From Dead to Worse, Charlaine Harris

One of my guilty pleasures is a love of all things Sookie.  While the TV show based on the book, TrueBlood, and the books have diverged pretty widely at this point, I figure that just gives me twice as much Sookie Stackhouse to love.  There is something very comforting about the predictability of the stories.  Sookie will be in mortal danger.  Some supernatural man (or woman, in the case of her fairy godmother) will have to help save her.  At least one supernatural man will be in love with her.  Chances are there will be some impediment to their love.  Wash.  Rinse.  Repeat.

So, here is my short summary of From Dead to Worse, book number eight in Charlaine Harris's Sookie Stackhouse series...missing weretiger, vampire takeover, fairy great-grandfather, werewolf war, revenge, werepanther justice, Eric remembers everything, Bill still pines...if you have read the Sookie Stackhouse books, you know what all of this means.  If you haven't, and you are interested and or intrigued by what it all could mean, go back to the beginning and start with Dead Until Dark, the first book in the series, and prepare to lose yourself in a funny, scary, surprising, completely unrealistic world that will provide the perfect escapism.

All Together Dead, Charlaine Harris

OK, I admit it-I have a Charlaine Harris addiction (to my new Literary Blog Hop friends-don't judge!)  There is just something about her writing style that I find really charming.  Maybe it's the southern thing, maybe it's the down-home characters (well, at least the ones that aren't vampires or demons).  I realize that there is very little substance, but I sure like her style. 

I just finished the seventh book in the Sookie Stackhouse series, All Together Dead.  It follows Sookie on her trip to the fictional city of Rhodes to accompany the vampire Queen of Lousiana to the vampire summit.  Apparently the queen feels like having a mind reader along might just keep her from being sent to vampire jail for allegedly killing her husband, the King of Arkansas.  Sookie soon discovers that there is a plot afoot to disrupt the summit and kill the vampires involved.  The only question is, where is the danger coming from?

Really I could probably copy and paste every other review of the Sookie Stackhouse books I've ever written here and it would apply.  Her new love interest, Quinn the were-tiger, is dreamy.  The plot takes twists and turns that are at times surprising, but it is formulaic enough that it met my requirements for mindless escapism.  Overall, if you like the Sookie books, you're going to like this one too.  If you think books about vampires and weres and demons and fairies and mystical bodyguards from another dimension are the ninth circle of hell, then this is definitely not for you!

Team Quinn, Anyone?

OK, I think that I have now gotten the need to immerse myself in the world of Bon Temps, Louisiana out of my system for the time being.  You may remember I reviewed Dead as a Doornail by Charlaine Harris earlier this week.  At the time I was asking Ms. Harris to stop it with the new suitors for Sookie, already!  Seriously, how many men should one telepathic barmaid have to fend off?  Come to think of it, I suppose that barmaids of all stripes probably fend off more than their fair share of men, but I digress...

Well, now that I've read Definitely Dead, book #6 in the Sookie Stackhouse series, I think that Charlaine has finally created the perfect man for Sookie.  As the novel opens, Sookie is called to New Orleans by the Queen of Louisiana.  While there, she decides to finally clean out her cousin Hadley's apartment.  Hadley, formerly human, finally vampire, lover to the Queen in both incarnations, was rendered definitely dead some months back by another vampire.  Even though she and Hadley had not been particularly close in recent years, Hadley had left everything she owned to Sookie.  Like most things in Harris' universe, nothing was really as it seemed.  New Orleans, being the center of supernatural culture in the southest, provided plenty of danger and drama for small-town Sookie.

As usual, the story is fun and action-packed, and Sookie as narrator is funny and engaging.  What made this one for me was her newest love interest, Quinn.  I mean, really, what could be sexier than a weretiger?  Strong, sleek, dangerously exciting, sexy...not to mention kind, gentlemanly, and supportive without being overwhelming.  I have no idea what becomes of this "relationship"  in the next couple of books, but I can't wait to find out!

Dead as a Doornail, Charlaine Harris

Well, Sookie Stackhouse fans, I finally read number 5, Dead as a Doornail.  Love, love, triple love this series! 

In this installment someone appears to be out to get the shifters around Bon Temps, and since Sookie is related to or secretly in love with about half of them this is of some concern.  Add to that Eric's persistence in trying to remember what happened between them during the Witch War, Bill's reappearance, and some political shenanigans in Alcide's pack and you have quite a mess for Sookie to clean up, as usual.

If you have no idea what the paragraph above is about, shame on you!  If you enjoy campy, soapish story lines involving the paranormal, you probably already read these books, but if you haven't, go get them NOW!  Harris's books are escapism at its best.  No real thought required, just a desire to immerse yourself in a completely unbelievable world that is inexplicably believable in these novels.

