Dead and Gone (Sookie Stackhouse, Book 9)
by Charlaine Harris
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Book Reviews of Dead and Gone (Sookie Stackhouse, Book 9)
Book Review: I've been waiting for months!
Summary: 5 Stars
I've been waiting for this book for months, ever since it became available to preorder... and really I've been waiting for it since the end of the last Sookie book. And Charlaine did not disappoint with "Dead and Gone," book nine in the Sookie Stackhouse series. (See below for titles and order in which to read the books)
This book featured all of the species we know and love. The vamps, the weres, and finally the fairies were all featured and all stirring up some sort of drama. The fairies are especially interesting, particularly Niall (her grandfather who was only seen briefly in the past). Eric the vampire is up to his old tricks, though he does appear to genuinely care for Sookie, which I was glad to see. Sam and the weres don't really have big parts necessarily in this tale; however there is a death in the were community that really hits home for Sookie's family.
I would definitely recommend this book. It arrived today and I put off food, work, and sleep to get through it as soon as possible. Now that I've finished it, I'm virtually stunned by the amount of drama that Charlaine Harris was able to pack into it- especially towards the end! I'm pretty sure I'll be rereading this book tomorrow because it was that good!
Have to add though, I'm not loving the 'sticker' on the cover promoting "True Blood". It's not a sticker, b/c it's actually part of the cover. And I don't want it there! And I already watch "True Blood" so I really could have done without it. That said, it doesn't really take away from the amazingness of the book....
New to the Sookie Stackhouse/Southern Vampire Mysteries ? Don't start here! The Sookie books in order:
Dead Until Dark (Book 1)
Living Dead in Dallas (Book 2)
Club Dead (Book 3)
Dead to the World (Book 4)
Dead as a Doornail (Book 5)
Definitely Dead (Book 6)
All Together Dead (Book 7)
From Dead To Worse (Book 8)
Stories by Charlaine Harris that fit into the Sookie universe (some of these contain important details!):
"Powers of Detection" ~Book 4.25 (Sookie short story)
"Night's Edge" ~Book 4.5 (not a Sookie story, but in the same universe)
"Bite" ~Book 4.5 (Sookie short story)
"My Big Fat Supernatural Wedding" ~Book 4.75 (not a Sookie story, but in the same universe)
"Many Bloody Returns" ~Book 7.5 (Sookie short story)
"Wolfsbane and Mistletoe" ~Book 8.25 (Sookie short story)
"Unusual Suspects" ~Book 8.5 (Sookie short story)
"Blood Lite" and "Strange Brew" and "Must Love Hellhounds"- Not in Sookie Universe, but contain stories by Charlaine Harris; the last two have not yet been released.
Book Review: Not the best of the series
Summary: 4 Stars
I have loved the Sookie Stackhouse books from day one. Until Book 8 where things kind of went astray - There was a big movement of humans who were banding together against vampires. Sookie was hired to be a mindreader during a mass convention of all of the vamps. It ended with an explosion and the hotel is destroyed, with Sookie saving Eric and Pam. Sookie and Fred, the bellhop, who is also telepathic, go around trying to hear the thoughts of people to help them out of the rubble...
Some spoilers may be included -
Now - Book 9 - Back in Bon Temps LA, Sookie is back at her job at Merlotte's. The premise of the series is that vampires have 'come out' and accepted by the humans, because the Japanese have invented synthetic blood (hence the name of the cable series) TruBlood. But the world doesn't know there are other species out there - werewolves, shapeshifters, fairies, etc. In a big TA-DA moment on TV, these folks, who were to the normal populace just another human, changed on-air, and to their families. Some didn't handle it well.
For example, Sam, owner of Merlotte's, is a shifter, as is his mother. His step-father beat her up when she changed in front of him. Sam and his siblings go to their mother's side at the hospital, leaving Sookie in charge.
To add to the craziness of handling things at home - Octavia and Amelia are still housemates of Sookie's - managing a bar entails a lot. As Sookie comes in early to Merlotte's, using the employee entrance, she comes upon a gruesome scene - a person has been killed and crucified in back of Merlotte's - the identity of the victim is shocking, and the victim's death must have been long and vengeful.
So add the police and FBI to the mix.
Eric, the absolutely gorgeous owner of Fangtasia, sends one of his minions to Sookie to come to Fangtasia and give Eric the package that the messenger gives to her. She doesn't look inside as she's busy, but goes to Eric and in front of the new king, gives Eric the package. It further ties Eric and Sookie together, but more importantly, gives Sookie greater protection from other vampire realms.
