Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Living Dead In Dallas

Liv­ing Dead in Dal­las by Char­laine Har­ris, is the second book in the Southern Vampire Mysteries series. I have to say I am only two books into this series, of at last count ten novels, but I adore it so far. It is hard to resist a series where every mythical creature that you have ever heard about, and I am sure, some you have never heard about, come to life. I can hardly wait to see which ones come to life in the upcoming books.
Sookie is hardly your typical heroin and I think that is why I like her so much. She is not super strong and rarely does the butt kicking herself. Instead she is a very human and as a result very a very likable character who is not afraid to send up a flare when she needs help it is very refreshing. That doesn’t mean that she does not stand on her own two feet she does, even if that means a fight with Bill, her vampire. She had amazing inner strength that is on display in the books a lot of the time.
The vampires are also refreshing in these novels as they make no apology for what they are. They are just trying to get on with their now very public lives. You see since blood has been duplicated in a lab vampires no longer need to feed on humans so they are free to live among the humans, it is referred to as main streaming in the novels. They run businesses, have relationship and are fighting for their rights in a non to tolerate world (if that does not sound familiar to you there is something wrong with you). Char­laine Har­ris takes you right into the vampire world from the special requirement that have been set up so they can travel to the special hotels that have sprung up to cater for vampires, you can almost feel what it is like to be a vampire yourself.
Sookie’s world has not been the same since she met Bill and started a relationship with him. For one thing he has taught her to accept her gift as a gift and not the disability that she always thought that it was. She embraces her gift in this novel in a way that she has never done before. Sookie reminds me a little of Miss Maple every where she goes a dead body seems to show up – hardly surprising given the name of the books. Her relationship with Bill also had me smiling it is hard enough dating a man sometime add in the fact that he is also a vampire and you can imagine the misunderstandings you end up with. Surprisingly it appears to be a very human relationship.
Harris has kicked the action up a level in the book and I found it to be a real page turner. Harris seems to have really settled into the characters it is almost like she knows who they are now and where they are going now. Most of the characters from the first book are back in this installment and Eric, who I have to say is my favorite, is more of a presence in this novel and I have to say the novel really benefit’s from it. This installment is more complex than the first novel with two distinct story arc’s developed throughout the novel. These books leave you wanting to read more to find out what could possibly happen next to Sookie and her friends I am glad I bought all nine at the one time.

1 comment:

Raven Blackly said...

Nice Review Jo,it's made me very keen to start reading the books.