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Dead Until Dark (Sookie Stackhouse, #1)

Charlaine Harris

Start date: May 1, 2012

Finish date: May 31, 2012

Discussion: Book of the Month (BOM)

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Book of the Month (BOM)

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What Members Thought

Nov 09, 2009 Gaijinmama rated it it was amazing

Shelves: paranormal, favorites, fiction

Wow. I adore the TV show True Blood but somehow, never got around to reading this.
What was I waiting for?!

Devoured it in three days. Housework? Kids? what are those and who cares?! I just could not put this one down. It is different enough from the TV show that I didn't feel as though anything was spoiled. Sookie, as a character, is much funnier in print than on the small screen. I just love her internal dialogue, and her relationship with Bill is sweet and scary and breathtakingly hot without b ...more

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Jun 20, 2011 Jaime Stricklin rated it really liked it

Shelves: read-in-2012

Just discovered my newest addiction!!!! I've been saving these books for a long time, but a friend convinced me to pick it up. I am so glad I did. I've never watched the shows and do not plan to. There is no way they are as good as the books, so why bother??? I've already started on book #2 and can't wait to see where it takes me! ...more

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Sep 09, 2008 M J rated it really liked it

I read this book in one day, so yeah, you could say I liked it. I don't usually tear through a book that quickly unless I'm interested in it.

I bought this book after seeing the first episode of True Blood during our cable's HBO free preview. I was surprised about how accurate the first episode was to the beginning of the book. I wish I hadn't seen the episode, because it would've been nice to be able to picture the characters myself without having Anna Paquin and Steven Moyer pop into my head t ...more

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Dec 02, 2009 Sam rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: proper-books, fantasy

Picked this up after catching the HBO series, which I thoroughly enjoyed, and I was not disappointed. Charlaine has created believable and, in some cases, likeable characters, both human and 'fang' (vampire in case you didn't realise). The storyline starts slow but sets the scene well for the twists and turns and more fast paced moments. The combination of normal everyday human life and the vampire world is brilliantly and imaginatively done and moves away nicely from the more common vampire sto Picked this up after catching the HBO series, which I thoroughly enjoyed, and I was not disappointed. Charlaine has created believable and, in some cases, likeable characters, both human and 'fang' (vampire in case you didn't realise). The storyline starts slow but sets the scene well for the twists and turns and more fast paced moments. The combination of normal everyday human life and the vampire world is brilliantly and imaginatively done and moves away nicely from the more common vampire stories of the soul-less blood-hunting demon and the sweet innocent human.

I've read a few reviews that compares this series to the Twilight series but I must say I disagree with this comparison. Charlaine has written this series for adults, it has adult themes (very adult themes in parts) and she has not drowned the entire story in the soppy overly romantic teen angst that, in my opinion, ruined the Twilight series. There is some of those more cheesy romantic moments, admittedly, but part of that at least is due to the story being based in the more traditional state of northern Louisiana. Charlaine has also got a much more realistic and believable heroine in Sookie, and she doesn't annoy the living hell out of me like Bella did (and still does in all honesty). Harris also has a more diverse range of characters, both human and vampire, that reflects more on traits you can recognise in people daily rather than using the all American character repeatedly, as Meyer does. In all I'd say Harris' writing is more akin to Kelley Armstrong than Meyer and as Armstrong is one of my favourite fantasy authors, that is praise indeed.

And I must say I love the idea of vampires coming out of the coffin and trying to mainstream and the ongoing debate in both the vampire and human worlds as to whether it is a good idea or not. It can be seen as testament to the inability of human-kind (and those loosely related to us) to accept that which is a little bit different, of which history holds many many examples.

All in all a good start to the series, despite the odd editing error and slightly awkward sentances in parts. Looking forward to getting my teeth stuck into the next book in the series. ...more

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Oct 02, 2008 Jessica B rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: charlaine-harris, own, 2009, vampires, werewolves, special-abilities, favourite-reads, 2011, re-reads, 2013

A great start to a new series which I think I am going to enjoy very much. I watched the television show first but it didn't make the book any less interesting. The TV show was so different in ways that the book stayed interesting! I really liked Sookie and Bill! The authors style of writing was a nice change and I am excited to get on to the next one.

Re-read 27/06/2011

I'm glad I decided to re-read this one. It was great the second time around and I picked up on more little details on the first ...more

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