My friend Hez has been raving about the Sookie Stackhouse books for years, but the library never had the first one . . . and I had other things to read. So it’s taken me a while to get on board. . . . and to be honest, I don’t know how fully on board I will ever be, despite how much I love and respect Hez’s reading preferences. 
I’m almost finished with Dead Until Dark, and I really like Sookie – the telepathic, vampire-loving protagonist. BUT I find Harris’s management of time in the book problematic. I feel like I’m missing huge swaths of time as I read, and that would be okay if it didn’t feel like, well, I was missing something.
Plus, Bill, just not sure I’m that into him. (It’s not me; it’s him . . . or at least how he’s written.) I suppose there’s something to be said for mystery, especially around a vampire, but I want to know more about him. I’m about 50 pages from the end, and while I know about some of his history, I still don’t have a good read on his personality. Maybe that’s because Sookie doesn’t either . . . and in the end, maybe that will be a good thing, but yeah, I’m not sold on Bill yet.
BUT as I said, I do love Sookie. I love that she’s has supernatural ability, too, because that makes this book different than teen romances where the girl is enthralled by all she can’t do. I also like that she isn’t giddy about her power . . . although maybe that’s coming if I’m reading the plot development right. Plus, she’s not got real issues – you know, like Bella Swan issues. She’s pretty healthy and balanced. . . .
I’m also a sucker for a southern story, so there’s that.
On the balance, even though I’m not adoring all the writing in this book, I think Harris’s might be my favorite of the vast swath of vampire books. Anne Rice – while really well-written – is just too violent for my taste, and while I devoured (if you’ll excuse the pun) the Twilight books, I can’t say that right now – when I feel fairly balanced and healthy myself – they appeal because Bella is just too needy (although my own neediness at the time I read them made me really relate to her character). Okay, so Dracula, well, maybe I like it better, but it’s hard to peel my affinity for that book away from it’s existence as a “classic.”
So yeah, Harris as done well as far as I’m concerned, but then, I’m not a vampire lit aficionado, not by a long shot.
Maybe you are? What do you think of the Sookie Stackhouse series? What’s your favorite vampire fiction?
Oh, and also, I’ve never seen True Blood. Just so you know.
Yesterday, my April newsletter came out with information about the inaugural God’s Whisper Farm Writing Retreat in July, plus a big discount on my writing workshops that begin Monday. Get all the details here – http://eepurl.com/RRRuX.