From Dead to Worse (Southern Vampire Mysteries, Book 8) | Charlaine Harris

From Dead to Worse (Southern Vampire Mysteries, Book 8) | Charlaine Harris | Great!

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From Dead to Worse...

	From Dead to Worse (Southern Vampire Mysteries, Book 8) Charlaine Harris Ace Hardcover, 2008 - 368 pages average customer review:based on 160 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Boring? No. Real life.

-- which, for a fantasy novel, is pretty cool.

Charlaine Harris is a great writer, and Sookie Stackhouse is a great character. This is a special combination, one that should be cherished (by those who connect to the series, of course -- there has never been a book or a character that every single reader has to fall in love with, the Annie-Wilkes-style loyalties of some fans notwithstanding) for as long as the author is able to maintain that relationship with the series. The good news for fans of Sookie Stackhouse is that Charlaine Harris is a patient writer.

That has impressed me most, I think, over the last few years I have been reading and re-reading this series. These books are about Ms. Stackhouse's life, and because no entanglements, no complications, none of the tangled webs we weave (deception-practice or otherwise) can be unraveled and disposed of quickly or easily, the plot lines can last for several books, and even once they have been ended, they can pop right back up again. Take the Pelts, for example. I have been relieved to see that storyline ended, over and over again, ever since the third book, when it began. In every book, I have thought, "Well, I'm certainly glad THAT'S over." And then with each new addition to the tale, the hydra has raised a new-grown head where there was but a stump before. It has allowed me to grow a mature, well-aged hatred for the characters -- who, let us not forget, are nothing more than the figments of the author's imagination. Villains in novels, particularly in paranormal/fantasy novels -- which tend to have villains with a short shelf life, owing to the lethal nature of the characters -- rarely are able to maintain a presence over the course of several books without becoming at least partly heroic (J.R.R. Tolkien's Gollum should stand as the example here), and though there was a sympathetic nod to the Pelts in the sixth book, Definitely Dead, overall, the family has remained distasteful as well as outright villainous.

But here is the wonder: that is the way of the world. That is what it is like to have an enemy. Enemies don't stalk you for days, weeks, months, organizing mustache-twisting, tied-to-the-railroad-tracks climactic showdowns, nor Batman-style supertraps. Enemies do occasionally offer a genuine threat, as the Pelts have at times threatened Sookie, but for the most part, enemies are just annoying. Enemies show up in our lives often, usually bringing little more than a sour look and a palpable hatred, but whenever they do so, they ruin everything good and pleasant about the day. Enemies, like so much else in our lives, are tiresome and dull -- and thus they are incredibly difficult to write about for any extended period. The temptation to kill them off and replace them with more interesting villains, or simply to give the hero a chance to hand out a little closure-with-extreme-prejudice, is too great, as is the difficulty of keeping a distasteful and ugly-hearted character fresh and genuine, rather than allowing them to slip into repetitive stock roles. And yet here these enemies are, back again in this, the eighth book in the series -- and I find myself no less annoyed by the Pelts in this work than in the previous four.

Every plot line is like that, at least in terms of realism. Some are surprisingly short-lived, even anti-climactic, because that is the way of the world. Some drag on and on and on and on -- the Fellowship of the Sun slouches sullenly to mind -- without any resolution in sight, because that, too, is how it goes for all of us. But all of them, every single plot line, is genuine, is well-written, is exactly how it would be if I were to live this life. Because of that realism, because life is basically tedious, these books, this series, should be boring, should be quotidian and monotonous. But they aren't. And they aren't because Charlaine Harris is a great writer, and Sookie Stackhouse is a great character.

These two (if I may be allowed to grant Sookie at least honorary personhood) have created a world, a true world, one that lies parallel to our own rather than on the same track. Because of that, these works give us everything that a good novel should: the potential for an escape into fantasy, with magical creatures and high romance; the ability to feel a connection to another person, an imaginary friendship, as we are permitted a glimpse into her mind (Irony in this case duly noted); the chance to learn something about ourselves and our fellow human beings through the examples given to us here, so like and yet unlike our own lives. And then they give us more, as there is humor and outrage and justice and friendship, romance and sex and heartbreak, drama and pathos and even a little homegrown philosophy -- the best kind, of course. They give us a whole world. And I, for one, love it dearly.

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Great!

OK, I read the other reviews & I didn't feel like this book was all over the place at all while I was reading it and I still don't!

But I can understand why folks felt that way -- It is a book that tied up bunches of loose ends left hanging in the other books, and it got the set ups ready for the next book. So you got a lot of closure in this book but it also gets you interested in new budding story lines. I especially loved the very end - it comes out of no where and really hooks you. I really want to see where that goes - and I do hope it goes somewhere!!!

Definitely worth reading and as always Charlaine Harris writes with great humor that should make even the grumpiest crack a smile.

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Another Home Run - Excellent

Each book has been a wonderful read and this one (Dead to Worse) is no different. This is my number one favorite series. The best part, I have never been disappointed, not once. At the finish of this book I was ready for the next one. I love Sookie and I am rooting for Eric. Each book is a new adventure for Sookie and it is fresh even after eight books. And, issues get resolved and a new one comes up. While I don't like Bill much, I do like that he is still in the picture, in the back ground. For new reader's I recommend that they start with the first book and read them all in order.

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A brief respite in Sookie's crazy life.

Bon Temps telepath, Sookie Stackhouse, returns in her 8th adventure, From Dead to Worse. Sookie again finds her life in danger, resulting from the Pelt family (returning characters).

There are some quick plot twists involving her relationship with Sam, Eric, and Bill; the Hotshot community and her brother Jason; Alcide's rise to power; and an upset in the vampire community that comes out of left field and may leave reader's wondering where Harris is going with the story.

Much of the novel is devoted to Sookie's relationship with her roommates (yes, she gets a second house mate). There is a happy turn of events for Bob the cat, and Sookie is introduced to two new relatives, leaving an opening for the next Stackhouse book to contain more supernatural elements than this one.

Though the novel was entertaining, the level of Sookie one-liners was way down, making it a more somber novel than Harris has provided readers with in the past. There wasn't as much non-stop action than the other novels in the series making this one a brief respite in Sookie's crazy life.

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Not My Favorite Sookie

While I always enjoy the writing style of Charlaine Harris, and I do so love her characters, I did not Love this book. There were several interesting plot lines, and I do mean several. But they each almost felt like a separate short story that an editor pieced together to achieve a full length book. Without giving too much away, between the werewolf pack drama, the Grandfather Fairy Prince, the werepanther adultery/violence, the Eric Memory Recovery, the Vampire King coup, the weddings and the witches and so on and so on, it was almost difficult to get involved with any one plot. I felt less emotionally vested in Sookie. She did not tug at the girly heartstrings like normal.
While I am certain that CH is laying the groundwork for some great follow up books, I would love to have had this broken up into 2 or 3 and had the individual plot lines delved into a bit more.
Plus, I have got to say, a Sookie book without the sex just leaves a girl wanting. All in all, Charlaine always delivers quality characters, writing and ideas, but I will hope for more with the next Sookie Installment.

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