Dead Until Dark (Southern Vampire Mysteries, Book 1)

Like many people, I wanted to read this book after beginning the HBO series, 'True Blood'. I like that series, but the continuous nudity and sex scenes, to me, ruin the basic story. I am glad to say that the book gives something the TV show lacks: a certain sweetness. Sookie, the mind-reading lead character, is so well-drawn you immediately feel for her: she doesn't think she can have any kind of intimate (verbal or otherwise) relationship, since she's always in danger of knowing what someone really thinks. She's insulated herself from the larger world, and doesn't believe there's an alternative. When she meets Bill, a "mainstreaming" vampire, she's found someone she CAN'T "read", and revels in it. To me, the murder plot was secondary to Sookie's quest to make a good life for herself, a smart and resourceful heroine (she's not afraid to get physical to defend herself or others); the secondary characters are good as well. Bill...well, he's a sexy beast, no two ways about it. There's a good social satire on minority rights with the emergence of the vampire community coming "out of the coffin", as it were, and the vampire groupies who've read a little too much Anne Rice (I thought it funny New Orleans is a prime vacation spot for the hip vampire). I will definitely read more in the series.

I loved this book from the first chapter. Before I knew it I was finished. I would highly recommend this book. All the town's people are interesting and entertaining. An Sookie is a very fun character to follow.

my daughter loved the susan meyer series so thought she might like this new series.
Since it is a gift for Christmas cannot rate book, yet service was quick with no problems

I am a big fan of the True Blood series on HBO. So I decided to check out the books that the series is based on. The Southern Vampire Mysteries starting with the first one Dead until Dark by Charlaine Harris.

It was very interesting to see how the book is different from the series. It is like reading the book before you see the movie. I enjoyed book one and I am looking forward to reading the second book.

Welcome to Bon Temps, a small town in northern Louisiana. Here you'll meet the adorable Sookie Stackhouse, a local barmaid with a "disability," and her boyfriend Bill. Bill the Vampire, that is. Yes, vampires are a part of society in Dead Until Dark, the first book in the Southern Vampire Series written by Charlaine Harris. In fact, vampires have come out of the coffin, so to speak, and live openly - if not fully accepted - in society.

But a series of young women have been found dead in Bon Temps recently and suspicion naturally falls on Bill the Vampire. Worse, it looks as if Sookie might be next on the killer's agenda. Sookie and Bill must find the killer themselves if they want to live happily ever after, if indeed one can live happily ever after with a vampire.

When an author creates a paranormal world like the one in Dead Until Dark, they must also create so-called rules for their paranormal creatures. Fiction about human beings, by and large, need not state their rules because as humans, you and I know those rules quite well. What the paranormal rules are specifically doesn't really matter. What is important is that the author stick to their rules to give the story legitimacy. Harris, I'm happy to report, excels at this (unlike another well-known vampire author who has been all the rage recently), which brings a cohesiveness to the story and keeps you comfortably ensconced in her world.

Harris also creates an amusing vocabulary all her own when it comes to vampires.

Vampire groupies?
They're called 'fang-bangers.'

A vampire's ability to hypnotize?
They're simply 'glamoring' you.

And assimilation, or 'mainstreaming,' into society eerily parallels the difficulties experienced by other minority groups in the American south. As light-hearted as this mystery is, there is a dark undercurrent of small-town American prejudice there for any who care to look for it.


The Recommendation
For a reader who professes not to care for westerns or the paranormal, I sure seem to be picking up an awful lot of them recently. But in the case of Dead Until Dark, I'm glad I did. The book is much more light-hearted than HBO's adaptation and the characters are far more sympathetic when you meet them on the pages instead of the screen.

Dead Until Dark could be considered what is often referred to as a light read, but I just consider it plain fun. Enjoyable for a plane ride or a fun interlude between more serious novels, I highly recommend it.

There are currently eight available books in the series. If you suffer from series OCD like I do, you might want to collect them all.