George R.R. Martin's "Deeper Than Swords" at Texas A&M University

Even when George R.R. Martin is being introduced, you can tell this lecture is going to be amazing. The Dean of University Libraries is even excited about the man whose works he has housed in A&M's Cushing Library since the 1980s. David Crawford knows he struck literary gold with that one. And when Cait Coker, the Curator of the Cushing Library, introduces the one and only GRRM, everyone knows she's a fan as well. We are all on the edge of our seats to hear this man, whose stories we have devoured, whose inspired tv show we have immersed ourselves in, speak words so profound, share deep dark secrets of Westeros, and take us on a journey from which we may never return. He delivers.

As a Former Student (we don't call it "alumnus") of Texas A&M, I have been by the Cushing Library a lot. I had even gone in once. It's not a typical library. You don't study there, there isn't a Starbucks on the ground floor and encyclopedias at the top; in fact, you have to leave your backpack at the door. It is a library in the sense that it houses books and artifacts pertaining to literature. In 2010, the Cushing Library hosted an exhibit of it's Sci-Fi and Fiction collections. I missed it. But when I heard that the "American Tolkein," George R.R. Martin, housed his manuscripts there, I almost died. How had I missed that piece of information the entire four years I was a student there? I was not a happy camper. But then, I learned that this manuscripts and artifacts would be on display in an exhibition that GRRM himself was going to host! I looked online for tickets. If I wanted to eat breakfast with him and sit at a small table and have a Q&A session, I missed my chance by weeks (and a few hundred dollars), but the lecture he was giving after the library closed on Friday, March 22nd was free! Hallelujah!! You bet your britches I was going. I even convinced my friend, Kat, to come too.
The road trip to College Station was a blast. we blared music and sang loud to it. And just so you know, Kat and I sound like angels when we sing. It's just beautiful. So when we left Dallas, it was 50 degrees outside. College Station was 80. But it was great to be back. The campus, founded in 1876, has plenty of old beauty to take in, plus I love to people watch. A&M has about 50,000 students now, and about 500 of them were in line to get into the Cushing Library to see the GRRM exhibit. Turns out, Martin was also in the library doing autographs! Well, since 1% of the student population was in line in front of us, I thought I had time to go back to the car to grab my phone which I had by accident left in the car. The campus is very very very large. We had a pretty good parking spot, but I did not make it back to the library before they closed it. I may die with this regret. However, Kat, the best friend ever, did get to go in. They handed her the "Deeper Than Swords" book as she walked into the exhibit. Martin signed it and she said thanks, and walked out. Then they closed the exhibit. Martin had a lecture to give. When I got back to the library and saw that the doors were shut, there was no line, and Kat was standing outside with a black, magazine sized quasi-book, I knew what I had missed. Like I said, Kat is the best friend ever. She GAVE ME THE AUTOGRAPHED BOOK. I may not have gotten to meet GRRM, who Kat said seemed like he was so over standing around singing things, but I have his signature on a book that maybe 2000 or so copies were made. That's pretty special.
Kat and I head to the lecture held in Rudder Auditorium. It's free, right? Yes, but you still need a ticket... Box office says they've been sold out for weeks and weeks. Well, I didn't come here to not see and exhibit and not hear one of my favorite authors speak. Kat and I debated sneaking in. We had kind of decided on it too, until I gave it one last shot. I walked up to the lady over seeing ticket-taking at the door.
"The lecture is free, right?," I asked.
"Yes," she replied.
"But you still have to have a ticket?"
She nods.
"And you're sold out?"
Nods again.
I turn back to Kat, not sure what to do. We may have said things like, "I can't believe we drove all this way for this." "I figured they would just hand out tickets and it would be first come first serve." "Only current students could have gotten tickets then. That's not really fair." We also may have made sad faces. In any case, the Goddess of the Door took pity on us and said, "A generous benefactor has left you these two tickets." Once again, Hallelujah! We thanked her profusely, knowing she handed us tickets she had just taken from someone ahead of us. It was general admission. We could sit anywhere! We had pretty good seats, made friends with the people next to us, or got annoyed by them in Kat's case. Either way, we had made it. We were there. Soon enough, GRRM was being introduced.

The Dean of Libraries chided us for never coming to the library before, but said if any students were skipping class because of this, it was 100% worth it. The man knows his priorities. Cait Coker, nerd girl 2.0 (and I mean that as a sincere compliment to that awesome lady), had the honor of introducing Martin. Coker spoke of how Martin had the ability to create characters so complete that characters we once hate, we may love later. That they are so real and human that we can see the good in them along with the bad, and those characteristics speak to us on a level that we can relate. She did of course say that not all evil characters turn into ones we like. That learning to love them "doesn't always happen; sometimes we can't wait to them to die *cough Joffrey cough*." That got a big laugh. Everybody hates that guy. Then she said that Martin can obviously bring people together. He mixes genres. Sci-fi fans and fantasy fans can enjoy his books.  Some people there have never read the books, but love the tv show. "But there is one thing we can all agree on," Coker ended. "We all think he's pretty damn cool." That's the damn truth. GRRM entered the stage to a standing ovation. Like I said, we were all excited. When we finally quieted and sat, Martin began.

