next door so that we discover everything right along with her. I also loved Harris’s portrait of small town America and in this case it’s unique bar patrons whom I felt like I knew. This could be in part because I’m from a small town and I also cocktailed for years so the characters seemed familiar to me. Whatever the case I’m glad I finally got around to reading this series.

Sookie lives in the real world of small town Louisiana. She is a pretty cocktail waitress, lives with her grandmother and because of her telepathic “disability” keeps to herself. The people in Bon Temps tend to think that Sookie’s a little crazy because she knows things she shouldn’t and acts strange while her mental “guard” is up.

Everything changes the day Bill walks into her bar and orders a bottle of synthetic blood. Bill is a vampire and ever since they entered mainstream society she’s wanted to meet one. To make things even more interesting Sookie can’t hear a word he’s thinking, Bill might just be her perfect match, except of course for the fact that he’s dead.

Unfortunately soon after Bill arrives people start turning up dead, in particular waitresses. After an attack at her grandmother’s house Sookie fears she might be next. Then there’s Bill’s creepy group of friends, the recent Elvis sightings, her brothers illicit behaviour and all of a sudden her boss isn‘t quite who he appears to be either.

So like I said I really enjoyed this, the love scenes are steamy and dirty (think outdoors, mud, and covered in blood dirty) and Bill well he is just delicious in a dangerous bad boy wanting to brush your hair kinda way. The romance aspect here was very good. I also really liked Sam’s character and appreciated how his true self wasn’t revealed right away. Bubba was another awesome little addition and the many townsfolk and their idiosyncrasies were fantastic.

There are some surprising moments here and I never really knew where things were going to go next. Although I’ll be honest I had a tough time keeping straight who was who. Getting many of (the many) secondary characters mixed up so that even at the end when the killer was revealed I had to back track to figure out who it was. As a former waitress (which Harris must also have been at one time) I found the bar scenes realistic and fun. Can’t recommend this one enough.