I like books. I like reading them and I like talking about them. Title: Dead to the World
Author: Charlaine Harris
Setting: Bon Temps and Shreveport, Lousiana
Characters: Sookie Stackhouse, a telepathic waitress with an affinity for the undead; Eric, a sharp, sexy vampire from Scandinavia who is the sheriff of Shreveport; Pam, his sidekick; Jason, Sookie’s brother; Sam, Sookie’s shape-shifter boss; Alcide, a werewolf; Debra, Alcide’s bitch of a girlfriend; Hallow, a Vampire-blood-drinking were-witch; Mark, her brother; and about a million other people including vampire Bill, Sookie’s ex-boyfriend.
Main Problem/Conflict: Sookie and Bill have broken up, not because he almost killed her and raped her, but because he ran off with his maker-lady. Just remember, when trying to determine if you should end a relationship, infidelity trumps domestic abuse. Anywho, Bill goes to Peru, which is great because the guy is a bit of a wet blanket anyway.
Right, so it’s New Year’s Eve and Sookie’s resolution is to not get beaten up this year. Which is an odd one, but there ya go. On her way back from a long night of work at Merlotte’s, she sees a vampire skulking around the road. It’s Eric! But he’s not wearing a shirt or shoes! Which mean’s he can’t get into any good bars or restaurants! Oh, also his memory has been erased. He has no idea who he is, where he is, who Sookie is… He does know that he’s a vampire though, so that’s a good start.
Sookie takes Eric to her house for safe keeping, calls Pam, his equally sexy sidekick, and tries to figure out why Eric is now calling her “woman”.
Well, it turns out that a witch named Hallow and her brother are trying to cut into the vampire businesses in Shreveport and that Hallow had the major hots for Eric. When her advances were spurned, Eric poof disappeared and ended up clueless in the middle of a Bon Temps.
In the meantime, the witches have put up “Missing Vampire” signs, and are offering a $50,000 reward for Eric’s safe return to them. Oh, and Jason, Sookie’s brother, walks in on all this at some point and decides that Sookie should be paid $35,000 for Eric’s safe keeping while Pam and the rest try to figure out what’s going on.
Then Jason gets kidnapped. And there’s a bunch of witches and wiccans causing and/or attempting to avoid trouble. Sookie goes to tell werewolf-from-the-last-book Alcide what’s been going on and they discover a dead werewolf. Oh, and Sookie goes to visit Hotshot, which is heavily inbreed were-community on the outskirts of Bon Temps because one of the girls was sleeping with Jason before he went missing. Sookie doesn’t learn much, but the community leader offers to let one of the men impregnate her so they can have new blood in the community. So, um, that’s pretty sweet I guess?
I dunno. Basically, there are a lot of plot lines. “Eric being brainwashed by super-witches” is the most important, followed by “Jason has gone missing”, and it all culminates with a war between the V-drinking, business-infringing-upon, were-witches and the vampire, were-animal, and Wiccan communities of Bon Temps and Shreveport.
Oh, also, Debra (Werewolf Alcide’s ex-lady friend-who-is-also-a-shifter) wants to kill Sookie. Cause she totally hates her. Cause she’s super pretty or something.
Conclusion: EVERYBODY DIES! Including the undead!
Did you like this book/Would you recommend it to a friend?: I liked this book better than the last one - I was far more invested in what Sookie was fighting for in this one. I mean, you have Eric who is a shadow of himself and Jason just up and disappears. But, the whole “Witches did it!” conceit feels a little bleh. You don’t learn a lot about them and they seem a bit like poseurs, especially compared to inherently magically beings like vampires and shifters. But, the story between Sookie and Eric is strong, and I cared about getting him back to normal. The “missing Jason” story was on the back burner, and when the mystery was solved I kinda shrugged and said “If you say so.” But it does give a great base to build on in later novels (of which there are many).
Would I recommend this? Sure. If someone had read the first three books, I would say “Keep going, this one is better than the last.” As a book unto itself? No one should just dive into this series at book four.
On a MAJOR plus: There were absolutely ZERO ridiculous Sookie outfits. All her outfits were totally normal and something an average human being would wear.
By the way, if this reads like it was written by someone who just came back from a booze-filled wedding, it was. Rock!