George R.R. Martin was born in New Jersey. He lived his whole adolescent life in Bayonne and dreamed of leaving and going on adventures. As a child he could see the lights of Staten Island shining in the night outside his window across the bay, and this is when he decided he wanted to see the world. Martin admits that now he's not so impressed by Staten Island.
His first taste of adventure writing came by reading comic books. At the height of the comic book era in the 50s, Martin saw first Superman and the Justice League. Then his aunt gave him "Have Spacesuit. Will Travel" by Robert A. Heinlein, and his love for books began. Martin recalls the nickname "George With-His-Nose-in-a-Book Martin" from his class mates, and admits he is "a voracious reader still." He has seen the world now, and has even created new ones, and the "lights of Staten Island at night...the small things of life...all that is gone, but I remember the books." Books changed Martin's  life, and he remembers not so much his own "adventures" in childhood, but can recall the stories he read that made him feel that he were embarking on that same journey with the hero. "I am, I think, the sum total of all the books I've read," Martin states. "I have lived a thousand lives, loved a thousand loves, walked distant worlds in a thousand times, because I read." If there were ever an author who could immerse a reader such as I am completely in the world of make-believe, a world of magic and dragons, a world of prophecy and fate, a world of turning wheels and whispers, it is George R.R. Martin and his Westeros. If you have never, if you had thought not, if you might be interested, if you know you hate fantasy, I recommend A Song of Ice and Fire to you. Read it. Just read it. When Martin began writing his series, he says, "At the beginning I didn't know anything. I was alone in the dark forest with a wolf and a sword." Even if you start at this point in your relationship with literature, you can make it out of the dark forest. And Martin can lead you there. He has certainly taken me on a journey I will never forget, and indeed continue to devour. Martin's books are so complete. While he is never lost in the twisted plots, you find yourself in such suspense that you are almost afraid to turn the next page, but you must satisfy that curiosity to know what this artist has planned for the characters in whom you are now so deeply invested. It is obvious he pours into his writing, and I thank him for that.
Thank you, GRRM for being the kind of author I have always dreamed of being: life-changing and inspirational.
That lecture, hearing this amazing author speak, I will never forget it.

