Living Dead In Dallas by Charlaine Harris

Plot

When a vampire asks cocktail waitress Sookie Stackhouse for a favor, she complies.  And soon she's in Dallas, using her telepathic skills to search for a missing vampire.  She agrees to interview the humans involved as long as the bloodsuckers promise to let them go unharmed.  Easier said than done.  All it takes is one delicious blonde and one small mistake for things to turn deadly.

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Another great Sookie Stackhouse book.  Another example of why the books and True Blood are separate entities.

I really enjoyed this book, for pretty much the same reasons as Dead Until Dark.  There really isn't much else to add.  I like Charlaine Harris' writing style.  I like her characters.  There's honestly nothing I'd really change.  Like I said last time though, having seen the show and already being familiar with the characters and the story, there is a good deal of bias.  I can't say for certain that my opinion would be the same, had I gone into this series completely unfamiliar, but to the best of my abilities, I tried to find faults and there were none.

I am starting to see why some fans of the book don't like the show too much, though.  For what was changed in Season 1, they really veered off from the book for Season 2.  Like...really veered off.  To the point that I wonder if they could even continue to follow, the books on the show.  But, I'm getting off point.  This is about Living Dead in Dallas...not True Blood.

This is definitely a book to read, assuming you enjoyed Dead Until Dark (which you should have), but do not go into it expecting it to be the book version of True Blood.

~Missy

Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris

Plot

Sookie Stackhouse is just a small-time cocktail waitress in small-town Louisiana--except for her "disability."  She can read minds.  But when Bill Compton walks into her life, she can't hear a word he's thinking--and then then one of her co-workers is killed.


Maybe having a vampire for a boyfriend isn't such a bright idea...

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Right upfront, let me explain to you that this review will be ever so slightly biased.  For those of you that (somehow) don't know, the Sookie Stackhouse novels are the basis for HBO's show True Blood.  That being said, I started reading this book having already seen the first season of True Blood (which is an adaptation of this book).  Actually I'd seen it twice, so...I pretty much knew the major plot points and twists.

On top of going into this already knowing the end, I also went in having read some of the disapproval Sookie Stackhouse fans had toward the way the first book had been adapted.  That being said, I'll get started on my review.

To begin with, the book's a really good read.  Usually, when I've seen the movie/TV show before reading the book, the book tends to drag for me, because I go in expecting a certain pace.  That was not the case here.  In fact, if it was dragging because of me seeing True Blood, then I can only imagine how much faster I could have read this book.  I flew through this book like it was nothing (my copy clocks in at 312 pages).  It was a phenomenal read.  Better than some other vampire books that I've read recently (*cough*Twilight*cough*).

As for a book/True Blood comparison, I definitely view the book as being a whole other entity.  The show strayed from the book enough that I'm curious to see how things pan out in the books.  A certain character, who shall remain nameless, survives the book.  They do not survive the show.  I'm very curious to see whether or not he/she reappear in subsequent books (don't say anything, for those that have read the books and know which character I'm talking about).

At this point, I would usually start listing off what didn't work for me in the book.  I'm surprised to say that I've got nothing.  I seriously liked everything about this book.  The entire time I was reading, there wasn't a single instance where I wished something had been written differently.  It was perfect.  I loved the writing.  I loved the characters.  I wouldn't change a single thing.  I loved it.

I think you can figure out my botton line, but I'll say it anyway.  I definitely...DEFINITELY...recommend this book.

~Missy