Fair warning: I didn’t actually finish this book. I don’t plan to, either. A lot of YA (young adult) lit involves dysfunctional parents. As with a lot of chick lit, some of these narrators are… LBD: It’s A Girl Thing

Fair warning: I didn’t actually finish this book. I don’t plan to, either. A lot of YA (young adult) lit involves dysfunctional parents. As with a lot of chick lit, some of these narrators are… LBD: It’s A Girl Thing

I’ve heard a couple of people condemn this series as badly-written, “trashy” in the bad way. I don’t really get that; I’m INCREDIBLY picky about writing, how can anyone be pickier than me? They must have a different meaning for “trashy.” And for bad writing.

I really enjoy Charlaine Harris’ writing style. Her other mysteries tend to be a little on the depressing (or in some cases just depressed) side for me, but what we now call the “True Blood” series is saved from that by heroine Sookie Stackhouse’s determined optimism.

It took me a while to figure out what Harris was doing that I liked so much, stylistically. I finally realized that she is in touch with the sensory world here in a way I haven’t seen in her other novels or in many books in general. The pacing alternates between action and regular, everyday experiences like sunbathing or taking a bubble bath. Sookie, as the narrator of the series, shares her feelings about everything, often subtly – both physical feelings and emotional ones. Harris doesn’t hit us over the head with “THIS IS HOW SOOKIE FEELS ABOUT THIS GUY,” either; she weaves all these psychological and sensory impressions into the narrative so deftly that it’s easy not to notice they’re there, even as they flavor the entire experience of reading her books.

I enjoy the fact, too, that these are survivor novels. It’s made perfectly clear from the beginning that Sookie was abused by her “funny uncle”. It’s a more active plot line in this first book, but Harris doesn’t just drop it after that; the fact comes up from time to time in later books as appropriate, just as it would in real life. Sookie occasionally gives some thought to how it’s affected her, and we can see more ways that she may not even realize: her self-image, for example, starts out fairly low and slowly blossoms over the course of the books, and she is a 26-year-old (if I remember right) virgin when the books start, which supposedly is because she is also telepathic but can’t be totally unconnected to the abuse.

Fun, adventurous reads, although I will say it gets pretty violent from time to time. There’s always the sense that the good guys will win, as opposed to in real life, plus the excitement of seeing HOW they will win – since werewolves, magic, fairies, and all kinds of other really well-thought-out supernatural nuttiness keeps getting thrown into the equation.

Really, my ultimate recommendation for these books comes from a gut level: no matter how many times I read them, I still just want to read them over and over and over again. There aren’t a whole lot of books that work that way for me, so the Sookie Stackhouse books hold a special place in my heart.

Sidebar: I enjoy the HBO series a great deal too; although they often take extreme liberties with the plot and characters, so far (halfway through the first season – yes, I’m behind) the plotlines still seem very true to the original characters. Cut for spoilers: Sookie Stackhouse in general, and Dead Until Dark in particular (by the marvelous Charlaine Harris)

I really enjoyed this book. It’s the story of a couple who took a year to try to eat locally, as in food grown within 100 miles of them. They take turns writing chapters. I… Plenty: One Man, One Woman, and a Raucous Year of Eating Locally

I really enjoyed this book. It’s the story of a couple who took a year to try to eat locally, as in food grown within 100 miles of them. They take turns writing chapters. I… Plenty: One Man, One Woman, and a Raucous Year of Eating Locally

I really enjoyed this book. It’s the story of a couple who took a year to try to eat locally, as in food grown within 100 miles of them. They take turns writing chapters. I… Plenty: One Man, One Woman, and a Raucous Year of Eating Locally

I am really enjoying this. It’s the story of a couple who took a year to try to eat locally, as in food grown within 100 miles of them. They take turns writing chapters. I… Plenty:

One of the things I love most is writing not just about abuse and recovery, but about how those themes show up in the media. Last night I was thinking about two books I had… Inspiration

One of the things I love most is writing not just about abuse and recovery, but about how those themes show up in the media. Last night I was thinking about two books I had… Inspiration

[I started to write about how being an addict is like being LGBT. Actually, being an active addict is like being a closeted attacked member of the LGBT community; being in recovery has a lot… Addiction Explained