Saturday, September 26, 2009

Living Dead in Dallas and Club Dead by Charlaine Harris


Sookie, Sookie, Sookie...what are we going to do with you? Everyone's bossing you around, telling you what to do. How long are you going to take it? And what of you and vampire Bill? Meh...

Pretty Sookie from small-town Louisiana finds herself in all kinds of sticky messes in Living Dead in Dallas. Right off the bat, her good friend from work is found murdered (yes that happens again) and she and Bill (and her mind reading abilities) have been farmed off to Dallas by Bill's boss, Sheriff of Nottingham - ah, I mean Eric, to find a missing vampire kidnapped by an anti-vampire cult. Trouble ensues..

I thought this one was better written than the first, it was quicker and more fast-paced, but I'm discovering Harris likes to wrap up her plot threads in the last page or two of her books. For instance, here Sookie's good friend is murdered in the first few pages, then we don't hear much about that again until the very end of the book. I kept wondering what happened.

And Bill? Sigh...
Like Harris must've been, I'm losing interest. Fast.
Eric on the other hand-
Hmm...(Parts of me are humming. I won't tell you which. Okay, it's my toes - I'm standing on a heat vent.)


In Club Dead, Bill becomes distant and disappears for most of the novel, and in grand Harris tradition you're not going to find out what happened to him until the very end. But did I mention that this one was my favorite so far? Eric thinks he knows what's happened, and he and Sookie leave town again to try and find Bill, even after I tried to will them to stop. Throw in another hot werewolf and you've got, Twilight, no I mean good times at Club Dead!

Sookie really comes into her own in this novel. She's getting stronger, more independent and while getting to the root of her problems, actually tries to solve them - all by herself. A novel concept! You go Sookie!

But now I'm torn. If I hadn't seen the first in the TrueBlood series I know I wouldn't be, but these are two really cute men. Like Sookie I can't seem to be able to decide who I want to be victorious. Eric or Bill. (Or now Alcide even, but I've leaving him out here.)

Which to chose, which to chose...the dark-haired, brooding Civil War veteran Bill Compton, or the blue-eyed, blond Viking, Eric Northman. Is it really that hard of a choice? (And no, Edward Cullen is NOT even in the running here.)

True-Blood





Helluva Halloween Challenge and the Sookie Stackhouse Reading Challenge

4 comments:

Nina said...

I really want to start reading the books. They really sound great and I love good vampire stories. Oh my..really...can't we choose Edward??????? :)

L said...

Sorry, only real men in this poll..
Gotcha! :D

The first Sookie Stackhouse I wasn't too sure about, but they're getting better with each one. Way better than the HBO series.

They are quick, light fantasy reads that don't take themselves too seriously. And there's a lot of kissing, and - such..of which I say yipee!

Misty said...

I haven't read any of these yet (love the show, though I know it's different). A friend told me she didn't think I'd like these because they are "fluff," but sometimes fluff is what you want (not often for me, true, but still). I dunno, we'll see. Great reviews, though. And thanks for linking through Helluva Halloween!

~Misty

L said...

I've only seen season one, but so far these are better than that one at least. They've changed a bunch in the show, maybe because they need 9 or so episodes. The writing has improved with each one, and so has the content. It's fast-paced and you're friend is right - a quick, light read, but sometimes I do like cotton candy, instead of peanut butter! As a side note, I'm not really a Twilight fan and I like these. Other than being about vampires and the like, that's about where their similarity ends.