I must say, the sex scenes in this book are among, no the most sensual of all of the sex scenes in this series. And I personally would like to sign up for the Fangtasia calendar - Eric being Mr. January -
Of course, Bill is in the book. The ties that bind Sookie and Bill - he's her first lover, first relationship etc. Turns out he was a nasty spy, but comes back that he didn't mean to do it and he loves her, and Sookie keeps swaying between Bill and Eric.
Sookie's fairy great-grandfather is featured more in this book, and perhaps is the cause of some of the hostilities, and harm to Sookie.
Does this book make a lot of progress in the series?? Aside from the shifters, weres etc 'come out', and the ties between Eric and Sookie are greater, not much has progressed.
Ms. Harris, time to do more than tickle our imaginations - time for more action and not special appearances by Quinn, 'Bubba', and the others.
We need more substance.
Although, sex scenes like the ones in Book 9, almost make up for the lack of progress...
Ms. Harris, tell us where to get the Fangtasia calendar.
As someone who is writing her first novel, that happens to be about a vampire, it is great to see how differently vampires can be portrayed from author to author.
Time to put the fun back into the series, Ms. Harris.
Book Review: The series isn't "dead and gone" yet, but this one was a disappointment
Summary: 3 Stars
First of all, I love this series and although some books are better than others, I have never been disappointed - until now. I usually read these in one sitting, no matter how late it gets, but this one was difficult to get into. I kept waiting and waiting for the book to pick-up, but that didn't happen until at least half-way through.
I have concluded that either Ms. Harris is bored with her own story, had a case of writers block & a deadline, or simply used this book to plant seeds for the next. A lot of good ideas and storylines developed but none were well-executed, or executed at all--which is unusual for CH. With that said, this book seemed disconnected, pieced together and rushed - but if you're a fan, it's worth a read, just wait for paperback or the library.
1. All of the main characters were reviewed, whether they fit into the story or not. Quinn did not need to be in this, nor did Claude, they had little significance to the story, their roles could have easily been handled by an active character. Alcide and Hunter were only mentioned due to phone calls (why bother unless prepping for the next book?), Octavia's scenario could have been executed in half a paragraph, but instead she's reintroduced several times for no real reason. The whole Crystal issue could have been significant but seemed like filler in the end because when the truth was finally revealed - no one cared, nothing else was said about it.
2. It didn't seem to tie into past books at all, other than having the same characters - who, were very much out of character (almost ALL of them) including Sookie. Usually full of spit & vinegar, she didn't seem to care about *anything* this time. Half of the book was her moping like she was in desperate need of prozac. In fact, almost all characters displayed an "Oh well" attitude, rather than real emotions that might take a moment to describe.
3. I think this book was written more as an intro to the next book rather than a stand-alone. The only explanation I can come up with for all of the incomplete characters,(kill offs) and storylines would be to open doors for the next book. For instance, what happened to the FBI? How did they improve this story? It wouldn't have been any different without them, but I have a feeling they aren't gone just yet. Same for Dermot, who's role was built up to be significant and turned out to be... not so much. As far as all of the write-offs and kill-offs, I'm wondering if we're approaching the last of the series? Quite a few people are gone after this book, unless they come back from the dead. Actually, I think more have been killed off in this book than after the explosion and nothing *that* significant even took place. Well, maybe it was supposed to be that significant, but again - just not feeling it. See below.
4. The main events that were significant seemed very rushed and not much was said about them at all. (The gardening incident, the Neave/Lochlan incident, the Claudine situation). They were all rather brief if compared to the major incidents in other books which are usually detailed and well-described, enough to get a vivid mental image. In this case, there were several times that I actually flipped back a page to see if I had missed something. But nope. That was all.
I wonder...did CH even really write this or was her story edited to death???
Book Review: Extremely disappointing. Disjointed, poorly resolved. What happened to the characters we knew and loved?
Summary: 1 Stars
****SOME SPOILERS****
Dead and Gone, the ninth book in the Sookie series is so seriously disappointing it makes me not want to pick up another one again, for fear that Harris will completely dismantle my enjoyable memories of characters that I grew to love in the first eight books.
With about 10 parallel plotlines going on simultaneously in this book, it looks like Harris was trying to compete with Alan Ball's True Blood by having lots of stuff go on all at once. She ends up with a mess, in which characters never even take stock of what is happening or in their exchanges with each other. While assuredly Harris will say it was all over the course of a few days and that they were all too busy to think about what was going on, *she's* the one that let it go that route.
