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Dead Until Dark: A True Blood Novel Audio CD
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- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherOrion (an Imprint of The Orion Publishing Group Ltd )
- Dimensions5.35 x 0.91 x 5.55 inches
- ISBN-101409115755
- ISBN-13978-1409115755
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Product details
- Language : English
- ISBN-10 : 1409115755
- ISBN-13 : 978-1409115755
- Item Weight : 7.6 ounces
- Dimensions : 5.35 x 0.91 x 5.55 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #4,942,925 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #31,129 in Books on CD
- #88,605 in Paranormal & Urban Fantasy (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

Charlaine Harris was born in Tunica, Mississippi, and raised in the Mississippi River Delta area in the middle of a cotton field. Though her early works consisted largely of poems about ghosts and, later, teenage angst, she wrote plays when she attended Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee and started writing novels a few years later.
After publishing two stand-alone mysteries, Harris launched a light-hearted mystery series 'starring' Georgia librarian Aurora Teagarden. The first of the eight books, Real Murders, was shortlisted for Best Novel in the 1990 Agatha Awards. In 1996, she released the first of the much darker Shakespeare mysteries, featuring the amateur sleuth Lily Bard, a karate student who makes her living cleaning houses.
Charlaine Harris then wrote the first of her Southern vampire mysteries starring Sookie Stackhouse, the quirky, telepathic waitress who works in a bar in the fictional Northern Louisiana town of Bon Temps. Dead Until Dark won the Anthony Award for Best Paperback Mystery. It also won Harris a whole new fan club of devoted readers and pushed her into the bestseller lists. The Sookie Stackhouse series, in which Sookie has to deal with vampires, werecreatures and other supernatural folk - not to mention her own complicated love life - was also instrumental in creating the urban fantasy genre.
Sookie Stackhouse also enchanted Alan Ball, creator of the smash TV show Six Feet Under, who took an option and wrote and directed the pilot episode for True Blood himself. It was an instant hit when it premiered in the US, and that success was repeated when it was first aired in Britain last year. The second season of TRUE BLOOD will start this spring.
Harris's newest series features Harper Connelly, a young woman who, after being struck by lightning, finds herself able to locate the bodies of the dead and to determine the cause of their death. There are four Harper titles (Grave Sight, Grave Surprise, An Ice Cold Grave and Grave Secret).
Charlaine Harris is a member of the Mystery Writers of America and the American Crime Writers League. She is a member of the board of Sisters in Crime, and alternates with Joan Hess as president of the Arkansas Mystery Writers Alliance. She is married, the mother of three, and lives in a small town in Southern Arkansas. When she is not writing her own books, she reads omnivorously!
Here are the Sookie Stackhouse True Blood novels in series order:
Dead Until Dark: Sookie Stackhouse 1
Living Dead In Dallas: Sookie Stackhouse 2
Club Dead: Sookie Stackhouse 3
Dead To The World: Sookie Stackhouse 4
Dead As A Doornail: Sookie Stackhouse 5
Definitely Dead: Sookie Stackhouse 6
All Together Dead: Sookie Stackhouse 7
From Dead To Worse: Sookie Stackhouse 8
Dead And Gone: Sookie Stackhouse 9
Dead In The Family: Sookie Stackhouse 10
A Touch Of Dead (a Sookie Stackhouse short story collection_
Here are the Harper Connelly novels in series order:
Grave Sight: Harper Connelly 1
Grave Surprise: Harper Connelly 2
An Ice Cold Grave: Harper Connelly 3
Grave Secret: Harper Connelly 4
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Reviewed in the United States on August 9, 2018
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Discovering these books was part of a wonderful serendipity. I was looking through some bibliographies of vampire novels for a reading project I've undertaken and was interested in these after reading some complimentary things. As a Southerner by upbringing (even if I've lived in the Yankee north for most of my adult life) I was especially interested in seeing how these books would handle supernatural tales in a rural setting. So I eventually took advantage of Amazon's 4-for-3 offer and ordered the first four novels in the series. Completely independent of this I had casually been aware that Alan Ball, the creator of one of the best series of the past decade, SIX FEET UNDER, had a new series dealing with vampires starring Anna Paquin entitled TRUE BLOOD on HBO. Shortly after ordering the Charlaine Harris books I read that TRUE BLOOD would debut on September 9. So, I went over to IMDB.com to get more details. I was utterly stunned to learn that the series was based on Harris's novels. This intensified my interest in both the books and the series. Then came the third serendipitous surprise. My books arrived and I read the author bio. I read that Harris lives in a small town in southern Arkansas. As an expatriot Arkansan I was delighted. Learning that Harris lives in Arkansas intensified my interest in the books which intensified my interest in the TV series.
