TEST
An unread Dead Until Dark is a smile waiting to happen. This crossover book is appealing on a variety of levels, which makes for a very nice change. Usually, if I have a long list of things I want to point out, they generally have to do with the problems in a book. Not so this one. So with smile in place, the reader opens to book and meets the very appealing Sookie Stackhouse, who has always longed for a vampire to visit the bar where she works. Unfortunately, few of them feel the urge to visit a small town in rural northern Louisiana. Part of Sookie’s desire for her own vampire comes from her “disability,” as she likes to call it. If she doesn’t work at blocking them out, she can hear the thoughts of every person who comes into the bar, which makes her appear just a little crazy to all the regulars. Though Sookie figures she’s due a vampire customer as a kind of reward for her loneliness, the one she gets becomes so much more.
By page twelve my smile had turned into a laugh. Sookie manages to save the vampire from a dangerous situation while perplexing him with her response to his supposed mesmerizing abilities.
“You’re different – What are you?”
He seemed to be going through a list of possibilities in his head from the way he was looking at me. “Well. I’m Sookie Stackhouse, and I’m a waitress.” I told him. “What’s your name?”
“Bill,” he said.
“The vampire Bill! I thought it might be Antoine, or Basil, or Langford! Bill!”
I laughed right along with Sookie. Laurell K. Hamilton’s vampire is Jean-Claude and Anne Rice has Lestat, Vittorio and Armand. Ms. Harris gives Sookie – Bill!
The humor is continuing element that complicates the classification of this novel. Vampires suggest horror but the underlying humor makes this anything but. When Sookie tells her grandmother she met a vampire her granny’s response is to suggest Sookie ask Bill to speak to her Civil War group: The Descendents of the Glorious Dead. Now that makes a very wonderful, though wacky, kind of sense. Who wouldn’t want to talk to a vampire about the things he witnessed first-hand?
And in case you’re wondering, Bill is no slouch in the appeal department. He’s talk, dark, and handsome. Need I say more? Oh, well I suppose you’ll want to know a little more about him. Bill has come to Bon Temps because he’s inherited a home. He wants to live as normal a life as possible. He certainly doesn’t have any desire to be part of the vampire scene in New Orleans, a fact that will later come back to haunt his relationship with Sookie.
The advent of a vampire into the small-town of Bon Temps, Louisiana does more than turn Sookie’s world upside down. Bill’s arrival coincides with the murder of several young women. Though she’s convinced that Bill is innocent, Sookie isn’t so sure everyone else will believe this fact. These murders aren’t thrown in to create danger for the heroine, as happens in much of the romantic suspense I’ve read. They’re an integral part of the book and have effects that Sookie and Bill will continue to deal with in their relationship.
Almost every facet of the plot and subplot serves a purpose. There were a couple of plot points that were dropped pretty quickly, and without going into any spoilers, seemed to be a little extraneous. Though they are responsible for the minus in this A level read, I have confidence that this author will pick them up in her next Southern Vampire Mystery. My only real frown came when I realized I was finished with the book and would have to wait a year for the next.
Buy it at Amazon/Apple Books/Barnes andNoble/Kobo
Grade: A
Book Type: Urban Fantasy|Vampire Romance
Sensuality: Warm
Review Date: 28/05/01
Publication Date: 2001
Recent Comments …
Yep
This sounds delightful! I’m grabbing it, thanks
excellent book: interesting, funny dialogs, deep understanding of each character, interesting secondary characters, and also sexy.
I don’t think anyone expects you to post UK prices – it’s just a shame that such a great sale…
I’m sorry about that. We don’t have any way to post British prices as an American based site.
I have several of her books on my TBR and after reading this am moving them up the pile.
Related Reviews
I absolutely adored this book when it came out.
I had been a steady reader of Charlaine Harris since her Aurora Teagarden books and remember driving everywhere to used bookstores to get an out of print Shakespeare paperback so I could complete that series.
I was pretty excited and surprised when this series started as Harris was just a straight mystery author with no real forays into the paranormal up to this point. The idea of her mysteries mixed with vampires sounded fantastic to me and the first book didn’t disappoint.
After a few books my enthusiasm had waned however. I think it just grew and grew and the plots and side characters became overwhelming. After so many books and plots there weren’t many characters I even liked anymore.
I also think the TV show interfered with her plotting as some of the people she set up to be more villainous became popular on the show. I also found some of her plotting repetitive as I predicted the outcome of these books based on some others of hers I had read.
I think viewers of the show may be disappointed in the lack of people of color in her series. There is only one major character of color in her books and they do not last or have the character development they do in the show. (No spoilers). Many characters like Tara were changed to people of color for the show as they are not in the books. I always thought it was very surprising that a series set in a state that has one of the highest black populations in the U.S. didn’t have any major black characters in it.
I think by the time the series ended people who had joined in for one thing ended up with something completely different (no spoilers). Harris had to cancel her final book tour as people were that riled up over the ending (kinda scary really). In my opinion, Harris works best in shorter series although her Aurora Teagarden series turned out well for those of us who stuck with it over what turned out to be decades.
For all of that, I think Dead Until Dark is one of her best works. It blends in mystery, suspense and romance with her quirky and unique style. She confronts a lot of issues worked in to her books like “white collar” vs “blue collar” workers and the attitudes about them as well as the cruelty people often have for anyone “different”.
I would highly recommend this book, but just give a proviso that the series has a lot of twists and turns and bumps before it gets to an ending.
I liked the Aurora Teagarden mysteries but I don’t think I have read them all. I believe there were some big gaps of years in between some of the books in the series and I lost my familiarity with the characters.
