Niki's Review: Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris

Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris is the first book in the Southern Vampire Mystery Novels, often called the Sookie Stackhouse Series or True Blood.

Sookie is a blonde telepath from Bon Temps, Louisiana. She’s a waitress at a bar. She considers her telepathy a handicap and she’s sweet and a bit naive. I really like Sookie. I think it’s really fun that she blocks out her telepathy as often as possible and it’s really a difficult thing to do so she just always comes off as a little goofy.

Vampires have ‘come out of the closet’ and the world knows about them now. Sookie meets her first, Bill, and is thrust into the world of Vampires and all things supernatural. You’ll meet Vamps and shapeshifters in this book.

A string of murders in town seem to point to her brother, Jason, as the killer, you know, since he’s been with every single woman (and many of the not single women) in town and decides he has to film his exploits. Sookie reluctantly lets her guard down to find the real killer to keep her brother out of jail.

When the actual murderer turns out to be someone who hates women who’ve demeaned themselves enough to be with Vampires comes for Sookie, she is in a fight to the death.

I love Sookie and even though she’s an adult (and was older than me when I started reading these) she’s very young-minded in many ways because her telepathy stunted her social life. She doesn’t really date and she’s a virgin and even though she can tell when people are lying, she’s not great at reading people, somehow. And I loved all that about her.

This book has a lot going on, but it is still considered a romance and, since love triangles are a huge thing, there are several potential suitors that pop up. I don’t always love this trope, but I like the way it’s done here. Bill comes in and she’s smitten with him pretty quickly and then her boss, Sam, gets a bit jealous and tries to butt in and she has to point out that she’s been around and he never made his move. This strikes me as something that several 20-somethings have gone through, and I like the way Sookie handled it.

Though, I hate Bill. He’s stalkery, rapey, and just whiney…but you know…it’s her first real relationship and she doesn’t really know any better. She can’t read his mind and she can completely relax around him. I think that’s something that she weighs when considering the bad about Bill. Though Bill isn’t my type, you know, because he’s a jerk with crazy civil war era chops (but no beard, so…partial win?), that’s not to say Sookie can’t have real feelings for him or learn something about future relationships. That’s what early relationships are for anyway, finding out who you are and what you want in a mate. The rapey bits are too much for me though. They don’t phase Sookie…but it’s creepy.

I first read this series at the height of vampire mania. I think when I started reading, less than half of the series was out and I waited anxiously for each new book. I was already several books in before the series came out and while the first season followed fairly close to ‘Dead Until Dark’, to say the rest was loosely adapted seems generous. For all intents and purposes, they touch on the same things, Vampire, Fae, Weres and Shifters, and Sookie is a telepath. Some characters have the same names. But, that’s about as deep as it goes. So, no matter your feelings for the TV series, the book series is very different and worth a try.

For what it’s worth, my favorite books in the series are #3 Club Dead and #10 All Together Dead. The last book, Dead Ever After wasn’t great but I don’t know if that’s just because I didn’t want it to end or if I just didn’t like the directions the books took. As I stated above, the books and the TV series were very different things, but it felt like the last book took a page from the TV show and Sookie changed into her TV counterpart and the choices she made felt inauthentic to me. But, also, this series is 13 books long and I was pretty attached to her and the choices she was so clearly making, so when she turned around and changed her mind at the last minute in the last book for reasons I couldn’t understand or see coming…I was disappointed. Not so much so that I won’t reread this series over and over again though, so take that as you will. Even with a disappointing ending, this is the only series of this length that I’ve read that I can actually with a pure heart recommend.

*Spoilers Below*

Sookie works at Merlotte’s, a bar, as a waitress. She has a brother named Jason and their parents died years before the series began. She lives with her grandmother and Jason lives in their parent’s old house.

Oh yeah, Sookie is a telepath.

One night, the first vampire she’s ever met walks in and sits at her section. ‘Out of the Coffin’, as they are, Sookie knew they existed but had never seen or met one. She is immediately drawn to him because she can’t hear his thoughts.

That night, the Rat’s, a gross couple that are newish to town, try to drain Bill outside the bar. You see, vamp blood is like a drug and some people are really into it. Vampires don’t like to just give it away, so it requires essentially killing them to get this drug. Sookie ends up fighting them off and saving Bill.

