(no subject)
21. Dead and Gone by Charlaine Harris
Wow. I really enjoyed this book (and want the final one in the series *now* but it's not available on PBS and I'm not buying new books til I finish the stack I got for my birthday). *But* I think Charlaine Harris has been taking lessons from Jim Butcher on how to abuse your characters.
So, in this book, we find out that Sookie, by virtue of her fairy great-grandfather, is caught up in a war between sky and water fairies. The water fairies kill Claudine, as well as Ameila's were boyfriend Trey, poision Bill, and torture Sookie horrifically. Oh, and let's not forget crucifying her sister-in-law. Not because of the war, just because she was there and dying and it seemed like fun to them. We also find out that her parents' death was no accident, they were murdered by those same fairies.
Any one or two of those things would make for great angst and drama, but all of it? At some point, you've just got to stop kicking the puppy.
And that's just the stuff the enemy fairies did. That doesn't include the fact that Eric conned Sookie into marrying him so she'd be safe from the new vampire king, or that Jason's best friend was in love with him and had killed his wife (or almost killed her--he left and then the fairies found her).
Speaking of kicking puppies, I'd really rather have seen Sam end up with Sookie than Eric. Maybe it's because I tend to go for weres over vampires, maybe it's because Eric's a manipulative bastard. I like the fact that Eric actually fought for Sookie, put his own neck on the line to protect her...that's a nice change from previously, when he's largely been out for his own interests first and foremost. But the "guess what, we're married now" thing just bugs me.
Wow. I really enjoyed this book (and want the final one in the series *now* but it's not available on PBS and I'm not buying new books til I finish the stack I got for my birthday). *But* I think Charlaine Harris has been taking lessons from Jim Butcher on how to abuse your characters.
So, in this book, we find out that Sookie, by virtue of her fairy great-grandfather, is caught up in a war between sky and water fairies. The water fairies kill Claudine, as well as Ameila's were boyfriend Trey, poision Bill, and torture Sookie horrifically. Oh, and let's not forget crucifying her sister-in-law. Not because of the war, just because she was there and dying and it seemed like fun to them. We also find out that her parents' death was no accident, they were murdered by those same fairies.
Any one or two of those things would make for great angst and drama, but all of it? At some point, you've just got to stop kicking the puppy.
And that's just the stuff the enemy fairies did. That doesn't include the fact that Eric conned Sookie into marrying him so she'd be safe from the new vampire king, or that Jason's best friend was in love with him and had killed his wife (or almost killed her--he left and then the fairies found her).
Speaking of kicking puppies, I'd really rather have seen Sam end up with Sookie than Eric. Maybe it's because I tend to go for weres over vampires, maybe it's because Eric's a manipulative bastard. I like the fact that Eric actually fought for Sookie, put his own neck on the line to protect her...that's a nice change from previously, when he's largely been out for his own interests first and foremost. But the "guess what, we're married now" thing just bugs me.