Sookie Stackhouse Novels book 8: From Dead to Worse

In this novel, a ton of changes take place in Sookie's life, yet not a lot happens. It's an interesting combination. Here's how it goes:
Sookie hasn't heard from Quinn since the Pyramid explosion. She figures he thinks she's too much trouble and just breaks up without actually breaking up. Kinda lame.
Sophie-Anne is badly wounded and in hiding trying to recover from the explosion. Louisiana is pretty weak from a vampire standpoint.
Jason and Crystal get married. Yay. What a couple. In the Hotshot community, when a couple gets married, they have a person speak for both of them to say that if the bride or groom anything wrong or against the marriage and can't or won't take the punishment, the backer will. Sookie is Jason's second. Calvin Norris is Crystal's. Sookie knows this is a bad idea; that something bad is going to come of this. She's so right. But more on that later.
Eric takes Sookie to meet someone at a restaurant. It's a tall, smooth, and beautiful creature with long white hair: a fairy prince. He also happens to be Sookie's great-grandfather, Niall. Turns out that Sookie's Gran had an affair with Niall's son and had Sookie's father as a result. That's how Sookie is part fairy. This also makes Sookie is cousins with Claudine and Claude. Niall wants to start a relationship with Sookie and be as much of a real grandfather to her as a fairy prince that lives in another realm can. Mostly he just wants to Sookie to tell him anything she needs and he'll help her out. Sookie is pretty excited to have some family.
On the ride back, Eric and Sookie are attacked by a werewolf disguised highway patrol. He tries to kill them, shoots Eric, but not fatally, and Eric drains him dry.
Sookie learns that a female werewolf has been murdered in her home. It's Alcide's new girlfriend. That makes two women connected to Alcide whose lives have been threatened. Sookie knows things have been tense in the Shreveport pack since Alcide lost his father in the competition for pack master against Patrick Furnan. Since Sookie revealed Furnan trying to cheat, she starts to think it's payback for people on Alcide's side of the dispute. When Sookie gets Amelia and her witch mentor to do another reconstruction for the female werewolf's death, they discover that it was the Were who helped Furnan cheat that murdered the female Were. Alcide is enraged and wants revenge. He's pretty gruff with Sookie, and her patience has about run out with him. Sookie meets with Furnan and is convinced he's not behind the murder. His own wife was murdered too. He's willing to meet with Alcide to figure out who's doing this.
Sookie goes to the meeting to be the designated mind-reader and tell if anyone is lying. Sam goes with Sookie to keep her safe. Plus, with the Weres getting more and more open (or at least having huge fights in public that people can't explain everything about), he knows that soon the Shifters are going to go public too. At the meeting, another group of Weres, displaced from hurricane Katrina, come upon the scene and announce that it was them behind it all, and that they had convinced Furnan's number two to join them. He is killed fairly quickly after that. Sam TURNS INTO A LION and rips people's faces off. It's pretty impressive. There is definitely something to be said for pure shifters. The battle is bloody, but very sudden. And just as suddenly, it's over. Furnan is dead. Sookie and Sam are ok. Alcide is great. So great that he declares himself the pack master of Shreveport and no one disputes it. His eyes look pretty scary, and Sookie and Sam skidaddle before they witness him "making his mark" on a fertile young female of the pack. Werewolves.
Sookie thinks things will calm down. Ha. Who is she kidding?! Amelia's mentor turns Bob back into a human. Amelia had accidently turned him into a cat in New Orleans. That's why she left town and moved in with Sookie. Well, Bob isn't too happy about being kept a cat for so long. But he doesn't cause much of a ruckus and leaves. However, Amelia's mentor stays. Sookie has two roommates now. Both powerful witches. Hey, it could be worse.
Then one night Eric and Bill show up at Sookie's. The King of Nevada is taking over Louisiana. In a hostile way. He murders Sophie-Anne while she was lying helpless recovering from the explosion. He kills every other sheriff, but Eric. Good thing he's at Sookie's though, because Quinn leads them right to her door. He was once again fighting in the pits for his mom. The vampires told him to lead them to Sookie or his family was dead. So at least he wasn't ignoring Sookie, right? Anyway, the Nevada vamps give Sookie's group an ultimatum. Join them, bend the knee so to speak, or die. Yeah, that's a tough choice... So Louisiana has a new vampire King. And of course he has learned what Sookie can do and wants her under his control. There's not much Sookie can do about that at the moment, but she doesn't like the idea of not having her terms met anymore. Her deal with Eric was that if she helped him find things out, he couldn't just kill people that wronged him. He had to turn them over to the justice system. Not looking like she'll get those conditions from Nevada.
Sookie also decides to break up for good with Quinn. Even she can't explain her reasons that well to herself, but she knows that she doesn't want to come in second place to the guy she's with. Quinn will always put his mother and sister first. Sookie knows she kind of sounds like a...mean female dog...about all this. But give the girl props; she knows what she wants. Maybe we'll see Quinn again in later books, but he doesn't have a role at all in the HBO series, so I doubt it.
In other relationship news, Jason tricks Sookie into going to his house to catch his wife in the act of cheating on him. Since Crystal is pregnant (oh yeah, pregnant and cheating on her husband, what a classy gal), Calvin has to take her punishment. Jason has the option to inflict the punishment or let his second do it for him. Guess what he picks. Sookie tells Jason that she never wants to see him again and, with tears in her eyes, smashes Calvin's hand with a brick.
New Were pack master who is kind of Sookie's friend. New vampire King who thinks Sookie is property. Sam is getting antsy about Shifters going public. Sookie lives with two witches. She isn't on speaking terms with her jerk of a brother, but she has a new and amazingly powerful great-grandfather. There is a lot of new in Sookie's life, and I honestly don't know where the next book will take us. But it's sure to be a fun ride!

Before that though, I'll tell you about my encounter with the American Tolkein. That's right, A Song of Ice and Fire author, George R.R. Martin! Get ready for the next installment of Writin' Nerdy!

The Sookie Stackhouse Novels Book 7: All Together Dead

In book 7 of the Sookie Stackhouse novels by Charlaine Harris, All Together Dead, Quinn, the Were-tiger and owner of the supernatural-event part of Extreme(ly Elegant) Events, and Sookie become an official couple, even though he travels a lot for his job. However, Quinn has been hired to handle the ceremonies at the national vampire summit which Sookie is attending as an employee of the vampire Queen of Louisiana, Sophie-Anne Leclerq. Sophie-Anne is being sued for her husband's, the King of Arkansas, death at their wedding celebration by his second in command, Jennifer Cater, and the trial will be held at the summit. Sophie-Anne is hoping to be cleared and to gain the financial holdings of the state of Arkansas if she is found innocent and granted ownership. In post-Katrina Louisiana, Sophie-Anne lost a lot of her status and her clout. She needs all the support, financially and politically, she can get to get back on top. Sookie is going to use her mind-reading skills to uncover who is or isn't on the Queen's side in the vampire world to help Sophie-Anne convince the fence-sitters to support her. Though Sookie can't read vampire minds, there will be enough human companions and employees for her to get a pretty good idea of what their vampire bosses think. Plus, Sookie is the only witness to the death of the King of Arkansas, and she'll have to testify.

Before she heads out on the plane to Rhodes, Claudine, her fairy-godmother, Sookie's friend, Tara, and Sam, Sookie's boss tell her it's a bad idea and try to convince her to stay. She's getting in too deep with the vampires. She won't have a lot of protection or any real friends there. They all have bad feelings about it. After finishing the novel, we'll realize that either choice was going to end badly.

Sookie does end up going to Rhodes to the vampire summit. It isn't clear, and that is likely intentional, what Sookie's real reasons are for attending other than the fact that her life is exciting now, and she isn't thought of as a freak by the supernatural community. She fits in better in that world. So she goes.