In retaliation, the Rats attack Sookie after her next shift and nearly beat her to death. The only thing that stopped them was Bill and a dog. Sookie then drinks some of Bill’s blood to help her heal.

Bill then kills the Rats and stages their trailer to look like a very localized tornado hit it. While people know about Vampires, they don’t know all their secrets so while people think the ‘tornado’ is weird, they can’t figure out what else to blame it on. This part makes me giggle. I was the girl that used to spend hours setting up my dolls and Littlest Pet Shop until everything was beautiful and perfect and then scream ‘tornado!’ and smash everything to bits. I like to imagine Bill having the same kinda fun. And then I remember about the two dead people. So, it’s a different kind of fun…

Sookie and Bill start hanging out casually. She wears banana clips and I literally don’t even know if those are things you can buy anymore, and a hair accessory ripped straight out of the 80s and thrown into the early 2000s and played off as something that looks good is the only thing that pulls me out of the story. But only just slightly. I cut my own hair, who am I to judge?

Anyway, Bill and Sookie get in a bit of a tiff and the next time Sookie sees him, he’s with some really mean vampires. See, Bill is trying to mainstream, but not all Vamps are. And Vamps that don’t want to mainstream are dangerous. Bill claims that ‘Sookie is mine’ to keep her safe from them. She doesn’t love the possessive crap, but that’s just how Vamps work.

Two local gals, Maudette and Dawn are murdered. Both have vamp bites, and both were sleeping with Jason. Sookie has Bill take her to Fangtasia, the vampire bar in Shreveport, to see if the girls had been there in an effort to clear Bill, and they had. However, getting answers out of the vamps is tricky and Sookie doesn’t learn much.

What she does do while she’s there is tip her hand and tell them a raid is coming. She mentally eavesdropped and there is no way to explain it but the truth. Eric and Pam, the two vamps that run Fangtasia are immediately interested in her, but Bill claims her again. Though Eric does outrank Bill, it’s enough to keep him at bay.

Sookie goes out for an evening with Bill and when she returns, she finds her Grandma was murdered and Sookie finds her. Jason comes over and slaps her and is a real dick. Jason isn’t always the worst, but I never really like him. And I know people grieve in weird ways, but damn.

Bill comes over and he and Sookie hook up—her first time ever—and they are officially together.

One night, Sookie tells Bill about her ‘funny uncle’ and when she wakes up the next morning, he’s dead. She realizes Bill killed him and breaks up with him until she can figure out rules for them to be together.

Bill drops into the bar and tells her he’s going to stop by and visit the vampires she’d met before that weren’t mainstreaming. The dangerous ones. Sookie had been overhearing that people plan to burn their nest. She doesn’t realize that they are serious and that they intend to do it that night, so she simply tells him ‘people don’t like them’.

The next morning, the house is burned, and Bill hadn’t returned any of her calls so she is sure he was in the house and is now dead.

Sam Merlotte, her boss and the owner of the bar, spends the day with her cleaning the entire house to keep her busy until dark when she can confirm if Bill is alive or dead.

Once it’s dark, she wanders through the cemetery that separates her home from Bills and ‘feels him’ there. She yells for him to wake and he crawls out naked from his grave. Once she explains the situation, he’s angry and ‘animal’ like and she has to ‘redirect’ his anger so he doesn’t hurt her and they have sex in the dirt while he’s covered in filth from his grave. I mean…aside from how unhealthy that is for her, it’s also emotionally really messed up and one of the reasons I just do not like Bill. He has serious consent issues. More on that later.

The next day, Jason walks into the bar and Sookie asks why the cops are so keen on him for these murders. He has to tell her its because he makes sex-tapes with all the woman he sleeps with and the cops found the ones of the dead ladies. And, why wouldn’t he kill his grandma?

Bill and Sookie are summoned to Fangtasia so Sookie can read some minds and see who’s stealing money from them. She finds out it’s a Vamp and he’s killed right then. Sookie drinks (accidently this time) some of his blood. This is (I think, may have lost count) the third time Sookie has had Vampire blood and everyone is noticing a difference in her. Her skin is smoother, her hair looks better, she can see better…all kinds of stuff.

