Review: From Dead to Worse by Charlaine Harris
Title: From Dead to Worse
Author: Charlaine Harris
Series: Sookie Stackhouse #8
Rating: 4/5 Stars
312 pages
Published October 1st 2011 by Gollancz
Bought
The storyline of From Dead to Worse is a bit… funky. It doesn’t seem to have a clear purpose, and it becomes clear that in contrast to the previous book in the series, there is no central plot issue in this book. It’s more about Sookie herself and how she’s feeling after well, killing a few people throughout the course of the series. I really liked Sookie’s personality in From Dead to Worse, and that probably was mostly caused by the fact that her boyfriend Quinn was mostly absent in the book. I tend to like Sookie better when she’s single.
Actually, Sam is growing on me as a love interest. Never thought that would come out of my mouth, but he seems a good match. Their love for each other isn’t the hot destroy-everything-in-our-path romance she has with Eric, or the tragic-melancholic romance with Bill. It’s more of a comfortable and quiet match.
There are plenty of small things that irk me in the Sookie Stackhouse books. For example, the countries that accepted vampires are the US, Canada, Mexico, Sweden, Norway, Japan, and the UK. Ms Harris’s world-view is in my eyes obviously limited (I mean – NO other countries in Asia? None in South-America?). It’s easy to compare vampire-coming-outs to gay marriage, and same-sex marriage is allowed in Brazil, Spain and South-Africa, while it’s not yet legal in the UK. It’s not believable to me that the countries that Ms Harris calls tolerant would in the hypothetical situation of a vampire coming-out actually be tolerant. The Brits probably would make it a national holiday (OMG, IT’S LIVING HISTORY!) but I’m not so convinced that the US would be so welcoming. Same-sex marriage is only allowed in thirteen states. If they aren’t ready to marry a woman to a woman, how on earth would they react to walking corpses screaming for civil rights?
These issues aside, I love the Sookie Stackhouse books as the light paranormal books they are. They are incredibly readable because of their combination of simple language and distinct voice. From Dead to Worse is an odd ducky, but I liked it.
After the natural disaster of Hurricane Katrina and the manmade explosion at the vampire summit, everyone human and otherwise is stressed, including Louisiana cocktail waitress Sookie Stackhouse, who is trying to cope with the fact that her boyfriend Quinn has gone missing.
It’s clear that things are changing whether the weres and vamps of her corner of Louisiana like it or not. And Sookie, Friend to the Pack and blood-bonded to Eric Northman, leader of the local vampire community is caught up in the changes.
In the ensuing battles, Sookie faces danger, death, and once more, betrayal by someone she loves. And when the fur has finished flying and the cold blood finished flowing, her world will be forever altered.
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