Sookie Stackhouse is just a small-time cocktail waitress in small-town Louisiana. Until the vampire of her dreams walks into her life-and one of her coworkers checks out....
Maybe having a vampire for a boyfriend isn't such a bright idea.
Review
Despite some less than complementary reviews, I chose to take a chance on Sookie Stackhouse. This was in no small part due to the Anthony Award Charlaine Harris’ novel received.
While I generally enjoy supernatural stories, I’ve been very wary of them lately, thanks to a certain current fad involving vampires, werewolves, and bad writing. Since Dead Until Dark features both vampires and shapeshifters, I was cautious about purchasing the first Sookie Stackhouse novel.
Dead Until Dark was neither as good as I had secretly hoped, nor as bad as I had outright feared. The writing has a straightforward, frank quality that appeals to me, and the vampires were not overly romanticized. However, the novel fell short at characterization.
I’ve read in some reviews that Sookie is unlikable, and I wouldn’t say that this is necessarily true. Sookie has dealt with a lot in her life, and I felt she deserved a bit of leeway. What I didn’t like was her borderline “love-at-first-sight” with her romantic interest, Bill Compton. She seemed primarily attracted to him because she couldn’t hear his thoughts*. While this makes a relationship easier, it doesn’t make a relationship necessarily “right”. Especially when she seemed to know so little about Bill.
In addition, many readers will feel a disconnect with the characters. All of the characters display apathy on some level throughout the novel. While I appreciate characters with faults (Scarlett O’Hara, Heathcliff, and Mr. Rochester are a few to name), I much prefer emotional faults, and ones that readers are easily able to empathize with. While I wouldn’t rule out apathy as a "good" fault immediately, I found the fact that it was so prominent off-putting.
I am in no way saying that Dead Until Dark is a bad, or even poorly written, novel. Those who like easy thrills and a chaotic mystery will probably enjoy this novel. I suppose it just wasn’t for me.
Your thoughts?
~bella aire~
Interested? Purchase Dead Until Dark here.
*Side Note: Dead Until Dark was published in 2001, nearly 5 years before the Twilight phenomenon.
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