First Book Read in 2009!

Living Dead in Dallas by Charlaine Harris
Finished Monday, Jan 5, 09

This is the second of currently eight books in the Sookie Stackhouse Southern Vampire series. I read the first book shortly after the last episode of True Blood aired on HBO. I LOVED the HBO adaptation, but was a bit disappointed in the first book. My primary issue with the book was that it was entirely from Sookie’s point of view, and Sookie and Bill are my least favorite characters from the television adaptation. I really enjoyed every other character on the screen - especially Eric, Tara, and Lafayette – more than Sookie and Bill. I also found Pam intriguing; if I were a vampire, I think I would want to be Pam.

I decided to continue with the series because I really wanted to learn more about the character of Eric, even though I was a bit torn about ruining possible season two plot details such as whose body was in Detective Bellefleur’s car at the end of season one. Spoiler alert: even though it was expected, I was very sorry to learn that it was in fact LaFayette decaying in the back of Andy’s car. I was really hoping that it would be Eggs, but come on, Eggs was a minor character who rated only one scene near the end of season one so there would be no emotional payout in killing him.

Part of the description on the back cover of the book says “…her coworker is murdered and no one seems to care.” Well, I don’t think the author cared very much either. It seems like she had two interesting ideas: the maenad and sex club in Bon Temps and the Fellowship of the Sun in Dallas, but could not flush out either idea enough to make one book. Instead book-ended the former around the later and in my opinion short-changed both possible stories. This book did have a good set-up for expanding the inclusion of werewolves and shape-shifters in future books and I really liked the exchanges between Sookie and Eric, I think there is great chemistry and potential there.