A very popular series of books, I had to read them myself to see what all the hoopla is about. Yes, I just said hoopla. I decided to review the first eight books together since I felt pretty much the same about each book and they are all pretty much the same. In fact, I wasn’t sure how I felt about the first book, so I had to read the second and by the third, I had decided that I still didn’t know. :) At amazon.com, you can find reviewers that absolutely love the books and others who can’t stand them at all. I fall in the middle.
As for the plot lines of the individual books, you can find those out at amazon.com as well as other booksellers and review blogs. The basic storyline is about Sookie Stackhouse, a human and telepath, and her adventures into the supernatural. The first book introduces us to Bill and Eric, the main vampires in the series. As the series progresses, we are introduced to all the other creatures of the night: werewolves, were-other-animals, shapeshifters, witches and fairies.
Surprisingly, I do like the story lines. The adventures are pure fun. I love the fact that the vampires are out and trying to integrate into human society. There is always something going on with the vampires, or the were-animals or witches. Conventions, territory battles, humans wanting to kill the vampires, people wanting to kill Sookie. There is also romance and humor. It is very light reading.
However, I sometimes have trouble getting through a book. And why is that?
Because the books are poorly written. If I hadn’t known better, I honestly would have thought the books were written by a ninth or tenth grader.
The first example of that is character development. Ms. Harris writes the books in a first person format from the point of view of Sookie. Sookie is a very scatterbrained individual and sometimes it gets loud in her brain. Unfortunately, we have to listen to her babble on about not only the actual storyline, but such matters as what she is wearing, her size and what she thinks of other people. I just get tired of listening to her, and find it at times hard to like her. I really cannot figure out how the men in this book are madly in love with her, she is just not believable in that sense. We could have a lot more substance in the actual plots if we didn’t have to hear Sookie’s every waking thought. With lines like “I went into the bedroom. I put on my pink pajamas and my bunny slippers. I went to kitchen to get tea”. I mean really, come on. Some editing would be nice.
A friend of mine suggested that she would have liked the books better if they were written in third person. I will have to agree with that. A third person style would allow for a more neutral narration and let us get to know the other characters a whole lot better and without prejudice of what Sookie thinks about everyone. Even better would be to have different books written from the perspective of different characters, based on the storyline. If the books are about Bill and Eric, let Bill and Eric tell it. Although I doubt Ms. Harris has the talent to pull that off.
The absolute worst part of these books for me are the sex scenes. Yeah, yeah, I KNOW sex is huge in vampire culture. I can handle that. However, remember I said that these books feel like a 14 year old wrote them? That goes double for the sex scenes. And when there are no active sex scenes a.k.a. the better parts, we still have to hear Sookie talking about sex! It’s painful! I guess I should have highlighted some of these quotes, but I put the books away, very away, so I don’t have them in front of me. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve rolled my eyes reading those parts.
I kept hoping that with each successive book that the writing would get better, but alas, it did not. I am not saying the books are awful. Just saying that the writing is bad, the sex is corny and if you can accept those things, and you really enjoy vampire books, then by all means, read them. But I kind of felt like I was reading Twilight* at times.
Grade:
Stories: B+
Writing: D
*I’ve never read the Twilight series, I am only stating what I imagined what they’d be like.