One other way that the Sookie Stackhouse novels are superior to the Anita Blake stems from Harris's excellent writing style. I love Sookie's narrative voice. She is sweet, self-conscious, adorable, funny, and quirky. She comes across this way because Harris writes such wonderful prose to put in her mouth. Hamilton, on the other hand, gives Anita Blake some of the worst prose any narrative voice has ever been given. In one early book, as Anita was struggling with the deep attraction she was coming to feel for the master vampire of St. Louis, she says, "I was afraid. Afraid of how I much I felt for him!" I read that with shock. Most 8th graders would produce prose that atrocious. Sookie's voice never falters and never degenerates into embarrassing drivel.
Another way that the Sookie Stackhouse books surpass the Anita Blake comes from the sense of place that one gains in the former. St. Louis never, ever comes to life as a locale in the Blake books. It never feels like a real place, or rather never feels like a city distinct from any other city. Contrast this to the Los Angeles of Raymond Chandler and Ross MacDonald or the San Francisco of Dashiell Hammett or the Florida of John Macdonald's Travis McGhee books or the Boston of Robert Parker's Spenser novels. St. Louis in the Anita Blake books feels like the most generic place in the world. You could remove the designator "St. Louis" and replace it with the name of almost any other city in the United States and it would work. But Bon Temps, Louisiana, though fictional, comes alive. Though I've been in Chicago for over twenty years, I've lived in towns not terribly unlike Bon Temps. I've been in houses with tin roofs and know just what kind of noise the rain makes as it drums down. I've spent time in towns in southern Arkansas like Magnolia, Hamburg, and Monticello and can easily imagine Bon Temps along those lines. I also went to college in Arkadelphia, Arkansas, a tad further north but probably very similar to Bon Temps. And my country relatives were scattered around the very tiny town of Wilburn, Arkansas, further north but much smaller than Bon Temps. My point is that all of the small town elements felt real to me. In these towns everybody really does know everyone else.
The Southern Vampire Mysteries are the third series attempted by Charlaine Harris. The experience shows. While the second and third novels developed further the things we enjoyed in the first novel, the series really is born full blown. One of the keys in any vampire series is making decisions about what part of vampire mythology one is going to accept. Harris is a bit light on some of the traditional elements, which I think is a good thing. It isn't clear whether they can be seen in mirrors (in my opinion, one of the dumbest things ever - the origin is that mirrors supposedly reflect one's soul, whereas vampires are allegedly soulless). I believe that Harris's vampires have souls. They can enter churches. I doubt if crosses have any affect on them. They don't like the taste of garlic, but it won't kill them. Initially she seems to have it that vampires must sleep in the earth, but in the two successive books that doesn't seem to be the case. Vampires do have to be invited to be able to enter a house and they can glamour humans. Contrasting them with the vampires on BUFFY and ANGEL, Harris's vampires are physically stronger, less inherently evil (Angel and Spike aside), but more constricted by daytime hours (Spike on BUFFY spent a great deal of time running around in daylight with his blanket over his head, while Angel spent vast amounts of time active during the day, as long as he stayed out of the sun). My lone complaint is that Harris's vampire, much like those in the Anita Blake books, have a complex political structure. It isn't quite as awful as that in the Blake books, but it is bad enough. At least we are spared the hundreds of excruciating pages detailing vampire posturing and posing.
If you go to the Anita Blake books you will see that while they are heavily reviewed, they consistently are given very low ratings by Amazon reviewers. The Sookie Stackhouse books, however, are given consistently high reviews. This completely conforms to my experience with both series. If you are a reader of the Anita Blake books but are fed up with the political and social nonsense as well as the endless hardcore sex scenes that overwhelms the excellent premise, you will almost certainly be delighted with these books. If you are a reader of the Sookie Stackhouse books but haven't read the Anita Blake books, don't bother to try the latter. You've already read the best.
But I've really been into fun chick mystery novels lately and I saw, over and over again, people recommending Sookie, and I needed a vampire book for January's paranormal reading challenge. Not being a huge fan of vampires and not wanting a serious book, I figured this would be an opportunity to see what I was (or was not) missing.
I'm not sure if it's the fact that I went into it thinking reading this book was going to be about as enjoyable as snowshoeing through the Alaskan tundra without chapstick, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. In fact, I'd say it really tried to be good. Except there was one thing sort of major thing holding it back: the writing.
I try not to nag on authors for their writing skills, because, guess what, Charlaine Harris has an extremely successful book franchise that's even inspired an HBO series. I have a blog and I doubt I could publish anything worthy of inspiring as much as a SlapChop commercial.
But...
