Rating: 3.9* of fiveThe Publisher Says: Sookie Stackhouse likes living in Bon Temps, Louisiana, and she likes working as a cocktail waitress at Merlotte's. But she is having a streak of bad luck. First her co-worker is killed, and no one seems to care. Then she comes face-to-face with a beastly creature which gives her a painful and poisonous lashing. Enter the vampires, who graciously suck the poison from her veins (like they didn't enjoy it).The point is: the vampires saved her life. So when one of her bloodsuckers asks for a favour, she obliges-and soon Sookie's in Dallas, using her telepathic skills to search for a missing vampire. She's supposed to interview certain humans involved, but she makes one condition: the vampires must promise to behave, and let the humans go unharmed. But that's easier than done, and all it takes is one delicious blonde and one small mistake for things to turn deadly...My Review: Back to Bon Temps! It's a good vacation, let me assure you, since thee and me don't have to endure the bizarreness of the supernatural occurances Sookie Stackhouse has to live through. This time out, Sookie's now-normal intercourse (clean-minded, now, think above the waist!) with the undead is life-saving after she encounters a maenad. Her run-in with this extremely bizarre force of wildness and madness leaves her in a really bad way. Her vampire, well, friends isn't precisely the term but it will have to serve, save her life instead of taking it. (Not that they weren't tempted.)In return, when Sookie does them a solid in the Dallas part of the story, she thinks they're even. Oh ha.After coming home to Bon Temps, the maenad must be dealt with. More vampire indebtedness there, Sookie! But really, the memorable thing about this book is the introduction of a fundamentalist hate group, the Fellowship of the Sun, which targets vampires for destruction. And it's not as if there aren't plenty of vampires that richly deserve destruction, including one Sookie has reason to get to know. But the blanket hate that this religious group spreads, well...it's kinda sorta eerie, how closely it resembles the present-day landscape in regard to gay folks.Harris doesn't pull punches here, she goes after the hatefulness of the religiosifiers, and she does so in the most effective way possible: She sets Sookie as their contrast, Sookie of the kind and forgiving heart, the girl who believes the message she was taught in her own church of forgiveness, love, and non-judgment.So refreshing. So rare. So refreshing because it's so rare. Still fun all these years later. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
OK, I was in the midst of a major "pre-read-aphobia" attack but at the insistence of my two children, I started this series. You see my "phobia" is somewhat common among avid readers. You know what I mean if you've ever gone to see a movie after having read the book and walked away severely disappointed because the film sacraficed some very salient points of the book for audience reaction to sex or blood. I'm glad to announce that the True Blood series went in a totally different direction from the books. While I find the HBO series entirely enjoyable I find that the books are captivating. Ms. Harris has a wonderful tale to tell in her books that keep me reading and moving on to the next one in the series. Even when HBO follows the story line, there is so much more in the novel that go beyond the story. Yes, read them, watch the series but don't expect the two to follow one another. From what my kids tell me, the series currently has diverged so far from the original story line that it's an entirely different story. I've already delved into Club Dead (the next in the book series) and really enjoy it. Yes Bill is a vampire and Sookie is ... well, somthing else? lol Go ahead, I dare you! Read this series. :)
What do You think about Living Dead In Dallas (2004)?
Harris gave Alan Ball the freedom to go his own direction with True blood! As the show goes on it goes further from the books! Which I like cause it's like a whole other side of the story like it keeps going on and on!
—Jim
This was a very quick read. Harris knows how to keep things moving. The change of scenery was a bit disappointing in that I didn't feel I got to know anything about Dallas but I understand this isn't a travelogue. Sookie continues to be an enjoyable character but others have mentioned that they feel her lover Bill is a bit flat. I agree as he didn't seem to have much to do on the page. Some things he did off page (negotiated with the Shapechangers etc.) which is a little odd for a main character
—Greg of A2
Once again..... I don't know WHY I read this book.... I was hoping that the Authoress would have expanded her imagination a bit and maybe improved her writing skills, but it didn't happen. I'm two into the series and I'm kinda anxious to see what happens with Erik and Sookie, so I happened to put a hold for the next 3 books at the library.... we'll see if I make it that far. These books don't take long to read.The first book was all murder murder murder.... blah blah blah... they solved the prob
—Amanda
