Living Dead in Dallas

Living Dead In Dallas: in which Sookie and Vampire Bill do Dallas and the smut stakes are raised.

In this second instalment of the Southern Vampire series, Sookie the small town waitress and Bill's relationship is gradually gaining acceptance, both in Bon Temps and Shreveport, where Eric presides over Fangtasia. Unfortunate events are never far away however.

One of Sookie's co-workers at Merlotte's is found dead in the car of the local cop Andy Bellefleur, and she is attacked in the woods by a supernatural maenad (a handmaiden of Bacchus who delights in pleasures of all kinds). Then, she and Bill are loaned out (by Eric) to a vampire in Dallas to investigate the disappearance of one of his nest, which brings them into contact with the show more sinister Fellowship of the Sun, a purportedly religious organisation who are militantly anti-vampire.

Sookie's telepathic ability has her in demand for investigations of this nature, and Eric's interest in her intensifies in this book. When Sookie and Bill return to Bon Temps, the town is in the grip of the maenad Callisto (MaryAnn in the TV series) and they have some strange behaviour to decipher.

Again there are some differences between the book and the HBO version True Blood showing on TV. The Dallas hotel that Bill and Sookie stay in is named The Silent Shore in the book, while HBO name it Hotel Carmilla in tribute to the gothic vampire story by Le Fanu. We are also introduced to Tara towards the end of this book, whereas she has much more prominence in True Blood. In general, a lot of artistic licence has been taken by HBO as a lot of Living Dead In Dallas is quite different to what we see on screen. I realise I'm late to the party though, and a lot of people will have absorbed the written version of events long before seeing True Blood.

One area where I think HBO have made an improvement is in their characterisation of Vampire Bill (what a rubbish name for a love interest, incidentally - Bill?). I'm not yet sure whether this is Charlaine Harris's intention, but he can come across as quite charmless in print. He is incredibly possessive of Sookie, and sometimes treats her like decoration, telling her how to dress when they visit Eric in Shreveport just so that Bill can rub in how she's HIS beautiful human and not Eric's. This is when he isn't busy getting her into bed, which he does a lot. Sookie was a 25 year-old virgin before she met Bill so maybe she finds this objectification romantic in a way. I have no idea. All I know is that in the books, Eric is the more sympathetic vamp of the two, in spite of his cheeky little attempts to lure Sookie away from his rival every two minutes.

There are six more books to read in this series, none of which I have to hand at the moment, and the fact that this mildly upsets me should be recommendation enough. Not great literature, but great storytelling. show less

Rating: 3.9* of five

The Publisher Says: Sookie Stackhouse likes living in Bon Temps, Louisiana, and she likes working as a cocktail waitress at Merlotte's. But she is having a streak of bad luck. First her co-worker is killed, and no one seems to care. Then she comes face-to-face with a beastly creature which gives her a painful and poisonous lashing. Enter the vampires, who graciously suck the poison from her veins (like they didn't enjoy it).

The point is: the vampires saved her life. So when one of her bloodsuckers asks for a favour, she obliges-and soon Sookie's in Dallas, using her telepathic skills to search for a missing vampire. She's supposed to interview certain humans involved, but she makes one condition: the vampires must show more promise to behave, and let the humans go unharmed. But that's easier than done, and all it takes is one delicious blonde and one small mistake for things to turn deadly...

My Review: Back to Bon Temps! It's a good vacation, let me assure you, since thee and me don't have to endure the bizarreness of the supernatural occurances Sookie Stackhouse has to live through. This time out, Sookie's now-normal intercourse (clean-minded, now, think above the waist!) with the undead is life-saving after she encounters a maenad. Her run-in with this extremely bizarre force of wildness and madness leaves her in a really bad way. Her vampire, well, friends isn't precisely the term but it will have to serve, save her life instead of taking it. (Not that they weren't tempted.)

In return, when Sookie does them a solid in the Dallas part of the story, she thinks they're even. Oh ha.

After coming home to Bon Temps, the maenad must be dealt with. More vampire indebtedness there, Sookie!

But really, the memorable thing about this book is the introduction of a fundamentalist hate group, the Fellowship of the Sun, which targets vampires for destruction. And it's not as if there aren't plenty of vampires that richly deserve destruction, including one Sookie has reason to get to know. But the blanket hate that this religious group spreads, well...it's kinda sorta eerie, how closely it resembles the present-day landscape in regard to gay folks.

Harris doesn't pull punches here, she goes after the hatefulness of the religiosifiers, and she does so in the most effective way possible: She sets Sookie as their contrast, Sookie of the kind and forgiving heart, the girl who believes the message she was taught in her own church of forgiveness, love, and non-judgment.

So refreshing. So rare. So refreshing because it's so rare. Still fun all these years later.


This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. show less

I'm telling you, these books are just so clever and funny, you forget that you, a grown person who likes to think of herself in a literarily snobby manner, are really having a great time with a book series about vampires. Plus, the author adds redeeming value by her continuous thread highlighting and satirizing prejudice against groups which have not gained total acceptance.

Book 2 of the Sookie Stackhouse vampire romance-mystery series does not disappoint. More “supes” (supernatural beings) are added, but once you accept the premise of vampires, it doesn’t seem to matter anymore. (…yet one more affirmation of the efficacy of Kierkegaard’s “leap of faith.”)

Sookie Stackhouse is a saucy and sassy 25-year-old barmaid in Bon show more Temps, Louisiana, working at Merlotte’s bar by day and dating Bill the Vampire by night. She also is telepathic, and once the vampires in the area catch on to this, they encourage Bill and Sookie to start up a “detective agency” of sorts so they can find out which humans are betraying them.