The hotel is specially made to host vampires, with blacked out windows, security guards, and coffin platforms instead of beds on the vampire floors. On the human floor, there is a cafeteria, the rooms are normal, and you get to see sunlight. Sookie meets up again with Barry the Bellboy from Dallas and from Living Dead in Dallas, book 2 of the series. He is also a telepath and attending the summit with the Texas vampires to read minds in case it's needed. Bill, Eric, Andre, the Queen's second in command, her Anglo-Saxon (literally, from that era) body guard Siegbert, Jake Purifoy, Were-turned-vampire, Mr. Cataliades, and his niece, Diantha are in the Queen's entourage with Sookie. Sookie still hates Bill for deceiving her, has mixed feelings for Eric since he offered to give everything up for her while he suffered memory loss, likes the demons, and is pretty scared of the Queen's men. 

When Jennifer Cater is found by the Louisiana group murdered in her hotel room , things look even more dicey. While the in-house security team starts investigating, Sookie and the party head to the main ball room of the hotel which has now been converted to a convention hall. Booths are set up selling vampiric items like replacement fangs, coffins, etc. Even Bill has a booth to sell his vampire directory software. Not that Sookie noticed or cared.

There Sookie has a run-in with a pretty rude girl that she doesn't like on the spot. Turns out to be Quinn's sister. Great. Sookie also talks with Jake Purifoy who used to work for Quinn, before becoming a vamp and being shunned from the Were-side of the supernatural community. Jake tells Sookie about Quinn's past. Quinn and his mom are both were-tigers. One night during a full moon, she was captured by hunters trying to trap bears for fighting. Quinn's mom changed back to her human form and was raped. Quinn finds the group and sees the man raping his mom, morphs out, and kills the whole bunch. Good riddance. However, he needs it cleaned up, so he turned to the vampires who said they would bury the evidence in exchange for Quinn fighting in the underground circuit. Shapeshifter and were-animal fights to the death. He did it for years before paying off his debt and joining E(E)E. By then, he had enough money take care of his sister, Frannie, the result of Quinn's mom's rape. Sookie is shocked by this news, and a little mad that Quinn didn't tell her himself. But mostly, she just feels sorry that he had to go through that, and a little proud that he survived it.

Andre, in an effort to have more control over Sookie, tries to get her to drink his blood. The idea, of drinking vampire blood (that has illegal drug effects) and of being under control of the ruthless Andre, disgusts Sookie and she tries to fight him off. Of course, she can't, but Eric comes to her rescue. Instead of Andre's blood, Sookie will drink Eric's. It's the lesser of two evils and there's no way Sookie can get out of it. When she drinks his blood for this the third time, Eric and Sookie become bonded. They can sense each other's feelings, and being near each other brings on feelings of happiness, comfort, and safety. Sookie isn't too happy about it. It gets worse when Quinn busts in right after the exchange. He's none too happy about his girlfriend drinking vampire blood. Sookie feels backed into a corner, like she has no control over her own life, and powerless. She regrets coming to the summit, especially despite the urgings not to go. Now she's really not having a good time at the summit.

But then it's the night of the trial. The Ancient Pythoness, the original oracle that Alexander the Great consulted, is the judge. The one survivor of the Arkansas vampires group is still bringing a case against Sophie-Anne. Sookie uses her talents to uncover why this last man wants to sue the Queen, and convinces him to drop it. Before he can reveal who gave him false information to continue his suit, he is murdered by an assassin. In any case, Sophie-Anne is found innocent, and given Arkansas as her second state to rule over. 

Barry Bellboy and Sookie notice the hotel staff acting unusual. They avoid the mind-readers, keep to themselves, and generally look like they're all up to no good. They're keeping their thoughts guarded, and it takes almost too long for Barry and Sookie to uncover SPOILER ALERT a plot to blow up the hotel and kill all the vampires and their human consorts. Sookie manages to get Eric and Pam to safety before the building collapses. The Queen is very badly injured, losing both her legs. Many people and vampires did not leave the hotel. Since it's daylight when the bomb goes off, there is also the threat of the sun killing the vampires that didn't die in the explosion. Sookie sees vampires burning to death and their bodies flaking away in ash pieces. She sees human bodies strewn around the grounds, some in worse shape than the burned vampires. Her horror and shock almost overtakes her, but she and Barry team up with a rescue crew to find other people still inside. They can find the brain signatures and lead the workers to the victims. She discovers Quinn and Andre in a half-fallen hallway. Quinn is hurt badly, but seems likely to survive. Andre is also hurt badly, and SPOILER ALERT he would have survived too if Quinn hadn't staked him while he has lying defenseless on the ground. Sookie knows Quinn killed Andre for her, and can't bring herself to care too much for the loss of Andre's life.

