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Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
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Amazingly entertaining!!!
This is the best series I have ever read. This book is just one of many in Charlaine Harris's golden collection!
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Dead is Dead
If you want to read a great book about this subject, try BAD GIRLS BURN SLOW, by Pam Ward. this book is almost criminally insane. Old broads, kids who are vicious and men who kill their own blow up dolls.
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Fantastic writer!!
This is a fantastic book by a great writer. It is one of the books that my husband devours. He has a hard time putting them down.
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Another thoroughly enjoyable chapter in the adventures of Sookie Stackhouse
I have now read all but the most recent Sookie Stackhouse novel, FROM DEAD TO WORSE (which I just ordered from Amazon -- I had intended to wait for the paperback in March 2009, but after the big events at the end of this one, I decided I couldn't wait until then), and I have decided that this one of my favorite series of novels. Though there have been many, many series of novels over the decades, there are fewer truly excellent ones than one might imagine. These novels stand head and shoulders above the vampire series by Anne Rice and Linda K. Hamilton and bear comparison with such stellar series as the Jack Aubrey/Maturin novels by Patrick O'Brian or the Discworld novels of Terry Pratchett. What has most delighted me is how very good the novels have stayed all the way through the seventh in the series. The Anita Blake series started off OK, but steadily became worse and worse until they became embarrassing and painful to read. In fact, the Anita Blake books were never worse than when groups of vampires were brought together. This Sookie Stackhouse book, which deals with a large congregation of vampires in a city that resembles Chicago in all but name, excells where the Blake books fail.
One of the narrative strategies that Charlaine Harris employs is to introduce plotlines that will not be fully explored until the next novel or two in the series. In the previous novel, DEFINITELY, DEAD, we learned that the Queen of Lousiana wanted Sookie to accompany her to a vampire summit. That summit takes place in this novel. I do find the fictional city in which it takes place to be exceedingly odd. Though I am from Arkansas (Charlaine Harris's state-of-residence), I live in Chicago. Illinois is an odd state in that it has one extremely large city, its surrounding suburbs, and only a couple of other significant towns in the remainder of the state. There simply isn't place that in any way resembles Rhoades, the city where the vampire summit takes place. It is supposed to be on the shores of Lake Michigan, but there are only suburbs of Chicago. I'm not sure why Harris felt that she had to create a fictional place. She had previously set books in Dallas, New Orleans, Shreveport, and Jackson, Mississippi. Perhaps she didn't feel sufficiently familiar with Chicago to set it there. Whatever the reason, the city of Rhoades is one of the weakest elements in any of her books. I think she would have been better served by placing the ficticious hotel either in Chicago or perhaps in one of the very real suburbs like Rosemont. In fact, except for the fact that Rosemont is many miles from Lake Michigan, Rosemont is very much the kind of place that would have a hotel like the one where the events of the book take place.
This novel also is much more epic and grand than the other novels in the series, though none the worse for that. It ends in almost apocalyptic fashion, with things left far more unsettled than the previous novels. The vampire political map clearly will be redrawn as a result of the big events. And things in Sookie's life will be more more precarious between the increased ties to Eric (as the result of their being forced to exchange blood to satisfy the demands of Andre, the Queen's escort) and the firefighters and police in Rhoades learning that Sookie and Barry (the telepath who previously appeared in LIVING DEAD IN DALLAS) had remarkable abilities. The number of people who would like to avail themselves of someone with abilities like Sookie and Barry's are surely enormous and will unquestionably feature in feature novels.
All in all, another great entry in a marvelous series of books. As I mentioned in previous reviews, I ordered the first books in this series without knowing that they were the foundation for the new Alan Ball series TRUE BLOOD, which I had already intended to watch. They are both very similar to one another and very different. I find that I am enjoying both immensely. I strongly recommend the books to any fan of the series, though I would caution them that there are definite differences (e.g., Jason is a far more important character in the TV series, Tara is a minor character in the books and white to boot, and Eric at least as or more important than Bill in Sookie's life). But I find that I'm enjoying both immensely.
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I actaully liked this book
This is the best book of the series. Sookie is stronger and the rest of the characters are more developed. The plot and writing are weak, but not as bad as in previous books.
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