Dead Until Dark

I'd been waiting for the vampire for years before he walked into the bar...

And here it is, my official entry into the world of Sookie Stackhouse and the southern vampire mysteries!  I'm so glad this book lived up to my expectations - and beyond.  Not too much time was spent on the vampire mythology - who cares anymore, right? We get the vampire thing - and more was given to the stories of  these loveable characters, beginning with Sookie, a waitress at the local bar.  Sookie unwittingly becomes a major part of the vampire scene in northern Louisiana when she befriends Bill, a sexy, mysterious vampire looking to "mainstream" in the human world.  From then on, it's one upheaval after another in Sookie's life, which keeps her and us guessing until the very end.

I loved Sookie's character.  I found her realistic and charming, hilarious and well, a lot like a real woman.  Luckily she wasn't made out to be a superhuman, although she has a pretty nifty "gift" of telepathy which plays a huge role in the book's events - because I'm usually not too crazy about the fantasy heroine who can't hold her own without her magical cat or whatever.  Sookie can hold her own even when she has plenty cause to be afraid.  Her relationship with Bill might grow on me in future books, but his character seems too similar to other vampires - if any different, then slightly duller.  In fact, I am hard pressed to find a vampire character in any book who is superior to his human rival, and in this case sadly, I stand by that prejudice.  Bill's character is "the vampire", who just when we get used to having him around, takes a backseat to Sookie's boss Sam, a caring, also mysterious individual with no past and a possible future - with Sookie!  Or ...?

That's all you get now, because you have to read this book.  If you don't usually like the dark, brooding vampire novel, well forget that because you will laugh your ass off with this one.  In my mind it must be terrifically difficult to write a novel that's really funny, but Charlaine Harris has done a great job here.  You'll find yourself several times in Sookie's position (if you're a woman), and if you're not then you learn a great deal about real women, no superpower cats to speak of.  Now when I'll get a hold of the next Sookie Stackhouse I have yet to see.  So we'll continue next week with a review of Larissa Ione's Pleasure Unbound, the first of the Demonica novels.  The tagline (or whatever they're called) is "Surrender to the ultimate temptation."  My kind of demon erotica.