Harris, Charlaine: Dead to the World
Dead to the World
Writer: Charlaine Harris
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Pages: 291
My original plan had been this: after reading Dead Until Dark, I would get Living Dead in Dallas and Club Dead. I would read them, and if I liked them, I'd get the next two books in the series, and if I liked THOSE, I'd keep going.
That was the plan.
It got waylaid, and it's all Border's fault.
See, I like my coupons. So even though I have a Barnes & Noble discount card for 10% off everything I buy, I get tempted by those Border's coupons for 25% off one item. I had two such coupons, so I decided after picking up a book at B&N I knew Borders wouldn't have, I'd get my Harris books at Borders will my coupons. However, I was tempted to forgo Borders when I saw that B&N had a display with ALL of the Harris books on one table. I told myself, "Forget the coupon and get the books you need here."
I didn't. I went to Borders, and not only did they have a sorry selection of books from the series, they didn't even have book two. So I went BACK to B&N, and just to reward them for actually stocking the entire series that the currently popular HBO show is based off of, I bought the whole kit and caboodle (minus the latest title, which is in hardcover).
The good thing is, I'm not tired of these books yet, and the quality is consistent. Good thing, since I have the whole series to read. :)
Anyway.
The premise: for her New Year's resolution, Sookie is determined to stay out of trouble and not end up in the hospital. But fate plays against her, as on her way home, she spies a man running half naked down the road, and lo and behold, it's Eric. The problem? He can't remember a thing, let alone her, so Sookie's got to watch out for him while figuring out what really happened. Turns out, there's witches in the neigborhood, and they want a piece of Eric. Now she's stuck protecting a vampire who would normally repel her, only this version of Eric is so nice, it's going to be very, very hard to resist his charms.
Spoilers, yo.
So first thing, we get this non-prologue prologue between Sookie and Bill where he explains why he did what he did with Lorena: she was his sire. She made him, which means she holds the power to make him do whatever she desires. She essentially threatened Sookie's life if Bill didn't come to her, and once he was there, well, he was in her thrall, which makes sense in a way. But Sookie's not feeling too forgiving (and for that matter, neither am I), so Bill heads off to Peru for his project, and it's clear that he and Sookie are definitely APART.
I gotta say, I liked this book for lots of reasons. I loved seeing this different side of Eric, a side he'd not been in touch with for centuries. I love how he and Sookie fell naturally in together, and I have to say I like this pairing much, much better than her and Bill. However, the ending of this relationship was fantastic: I wondered how Harris would handle Eric getting his memory back and what would become of such a relationship, and we figure it out real fast: he can't remember what happened during the time he had amnesia, so he has no idea that he and Sookie were lovers. Brilliant! Especially since Eric goes back to his bad-ass self. ;)
I was a little blah about these Were-witches who drank vamp blood. We finally get motivation at the end, but frankly, I thought it was all rather lame. The witches were blooming STUPID if they thought they could get away with it. I mean, REALLY. But I liked learning more and more about the supernatural community, I liked seeing Sookie form different relationships with friends and co-workers (like learning Holly is Wiccan). Alcide was back, and I loved their dynamic (especially when they had to pretend to be engaged), but that meant so was Debbie, who I hate with a burning passion.
And here's the good part: Debbie gets what's coming to her, in more ways than one. It's learned she was aware in Club Dead about Bill's captivity: she even helped torture him. She also admits to shoving Sookie in the trunk, which finally pushes Alcide into a resolution: he abjures her from the pack. Debbie appears genuinely contrite, until during the skirmish with the Witches when she tries to kill Sookie, and then later, she waits for Sookie at her house and shoots her as soon as she comes in. Good thing Eric takes the bullet, and Sookie blows her head off with a shotgun. GO SOOKIE. Granted, the murder of someone is actually kind of traumatic, but it needed to be done, and I didn't relish the idea of Debbie popping up in future books for menace's sake. Course, Eric helps Sookie with the clean-up, and he looses that memory too once he returns to his normal self. The ending, by the way, was just lovely.
Also in this book was the side mystery of the kidnapping of Jason. The natural assumption is that it's the Witches, because they're after Eric and they've figured out Sookie's hiding him, but the truth is he got involved with a little were-panther and someone got jealous and bit him, over and over, in order to make him change. It makes sense in the book, but I'm not explaining it here. But I'd had the feeling the were-panthers were involved all along: that was a rather creepy little subplot, but an interesting one, especially with the character of Carlton, who makes Sookie a very odd but very generous offer.
My Rating
Worth the Cash: close to a "must-read" for this particular series, because so many things are done right. Harris doesn't let her characters follow the same old familiar path, so you never know where the story or the characters or the romances are really going, and that's really nice. For anyone who had icky feelings about Sookie and Bill at the end of Club Dead, this book will make you very, very happy. And it'll make you really look forward to the next. :)
Next up:
Dead as a Doornail by Charlaine Harris