| Reviewed on March 7th, 2010
By James (administrator) & filed in the Book Reviews vault
"This is my... BOOMSTICK!" |
It’s been a very long time since I picked up a book that I couldn’t put down. I had enjoyed the Sookie Stackhouse books up until this point but after feeling quite let down by Living Dead In Dallas I wasn’t expecting the 3rd installment to be the page turner it is.
I recommend this book whole-heartedly but frustratingly you will need to read the first two to get the most out of it.
One of the standout points of the second book was that although we had a contrived story to deal with at least we saw key characters getting fleshed out further. Which in itself is a good thing as strangely for a story (no matter the medium it is told in) to have its two leads be the most annoying (Sookie) and most boring (Bill) characters could spell critical and commercial death.
Up until now a lot of the heavy character lifting has been handled by Jason and Eric with a dash of Sam thrown in. This time round its Eric’s show – with the aid of Bubba (our undead Elvis – please let him be in season 2 of the tv show) and most notably Alcide Herveaux, a down to earth werewolf with the hots for Sookie.
So what’s the story about this time? Bill is working on a secret project for the Queen of Louisiana (vampire hierarchy gets expanded upon further with each installment) and tells Sookie that he has to go away for a while and should anything happen to him she needs to follow his instructions to the letter.
Now the story would be rather tedious if something doesn’t happen to Bill. Thankfully it does! We discover from Eric that Bill was abducted and may well be dead (actually there are too many similarities between this and the last book – thankfully Harris got it right this time).
So as not to incite a turf war with the Vampires of Mississippi, Eric convinces Sookie to go do her telepathic thing in Jackson and hopefully establish what went wrong. Bubba has been keeping a watchful eye on her but this time she will have a new companion. Enter Alcide.
Alcide is a strapping young werewolf with more morals that you would expect who is obliged to help Sookie in return for his father’s gambling debt being dealt with. Adding to last time’s brief encounter with the werewolves it seems that Alcide is cut from the same mold. Strong, independent and no nonsense. Although pleasantly he is also humourous, courteous and really rather sweet on everyone’s favourite blonde redneck.
So off to Jackson they go and when night falls they head to Josephine’s – known affectionately in certain circles as Club Dead. Run by Mr Hob (a goblin – come on, surely a less obvious name wouldn’t have hurt too much? this isn’t Harry Sodding Potter! At least she keeps the amount of new supernaturals to a minimum this time) the club is a secret haven for the supernatural element in town. This isn’t Fangtasia. The public aren’t welcome here and although there are house rules you can never be sure how quickly a situation may escalate.
Sookie picks up clues that suggest Bill is alive and being tortured. But worse than this is by whom. Russell Edgington – the King of Mississippi no less.
While in his company a white trash Were (part of the biker gang that tried to abduct Sookie earlier in the story) becomes too insistent that she spend some quality time with him. As Alcide is in the gents there is only so much Sookie can do and gets slightly injured, but not as badly as the Were who suffers at the burning touch of Mr Hob (a handy talent – I bet he can make paninis in seconds!). Sookie decides its time to leave but not before Russell insists that she and Alcide return the following night as his guests. They now have the means to learn more and so agree to his offer.
Getting jiggy at the club is Alcide’s ex – a Were called Debbie who is celebrating at her engagement party. Alcide made sure Sookie was dressed to the nines and had her hair and nails done. After all she is in town under the guise of being his girlfriend so what better way to piss off the ex?
I won’t say too much about the rest of the story but suffice it to say there is plenty of action, a good dose of mystery, a lot of humour and finally some real-world common sense enter Sookie’s precious little mind.
I have a few niggles though. Even though the characters are filling out nicely and are clearly exhibiting their own facets they still tend to all talk like each other. Hopefully in the following books Charlaine Harris will have learned how to show the differences between the characters in ways less obvious. But that said its hard now not to like Eric. Cheeky, reliable and permanently turned on you can’t help but wonder if he would be better suited to Sookie. He certainly thinks so and even refers to her as his future lover.
For some reason Sookie seems to be the apple of everyone’s eye and her and Alcide just about get to 2nd base (Eric however gets to 3rd!). He’s a nice solid guy who clearly would offer her the world and has the huge advantage of being able to move around in the daylight. Both of them discuss what it could be like but that which is unspoken says so much more.
