Introducing Sookie Stackhouse - mild mannered barmaid in Bon Temps, Louisiana - who just happens to be telepathic...and a bit more (that is not fully explained in this book). When she saves the life of a Vampire, Bill Compton, her life begins to change in ways she could never have predicted. Sexy, engaging - this book is difficult to put down. ( )

In general, I am wont to make scathing deprecations of vampire books. Historically, I have preferred to think of myself as sticking to a program of self-improvement suggested to me so many years ago by Benjamin Franklin’s Autobiography. But really, sometimes one just wants to have fun.

Dead Until Dark is the first book of this mystery series that features Sookie Stackhouse, a saucy, telepathic blonde, blue-eyed, 25-year-old barmaid from northern Louisiana who falls for a vampire named Bill. Bill is tall, dead, and handsome; preternaturally strong and correspondingly unhumanly gentle; and filled with a longing for love that has been building for centuries.

The author of the Sookie Stackhouse books (adapted by HBO into the series “True Blood”) has a delightful sense of humor and an impish imagination. She portrays vampires as having a social status analogous to gays: vampires can now be “out of the coffin” (read: closet); there is controversy over how they got to be that way; there are politically correct ways to refer to them; there are hangers-on called “fang-bangers” (read: fag-hags); and there is some vicious prejudice against them and occasional hate crimes. Yet this sometimes serious approach is both tempered and augmented by the author’s sense of humor.

Sookie’s telepathy also adds to the fun, especially since vampires’ minds are closed to her – which is part of Bill’s appeal. As Sookie says:

"…sex, for me, is a disaster. Can you imagine knowing everything yor sex partner is thinking? Right. Along the order of ‘Gosh, look at that mole…her butt is a little big…wish she’d move to the right a little…why doesn’t she take the hint and…?’ You get the idea. It’s chilling to the emotions, believe me.”

By the way, yes, there are sex scenes, but they mange to be romantic and titillating [sic] without any off-putting language or anatomical detail. And yes: apparently having sex with a vampire is all that it’s cracked up to be!

Best vignette:

The first time Sookie brings Bill home to meet her grandmother (with whom she has lived ever since her parents died when she was almost seven), she tells Bill: “Gran says to please eat before you come.”

Worst revelation about myself:

Ugh: Clearly I’m in that demographic that has long transitioned from the passionate excitement of romantic pursuits and crazed hormonal longings to the mundane quotidianness of settled life. (read: “whose turn is it to wait for the cable guy?” and “don’t forget the trash!”) I’m just ripe for the picking for this kind of book, in which I can thrill to the “Remembrance of Things Past.” How embarrassing. Sigh.

Evaluation: A bodice ripper with blood, and loads of fun.

Dead Until Dark is a poorly written, but comforting book.

I picked up Dead Until Dark when I was halfway through watching season 1 of True Blood, the HBO show based on the Sookie Stackhouse series. Although the book is one of those quick n' dirty reads where you can't put it down until you reach the end, I really think this is a case where the show is superior to the book. In True Blood, the characters are more fleshed out and interesting. Sookie is kind of a blank slate in the book, and is far stronger and sassier in the show. Jason Stackhouse is an average guy in the book and is far more amoral (and, again, more interesting) in the show. In fact, I really shouldn't be comparing the book and the show since they're kinda apples and oranges.

But Dead Until Dark, in my opinion, is pretty weak in its own right. I think Charlaine Harris touched a cultural nerve when she sat down to write this book. Vampires are really having a moment right now--and she put a unique spin on the vampire-romance-mystery genre by having the vamps "come out of the coffin" to be a socially recognized minority (a theme Alan Ball pushes in True Blood). Harris can definitely write a page-turner. However, just because the book is hard to put down doesn't mean it's written well. The dialogue never really flows realistically. The descriptions are lacking (hence, the overall boringness and one-dimensionalness of the characters). Perhaps Harris' writing improves in the other Sookie Stackhouse books--I can't say since I haven't read them. But in my opinion, Harris had a good idea which was improved upon by Alan Ball. In this case, I'd recommend True Blood, season 1 over Dead Until Dark. ( )

I've been hearing a lot about the HBO series True Blood and the novels it's based on, the Sookie Stackhouse books by Charlaine Harris. I read the first book, Dead Until Dark, and while I liked it, I don't think it's "Twilight for adults" as I've heard it called. Don't get me wrong, it's definitely not PG like Twilight (there's a reason it's an HBO show and not a network show). But it didn't grab me like Twilight did.

Sookie Stackhouse is a waitress in a small bar in a small town in Louisiana, and she has the rare ability to read minds. This makes her a bit of an outcast and dating is almost impossible. But then suddenly she meets Bill, and she can't read a single thing he's thinking. The catch: Bill is a vampire.

Two years ago the Japanese invented synthetic blood that provided vampires (who were now legally allowed to exist and therefore were somewhat socially acceptable) the nutrients they needed, but it doesn't entirely quench their thirst. The only problem is that not all humans accept the vampires, and vice versa. There are still plenty of "Unfortunate Incidents" and when murders start to happen in the town of Bon Temps, fingers start pointing. But who's behind the murders? Is it Bill, Sookie's handsome vampire? Or her brother? Or is there a different type of menace lurking around the town?

This was definitely a good book; it kept me interested and turning the pages. It just didn't pull me into the characters as much as Twilight did, but that's more to do with writing style than the story (I mean, really, this book would be much longer if there was much more character development). So, I'd be interested in reading this again, and I will be checking out the next book in the series (which I hear is much faster-paced and intense) so I give this one 3 out of 5 stars. ( )