I wasn't expecting much when I started this book, but I am so happily surprised. The main character Sookie, her style of speaking, the fact that it's set in the South (Arkansas, I believe) all remind me of Dorothy Allison and other great Southern writers, their power to evoke a culture that I've never lived but find familiar somehow. The great sex scenes, the vampires and mind-readers and shape-shifters, and kick-ass Sookie (strong, practical, level-headed Sookie) make the story even better.