Sookie Stackhouse sounds so out of character in this book that I don't even know where to begin. From the beginning where she doesn't even question a major plot development that involves her, to the end where she contemplates going to a friend's funeral to "support" another friend, when in fact the friend who died had died defending Sookie, her entire character seems off. She acts cold and remote multiple times in the book and no longer even feels an ounce of remorse when killing someone in self-defense. Gone are the days when Sookie felt bad about killing Debbie Pelt in self-defense. Now it's just all in a day's yard work.
The completely nonsensical fairy family subplot plays out in such a poorly drawn fashion that it boggles the mind. A character introduced five books ago is dead, but off the page and a character introduced only one book ago is also gone (but not dead) by the end of this book. The corpses pile up, sometimes in incredibly vicious fashion, and all due to nasty fairies. But the fairies who show up and those who don't make no sense, nor does the fact that Sookie's great-grandfather would think it safe to leave her without protection with psychotic fairies on the rove. And what about pagan fairies committing crimes by choosing Christian iconography? (fairies use crucifixion? Now there's a stretch even bigger than lemon juice) Did Harris just decide she didn't know where to go with the fairies and dump the storyline in frustration?
Since the one mystery of the book played out so bizarrely, what about the romance end? Well that is up for trouble, too. The absurdly drawn out 'agony' over which suitor Sookie Stackhouse will choose has taken at least this reader to the point that really, I no longer even care.
But most of all, the shocking number of glaring continuity errors should be enough to make the editor of this book for Ace/Penguin Publishing blush with shame. At least five errors are so glaring (The third fairy triplet was Claudia not Claudette!!! Chow vs. Clancy in the whole witch thing, etc.) Justifiably or not, Harris is a NY Times bestselling author. This book read like a hack job. Were her editors pressuring her to thrown anything down on the written page in order to have the book out before the new season of True Blood, the HBO series loosely based on the Southern Vampire Series? Can you say "sellout"? It certainly reads that way. All of which diminishes my interest in even picking up Book 10 at hardbound prices in this economy.
Anyway you look at it, this book was a huge let down.
Book Review: Absolutely Perfect - Why can't all books be this good?!
Summary: 5 Stars
After finishing the 8th book in early January, I have been anxiously awaiting this book and was so thrilled when I woke up this morning to find that it had been delivered to my Kindle. So thrilled that I've spent my entire workday sitting at my desk, ignoring real work and reading this book. I read it in one sitting. Yes, it was THAT good.
Dead and Gone picks up a few months after the last book ended. Sookie, the telepathic barmaid, is back to work.The weres and shifters have decided to go public as the vampires did years earlier. At first, all goes well. Then someone kills a werepanther and Sookie is drawn into the middle of the investigation. Meanwhile, there is trouble brewing between the fae and Sookie gets dangerously involved in that via her great-grandfather, the fairy prince Niall.
On the romance front, the scenes with Eric and Sookie are amazing - Team Eric will certainly be pleased. It was wonderful to learn so much about Eric's past and his time as a human, it made him all the more endearing. If you didn't already love Eric (how is THAT possible?), you will at least understand and respect him a little more now. Oh, and the sex is HOT! Charlaine Harris is one of the only authors who can write sex scenes that don't make me cringe or laugh out loud. Almost every one of Sookie's past suitors lays it on the line and this one, and it seems that Sookie is finally starting to understand and deal with her personal relationships. I have to admit that I nearly dropped a tear or two at the scenes with Bill/Eric/Quinn, and at this point, I could live with whoever Sookie ends up with - they have all proven themselves to be wonderful. And they are all willing to fight for her, which will make for some interesting reading in the remainder of the series. My favorite line of the book - "I will make a rug of you for my floor." Hilarious.
There was also a lot revealed about Sookie and her family tree. Her fairy relatives have played a huge role in her life so far, and it's both astonishing and difficult to read about just how big that role was. Sookie as a character has been so well developed throughout the series and the development continues here. Of course, the mystery and action kept the pages turning and after 8 books mostly centered on weres and vampires, being introduced to the fae world was quite enthralling. Unfortunately, Sookie didn't escape unharmed and I agree with a previous reviewer - would somebody PLEASE take her on a vacation?!
This was definitely one of the best in the series, and I hate the thought of waiting a year to read the next book. It doesn't help that this one ended with a wicked cliffhanger. It was a huge improvement over the last two books, IMO, just in terms of the plot, story and character/relationship development. If you're new to the series, please do yourself a favor and start at the beginning. There is no way you can start here and fully appreciate how great this book really is. Charlaine Harris has really outdone herself this time! Definitely 5 stars and highly, highly recommended.
As a side note, I'm NOT going to join the chorus of people complaining about the $14. One because it was worth it, and two, you always pay a little extra to read your favorites immediately. I don't like it, but it is what it is.