OK, I do have to admit that I did think a little bit when I read this one...and I have one complaint, Ms. Harris.  Seriously, how many men have to be fighting for Sookie's attention?  Thank goodness no one ever started that Team Edward/Team Jacob nonsense with these books.  You'd need several Facebook fan pages to take care of Team Bill, Team Sam, Team Eric, Team Alcide, Team Calvin, and now Team Quinn (though I would totally be a fan of Team Sam!).  Also, if you are going to give her any more suitors, can one of them not be a testosterone-fueled, macho, paternalistic guy?  I'd like the next one to say, "Wow, Sookie, look how strong and smart and loyal you are...I know that you can take care of yourself, so instead of swooping in to save you even when you don't want me to, I'll be here when you get home to fix you some tea."  Now that would be a guy I could get behind.  Regardless of that small complaint, I will be starting Definitely Dead pretty much as soon as I finish this review.

It's Monday, What Are You Reading?

This Monday post finds me sitting at the computer much later than usual, still nursing my coffee.  Ahhh, sweet three day weekends!  Pretty soon every day will feel like a three day weekend-only 6 more days of school left.  Well, two more days of "school" and then a picnic and three half days.  Surely we will all survive!

This week I finished Little Bee, by Chris Cleave, as well as When She Flew, by Jennie Shortridge.  That brings me up to a whopping 30 books on the year (for a full list click here), putting me very far behind in my quest to complete the 100+ Book Challenge.  Come on, summer!  I've got some serious making up to do.

Right now I am reading Dead as a Doornail, by Charlaine Harris.  Number five in the Sookie Stackhouse series, I'm only about 50 pages into it but I am enjoying it just as much as the others.  That may have something to do with the fact that I just finished watching the HBO series On Demand-I figured I better keep myself immersed in Bon Temps if I don't want the show to outpace me!  I got #5 and #6 together through Bookswap, so I may just read Definitely Dead next.

Hope everyone has a great week!

A New Breed of Vampire

I love vampires.  I know that makes me sound a little bit like a 13 year-old girl, but it's true.  Angel, Spike, Edward, Blade-I love them all.  And I like to think that my love of Bram Stoker's Dracula gives me a little bit of cred when it comes to all things vampire-I'm not just a bandwagon-jumper.  But I have never read a vampire novel quite like Octavia E. Butler's Fledgling.

In Fledgling we meet Shori, a 53 year-old Ina child, a species of humanoids that inspired the vampire legends.  When first me see her, she is recovering from life-threatening wounds, the only survivor of a vicious attack against her family.  She awakes from days of agony with no memory of who she is and how she came to be so injured.  On her way to find answers, she is helped by a young man named Wright, who becomes more than just her savior.  Her journey takes us into the culture of the Ina, and her quest to find justice for her family becomes a quest for her very identity.

Octavia Butler was herself something of a person on a journey of personal discovery (she died in 2006 at the age of 59).  She became the first black author to win major acclaim as a science fiction writer, long the bailiwick of white men (of course, what literary genre wasn't?).  Her novels examine issues of race, politics, and religion through the lives and struggles of her other-worldly characters.  In this, her last book, she takes a look at race through the eyes not of humans, but of the mythical Ina concerned about "racial" purity.  Shori is the result of genetic research done by her family into combining human genes with Ina genes to create Ina people who can tolerate sunlight.  Apparently there are some Ina who believe that combining with inferior human genes dilutes the "purity" of the Ina species.  In that way the story was almost discouraging-it's as though we can't even imagine an intelligent species that does not fall prey to racism.  However, there is much in the Ina cultural structure that spoke to me.   Each Ina adult needs several symbionts, humans who allow the Ina to feed from them and live with them in large communal groups.  In a way it reminded me of the future culture in Marge Piercy's Woman on the Edge of Time, where there is no idea of gender, and people are allowed to develop relationships and working lives that suit their needs and strengths in a way that modern culture does not.  In Fledgling, mixed gender human groups partner with their Ina to become a family.  This is no slave-like existence.  The humans get just as much from the partnership as the Ina do.  They receive pleasure during feedings, and are allowed to have their own relationships and activities outside of their bond with their Ina.  Of course, the Ina can and sometimes do control their symbionts through the use of the venom in their saliva that causes the addiction that creates their bond, but generally speaking they respect their humans and allow them freedom to follow their own desires.  Frankly, the relationships in the book made me wonder where I could get my own Ina female to choose me.

While the story is complete in and of itself, I wonder if it was meant to be the start of a series.  As Shori goes off at the end of the book to make a life for herself with her new family of symbionts, I wanted to know what happens to them next.  I didn't want the journey to end-and I guess that is the goal of every writer.  I'm looking forward to discovering the other worlds created by Octavia Butler.