Barry and Sookie tire out hours later and decide to sneak away from the wreckage instead of registering with the other survivors. They know that now that the officials know people have these types of powers, Barry and Sookie would be used in all sorts of situations for the government. To Sookie, that's no different than being controlled by the vampires. She's had enough. She has seen so many horrifying things that day that  she is spent. She just wants to go back home to Bon Temps to her simple waitressing job and her friends. Sookie doesn't want anything to do with the vampires anymore, though as you'll see in the coming books, that's just not possible. Before she heads home, she checks on Quinn at the hospital. Frannie is there and they talk a bit. If not friendly chatter, then definitely not rudeness or confrontation. Things are looking good on that front. Except of course for Quinn. But he'll heal. And being a shifter, he'll heal pretty darn fast. 

Sookie goes back to her life in Bon Temps and tries to forget the things she witnessed and lived through. But it is clear that those images and experiences have changed our Sookie. She is very introspective at the novel's close. Her thoughts are muddled and confused. Between guilt, relief  sadness, and a sense of freedom, it's clear that Sookie doesn't quite know how to feel about the conclusion of events. That confusion only makes Sookie that much more appealing and sympathetic to readers. She is a real and complete character. Every emotional thought Sookie has is so incredibly natural and human. It is impossible not to be completely absorbed by her and crave more. Harris hits all the right notes, and paints a beautifully tragic picture of the hotel bombing and Sookie's ironing out of her thoughts about who is to blame and why she was there in the first place. As always, it is a rewarding read.

Next up, book 8: From Dead to Worse. Lots of changes take place in the supernatural community in the next installment. Things that can change Sookie's relationships forever.

The Sookie Stackhouse Novels Book 6 Definitely Dead

In Definitely Dead by Charlaine Harris, we learn that Sookie's cousin Hadley has been killed. This was after Hadley was turned into a vampire by the vampire Queen of Louisiana. (This story line can be read in a short story titled "A Touch of Dead.") Hadley was the "favorite" of the Queen. Yep. That means exactly what you think it means. Anyway, Sookie has to go to New Orleans to clean out Hadley's apartment. Sookie is kind of reluctant to go. She wasn't close to Hadley and hadn't seen her in years. And she has other things to worry about: like what to wear on her date with Quinn!
Quinn takes Sookie to see a musical and tells her that the Queen has requested her to work for her during a summit of all the regional vampire upper echelon. When Sookie and Quinn leave the musical they are attacked by newly turned, bitten werewolves. It's illegal to make a Were by biting, and the kids that attacked Sookie and Quinn were only after them. Add that to the fact that the teens were killed in jail shortly after being booked, and Sookie knows something is up.
The next day, Debbie Pelt's family ambushes Sookie at work to try to get some answers regarding Debbie's whereabouts. Not cool. Sookie tells them that there is nothing more to say. She talked to the Shreveport Were Pack, the Pelt's private investigators, and now this. She's exasperated. Of course, her knowledge of how Debbie died at her hands, makes it difficult to keep calm. But Sookie is just tired of being pushed in a corner. They leave empty-handed and not at all satisfied.
Sookie, the man-magnet, gets a visit from Calvin Norris with a real proposal. He wants to settle down with her, have her move to Hotshot, and he wouldn't have to sleep with the other pack members. What a dream. Sookie turns him down for good. She can't see herself living at Hotshot surrounded by Calvin's were-panther children and scary family. He leaves, but Sookie is not yet done with the Hotshotters.
The Queen's lawyer, Mr. Cataliades, half-demon, comes to pick Sookie up to take her to New Orleans, and she calls Bill to invite him. Bill requested that he get to go with her, and while Sookie doesn't want to start up a relationship with Bill again, she figures she can be nice. So Bill, Sookie, Cataliades and his niece Diantha load up in the limo and head to New Orleans.
