Sookie Stackhouse is a small-time cocktail waitress in small-town Louisiana. She’s quiet, keeps to herself, and doesn’t get out much. Not because she’s not pretty. She is. It’s just that, well, Sookie has this sort of “disability.” She can read minds. And that doesn’t make her too dateable. And then along comes Bill. He’s tall, dark, handsome–and Sookie can’t hear a word he’s thinking. He’s exactly the type of guy she’s been waiting for all her life…
But Bill has a disability of his own: He’s a vampire with a bad reputation. He hangs with a seriously creepy crowd, all suspected of–big surprise–murder. And when one of Sookie’s coworkers is killed, she fears she’s next…

Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris

This is not the first time I’ve read this book, but I needed something to stop me from reading every Patricia Briggs book in the space of a week, and Sookie Stackhouse was the first paranormal/fantasy series I could think of.

Pretty much everyone has tried these books since the True Blood television show adaptation came out, which means reviews for them are all over the place. I was worried I was going to hate Dead Until Dark the second time round, but apart from constantly picturing the (seriously miscast) actors from the show as the characters, I still really enjoyed it.

Some things have changed, however. I no longer see any of Sookie’s escapades with the vampires as romantic, and I am now also reading knowing how it will all end up. I don’t think there’s anything particularly wonderful about Bill or Eric or any of them, and in this reread I actually found myself enjoying the more ‘human’ characters a lot more. I guess I’ve “grown up” in the past few years and I expect different things from my books!

The thing that people either love or hate about this series is how normal everyone is, even when there’re crazy supernatural things happening. I know the Deep South setting is considered a huge selling point (I’m torn – I keep thinking of misogyny, Bibles, guns and racial tensions!).

There are many things you could pick at, like the crazy names: Sookie Stackhouse, Charlsie Tooten and so on. However, we’re talking about a book where vampires not only exist but levitate and glow, so…

I don’t know about anyone else, but it held up for me. I never read beyond book six, so I don’t know how things will go as I get further on with the books.

You could do worse for a few hours’ entertainment than Sookie.