It was almost like Harris wrote Dead Until Dark as a homework assignment. It didn't feel like she had any passion for her characters - they were so cookie cutter, one-dimensional, and void of any kind of emotional depth, that it seemed like they were made up to tell the story rather than being the story.
For example, there was Sookie, who I liked (or at least liked the concept of). She's a waitress in the small town of Bon Temps, Louisiana with the ability (or, as she sees it, disability) to hear peoples' thoughts. Having to hear the mundane and TMI details of everyone's lives hasn't been easy on Sookie, which she makes clear through the frequent mentions of how it's kept her from doing well in school or having relationships.
Then, in walks Bill the Vampire (it's okay to LOL at that. As Sookie points out, what kind of vampire is named Bill). Sookie is enthralled that a real live (er, dead) vampire has come to Bon Temps and is sitting in her section of the bar. Sure, she thinks he's cute and giggles like a schoolgirl when she serves him his red wine (since they didn't have any synthetic blood), but what would you do if you were a small-town girl serving your first supernatural being? I've read books where female characters throw themselves at the Bad Boy Love Interest against all sense and logic. Hell, in some of the books I've read, she'd be humping him in the walk-in freezer as soon as they locked eyes. I hate those books. For having a crush, Sookie actually handled herself pretty well. She was in awe of Bill, but she didn't go over the top.
As I said, I liked the concept of Sookie, I just couldn't understand her because there wasn't really anything to understand. She told you how she felt or what was going on as if she were an observer in her how life. Throughout the book, she experiences several emotional situations, but she fails to react to them.
NOTE: The following isn't really a spoiler (I don't think), but it does mention a few things that happen in the book.
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When her grandmother dies, Sookie exhibits the emotional range of a tuna. She says she's sad, but she doesn't act like it. This is the woman who raised her and her brother since they were kids. But when her cat dies later in the book, she's more distraught. And I say that because she tells us she's more distraught. She still doesn't act any different. When it becomes apparent someone is murdering women fitting her description and it is likely her grandmother was murdered because the killer expected Sookie to be home, she doesn't seem to react. It's like she put "worry about being murdered" on her to-do list, but she just hadn't got around to it yet.
I would have liked to hear more about growing up in a small town with the ability to read minds. She says everyone refers to her as "crazy" (If I had a dollar for every time she used that word...) because of her telepathy, but it doesn't seem like anyone really treats her all that different (unless she listens in and reacts to what they're saying).
It's a fair criticism that Sookie is so hot and cold when it comes to Bill - one minute it is "I love you" and the next minute it's "We need to break up" - but they do have some serious issues to deal with in their relationship. For examples, The residents of Bon Temps don't trust vampires. Bill's friends are vampires (and not all should be trusted). There is a killer murdering women who have been clearly bitten by a vampire (so, of course, he's a suspect). Sookie has to deal with the fact that Bill needs to occasionally feed on willing humans (fangbangers), which is a fairly intimate experience... just to name a few. That's why I didn't have a problem with Sookie's flip flopping so much; it was the fact that she did it without reason. I mean, she would literally be "I love you" and, without anything serious happening or a though popping into her head, tell him she needed space. And that is the author's fault.
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I didn't mind Bill. I'd even go as far as to say I liked him. Like Sookie, he was one-dimensional and lacked emotion, but that kind of works for a vampire. He even had some great deadpan comedic moments (it can't be easy being a 140 years old vampire trying to date in the 21st century). I had that urge to protect Sookie, but I never felt like he was pulling the "I must leave you because I know what's best for you" crap (like a certain other famous book-to-picture vampire we all know and love hate).
I loved the idea of vampires "coming out of the closet" and trying to live among humans (while balancing the rules and hierarchy they've practiced for centuries). I liked how Harris even managed to touch on topics such as AIDS and its effect on blood-drinking beings. I found the whole "virus" explanation of vampirism interesting and I wonder if it is a strategic move by vampires to gain power over the humans.
The murder/mystery plot in Dead Until Dark was barely present - and that was probably a good thing since the best way to describe it was like the Barney Fife version of CSI. It was one of those situations where you knew the only way for the killer to be caught was by the main character, which was a little strange because Sookie, in no way, was trying to catch him (or her).
Of course, I can't do this review without mentioning HBO's True Blood. It seemed a lot of reviews I read, right off the bat, wanted to compare the book and the show, and I think most of those people were True Blood fans first, and then decided to read the book.
Big mistake. It's not really fair to compare the book and the show. Dead Until Dark had barely 300 pages to fit in a plot and True Blood had an entire season. The show had time to integrate some new characters (Tara, Sookie's best friend) and expand on others (Lafayette, the gay black cook at Merllote's) and wasn't limited to Sookie's perspective. With that said, I do like the show much better.
