Dead Until Dark - A Book Review

Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I was a little nervous to read this series because I had heard about the True Blood series on HBO and how "skanky" it was. Those kind of shows do not appeal to me, and so I was worried this book would follow suite.

I was very excited when the Barnes and Noble employee told me all about the book, and that HBO had taken a lot of "creative liberties" with the series. I purchased the first book and devoured it in one weekend.

Be warned there are a few sex scenes. I would give this book a solid PG-13. The HBO series portrays the books to be R-rated (with intense, graphic sex scenes) and that is where I would say they take creative liberties. They do follow the story line consistently, according to my neighbor. (I've never seen it)

Most people that know me know that I really did not like the Twilight series all that much. So it came as a huge surprise to me that I liked this book as much as I did. It's a grown up version of Twilight, and edited much better.

No. Scratch that!

It's not a grown up Twilight. Twilight was a sexless book, written for teens, where vampires were just myths. Dead Until Dark is not sexless and is a world where Vampires and humans mix-- knowingly. They have just recently "come out of the coffin" and are recognized in society as a minority race.

Really, according to the vampires, they have been a tortured race by the humans. They aren't really dead, they suffer from serious side affects from a "virus" that leaves them looking dead.

Harris has clearly given a lot of thought to the Vampire society-- right down to the high Archy that governs them. There are the Vampire Drainers-- people who capture vampires and drain their blood to sell on the black market. There are the "fang-bangers" who love to be bitten by the vampires. Then there is the synthetic blood that the vampires drink, and the fact that they now are tax paying, voting citizens of Society. World wide.

The series centers around Sookie Stackhouse, the heroine, who has a "disability"... She can read minds. While the thought of mind reading sounds completely intriguing to me, Sookie swears its debilitating. Frankly, I wouldn't mind a little clairvoyance, but Sookie wishes she could just get rid of this "disability" so she can have a normal relationship with a man. Which is where the vampire, Bill, comes onto the scene. Sookie can't read his mind, and she is completely smitten.

Bill Compton, the vampire in question, has returned to his roots. When he was living and before he died -- DURING THE CIVIL WAR -- he lived in that area of Louisiana. He had spent several years as a loner vampire and has now returned to try and be more mainstream.

How can you argue with a good mystery laced with clairvoyants, vampires and shape shifters? You can't. It's an easy, fun read that will leave you wanting more. Lucky for us there are nine of them, with book ten set to hit the scene in the spring of 2010.

Harris has a straight forward, just between you and me kind of style of writing that is fun and easy to read. One minute she's making you laugh, the next she's sending chills along your spine, and the next she's got you wondering who done it. This book will entertain and keep you guessing until the very end.