Anyway, when Sookie and Bill leave Fangtasia, he almost rapes her and she has to snap him out of it (lest you think this is the last time this comes up, no no no, my friends. It might be the last time in this book, but he completes the deed in the next book).

Bill comes into the bar during Sookie's next shift with an adorable little fang banger on his arm. He tells Sookie she was a ‘gift’ for the great job at Fangtasia the night before. He swears nothing happened, but he just had to parade her around, I guess. Seriously, I just really don’t like Bill. I’m not even mad at Eric for sending the ‘gift’, I’m mad at Bill for showing her off. They have a chat and Sookie goes home.

Still on edge, Sookie rushes inside and the moment she closes the door, there is a thump of something hitting it. She calls Bill scared because someone is in the yard and he rushes over. He finds the thing that smashed into the door. Her poor murdered cat Tina, proving that whoever killed her grandma is still after her.

Bill has to leave town, but he finds a guard to watch over Sookie while he is gone. A broken vampire that used to be Elvis. But don’t call him that because he really hates it. He goes by Bubba, and if the cat hadn’t been murdered, Bubba probably would have eaten it. Apparently, he has a fond spot for felines. Bubba is fun when he pops up. The right amount of creepy and endearing for this kind of character.

The next day Sookie is looking for Jason but can’t find him. She calls Merlotte’s to see if he’s there but he’s not. Not long later, she gets a call saying he is there, so she heads that way. Jason isn’t there and the guy that called her swears he didn’t. Annoyed and confused, Sookie leaves. On her way out, she takes home a stray collie in the parking lot that she names Dean.

The next morning, Dean is Sam (her boss). No, you read that right. Sam was the collie, and he went home with Sookie and slept in her bed knowing he’d wake up naked next to her. Not the best move. But anyway, Sam is a shapeshifter and can become anything he wants. He explains there are also weres, but they just become one thing (wolf, fox, panther, ect).

A deputy shows up and tells her there has been another murder (not on purpose, she picks it from his mind).

Sookie has to drive Sam home. He lives behind the bar and when they get there, Jason’s truck is in the parking lot and Jason is inside with a new video. Of the newly dead girl.

Jason is promptly arrested for murder but is released on bail after a day or so.

Sookie is home alone and something is off. She calls for Bubba but he’s not answering, and all the nighttime bugs are strangely silent. Her shotgun is missing, and her phone is dead. She is alone with the killer. She can feel his mind, but it takes her a long time to figure out who it is.

She runs through the cemetery and learns its Rene who has killed all the women and is trying to kill her. He’s Jason’s friend and the fiancé of Sookie’s best friend and coworker. Their battle is pretty brutal, but in the end, Sookie comes out on top. Though, she is in the hospital and Sookie’s BFF isn’t the nicest about the whole thing. Her brother, though, is a much better person at this point in the book (as I’ve read the whole series, I’ll just say, Jason is an idiot who is very selfish and pretty stupid. He doesn’t usually try to hurt Sookie, but he’s not a great person. He does have his good moments though).

There is a funny bit where Sookie is reading all the cards from her flowers and is (again, rightfully so) bummed that none are from Bill (because he’s the worst) and there is even an arrangement from Eric (who is just my favorite, though he doesn’t really shine until several books in so give him a moment).

Bill does show up though and is super glad she’s ok and it’s got a pretty sweet ending for such a dark book. It’s a very clean book and I think it sets up the whole series very well. You meet so many of the characters that will be with you all the way and they are all so distinct and even though I don’t love them all, I love that they are all flawed. They aren’t a bunch of perfect people running around. They all feel very human, even the vamps feel like real people. It’s great.

On a side note that has nothing to do with anything, these books are three different sizes. Five are smallish. Two are intermixed in those that are slightly bigger. Then, the last six are much bigger. So, they don’t sit on your shelf in a pretty way. I don’t know, maybe they have some that match all the way through, but I bought these from brick and mortar bookstores as they were released and this is what was there (I think I bought the last two online because the bookstores near me closed, but I’m pretty sure it’s the same versions that would have been there). Don’t judge me. I told you this had nothing to do with anything.