Charlaine Harris’ ‘Dead’ series

Back in 2001, I had the opportunity to read Dead until Dark the first book in the series.   However, it wasn’t a paranormal romance, and I wasn’t interested at the time.  But with the buzz from the True Blood series, I thought I’d give it another try.  I’m glad I did since the mystery/horror elements are much more appealing than the paranormal romance this time around.

Dead Until Dark

The story: a socially isolated waitress (Sookie) at a bar in rural Louisiana encounters a vampire and goes to his rescue when he is attacked in the parking lot of the bar.  This action embroils her in a supernatural murder mystery.

I love Sookie’s wry observations on her own and everyone else’s behavior.  She doesn’t easily accept all the bizarre revelations about the supernatural people but she doesn’t waste time protesting her new reality either.  Her tenuous place in the social structure makes it believable that she’d fall into the ‘outgroup’ of vampires and such.  I hope that Harris enriches all the minor characters – the community members are all quite interesting.

Living Dead in Dallas

The story:  A co-worker at the bar where Sookie works is murdered.  She is hired by vampires to solve the mystery and she learns far too much about supernatural world.

I was slightly disappointed with this one.  It may be that the author is moving from a single novel to a series and so has to lighten the tone a bit.  I also missed Sookie’s hometown politics and interactions.  Dallas was less interesting to me here.  I do like how Sookie is changing due to her adventures: she’s more confident, more daring and a bit more sophisticated.

Club Dead

The story:  Sookie’s having boyfriend trouble and then he goes missing.  She’s got to find him and upbraid him.

I don’t like the urban setting. Moreover, this one got way too painful for me.  I really hated what some of the characters in this book did.  So much so that I contemplated dropping the series.

Dead to World

The story:  Sookie is bitter and alone after her breakup.  It never rains but it pours since her brother disappears and she has an amnesiac vampire dropped into her lap (more or less).

But I did pick up the fourth book and I’m happy for doing it.  Sookie’s back at home which pleases me no end.  Sookie’s becoming more resilient emotionally and mentally, and I think she’s becoming a force to be reckoned with.  Normally I’d find fault that every guy she meets is instantly attracted to her.  But I can buy that her psychic powers are the real lure and they are all supernatural beings.  No humans for Sookie.

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Twilight by Stephenie Meyer

Twilight is the first of three books: the sequels are New Moon and Eclipse.

In her Junior Year, Bella moves from dry, sunny Phoenix, Arizona to Forks, Washington, a small town with a constant cloud-cover. She misses the sun and her friends and it doesn’t help that Edward her lab partner in biology in seems to hate her on sight.

He glares at her and sits as far away from her as possible for the whole period. When she goes to the main office to turn in some forms, she even overhears him trying to change biology class to anything else. She has no idea why he would hate her so much – he just met her.

Her friends tell her that Edward and his siblings were adopted by the town doctor but nobody likes them much. She notices that they are very pale and they have perfect, looks.

Edward disappears for a few days, and Bella is relieved. When he comes back, he looks flushed and his personality completely changes. He’s interested in her and flirts with her and he laughs a lot. Still, once in a while, he says weird things about being the bad guy and it’s dangerous for her to be around him. She can’t figure out his moods but she starts to fall in love with him.

One day, another student loses control of his truck and she has no time to escape being hit. But Edward, moving lightning-fast, grabs her and she sees him stop the car with one hand.

She thinks maybe he’s a superhero like Spider-Man. She begins to do research and asks people questions about Edward. It doesn’t take long before she’s pretty sure that he’s a vampire and she goes to confront him.

He says hasn’t drunk human blood for so long that he thought he was safe around humans. But she’s different from any human he’s ever met. He cares about her but he’s fighting every minute not to give in to his vampire instinct and drink all her blood.

So does she save herself and leave town forever or does she risk her life to be with him? The problem is she’s not sure if even losing her life could be worse than losing Edward.