Book Review: Dead Until Dark

(Sookie Stackhouse #1)
Charlaine Harris

..."Lisa, SHUT UP! You're reading adult books now?"

YES! You know, just little ol' me over here, maturing n' stuff!

....AAAAND I am totally kidding!

Dead Until Dark/Sookie Stackhouse/Southern Vampire/True Blood (are there any other names, or did I get them all?) has been floating around me for a while now. From all of the printed books, to the television show, to the ladies at my local library having an intense conversation about it, I decided it was finally time to make the move, and pick it up.

Dead Until Dark is the first book, in the thirteen book series, and I admire you, if you can name them all in order. It took me quite a while to figure out which order these books came in, thanks to crappy wifi in the bookstore, no numbers to be found in the book itself (maybe I'm delusional) and a confused book store employee. But after about a half an hour, I was all set to go!

Obviously this series revolves around vampires, and if you would have asked me to read this two years ago, I would have thrown it back your way. But quite some time has passed since my vampire phase, and I think I'm ready to get back into it!

Plus, Dead Until Dark isn't extremely clique vampire, but almost realistic seeming. The story follows a girl in her early twenties, from the south, who spends her days working as a bartender and waitress, and hanging out with her grandmother. Sookie lives in a time where vampires exist freely and people are beginning to get used to the idea of them roaming society.

The story takes off when a vampire shows up at Sookie's work, and sits down at one of her tables. From there people are dying off, one after another including a co-worker and Sookie's grandmother, Sookie's cat is strangled, and she finds herself tangled up with multiple vampires, and one very special one.

All kinds of weird and sketchy things happen, but Sookie isn't just any regular human...she has the special skill of reading peoples thoughts. Normally, you would think is totally awesome, but Sookie truly shows us what it would feel like to know what everyone around you is constantly thinking. Especially when it's about murder.

Besides that Sookie shows us a perspective of dating a vampire that isn't absolutely perfect. In every other movie or book, vampires are absolutely gorgeous, fast, strong, the relationships are amazing. But Sookie is much smarter than that, and truly thinks about the future. I mean how could girls in these stories not wonder about what would happen when they're all old and wrinkly and the vampire guy is looking as good as ever? Sookie considers that fact, along with never being able to have children, never getting to spend the actual day with him, never getting to experience normal couple things.

If you can't tell, I absolutely adored Sookie. She's so thoughtful and caring. She's smart and thinks before she makes decision.

Overall, Sookie is what made Dead Until Dark such a fantastic read for me. I will admit that I adored her relationship with Bill, but I couldn't wait to flip each page and see what Sookie would do next.

In the end, I'm glad that this was the first adult novel I read. I was worried about stepping into this different genre, and experiencing something entirely new, but Dead Until Dark made everything worth it for me.

Have you picked up this series yet? How far into it are you? Do you like it?!