Sookie meets Amelia, the witch landlord for her late cousin Hadley. Amelia always speaks her mind, which is pretty nice for Sookie since she knows she doesn't have to keep her mental guard up constantly. Amelia tells Sookie that she placed the apartment under a stasis spell to hold everything in the apartment just as it was when Hadley died. That includes the werewolf-now-turned-vampire by the name of Jake Purifoy in the closet. When Amelia lifts the spell, the vamp rises for the first time after being turned and is so blindly hungry that he attacks Sookie and Amelia. They're hurt badly enough to go to the hospital. Bill and Eric show up at Sookie's bedside. Eric compels Bill to reveal his real reason for going to Bon Temps and for getting to know Sookie: the Queen ordered Bill to go to Bon Temps and find out if she had telepathic powers including seducing her if necessary. Turns out cousin Hadley had told the Queen about Sookie's ability and the Queen wanted to add Sookie to her entourage. Well it definitely worked. Sookie of course is devastated and orders Bill and Eric away. Harris does an amazing job of conveying Sookie's heartbreak. I was crying as I read Sookie trying to make sense of her feelings. Harris can so easily draw the reader in and create a deep sense of empathy. Sookie's conflicting shallow and deep feelings, her confusion, rage, and agony are so palpable and so real that it is impossible not to join her in her sadness.
The next day, Sookie meets the Queen, Sophie-Anne Leclerq and her new husband the King of Arkansas, Peter Threadgill. Things are tense between the two, and it's obvious that it was a match of substance, not of love. Upon hearing about the new Were-turned-vamp (a shunned, if not revolting, anomaly in the supernatural community), the Queen comes back to Hadley's apartment with Sookie. Amelia gathers some witch friends and do what's called an endoplasmic reconstruction of the night before Hadley died. During this they learn that a vampire tried to kill Jake who was acting as Hadley's escort to the Queen's engagement party. Before Jake can bleed out, Hadley decides to turn him into a vampire to save his life. Hadley was upset about Sophie-Anne getting married, so it's possible the she was also rebelling by making a were-vampire. Anyway, Sookie learns that she is part fairy. And it's like a knife to her heart that maybe that's why Bill liked her so much to begin with. Poor Sookie.
The next day, Quinn is helping Sookie pack up Hadley's things when they get abducted by werewolves. Though they're tied up in a van, they manage to get most of a cell phone call out to alert Eric, who can track Sookie since he's had her blood. They manage to break out of the van before they reach their destination, and Quinn morphs out and turns into a tiger which is really really really awesome. They escape into the surrounding swamps a little confused about who in the Were community would be trying to hurt them. Then Sookie figures it out. She and Quinn double back to where they think the captors were taking them and SPOILER ALERT surprise the Pelts. They weren't satisfied with Sookie's answers when they approached her the first time and were using drastic measures to find out what they wanted to know. Since Sookie has the upper hand, she bargains with the Pelts. They'll leave her alone if she tells them what really happened to Debbie. Sookie tells them everything, and they believe her. So hopefully, no more drama from the Pelt side of the world.
The next night is the wedding celebration for Sophie-Anne and Peter. Sookie can sense something is going to go down, and it does. SPOILER ALERT Peter starts a small war and tries to kill Sophie-Anne. However, his plan backfires and in the aftermath of the bloody mess is pretty much a dead Arkansas. Everyone from his "kingdom" that was there is killed, and Peter himself isn't saved. When he threatens the life of Sophie-Anne, Andre, the Queen's right hand man, stakes him. Sookie is the only witness to the Peter's death. Good for her... I'm sure that won't come into play later. Finally, Sookie can go back home to her semi-normal life as a telepathic waitress. But things won't really be the same. Amelia somehow changed her new boyfriend into a cat (a pretty big no-no among magic users), and needs to lay low for a while. She becomes Sookie's new roommate back in Bon Temps.
There was a lot of action in this book! Add vampire war and were-tigers, and the testosterone levels were soaring. Fast-paced action made up for the slow moving relationship between Quinn and Sookie. They never seal the deal in this book. However, after the last book in which every man Sookie knew wanted a piece of her, maybe Harris was trying to let Sookie be alone for a little while. Maybe it's just character development. The point is, even though you don't get a lot of Quinn and Sookie there is so much more going on that you almost don't even notice. We learned more about vampire politics and the witch community in this book. And Sookie makes a new friend that isn't a guy! Amelia is a fun character and pretty cool chick. I hope they write her into the tv show. They didn't write in Quinn, so who knows?
In the next book, Sookie joins the post-Katrina Louisiana vamps to the vampire summit in Rhodes. LOTS of stuff happens. Not hardly any of it good for our friend Sookie.My synopsis of  All Together Dead, book 7 of the Sookie Stackhouse novels will be up soon!

