Tuesday 28 July 2009

Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris/ Another Challenge

Pages - 326

Challenges - Southern Reading Challenge and 100+ books.

First published in Great Britain in 2004.

I have seen the Sookie Stackhouse books speeding their way around the blogging world and everyone taking part in the Sookie Stackhouse challenge, I had to see what everyone was enjoying without me.

Sookie Stackhouse is a cocktail waitress in a small town in Louisiana. She is sweet, kind and often thought to be a little kooky. Well she is definitely kooky and with good reason, she has a natural ability to read people's minds, which she sees as a disability and basically tries to keep herself to herself in order to keep out of people's minds. Life runs smoothly and slowly, until Bill turns up . He is tall, dark and handsome and Sookie has finally found someone whose mind she can't read. However, there is one tiny flaw with Bill that might make a relationship difficult - he is a vampire! When women start getting murdered in Bon Temps after Bill's arrival, all fingers are pointing at him. Sookie panics about her relationship and searches to find out who the real murderer is!

I did enjoy reading this, which quite surprised me as I really didn't think I would. I loved Sookie, she went from being the shy, retiring young Southern style girl, to a feisty Vampire loving, butt kicking girl who manages to catch the murderer.

I love the Southern style of the book, it made me even more desperate to visit New Orleans and actually experience some Southern hospitality. I have always imagined living in one of those houses they often show with the porch running all the way around the house and a swinging chair to sit on and listen to the cicadas.

There is a lot of violence in the book and a certain amount of sexual content, but not enough to make me blush! I was surprised that some main characters were actually killed off quite early in the book, but it was definitely the right move for the plot.

Bill, is a more manly Vampire than young Edward from Twilight and with his century old Southern ways, you just can't help but love him. He is strong, more dangerous and will kill in order to protect Sookie. Their relationship builds steadily through the book, even though they both know a future together would be difficult.

There are a few surprises in the book, which I won't give away. All I can say is that some of the characters are really not what they seem.

So on the whole, I really enjoyed this book and I will definitely continue reading the series.

These books have been made into a TV show called 'True Blood' starring the lovely Anna Paquin as Sookie which is presently showing on FX on a Friday night. I wasn't going to be tempted by it, but after reading the book, I want to see the characters in a real setting.

After the hype concerning this series, I struggled to find many reviews of this book, so if you have read it and reviewed it, let me know and I will add it to this one.

Other reviews for this book

The Eclectic Reader

I'm Booking It

Melissa's Bookshelf

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On another note, I noticed my challenges were quickly disappearing and you know me, I do love a good challenge. Well I have found one that really takes my fancy.

This one is called Reliquiae Challenge and is the Challenge from Beyond.

Here are the challenge details as written by Ana O on the Challenge's own blog. I can say it better than she has, so I will let her say it in her own words.

We’ve been roaming for quite some time in a world owned by vampires, werewolves, ghosts, witches and all sorts of fantastical beings, and the inevitable has happened, we’ve been bitten. We can’t seem to stop ourselves trying out new authors, drooling over gorgeous covers, adding series to our wish lists and watching out for new releases. It’s almost like a disease, though it only gets worse!
So setting out to find if there are any ailing souls like us out there we’ve decided to host a new challenge, and thus Reliquiae was born. Please come join us on this journey, grab your sunglasses, don’t forget your broom and spell book, be sure to pack some nourishment and you can even bring your black cat along. But beware, you’re not coming back!


Rules:
1. Challenge runs from July 15th 2009 to January 15th 2010.
2. Choose the number of books you want to read by selecting one of the reading levels we’ve proposed (see below).
3. Books must fall under one, two or all of the categories we’ve proposed depending on the number of books you wish to read (see above).
4. Sign up by using Mr. Linky (see bottom of post).
5. Share your reviews with us by leaving your link with Mr. Linky on the appropriate post.

Levels:

Bite on the Neck: 3 books.
Flying Cauldron: 4 books.
Deadly Red Moon: 5 books.
Haunted Nights: 6 books.

