Dead Until Dark (Southern Vampire Mysteries, No. 1)

No fewer than seventy vampire novels fill the bookshelf in my living room. Add to that another dozen or so books about vampires in movies, historic vampires and vampire trivia. There are likely another dozen books on the undead that I have borrowed from libraries and friends I don't have on hand. Yes, I know my vampires and my vampire literature and I was really hopeful when a copy of "Dead Until Dark" by Charlaine Harris landed in my grasp. I don't have HBO so getting a chance to view "True Blood" has been sadly denied me.

At first, I was enjoying the book. It was becoming a nice, little vampire infested murder mystery. As a teen I'd had a subscription to Ellery Queen's Murder Mystery Magazine, adored anything Alfred Hitchcock and spent many an hour glued to the television to watch Twilight Zone. A vampire murder-mystery actually felt different and imaginative.

The concept, on a whole, is rather ingenious and I'm not going to deny Harris that bit of praise. That the vampire population of the world has finally decided to make itself known and pretty much, demands to be treated as part of every day (night) society is very clever. Bars and night clubs where humans and vampires can mingle in all their Gothic glory and tourists can gawk juxtaposition with vampires who want to mainstream, that is, live as human a life as possible away from the theatrical glistening of fangs and trickles of fake blood at the corner of the mouth. It all really works.

Vampire Bill Compton is a wonderful character. I cared what happened to him right from the start and that affection grew throughout the novel. Sookie's naïve nature was very refreshing and yet somehow old-fashioned at the same time. Maybe that's why she does things `quick as wink'? It made me like her. It made me smile at the amount of self-restraint Bill had to have to be around her and it really showed me his human side. They played off each other well. Sookie's boss Sam has some unexpected surprises for us, too.

But, there was that dreadful moment on page 101, when I realized Harris was not as imaginative as she had first appeared. Not only that, but someone really should have done a bit of easy research and told her that Morticia Addams spells her last name with two D's, not one. The misspelling of Addams occurs in the paragraph where we are given a description of the vampire bar our dear narrator, Sookie Stackhouse, is visiting for the first time. One would think Harris could have been more creative than to merely refer back to someone else's previous works on vampire entertainment. I find it hard to believe this got past a good editor.

To Quote:
"It ranged from the traditional capes and tuxes for the men to many Morticia Adams ripoffs among the females. The clothes ranged from reproductions of those worn by Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise in "Interview with the Vampire" to some modern outfits I thought were influenced by "The Hunger"."

This assumes readers have seen both of these movies and it does nothing to enhance the atmosphere that Sookie has walked into. "The Hunger" is set in the 1980s and can hardly be considered `modern' as far as fashion is concerned. I find this paragraph a complete and utter cop-out. Not to mention the annoyance I felt at reading the phrase "It ranged" and "The clothes ranged" in consecutive sentences. Use your own imagination and imagery, Charlaine! I know you have one in there someplace. Your plot proves it.

I am very curious as to what person of Sookie's age would ever dream of using the phrases, "quick as a wink" or "lickety split", which Harris uses several times to describe doing something with great speed. I could imagine Sookie's grandmother using these terms but not a 20-something woman of the 21st century. And is there any other way for Vampire Bill to appear than by "One minute he wasn't there and then he was."? Variety is the spice of life, and the spice of good writing. Harris repeatedly, well, repeats herself.

As far as where this book will be placed in my mental file of vampire literature, I regret it won't sit up there with the others as a favorite. The potential screamed at me from the start. "I want to be a good book," it said. But, for me, I became an editor instead of a believing reader on page 101. I can't respect someone writing about vampires as much as I'd like who has shown me she doesn't really know vampire literature. "Write What You Know" is one of the top five rules we writers are told to adhere to. If you don't know about something, do some research and learn all you can before you put your fingers on that keyboard. I don't feel that Harris did that. "Show Don't Tell" is another rule that Harris clearly broke the moment Sookie walked into the vampire bar. Harris told us what the clothes looked like, like something we should already have an image of in our minds, instead of telling us what she was seeing with her own eyes via Sookie.

Overall, the book is okay. But how the hell it is a NYT Bestseller is beyond my imagining. I give it 2 Stars out of 5.

I'm talking to those of you who have seen HBO's series and might want to experience a richer, deeper, darker, smarter and sexier take on the Southern Vampire Mysteries.

Author Harris has created an addictive series in which Sookie is the center of always strange, sometimes wonderful, and often terrifying events. Sookie is truly the heroic figure you saw in the first few episodes and not the crankypants whiner the producers turned her into.

What's better about the books? Harris writes clean prose and tells her story in a linear style without messy side trips. And here's some good news: skanky Jason is a fairly minor character while vampires Bill and Eric are very major. Tara doesn't bear any resemblance to her namesake in the books and I just don't know what to say about that.

Treat yourself to the fun to be had in reading this wonderful series. Richer. Deeper. Darker. Smarter. Sexier.

First of all, apologies to all of you who are huge fans of this series of books. I'm sure you'll hate this review, but remember, this is just one person's opinion.

I was drawn to this series due to all of the press it's been receiving lately, and also because I'm up for a good, escapist vampire novel now and then. I actually bought the whole box set when it came out recently, but am putting my review here (instead of with the boxed set) because I didn't even get past this first book.

The book did not hold my interest at all, and believe me, I tried to like it. I've been attempting to figure out what the problem is. It's not the setting; I was born in Louisiana, so the setting was one of the attractions of the book. It's not the overall, view-from-30,000-feet story; that was fine. So what was it?

I'd have to say it was more structural than anything else, for lack of a better word. I found Ms. Harris' writing to be on par with what an average ninth grader might produce. The characters, even the main ones, were a bit on the superficial side and weren't really fully developed. The plot details were quite boring, not engaging at all. The love scenes were a bit cringe-worthy, reminiscent of scenes from poorly executed smut novels (i.e. just as with smut novels, these parts struck me as nothing more than a fantasy on the part of the author).

Overall, the simple fact that I found the book disappointing *IS* the most disappointing part. That is, if I hadn't had such high hopes, it wouldn't be such a let down. The story and characters had oodles of potential.

Just finished this book. Purchased after I started watching True Blood on HBO.
Book was easy reading and some situations were the same as the TV series, but a lot was very different. Will read the others.
Fun, easy to pick up and read.

I'll preface this review by saying that I REALLY like the HBO series, True Blood. I also really wanted to like this book, but I can't say that I did. I just don't like this author's writing style. I found myself rolling my eyes quite frequently because of all of the terrible analogies and the downright corny writing. I had to force myself to finish it. I won't be reading anymore of the books in the series and, like another reviewer, I'll be looking for something a bit more substantial.