Ok so Sookie doesn’t seem to have an issue with crossing boundaries with other men. And neither it seems does Bill (women that is – not men). Bill apparently has had an affair with a former lover (another vampire) and set the wheels in motion to leave Sookie for her. This bugged the Hell out of me. This is so far out of character for Bill that it was too big a pill to swallow. And to compound my annoyance the nuts and bolts of it are barely even tackled and by the end of the book you aren’t sure how bothered Sookie really is. If you are going to bring such a major development into a series of books based around the relationship between the two leads then you must treat it properly. Not as a rather throw away plot device.
My other main gripe concerns Bubba. Not Bubba as such but what he is able to do. Vampires have to be invited in to someone’s home. If the invitation is rescinded they are compelled to leave immediately. And yet Bubba manages to enter Alcide’s apartment and Russell’s home without so much as leaving a housewarming present! If you are going to tell a vampire story and have established your set of rules you simply must stick to them! Surely someone must have picked up on this in the many read-throughs that occur before publication? Each incident could have been explained away with a page or two extra so why was this left as is? It is frustrating because at any point where you find yourself examining the narrative you have left that world and are once again looking in. Bad Charlaine Harris. Bad! (and I won’t even mention the fact that character’s near the end of the book know things they couldn’t possibly have found out).
All that aside this is a very good read. The jump in the level of writing between this and book 2 is huge and I commend her for pulling what could easily be clichéd or shoehorned elements into a compelling story that manages to balance relationships and plot development almost perfectly.
I enjoyed the book very much and if I wasn’t so far behind on other reviews I would jump straight in to book 4. Also it was good to note that this book didn’t feel as female targeted as its predecessors. There is still lots for the ladies but this time I didn’t feel like I wasn’t on the guest list.
However I have a huge problem with Sookie. At the end of the book the status quo has been well and truly shaken up and she is taking back control of her life but, and this is a big but, rape is never acceptable. Not even in a relationship with a vampire. For one character to violently force his sexual desires on another is one thing. And is fine if it is dealt with by an equal amount of payback (still providing that it furthers the story rather than just for some sort of sick gratification). But when Sookie struggles, resists, says no and then after the fact seems to be relatively ok with it and still maintains some semblance of a relationship with her attacker I have to question the naiveté of the author. This kind of thing isn’t acceptable unless the victim takes something from the experience and that the consequences of the attack are dealt with harshly and justly.
If she was a cleverer author Charlaine Harris might be able to spin a deft arc comparing Sookie’s unhealthy relationship with that of many kidnap victims (who are often subjected to terrible abuse). Poor women and men who fall in love with their captors and suffer terrible abuse at their hands and yet still won’t betray them or try and escape (Stockholm Syndrome). Or even on a much more everyday but no less acceptable level compare her situation to spousal abuse and domestic violence.
Yes, Sookie does make a stand at the end but I am left unconvinced by her reasons for doing so. If she hadn’t been endangered, almost killed, and betrayed would she still have tolerated the violation she endured at Bill’s hands? Quite possibly, and that worries me. After reading the last couple of chapters I found myself liking Bill a lot less. Strangely I found myself also disliking Sookie less but I am hoping a corner has been turned and I am now champing at the bit to find out whether their relationship lies in tatters in book 4.
Looking at the length of my last few paragraphs it’s easy to see when I get wound up! Its not often a book fiercely incites my sense of right and wrong so in perhaps an accidental way Club Dead has succeeded on some level.
These grumbling aside this is a must read if you are a fan of the previous books or the show and will find yourself tearing your way to the back of the novel before you realise you haven’t eaten in days! 9 out of 10.
An afterthought:
If you are bored check out the cover artwork and series titles used elsewhere in the world. Naff is an understatement, Southern Vampire Mysteries would have turned me off immediately but seeing the covers, which apparently are painted by a 4 year old, would have instantly reduced me to laughter and would have made me assume they are kid’s books. Maybe she paints them herself? I can’t think of any other reason she would give permission for them to go to print! 
Oh and avoid looking at the author’s website. Once you see her and hear her talk you may not enjoy the books as much! Perhaps a little cruel of me but its now hard for me to not picture her as a horror writing equivalent of Barbara Cartland!
Author: Charlaine Harris
Published: 2003
Please rate this movie / book / tv show / comic...
 Loading ...
Trackbacks
- rippedfromthecrypt.com review » Dead To The World: True Blood Book 4
Post a comment
read the full review - leave a comment (4)
     
|