Categories:
Vampires
Witches
Ghosts
Shapeshifters
Fairies
Elfs

Now you know I love all these categories, so I am thinking it will be easy to read six books by December, so that is what I shall go for.

If you want to join in, please go here and add your link.

20 comments:

  1. Great review and that challenge sounds right up my street too.

    Ever sinve I discovered Anne Rice New Orleans has been on my wishlist to visit. I must admit to being devastated when the hurricane hit. I want to go both when the Mardi Gras is on and when it isn't so I can get an all round feel for it. Trouble is Craig refuses to step foot on a plane so not sure how I'm going to get there. I've coveted one of those houses too. I want a porch swing! *stamps foot* :P

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  2. p.s I finally got my copy of The Host off my sister! woooo! Going to start that this week.

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  3. I have been wondering about these as well. It seems like everybody has read or is reading them. I'm glad that you like it. I'm still keeping it under my hat for when I am a little less busy.

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  4. Oh man--we need to trade places! I wish were my challenges were quickly disappearing. Instead I keep adding more without making much progress on the old ones. :) I havent heard of this one but it sounds interesting.

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  5. Mine is whoopidooatbtinternet.com (again swap the at *g*) I've signed up to that challenge. Going to resume my Harry Dresden fetish for a couple of them ;) I kinda went through about 4 of the books at once and had to be tempted away from the pile with stash and chocolate by Craig. How can you be jealous of a fictional wizard eh? That's another where they've turned it into a series but it's on Sky so will have to see if I can rent it.

    Having visions of doping Craig up like Mr T LOL! I aint getting on no plane fool! LOL!

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  6. Woohoo glad to see you are finally on the Sookie bandwagon, great review and I love True Blood, totally awesome but different to the books.
    Here's the link for my review
    http://teddyree-theeclecticreader.blogspot.com/2009/02/dead-until-dark-by-charlaine-harris.html

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  7. I tried reading this book and couldn't get into it. Ah well. I like that cover better than the one I had though, the one from the HBO show.

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  8. I really should read it but after watching True Blood I changed my mine, I know that they aren't alike. But after watching nothing else than sex I lost the feel for the books

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  9. I am going to start my Sookie books this weekend. We only get True Blood here on satellite tv and we don't have satellite. Too much tv watching as it is, don't need more channels. lol.

    Ugggh, I haven't sent out your book. I packaged a few of them up and set them on a shelf to go to the post office and forgot. I'm so sorry. I feel so bad. They will be going out later this week.

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  10. I absolutely love the Sookie series and am glad that you enjoyed Dead Until Dark. I have also watched the tv show and just to warn you -- it is very different from the books.

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  11. Nice review! In the end I gave up on these but can understand why others love these books. My review is here: http://www.melissas-bookshelf.com/2009/03/review-dead-until-dark.html

    And I've also got links to several other reviews, please feel free to use those links on your own post as well, if you like. :-)

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  12. I'm reading (slowly) this book right now and unfortunately I watched season one of True Blood first. It's making it a bit harder for me to get into - when will I learn? Read the book first!! But I am interested to see how the book and tv show differ.

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  13. It will get interesting to see how people handle spoilers in the series. I'm going to start reading the first one this weekend, so I'm going to stay away from reviews of anything later in the series.

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  14. I'll be reading this soon, I hope, since I'm doing the Sookie Challenge. If you really want to experience the South, you need to visit Charleston, SC or Savannah, GA!

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  15. I like your book review, I had heard about the tv programme and to be honest I didn't fancy it much, I had no idea it was based on a book. I will have to look out for them x

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  16. I'm starting it today. I have to the suspense is killing me and I promised Literary Feline. :)

    You kill me with your challenges.

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  17. I've read this entire series twice. I just love it so much! Eric is just one of my most favoritest favorite vampires :)

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  18. I've got the entire set and I really should get started on the challenge. :D

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  19. Can't wait to start this series. I'm doing the challenge.

    I added this challenge to my list!

    Thanks!

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Hiya, thanks for stopping by, it is always nice to hear what you have to say, so do leave a comment if you have time.