I have the Lily Bard series (in paperback!) but have never read them as I know the main character’s past is heavy and I didn’t feel up to starting the series (and now it’s kinda lost in my massive TBR pile). I suspect I would enjoy them though!
I liked the Midnight, Texas series. It is nice and tight with only 3 books. I started watching the TV show based on the series but didn’t like it.
I haven’t read the Gunnie Rose series because the premise doesn’t interest me.
I have enjoyed some of her standalones and short stories/novellas. I just think she is a really great writer.
There is a huge gap in time between some of the Aurora Teagarden books. In fact I was quite annoyed for some time thinking she was going to leave the books in a depressing situation (similar to what Sharyn McCrumb did with a series of hers) and I was very happy when she picked up the series again and I think she did a great job of adding to Aurora’s story and weaving back in threads from earlier books in the series. I can’t remember how many years there was between one book and the continuations but it was a lot.
I enjoyed the Lily Bard books at the time (It’s been so long a lot of the details have faded) and while Lily has a tragic backstory- it’s not a depressing series. The horror is told as something that happened (not in the present sense) and she certainly doesn’t wallow in it or play up the violence. If you can read some of the Southern Vampire mysteries then you should be fine with Lily although I TOTALLY understand avoiding anything upsetting during this past year. I have been doing the same.
I have the first two Midnight Texas books because I loved that he got his own spinoff series as he was such a great character in the Grave series. I just didn’t get into them right away as I remember it introducing a bunch of new characters at first and I couldn’t get drawn in. The fact that it’s only three books appeals to me so I’ll definitely pick them up again when I’m in the right mood.
I borrowed Gunnie Rose #1 and never read it but it might be a series for another day.
I’ve read her two standalone mysteries and enjoyed them and there is an enjoyable short story with Harper and Tolliver she did as a collaboration. It’s nothing earth shattering but I am a completist so I had to read it.
I think she has a unique voice that I enjoy- it’s an interesting mix of sharp and cute I guess?
Her vampire books put her on the map but it’s fun to talk to someone that enjoys her mysteries as well!
Agree with your comment about the Lily Bard series. Something horrific happened to her in her past, and part of who she is consists of her working to be strong and overcome that pain. But the series is not at all tragic, it is, in fact, hopeful that while trauma can’t be ignored or forgotten, people can create fulfilling lives after. I enjoyed the series and was sad when it ended.
Yes, that’s it exactly. Lily is someone who grows from her tragedy and doesn’t let it define her. It’s affected her life but she works so hard to not let it control or dominate it. That’s a quality she shares with Harper and other Harris heroines.
One thing Harris doesn’t flinch from exploring is how other people react to people’s tragedies or differences and their fears or prejudices. Lily, as I recall, deals with what happened to her but other people often cannot. Harper and Sookie deal with people’s judgements about them too because of their jobs or upbringing.
Harris is very good at writing intelligent “working people” with less glamorous jobs who do physical work or work that isn’t valued as much by others. She doesn’t present the people doing that work as less sophisticated or less “worthy” and she takes a hard look at the people who do view it that way.
Lily makes a cameo later on in the Sookie series and it was fun to see her living her best life with her partner doing what they do (no spoilers).
I will definitely read the Lily Bard series. I love your insights about Harris’ heroines and her depiction of working people – spot on!
I enjoyed this first book of the series, then my enjoyment started to diminish by the third book, and I only made it through the 5th one. Sookie is always getting beat up, and there is a soap opera quality to all the bed-hopping that lost my interest. I didn’t make it through the first season of the show, either, but I know I’m in the minority on that. I didn’t hate it, but I found I watched some of it and, like some books, I put it down and never went back. I preferred Harris’s Lily Bard series.
I enjoyed the Lily Bard series as well. As Manjari points out the Grave books are a great series as well with a smaller number of books, tighter cast and nice wrap up.
I haven’t read that series,so I may have to give it a go. Thanks.
This series is fabulous. I think it was 2-3 books along when I discovered it and then I bought each subsequent book as soon as it came out. The best part of the series is Sookie – she is such an appealing, likable character. The world building was great and progressed as the series went on and Sookie had adventures outside her home town. There are twists and turns in Sookie’s relationships throughout the series that kept me intrigued. I can’t compare it to the TV series as I never saw that but I would highly recommend the books!
I also recommend Charlaine Harris’ Harper Donnelly mystery series that starts with Grave Sight. It is much more a mystery series than the Sookie books but there are threads that run through the whole series, I found the ending satisfying and it is a much shorter commitment as it is only 4 books
I loved the Grave Site series. It’s so much more focused than Harris’s other series that can keep veering off into so many other directions. It had an overarching mystery that came to a logical and satisfying conclusion as well as interesting personal growth and development. I enjoyed the supporting characters as well that sprung up in the later books. I think she does better in shorter arcs.
Yes! You said it so much better than me!
Not at all, I think we have a meeting of the minds on this one. I really like that series (it had its detractors) and it’s nice to see someone else that enjoyed it too.
Grave Sight and the Lily Bard/Shakespeare series are the other Harris’ series I referred to in my comment as well. One more fangirl for both of them here!
Yay!
I read quite a few in the series until (like with many long series) I just stopped. But those first few were so much fun. Of course, Harris is a fabulous writer.
This is a RIOT; yesterday I was in my nearest bookstore and they had what appeared to be the entire series on the $1 Sale shelf!! I’d never heard of them. I’m going back :-)
I loved the show but have never read the books. I bought this too! Maybe it would be a fun choice for our Bookclub!
I think it would be a great choice, not only is there a lot to unpack people who know the show as well can compare/contrast.