Friday, August 03, 2007

Living Dead in Dallas, by Charlaine Harris

LIVING DEAD IN DALLAS
Charlaine Harris
ISBN: 0-441-00923-9
Fantasy/Mystery
Book #07-061

Sookie Stackhouse is an ordinary young woman with an extraordinary "dis"ability: she can read minds. This ability has caused her grief throughout her life, particularly when it comes to romance, because as she says, how can you make love with someone when you know what they really think about you and your body? When Sookie meets Bill the Vampire and realizes that she can't hear his thoughts, the mental silence is very attractive to her, and before long, she's got a real, live (not) boyfriend.

Being involved with a vampire has its own special problems. When Bill's vampire colleagues save Sookie's life, she feels obligated to accomodate when asked for a favor, she agrees to read the minds of people involved in the case of a missing vampire. Sookie's only condition is that if her abilities reveal the culprits, they must be handed over to the authorities and dealt with through legal channels.

Once in Dallas, Sookie encounters the Fellowship of the Sun, a fanatical anti-vampire group. The resulting chaos and carnage make for fast, frantic reading as Charlaine Harris masterfully pits the vampires and their foes against each other, with the intrepid Sookie smack in the middle. In this second installment of Harris's Stackhouse series, readers get more of Sookie's scrupulously honest self-analysis and her amusingly pragmatic approach to life. Harris has created a detailed depiction of vampire politics, and Eric, Bill's supervisor, proves to be a formidable enemy and a seriously good kisser.

Charlaine Harris keeps the action and the angst coming in this completely delectable page-turner. Sookie is a heroine readers can identify with, and her wise-cracking sense of humor leavens many a tense moment. Harris gives her imagination free rein, and the resultant account of modern vampire life is a marvel of wit and wonder. LIVING DEAD IN DALLAS is a breath of fresh air in a genre that is in high demand with readers, and that popularity shows no sign of declining any time soon. With Sookie Stackhouse, Charlaine Harris has earned her spot on the paranormal keepers shelf.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Charlaine Harris is one of my favorite authors! I haven't kept up with the Sookie series. There is just so many books to read...

Mellanie C. said...

I know! I was at Waldenbooks, and I thought I would buy the next one (and I knew there was a hardcover out there now)--imagine my surprise to find out there are at least three others after CLUB DEAD!

Sherri said...

I love this series. I've just started listening to her newest one, ALL TOGETHER DEAD. I'm excited that there will be a television program based on the series as well.