Thursday, January 31, 2013

Dead Reckoning by Charlaine Harris




My apologies, no picture of me reading this book...I took it back to the library before it's "photo shoot" :/

What's the book about?

Have you met Sookie already? This is the 11th installment of the Southern Vampire Mysteries also known as the inspiration for the HBO series True Blood. Now, I will be the first one to tell you that the first seasons are so much better than the books (sometimes it does happen) but after the 3rd or 4th book I think Harris found the right formula...and that's when the TV series started drifting from the books and we went back to good-old-me saying: oh but the books are so much better!

Anyway, back to this book. If you are not up to date with the series I would suggests to stop reading now since I have no option but to mention some stuff that might be considered as spoilers of the past books.

So, Sookie is "married"  to Eric now, she is leaving with 2 fairy relatives, since her grandfather pretty much closed the connection between the fairy world and our world and the shape shifters have come out like vampires did, but turns out people didn't want that much supernatural stuff in their backyard, so they are not too happy. Basically that's how it starts.

The plot of this one concentrates on the fact that Merlotte's seems to be under attack (hate crimes? Who knows!), Sookie is pretty much in love with Eric, and he is trying to deal with the new reagent. You know, typical stuff. 

What was different of this book?

At this point of the series is hard to be that original compared to previous books in the series. What is different of the series then, you might ask?. I have to give it to Harris that the supernatural creatures she has add over the series are well researched. Not getting into specifics, but her characters are well built, which is nice. Is a sherbet reading. What do you want me to say, is light is entertaining. Also, it has way less sex than the HBO series, something that I actually appreciate, the fact that she doesn't depend on that part to build her book. 

That said...what will set this book apart for me is that it went back to the first ones. Fast to read, yet not savory at all. Too many things happening with no connection whatsoever, yet keeps telling you that they are...but they are not. At all.

What about the main character?

I've always liked the fact that Sookie is someone that tries to stand for herself. She is proud of her past, she has some " disabilities" yet he has learned to make them advantages. She is proud of her figure that she herself describes several times that she is not supermodel skinny, but more round and healthy. That in our days is a good things people. 

That said...in this book she seemed so helpless!!!! Every single time she is frustrated because of this and that...and doesn't do anything about it. 

The 10% moment

I usually like Eric as a character, both in the book and in the series. But in this one...oh did I wanted to slap him several times. He over abuses power, he looks like a sad washed out version of the Eric I like...I got to the 10% knowing I wasn't going to love this book, mostly because every single character that showed up to the party seemed like they were being sedated...

Final thoughts

I went into this book knowing it was a light reading. Knowing that was not a thinker. But I have to say, I'm disappointed. I expected a bit more and somehow I feel that Harris is trying to make the TV series come back to the books, but she is doing it by accommodating to the TV series plots and not by offering something much more enticing. I found myself shaking my head several times in disapproval. 

It did not took away my "desire"  to read the next one, Deadlocked. So just because of that is getting a 3 instead of a 2. Let's just hope the next one is a little bit better. I would hate to quit the series since it is entertaining (well, usually)  


This is book makes part of my Sequel Challenge :)

 


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