Pam Baddeley's Reviews > Dead Until Dark

On the face of it, a story set in an alternative reality where vampires are accepted as a reality, albeit supposedly victims of a virus that made them allergic to sunshine, silver (the author's own addition, I think) and garlic, and where the Japanese have developed a synthetic blood for them to drink so that they can give up preying on the living and integrate into society, should have been really interesting.

It started off quite promisingly, when the first person narrator, 25-year-old Sookie Stackhouse, a bar worker, saves the life of Bill, a vampire newly moved into her town. Bill was born before the American Civil War and has taken possession of an ancestral house near to the one Sookie shares with her grandmother, now that vampires have legal and civil rights. Soon after, Bill is able to return the favour and the two fall in love, at least as much as a vampire and human find this possible.

Against this background, Sookie is trying to solve a series of murders because she is a telepath who has spent her whole life trying to block out the thoughts of others, but now with Bill's encouragement begins to develop her gift. And she eventually realises, without total enthusiasm, that it makes her useful to other vampires. Bill is not the most powerful in the area, and owes allegiance to Erik, who originated in Viking times.

As if the existence of vampires isn't enough, the author soon introduces the existence of shapeshifters. I liked her shapeshifter minor character and one or two other bit players, but Sookie herself isn't that interesting. We learn constantly about the clothes she dresses in, and how she spends time at home shaving her legs etc, but apart from her telepathy there isn't much to her. Gradually, due to the ingestion of vampire blood, she begins to become more than human, becoming stronger and able to heal better, but these aren't traits that make her more sympathetic to the reader. Similarly Bill is very bland and one dimensional. The only slightly interesting vampire is Erik.

Another problem I had was with the explicit sex scenes which came across as rather gratuitous, and detracted from what was supposed to be a murder mystery with supernatural beings in it. I found all that rather boring. It was also a shame that one minor character was killed off halfway through (view spoiler)[perhaps because it would have made it more difficult for Sookie to pursue the relationship with Bill if her grandmother was still alive (hide spoiler)]. It seemed that the writer did that to remove an obstacle rather than because it was essential to the plot.

All in all, I would rate this as an OK 2 star read.