Harris, Charlaine: Club Dead
Club Dead
Writer: Charlaine Harris
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Pages: 292
It's not often that I can read books in a series so close together. I don't know if that says more about that addictive quality of Harris's books or my current state of mind, or both.
The premise: Bill's been a little distant lately, consumed with a top-secret project that even his boss Eric doesn't know about. Sookie's hurt by his distance, especially when he tells her he's going out of state. Then Eric and his crew show up on her doorstep and tell her he's missing, and that there's more going on with Bill that she ever realized. He's been tortured, they know that much, and he might even be dead. It's up to Sookie to go to Jackson, Mississippi to frequent the local hang-outs of vampires and Supes to see if she can read any human minds that might give her a clue. Especially when she learns that the people who took Bill are after her too.
The motherlode of all spoilers behind the cut, which includes a wee bit of profanity.
Okay, I've started reading Dead to the World, which comes right after this one, so I've got the explanation of what happened. No, I won't tell you here. But still, even knowing the explanation, all I have to say is Bill is one mother-f**king asshole.
Club Dead marks a turning point in the series, IMHO. Especially in regards to Sookie and Bill's relationship. Apparently, he had a vamp lover back in the day, and he's gone back to her. Before he went missing, he was going to go officially break it off, leaving her under the protection of Eric and his crew (but namely, Eric).
Obviously, Sookie is hurt and furious. Hell, I was too. After two books of Bill bitching about other men and how Sookie is his, he turns around and does THIS? Rat-bastard. It's not like I felt Sookie and Bill were the series's OTP, but the hypocrisy on Bill's part astounds me. Even worse, we don't get the slightest excuse or explanation about why he did what he did in this book. Shame, shame, shame.
The good thing about the revelation was that it opened the door for Sookie to be legitimately interested in someone else, and that someone else was a werewolf on the rebound, Alcide. YAY WEREWOLVES!! If he hadn't had that crazy ex-girlfriend, I REALLY would've been rooting for Sookie and Alcide to hook up, but alas. Besides, Sookie's still hurt by Bill's betrayal, so while she was tempted in more ways than one (Alcide AND Eric, and the scenes with Eric were rather hot), she stayed true, maybe not to Bill, but herself at least.
What's frustrating though is the core mystery surrounding Bill's kidnapping and subsequent torture, all orchestrated by the vamp he was going to leave Sookie for. It's stupid. Even the book admits that. The mysterious project he was working on was for the Louisiana queen of vampires, and that was to compile a database of all the vamps around the world. Okay, I get why this might make some vamps angry, but the ones responsible for holding him weren't holding him to prevent him from making the program, but they wanted some kind of share in it. WTF? It's a weak excuse for what was otherwise a pretty exciting and tense mystery. I liked getting to know more about the Were community, and was fascinated by the whole idea of werewolf biker gangs. It fits. I was worried that getting introduced to the real werewolves of this world would turn me off the vamps, but I'm surprisingly STILL not tired of them, which is a good thing.
But there's a lot of ick in this novel: Sookie gets the freaking shit beaten out of her, and then to top that off, when Bill comes to (albeit in a locked trunk with Sookie, not her doing), he attacks her, both feeding and what amounts to as rape. That's horrible. I mean, really, really horrible. Sure, he comes to himself and is properly horrified (after being tortured and starved to death, his reaction isn't surprising, Sookie even thought it would happen, that he wouldn't recognize her, or if he did he wouldn't care), but still, horrible. There's the Jerry Falcon, the werewolf who attacked Sookie in the bar, then there's the werewolves from Jerry's gang who REALLY give her a beating at the end of the book. Here's hoping every book isn't like this, or I'm going to be really, really sorry.
And remember how I said in my review for Living Dead in Dallas that I thought Sookie's reaction to Bill letting her charge expenses to his account was weird? Well, this entire book, she's worried about money, and makes a point of how she's barely scraping by, which is largely triggered by how Bill donated a very generous sum of money to his newly-discovered descendants, the Bellefleurs, while completely ignoring her needs. I should state her "real" needs, because there's a lot of upkeep around the house, like her driveway, that needs work but she can't afford. Hell, I'd be mad at him too for not noticing that I was struggling, but on the other hand, it makes her reaction to Bill's offer in the last book just plain stupid. Granted, there's a lot of layers to this issue, and in the end, it's probably a good thing she wasn't relying on him for money, but still.
I'm starting to really like Eric, how he paid attention to Sookie's needs, especially at the end when she discovers she's got a brand-new driveway. Though, if I had to pick, right now I'm rooting for Sookie and Alcide, once he finally gets rid of his psycho-ass ex-girlfriend. The problem with Sookie and vampires, I have a feeling, is that she's ALWAYS going to have issues with how they feed, and how feeding is linked with sex, and she'll never trust them. And thanks to Bill, she's got good reason not to.
My Rating
Worth the Cash: it's a good read, but an infuriating read in a lot of ways. Harris took a real risk with Sookie and Bill, and I'm interested in seeing how that plays out for the rest of the series, especially for Sookie, who deserves a little freedom. Again, I wish the central mystery hadn't been so contrived (or maybe it should've been explained better?) because things were solved a bit too easily in the end, plot-wise, even if relationship wise, everything's a mess. Still, I'm ready to keep reading, which is still surprising me, because usually I get tired of the characters and situation really fast and need distance between books. That just goes to show how different each book has been, and how Harris isn't rehashing the same old plot. At least, she's not yet. :)
Next up:
Dead to the World by Charlaine Harris