Reading the book then starting True Blood (which is what I did) is actually a pretty good idea. It's helped me to have some understanding of the characters to go on, so I feel like I notice little things that the show is expanding on or see foreshadowing to future events better than I would've had I not read the book.
I'm continuing on to Dead in Dallas (Sookie Stackhouse #2), not so much because I felt compelled to find out what happens next (it really isn't that much of a cliffhanger), but the writing seemed to improve as the book went on and I'd like to see if, as readers have said, the books get better. So far, I'm not totally sold on the series and don't feel the burning desire to read all the books in a row (1. There's a lot of them and 2. I have other books I need to read...and 3. I really really really am trying to break my habit of only reading series books).
Top reviews from other countries

'Dead until Dark' is the first in a series of books that revolve around Sookie Stackhouse, described as a small-time cocktail waitress in small-town Louisiana. Though she is pretty, she has not exactly been dating a great deal as there is just one small problem... Sookie can read minds. Something that can be more than distracting when you're out on a date and he is pondering, at best, if you have dyed your hair.
She has been hoping to meet one - Vampires have 'come out' since the discovery of synthetic blood, but even though Bill is trying to fit into 'mainstream' living, having fangs is not a recommendation when women are found murdered showing bite-marks. Sookie soon finds out that being involved with him makes life more than just a trifle complicated.
I bought the book after seeing it recommended and reading some of the reviews. Overall, it was value for money. The book was cheap and I enjoyed it but I could not recommend it full-heartedly. Whilst I am lucky in that I can ignore a lot of negative points as long as there is an interesting or entertaining story, a lot of people will find it difficult to reconcile themselves with the shallowness characters display at times and the lack of much in the way of character development.
Bill, the Vampire, made little impression on me - Sookie's boss Sam, is a much more interesting character. Too much to hope he'll get the girl in one of the other books, I suppose. The shallowness I spoke of... the most obvious example is when a much loved minor character dies and once we have had a page or two of emotions running high, it seems to have very little further impact.
There is no accounting for taste some might say, but as I did read the book in one sitting, it was cheap, I enjoyed it and I am quite likely to buy the next one, it seems only fair to acknowledge that, hence my four stars. I would probably not recommend this book to men - it is much more likely to appeal to female readers. I also would not recommend that you buy this book for younger readers. One scene in particular is pure adult erotica (not romance).

This first book is definitely the best out of all the ones I read.
This story has such a different take on vampires from the previous books I have read. It was unique and fast paced which I really liked.
The characters were great, the world building was brilliant. A great start to the series.

Sookie's a great character: sweet without being a pushover, funny without being snappy or sharp (although she has her moments), and with a refreshing moral centre. Her relationship with Bill is funny and touching, sexy in a light way, and less all-encompassing-love which is what the HBO team have chosen to make it.
Harris is especially good at conveying the feel of small town America and, as readers, we quickly feel at home here so that reading the later books is like visiting friends.
This is the first of what is currently a ten book series and one of the things I love about this world is the way life moves on, things change, facts we think we know later turn out to be not quite what we thought them. So this isn't great literature by any means, but it's a great read and the series is utterly addictive.

Living dead in Dallas
Club Dead
Dead to the World
Dead as a Doornail
Definitely Dead
Altogether Dead
From Dead to Worse
Dead and Gone
Dead in the Family
This is the order of the main novels.
I have just finished reading them all. Some of them are, arguably, weak as individual novels but the overall story is very entertaining. I like very much that over such a large canvas the author could elect to avoid repetitiveness of plot form: quite refreshing actually. The enforced forms of genre novels and, even worse, soap-operas are really getting very tired and I would like to believe that series as naturally developing as this one can offer a nice change to the jaded pallet. The often referred to sex scenes only seem to occur in appropriate places and not in every novel: again this is quite excellent in my opinion. There are many frequently occurring intelligent insights and not a little humour. Detail regarding American life is present to just enough of a degree to be interesting without becoming tedious. I am genuinely interested to find out what happens next.

In this book, which has been turned into the True Blood series on HBO (another reason I read the book), we find Sookie Stackhouse as a telepathic waitress in a Louisiana bar. She falls for a vampire at the same time as there are a number of murders locally. It seems either her brother or a vampire is possibly involved, but are they or is it someone else entirely?
The book isn't bad, but it does drag a little in places. I know the story acts as the starting place for a series (if you're going to read this series, start with this book), but part of me felt there was a little to much exposition, and not enough drive in the story in places.
In addition Stackhouse really does come across as a naive waif type, which irritated me some. I didn't necessarily expect her to be all macho and butch, but I'm unsure how she got to her mid-20s with all the naivete that she brings to this first outing.
I'm wisely informed the series is good. Hopefully I'll enjoy the next in the series more.