The Southern Vampire Mysteries - Charlaine Harris

I finished all of Charlaine Harris’s Southern Vampire Mysteries books in December. Well, all of the books that she has published to date. After enjoying the HBO series TrueBlood, I realized I needed to read the books upon which the television show was based. I have posted a bit about my fascination with TrueBlood. I find the television show strangely addicting, with quirky characters and an interesting spin on vampire lore. I was not sure what I would find in the books about Sookie Stackhouse.

Well, the books were even more addictive than the television series! Luckily, I bought the first seven books in a bundle for my Ereader on my phone: Dead Until Dark, Living Dead in Dallas, Club Dead, Dead to the World, Dead as a Doornail, Definitely Dead, and Altogether Dead. So I obsessively read one book after another in any free time I had. I read through lunches, in waiting rooms, during my daughter’s karate classes, and after they went to bed. I probably read all seven in a few days! Then after I finished book seven I went through withdrawal, until I located a copy of Book 8: From Dead to Worse, as an audio book for free download from my local library. (And that was interesting, I am not sure I would have liked it as much if I hadn’t already read the first seven. I just did not care for the voice of the person reading the book and she made Sookie seem trashier and less intelligent somehow.) However, now I am depressed, with no more books to obsessively read until the ninth book comes out in May, Dead and Gone. Although I did read the first chapter at Charlaine Harris’s website: http://www.charlaineharris.com/deadandgone.html

The series is a first-person account of Sookie Stackhouse's life as a barmaid and telepath in the fictional town of Bon Temps, Louisiana. The series is full of quirky characters, the most interesting is always Sookie, herself. Sookie is a telepath and her ability to read minds leads her on some fascinating and scary adventures and we learn throughout the books about all the various kinds of supernatural (or “supes”) beings that inhabit the human world. In addition to the vampires, there are shapeshifters of various types, faeries, and more. The twists and turns of navigating the supernatural world when you are human is pretty fascinating and Charlaine Harris must have a fantastic imagination and creative mind. In spite of the interesting supernatural characters, Sookie is by far the most fascinating character. You would think an uneducated Southern White barmaid to be pretty boring, but Sookie is intelligent, loyal, strong, passionate, and very human. She makes mistakes but ultimately does amazing things. I love characters with real feelings and flaws who triumph in the end. I would recommend this series to anyone unreservedly.