Saturday, May 1, 2010

Review: Dead and Gone



I've been following Charlaine Harris' Sookie Stackhouse series for maybe three or four years, now, and I have to admit she seems to have a knack for mixing the paranormal romance, a very interesting murder mystery, and her more than interesting characters ranging from a telepath, to vampires, werewolves, weretigers, shapeshifters, fairies, and a whole host of others that might take more than one paragraph to mention.
I know that when I began reading her books I feel like when I open a new one I've stopped in to visit an old friend.

Harris is a mystery writer who has found her own niche in the paranormal fantasy genre. It is no mystery to me why her books have become popular and that HBO has based a show on her books, which is popular as well.

At the onset of Dead and Gone, Harris' ninth book in the series, you know that something will happen to someone soon—a mysterious murder—and it will keep you wondering who done it throughout. This one will not disappoint readers. Sookie's relationships with Bill and Eric are always on the brink of being re-established. Bill has broken her heart, and she's been angry at him for several books, now. Eric, the sheriff of his own area, has survived a vampire war, and now is claiming his right to take the telepathic bar maid to his bed. Yes, we get a hot love scene in this one, maybe more than one.

I happen to prefer Eric to Bill, I don't know why exactly, I think he's just a tad more aloof, a bit more dangerous and more intrigued with Sookie than Bill. Plus he's pursued her a little longer and I felt it was time that they get down to it—after having sex and not knowing it Eric's memory of it has partially come back. So, why not?

If it were the 1950's, Harris would make a superb cozy murder mystery novelist, and possibly a Gothic romance writer. She is not a horror fiction writer. She tends to gloss over the more horrific details of her books, and certain action sequences. And this bothers me somewhat, but that's just me. At times I'm feeling that the narrator's voice shows a bit more than it should in these passages of what is happening around her, or that we're into the character's mind a little more than we need to be to get across what is happening.

The torture scene in the end I have issues with, but I'm not going to go into detail, as I'd rather not give away the ending, or ruin it for anyone who has not read even one of Harris' books, because they are worth the read. You'll definitely be catapulted into Sookie Stackhouse's world once you open up any of her books. But definitely, if you haven't read this one, go and buy it, it's well worth the read, and it was well worth the wait for me, as I can't buy hard-bounds all the time and have to wait a year before the soft bounds are out.

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