Author: Charlaine Harris
Publisher: Ace Books
Rating: Worthy!
This is the novel that kicked off the HBO True Blood series, which I adore. As I've mentioned before, I am not a fan of vampire novels, or angel novels, or fairy novels. Frankly, I'm not sure what it is about the TV series that I like since it’s bleeding vampire clichés out of its ears, but there's something about it, and I think it’s mainly the humor and the ridiculous situations into which the characters so routinely get themselves.
Since I do love the TV show and I saw this first novel sitting dirt cheap on the shelf at Goodwill, I decided I had nothing to lose and picked it up. Goodwill is a great place to find novels, if you can find a store which has a decent selection. Not all of them do, but once in a while you find one with a really good selection, and it opens up the option to experiment: a novel that you don’t want to risk $20 on as a new volume is well-worth a risk of not liking it, at a mere three or four bucks. or looked at another way, you can avail yourself of four or five used novels there for the price of only one new one!
The first thing about the TV show which amused the heck out of me was the name of the female protagonist: Sookie Stackhouse. Suck-ee: she who is sucked! I thought that was priceless. The Sookie in the novel is a little bit different from the one in the TV show, but mostly the same. I do wonder how I would have viewed the novel version had I not seen the TV show first, but all I can think of, and hear, now is the TV version coming though the novel.
As far as I recall the TV show's pilot, the novel starts out very much the same way. Living in small-town Bon Temps (good times!), Louisiana, Sookie encounters her first vampire at the restaurant where she works evenings. Sookie is a bit different from your average girl if only in that she can hear people's thoughts, and she hears the thoughts of the couple who start talking to the vampire, whose name is Bill. They want to 'drain him' and sell the blood, which has aphrodisiacal and medicinal properties. When they all leave together, Sookie follows and saves Bill's life. He returns the favor shortly afterwards when the couple ambush Sookie late one night in revenge, as she leaves work.
It’s pleasant for Sookie to be with Bill because she cannot hear his thoughts and it's so peaceful for her. She can relax and she doesn’t have to work to block thoughts out like she normally does every minute of every day or her life. Her grandmother, with whom Sookie resides, wants to meet Bill, especially if he's old enough to remember the American civil war. She's a member of some civil war society or other. Why the US is so obsessed with the civil war is a mystery, but there you go. So Bill agrees, and they spend a pleasant evening together, after which Bill and Sookie take a walk in the evening air.
Sookie volunteers to help Bill liaise with the workers who are working on renovating the old house he's inherited and decided to move into. He has a problem with being out in daylight, and they have a problem with being around a vampire after sundown! She also kisses Bill good night, which turns into a passionate embrace and leaves her wondering if the undead 'do it' in the same way that the non-dead do! Not that she's had much (indeed, any) experience with doing it - the very thought of trying to have sex with someone to whose every thought she is party quite turns Sookie off.
Sookie is also turned off Bill somewhat when she visits him to deliver the details of the arrangements she made with the local builders to work on his house, only to find Bill in the company of several vampires, who are not at all as gentlemanly as Bill is. The most interesting of the vampires is a tall, slim dark-skinned female and a tall, muscular male, who (according to Bill) are ancient acquaintances. Sookie leaves shortly after the vamps do, and she isn't very thrilled with Bill's attitude.
This book is a bit odd in that it's almost 300 pages and yet only twelve chapters, but Harris definitely moves the story along apace. In addition to Sookie's growing relationship with Bill, we're treated to several murders in Bon Temps. The victims have apparently been murdered because of their association with vampires, but rather than see this as a series of acts perpetrated by someone who hates vampires, the community sees these as the act of a vampire. Sookie discovers the next victim when she's sent by her boss Sam Merlotte, to find out why one of his waitresses has not shown up for work in two days.
Intent upon finding out more about the murders, Sookie asks Bill to take her to Shreveport, to Fangtasia, the vampire bar which both Dawn and Maudette apparently frequented. She confirms that they visited, but can learn no further details. She does meet a native American vampire who tends bar there, and she meets Eric and Pam, the oldest vampires in the region, although they by no means look old at all. She makes a favorable impression on these three vampires when she warns them that there is an undercover cop in the bar who is calling in the police for a raid. She, Bill, Eric, Pam, and Long Shadow, the barman, all manage to leave without any problem.
The third murder is a huge personal tragedy for Sookie. After Bill has spoken at the civil war society meeting and made a very favorable impression, Sookie, who attended with Sam, arrives home later to discover her grandmother dead on the kitchen floor: beaten to death apparently by the same psycho who killed Maudette and Dawn. It would appear that the killer intended to murder Sookie, but found only her grandmother home alone. After this, Sookie resumes her relationship with Bill in a most dramatic way: by relinquishing her virginity to him in her grandmother's bed. The house is now her own and she chose to use the main bedroom now. Her brother Jason, the local stud, is not thrilled that she inherited the entire house (and surrounding land) to herself, but she relinquishes her share in her parent's home to Jason free and clear, and the violent disagreement slowly heals.
So the killings continue and Bill and Sookie's relationship continues to be a roller-coaster. Eric calls upon Sookie's services because someone at his bar stole $60,000. Sookie helps them figure out who did it, but both she and Bill fear this growing relationship with Eric. Bill heads off to New Orleans to do something about it, leaving Sookie all alone. He did leave the vampire of Elvis Presley in charge of securing Sookie's grounds, but Bubba is of no use at all, and Sookie becomes more fearful and desperate, especially since her brother Jason is arrested after the latest murder! There are disturbances around Sookie's home, and the rifle she kept in a closet is missing. One night, no help to be had, she has to go out to confront the killer...!
I rate this novel a big worthy, which was a bit of a surprise in some regards since I'm not a vampire novel fan, as I've mentioned. However, I do adore True Blood the TV show, so perhaps it wasn't such a stretch after all. I do plan on reading more in this series!
