Book Club (Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris)
By Samantha Bradley
I've recently become interested in a series of books known as the Sookie Stackhouse series. The author is Charlaine Harris, and her genre of writing is a bit difficult to pin down. It could be considered fantasy, mystery, gothic, romance, or all of the above. However, considering that smoke and mirrors are under discussion this month, we will consider magical. There is certainly PLENTY of that in these books.
First off, a warning. I began reading this series as part of a reading challenge I was involved in, and ended up reading the first seven within a period of two weeks (there are 13 books in this series, so I definitely do plan to continue on.) The author writes in an easy, engrossing manner. The books were made into a TV series called True Blood, whichwas on television for a brief period of time. I believe it is available for free online, along with the books. (True Blood is a synthetic blood drink which is consumed by vampires in bars. So yes, this is a series involving vampires - lots of them.)
Our narrator, Sookie Stackhouse, is not a vampire, however. She is a 25 year old barmaid in a small town in Louisiana who also happens to be telepathic. This has caused her to never have been involved with any man romantically, as the thoughts that she picks up drive her crazy.
And then she meets Bill, a vampire and veteran of the Civil War, and finds that she cannot read his mind at all. In this series, vampire blood is highly prized, as it gives humans extra strength and power. Draining is illegal, but that doesn't mean that people don't take part in it, taking so much blood that the vampire generally dies. Sookie saves Bill from such a fate, and the two become close and eventually become a romantic couple.
Through the book women are being murdered, and it appears that a vampire is responsible. I'm not going to say any more about that, you will have to read the book yourself. Besides, didn't I mention it was going to be strictly romance only?
Is there a future for Sookie and Bill? Can they possibly stay together? Read the book, because this is all I have to say on the matter.
- Sam