The Sookie Stackhouse Novels Book 5 Dead as a Doornail

Dead as a Doornail, Book 5 in the Sookie Stackhouse series by Charlaine Harris, really pulls us into the shape-shifter and werewolf communities. Not to say that there aren't lots of vampire scenes, what with Eric still confused about his time spent at Sookie's house, and Bill being back in town. Sookie just has a lot on her  plate. Like Jason's eyes getting yellow at the full moon. Like every guy she knows trying to get her to date him. Like learning a lot about werewolves that she really didn't want to know. Like private detectives looking for Debbie Pelt, and Alcide guessing Sookie's deep dark secret about Debbie's whereabouts. Lots of things happen in this book. It's a thrill ride! I read it in about 3 days. And that's with me working at my real job too. So here is Dead as a Doornail.
When Sookie sees Jason's eyes change color to a golden yellow, she knows that his torture at the hands of Felton Norris has changed him into a were-panther forever. She gets help from Calvin Norris, leader of the Hot Shot community and fellow were-panther, to take Jason under his wing during his first change. Jason gets to run with the Hot Shot pack at the full moon, even though the pure bred Hot Shotters turn into panthers while Jason turns into a panther-man hybrid (like a Lon Chaney Wolf Man, but panther-man). Surprisingly, Jason embraces his new self and doesn't feel bitterness for having been made this way through the kidnap and torture of a psychotic were-panther.
At work the first night of the full moon, Sam, being a shifter himself, steps out early to go change and run. Sookie, Terry Bellefleur (who doesn't have as big a role as in the tv series, and who is in fact a Vietnam veteran, not an Iraqi vet), and the new cook, Sweetie are in charge of the bar during the three nights Sam has to go answer the call of the wild. When Sookie's friend Tara (not African-American, by the way) comes in with a strange and just plain evil-looking vampire, Sookie tries to get Tara alone to talk to her about this new guy, but the vamp, Mickey, tells Sookie to get lost. He's also a bad tipper. Not nice. Sookie gets bad vibes from Mickey and can't understand why Tara isn't with her older sugar-daddy vamp boyfriend anymore. However, since Mickey won't let Sookie get Tara alone, there's really nothing she can do. The next night, Sam is back at the counter, and Claudine comes into the bar with startling news. Calvin Norris was shot in the chest. He's at the hospital, but in bad shape. Then Claudine tells Sookie that another shooting, this one ending in the young girl's death, was related to Calvin's. They were both shifters. Then as Sookie and Sam are locking up and leaving, Sam gets shot. Luckily it's only in his leg, but he bleeds a lot and his leg is broken. He'll heal fine, but he can't tend bar. Sam sends Sookie to Eric to ask for a replacement bartender in the meantime. Eric still wants to know what happened between he and Sookie during his stay at her house while he was cursed, but Sookie, in fear for the power her revelations would give him, doesn't tell him anything. She does, however, get the replacement bartender: a vampire pirate by the name of Charles Twinning. Sam wants Sookie to let Charles stay at her place for protection, but she is tired of being the half-way house for the undead and refuses.
Private detectives Jack Leeds and Lily Bard Leeds (characters in another series of Harris's which I haven't read, yet) come into the bar looking to talk to Sookie about Debbie Pelt's disappearance. They also go to Sookie's home and meet with her there. Reading their minds, Sookie learns they don't really think she killed Debbie, so she is a bit more at ease.
Sookie visits Calvin at the hospital. He's kept in a a single room with a werewolf bodyguard named Dawson. He admits Sookie, and she learns that the shifters in Hot Shot think that the shooter is someone who hates other shifters. The reason they think the shooter hates shifters is because perhaps he was bitten and turned instead of born two-natured. The Hot Shotters suspect Jason. Calvin has an uneasy handle on the Hot Shot shifters so they won't just go after Jason, but there's no guarantee on how long he can hold them off. It puts a fire under Sookie to find out whodunit.
Alcide comes to visit Sookie to tell her Colonel Flood has died in a car accident and she should come to the funeral with him. The thing is, Were funerals are quite ceremonial, so Sookie has to dress up. She calls Tara to borrow a suit. Tara tells Sookie to let herself into her house, but go straight to the closet and back out again. Mickey is there, and Sookie shouldn't disturb him. It's pretty tense.
At the funeral, Sookie learns that the packmaster's funeral is the opening of the campaign for the next packmaster. Alcide's dad is running, and now Alcide has drug Sookie into and put her on his father's side. She might have come of her own accord, but is pretty pissed that Alcide sprung it on her. The other candidate for packmaster is Patrick Furnan, Harvey Davidson dealership owner. Alcide tells Sookie he brought her to read Furnan's mind to see if he has plans to sabotage Alcide's father's campaign, and because she may influence fence-sitters who know how much she helped in the Witch War. When she shows some attitude, Alcide lays on her that he knows she killed Debbie. If that weren't enough, he then twists it around to say that because of that, Sookie kind of owes him, so she should help him out with the packmaster campaign. Alcide, you big dummy. That really makes Sookie mad (duh). When Alcide drops Sookie back at home, he tells her that he doesn't care about Debbie's death (yeah right). Of course Sookie doesn't buy it, and she's still mad.
At work, Sam convinces Sookie to let Charles Twinning stay at her place for protection. She also has another run in with Mickey and Tara. Tara seems to be in a daze and Mickey is just as vile as ever. That night, Charles wakes Sookie to tell her that someone is sneaking around her house. It turns out to be Bill who is more than a little jealous of Charles being there. After a brief, and not too pleasant exchange with Bill, Sookie goes back to bed. She is awakened later, this time by Claudine, who tells her that her house is one fire. Sookie gets out, and Charles is already outside. He tells Sookie that it was the human he has killed and is lying in the yard. Bill runs over from his house across the cemetery, and the fire trucks show up. They manage to save most of Sookie's house, but it was a matter of inches and air flow. Close call. When the police arrive, they discover a Fellowship of the Sun card in the dead man's wallet. Since Sookie made a few enemies there in Dallas, it's plausible one radical decided to torch her house while she was sleeping in it.