Because the Japanese perfected synthetic blood drinks, vampires have been able to come out of the closet and live in the “mainstream” of society (at least, during the evening hours) since they no longer need to feed on humans to survive. But there is still a lot of prejudice against vampires, and hate crimes are becoming a problem. In fact, “the fastest growing cult in America" is the Fellowship of the Sun. Its members are convinced that vampires are an abomination to God, and aim to kill all they can, along with any sympathetic humans. The vampires don’t want to exacerbate the situation by killing enemies indiscriminately. Thus, the need for Sookie's telepathic skills.

Living Dead in Dallas is action-packed and has not a few moments of sex, but like the first book, the sex is rather tastefully depicted.

I particularly like this one passage that would be so poignant if there were such a thing as vampires. After both vampires and humans have a brush with death, the air is electric with erotic energy. Sookie observes:

"…let’s face it, brushes with death have that effect. You want to reaffirm the fact that you’re alive. Though vampires actually aren’t, it seems they are no more immune to that syndrome than humans…”

Evaluation: Ack, I know I should feel shame: a bodice-ripper with vampires and shape-shifters and throbbing body parts… but I loved it anyway! Please don’t tell anyone…. show less

I really really do not like Bill, and I don't like his and Sookie's relationship. He's an overbearing controlling jerk, and doesn't understand the issue of needing independence within a relationship. He treats Sookie like a pet, it is disgusting.

At the end of the novel he finds out that he has some descendants through his daughter. Bill had two children who survived to adulthood, he knows all about what happened to his son's kids; but never bothered to check on his daughter's kids. Patriarchal asshole is brainwashed with primogeniture.

Plunging forward toward that light that is Sookie dumping his dumb chivanous butt.

Louisiana waitress and telepath Sookie Stackhouse is no stranger to the wonderfully weird world of vampires and shapeshifters. When a group of vampires from Texas request that Sookie use her special ability to locate a missing comrade, she and Bill travel to Dallas to investigate.

If you'll recall from my review of book one, Dead and Loving It, part of the appeal of the Sookie series is the setting. Small town Louisiana was drawn so perfectly in book one that naturally, Living Dead in Dallas is put to a slight disadvantage by moving the setting across state lines. Now, I'm a Texas girl - "born and bred," so to speak - but I did notice a lack of the Southern charm that I loved so much in Dead and Loving It.

Despite the change in setting show more (to the detriment of the of the story, in my honest opinion,) I really did enjoy reading Living Dead in Dallas. Sookie is my kind of girl - delightfully kooky, and "self-educated by genre fiction." Following her story is a true pleasure. It is incredibly easy to become lost in Sookie's world. I can't wait to see where Charlaine Harris will lead us next. show less

As I finished this particular novel very late Saturday night, er, Sunday morning, it finally dawned on me. I have a problem - I'm addicted to vampires. I mean, what's not to like? They are sexy, mysterious, powerful. They are at the top of the food chain, so to speak. What's more - they've overcome that pesky issue of dying. As someone who struggles daily to come to gripes with her own mortality, my obsession with vampires becomes completely understandable.

So, I'll admit that I am favorably biased towards all things vampire. The Sookie Stackhouse series is no different. However, my enjoyment of this particular series is not limited to a chance to read about my favorite subject. Rather, it goes beyond that. Some may consider them guilty show more pleasures, others may consider them popular literature. To me, they are an easy, escapist read that is truly fun.

Yes, Sookie may be a tad more beautiful than is good for her, but for the most part, she's a normal girl with an unfortunate gift and a habit of getting involved in supernormal events. Her desire to feel normal, appreciated, desired and loved is extremely human. More importantly, the fact that Vampire Bill also wants to be loved indicates that love isn't just for humans.

Living Dead in Dallas did not disappoint. It's an extremely fast read filled with vampires, shapeshifters, love, sex, conflict, mystery and underneath it all, a desire to live a normal life. And in the end, take away all the power, the supernatural, and the paranormal, isn't that what we all want? show less

WoW! Must read for sure. I was genuinely surprised at how different this book was from the show. There was still the basic same storyline, but at the same time there was a lot different. Like a completely different turn of events for the tribute party. Now because of that event (i'm not really sure how else to word that), I'm super curious to see how the rest is going to play out.

I like Sookie. She is a strong woman, but still needs rescuing every now and then. She tries to handle things on her own, but knows when to ask for help. She is a very likable person. Someone who you can have a good time handing out with in her kitchen gossiping while she makes y'all some suh-weet tea. :P

Honestly I don't care for Bill at all. I just don't like show more him, and how he handles Sookie. It doesn't seem at all like he loves her. Like Bill feels like he must protect her, and keep her satisfied, but not love. For example, when the Fellowship of the Sun attacks the vampire house after sookie is out, the first thing Bill does is give chase. Whereas the whole time Eric was protecting Sookie, and thinking up a way to get her to drink his blood :P I just don't like how Bill was like "it's part of my nature", while Eric was obviously able to resist chasing ppl. Eric on the other hand cracks me up. The whole "Sookie, my little bullet sucker" or w/e that said. LOL. I think he's a very interesting character. When it comes to the Sookie/Eric thing, I really want to see where that goes. He just seems like more fun. And even if Sookie is too much of a proper southern woman to admit, I think she actually does like Eric a lot more than she's willing to admit.

Right, LOTS different. Some the book is better, others the show was better. To me atleast. I still don't like Bill, and I'm liking Eric more. Totally a must read. I actually listened to the audiobook version, it was good. Vocally, it was ok, but I didn't care for the speakers southern accent all that much. IDK. show less