Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris
I finally got to this book, which is the first in the Sookie Stackhouse series (the books that True Blood is loosely based on), after over a year of hemming and hawing.
Can I just say? I should've just kept putting it off, good lordy.
This is a mediocre book at best, which is a down right shame, as there are several elements to the world created here that could have been amazing if done right (as the success of the TV series might show). Unfortunately, the author didn't do it right. The problem with this book, for my part, is that I felt absolutely nothing while reading it. The writing wasn't BAD, really, not enough for me to hate it; but there was nothing in the book that was GOOD, either. After finishing the book, all I felt for Sookie and the rest of the cast was, well, indifference. It took me some time to figure out why, in order of importance:
1) The writing style. First-person POV is used to great effect in urban fantasy, and I like it because it lets us get into the heads of the main characters, lets the audience know them as people and connect emotionally. This? There was nothing. This is NOT the right way to do 1st-person POV. Everything was described so simply and so dryly that I felt nothing, and, worse, was never convinced that Sookie felt anything. Even when she was running for her life, when I should be reading about her terror, there was nothing except flat descriptions of her actions. "I ran here," "I climbed the tree," "I sobbed for a few minutes." None of that let me see that she really was afraid, that she really was hurt - her heart should have been pounding, her palms should have been sweaty, and her sobs should have made her breathing haggard. This was the first time I've ever read a book where I was so utterly disconnected from the main character, including all the ones that were 3rd person narrative POV - and that is NOT a good sign. Sookie may as well have been a cardboard cut out, for all that I felt from and towards her.
2) Going hand in hand with the first problem, the relationship between Bill and Sookie. WTF? They meet, they save each other, drink each other's blood, and suddenly they're in love after, what, less than a month? Because of the detached way Sookie described everything, even Bill, I was completely taken aback when the two of them declared their love for each other. Like, where the hell did that come from? Even when they were together, there was nothing written about how Sookie was feeling about Bill, aside from one sentence descriptions. How does that make a convincing love story? And don't even get me started on the whole "killing people to protect you" and "I don't care if you're a monster, I love you anyway" things. What is this, Twilight's older (yet no less soul crushing) sister?
3) The plot. Maybe I'm just spoiled by the plethora of kick-ass female protagonists that go out and DO things, but Sookie just did not appeal as a character at all. She's the main focus of the series, and yet she had nothing to do with the plot in this book, how it moved. A murder happens and she reacts. Another murder happens, and she reacts again. She doesn't even react like a main character should react - she just frets about it for a paragraph or two and then goes on with (flatly) describing her life as a waitress and her time with Bill (flat, yet again). Things keep happening to her and around her, but she's just...there. There's no point to her presence in the books, other than as a bystander, which is really frustrating when we (as readers) are stuck in her head. Also? This is NOT how you write a mystery; a good mystery gives you seemingly insignificant clues, to which you can look back at the end and go, "Oh, that totally lines up!" This felt like the author just put a bunch of names in a hat and drew one out at random to be the villain, like, it didn't matter who it was, as long as it was somebody.
I can't even muster up the energy or the motivation to actively dislike the book. I'm just completely indifferent to and unmoved by the characters. Like Sookie, the book is just...there. The only good character in this book was Eric. And possibly Sam.
Can I just say? I should've just kept putting it off, good lordy.
This is a mediocre book at best, which is a down right shame, as there are several elements to the world created here that could have been amazing if done right (as the success of the TV series might show). Unfortunately, the author didn't do it right. The problem with this book, for my part, is that I felt absolutely nothing while reading it. The writing wasn't BAD, really, not enough for me to hate it; but there was nothing in the book that was GOOD, either. After finishing the book, all I felt for Sookie and the rest of the cast was, well, indifference. It took me some time to figure out why, in order of importance:
1) The writing style. First-person POV is used to great effect in urban fantasy, and I like it because it lets us get into the heads of the main characters, lets the audience know them as people and connect emotionally. This? There was nothing. This is NOT the right way to do 1st-person POV. Everything was described so simply and so dryly that I felt nothing, and, worse, was never convinced that Sookie felt anything. Even when she was running for her life, when I should be reading about her terror, there was nothing except flat descriptions of her actions. "I ran here," "I climbed the tree," "I sobbed for a few minutes." None of that let me see that she really was afraid, that she really was hurt - her heart should have been pounding, her palms should have been sweaty, and her sobs should have made her breathing haggard. This was the first time I've ever read a book where I was so utterly disconnected from the main character, including all the ones that were 3rd person narrative POV - and that is NOT a good sign. Sookie may as well have been a cardboard cut out, for all that I felt from and towards her.
2) Going hand in hand with the first problem, the relationship between Bill and Sookie. WTF? They meet, they save each other, drink each other's blood, and suddenly they're in love after, what, less than a month? Because of the detached way Sookie described everything, even Bill, I was completely taken aback when the two of them declared their love for each other. Like, where the hell did that come from? Even when they were together, there was nothing written about how Sookie was feeling about Bill, aside from one sentence descriptions. How does that make a convincing love story? And don't even get me started on the whole "killing people to protect you" and "I don't care if you're a monster, I love you anyway" things. What is this, Twilight's older (yet no less soul crushing) sister?
3) The plot. Maybe I'm just spoiled by the plethora of kick-ass female protagonists that go out and DO things, but Sookie just did not appeal as a character at all. She's the main focus of the series, and yet she had nothing to do with the plot in this book, how it moved. A murder happens and she reacts. Another murder happens, and she reacts again. She doesn't even react like a main character should react - she just frets about it for a paragraph or two and then goes on with (flatly) describing her life as a waitress and her time with Bill (flat, yet again). Things keep happening to her and around her, but she's just...there. There's no point to her presence in the books, other than as a bystander, which is really frustrating when we (as readers) are stuck in her head. Also? This is NOT how you write a mystery; a good mystery gives you seemingly insignificant clues, to which you can look back at the end and go, "Oh, that totally lines up!" This felt like the author just put a bunch of names in a hat and drew one out at random to be the villain, like, it didn't matter who it was, as long as it was somebody.
I can't even muster up the energy or the motivation to actively dislike the book. I'm just completely indifferent to and unmoved by the characters. Like Sookie, the book is just...there. The only good character in this book was Eric. And possibly Sam.