Review: Club Dead by Charlaine Harris
Club Dead is the third book in the Southern Vampire series by Charlaine Harris. I suggest you read the books in order. Sookie Stackhouse and her boyfriend, Bill Compton, a vampire, have gained recent fame from the HBO television series True Blood, based on Harris's books.
Note: This review contains very minor spoilers. If you're worried, skip to after the asterisks for my recommendation.
As the novel opens, Sookie is wondering if there is trouble in paradise. Bill the vampire is acting distant and is spending all his time on the computer. Sookie is not happy and is even less so when Bill tells her he has to go to Seattle on a secret mission. Although she can't read his mind, she knows he's lying.
Soon after Bill leaves, Eric, handsome leader of the region's vampires, tells Sookie that Bill has gone missing--and that he was last seen in Mississippi, not in the Pacific Northwest. Eric and his clan are sure that Bill has been kidnapped.
After Eric convinces Sookie that Bill's so-called life may be in danger, she agrees to head to Mississippi, posing as the girlfriend of Alcide, a warm-blooded, daytime-living, food-eating werewolf. The two must go to Josephine's, a bar known as "Club Dead," where Sookie hopes to read the minds of the patrons to learn whether Bill is still walking the earth and, if so, where he is being kept.
Of course, Sookie, Alcide, Eric, and others must appease their enemies and escape vigilante humans as they attempt to learn the truth about Bill and escape back to Louisiana with their lives intact. And at the end, Sookie realizes that she needs to face some serious questions about the men in her life.
If you haven't read any of the Southern Vampire books . . . well, get yourself to a bookstore or library. Sookie is both cute as a button and tough as nails. I'm guessing you'll fall for her fairly quickly.
I listened to the unabridged audio edition (Recorded Books) read by Johanna Parker. Parker has become Sookie in my mind and her narration is spot-on for the series.
Published by Ace Books, 2003
ISBN-13 9780441010516
Challenge: 25 Books
Rating B+
8 comments:
Thanks for your review Beth. I think that this series definitely has some weak points in it, but overall it has moved the characters forward...I really do want to see what decisions Sookie will make next and what other craziness she can fall into. I've finished the next two books--I couldn't put them down. If you're interested, I'm going to try and post reviews of them today. :)
I'm glad you enjoyed... although I find the series to be somewhat of a roller coaster myself - I can say that they are just quite fun and I love to read about all of Sookie's crazy antics and about... ERIC! :)
Nely: At least Sookie isn't blind to Bill's, um, faults. Eric is looking better and better.
Laza: nice review; see my comment on your blog.
I am addicted to True Blood...lol!
J. Kaye: We are faithful watchers of True Blood too!
I love this series and I love Sookie!!
I've linked to your review :) here..
http://desertrosebooklogue.blogspot.com/2009/01/club-dead-by-charlaine-harris.html
I'm an Eric girl through and through, although I think Eric, in any relationship, would be more faithful to himself than another! It's a wonder, though, that even though he doesn't appear in much of the book, he can hold sway in many people's court.
Good review. I have to say that this book is my favorite so far. I just started book 4 and this is good too. I did not like the second book. It dragged on for me, didn't have a lot of action, and left me with tons of questions at the end. But after I finished it I started right into book 3 and fell back in love with the series..
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