The next morning, Sookie meets the insurance guy (who helps his insured by using magic spells!) and gets everything lined up for a clean up and remodel. Then it's back to work for Sookie. She gets a lot of love from her co-workers. Including Sam. They start kissing in his office, but Bill walks in acting really possessive (as per usual). Sam and Bill have a little fight, but break it up. Everybody wants Sookie! Strong independent woman that she is, Sookie decides to stay at her brother's house instead of Bill's or Sam's.
The next day as Sookie is cleaning out her damaged kitchen, Alcide pulls up. He's a little miffed Sookie didn't tell him her house caught on fire, and his feelings get hurt when she tells him she doesn't need his help fixing it or paying for it. She still has that baby sitting money from watching Eric. Alcide and Sookie kind of make up, and he asks her to move in with him and start a relationship. WOW. As much as she wants to take the easy road, Sookie can't let her problems be solved for her and she says no. Another point for feminism! Plus she can't believe that Alcide would be over Debbie so quickly, especially after knowing it was Sookie who killed her. he also doesn't want to get involved with the werewolf politics going on right now with the election of the new packmaster. The timing is just never right for those two (sigh). So Alcide drives away lonely, and Sookie stays. She goes to return Tara's suit, and Mickey wakes up in time to intimidate her. What a nice guy.
When Sookie goes to the library the next day to take back some books, she is shot and wounded. Just like the other victims. Sookie however, felt the push of the criminals mind just in time to duck so the bullet grazed her shoulder. She's good at near-death experiences. Bill visits her in the hospital and acts like the sweet Bill Sookie fell in love with, so she lets him comfort her by cuddling her in the hospital bed. The next morning, Claudine's brother Claude picks Sookie up and drives her home to the duplex she is now renting from Sam. Claude is also a fairy, therefore very attractive. Unfortunately, he plays for the other team. He used to be a stripper, and tells Sookie that Merlotte's new cook, Sweetie used to be a stripper too until she had a bad car accident. Tara comes over later and tells Sookie that the rich vampire she was dating passed her off to Mickey and now she can't get rid of him. Her self-worth is shot from being treated like a pet and now she doesn't really have the nerve to pick herself up. Sookie wants to help her friend, so when she leaves, Sookie calls Eric. In exchange for telling him what happened during his stay at her place, he will get rid of Mickey. Eric pulls some strings, there is a pretty nice fight scene, and Mickey is no more. Tara is a little beaten up, but she'll live. Now Eric knows everything. The nights with Sookie, and about Sookie killing Debbie Pelt. He can't remember where he buried her or where he hid her car of course, but he knows everything else. He knows he told Sookie he would give it all up for her.
The next day at work, Sookie and Sam decide to go try to find clues at Sookie's crime scene. Sam changes into a blood hound and he starts sniffing. Sheriff Andy Bellefleur, who was on a stakeout nearby, comes up to Sookie and what he thinks is just a dog, and tells them to leave. But before they can, spoiler alert Sweetie steps out with a rifle. She was bitten by a Were while she lay bleeding from her car accident and despises all shifters now. She thought Sookie was a shifter because she smelled a lot like them when she came into the bar. When Sweetie hears a noise in an alley and fires, Andy shoots her down. Sweetie did hit Dawson though. Calvin sent him to look after Sookie. Despite the gunshot, Dawson lives. Weres and shifters are great healers.
Alcide comes by Sookie's to tell her she is now doubly a Friend of the Pack and that she should come to the packmaster contest. She reluctantly agrees.
Calvin is released from the hospital and Sookie goes the visit him. Patrick Furnan is there, and he tells Sookie to watch her back. Calvin is going to ask for something in return of the help he's given her, and she probably won't like it. Dum dum dum... Sookie decides she needs to help Alcide's dad win the packmaster contest. The contest is set into 3 trials: agility, pain tolerance/endurance, and fighting prowess. The contest is run by an outsider. A tall, bald shifter that Sookie learns is named Quinn. The two competitors are in wolf form and come out even in the agility round. When Sookie reads the mind of Furnan in the endurance round and finds he is cheating, the Were pack convenes in secret to decide what to do. She meets Quinn officially and they are both very intrigued by the other. It's raining men for Sookie Stackhouse! When the contest begins again, the Were's have decided Furnan lost that round by forfeit. But the last round, the fighting round, will now be determined by who is left standing at the end. It's not a good fight, and spoiler alert when Alcide's dad gives up, Furnan rips his throat out anyway. The look in Alcide's eyes, tells Sookie not to try to comfort him, so she leaves with a heavy heart. If she hadn't announced Furnan was cheating, maybe he wouldn't have killed Herveaux. It's tough. But one of my favorite quotes from this scene is, " The next time someone told me I had to watch a supernatural rite, I was going to tell him I had to wash my hair."
At work that night, Bill comes in with a date. It's not a good night for dear Sookie. But then she gets a visit from Bubba, everyone's favorite undead superstar. Bubba has a message from Eric: "He's not what he seems. He's a hitman." Since Bubba's change over to becoming a vampire wasn't too smooth, when he gets confused, things could get ugly. So Sookie doesn't push much when Bubba can't remember who was the hitman. But then Charles is behind her, and the door to the back hall is closed. Sookie tries to fight back, and gets the attention of the bar patrons who come to her rescue. They hold down the vampire and think to call the police until Charles asks to be staked. They happily oblige. Team work. As it turns out spoiler alert Charles was sent by the maker of the bartender at Fangtasia she got killed in book 1 Dead Until Dark doing her first favor for Eric. He was trying to wound Eric by killing Sookie. Charles was the one who set fire to Sookie's house, and he had planted the Fellowship card on a random guy he killed and brought to her house to frame for it. And he was so nice!
This was a fun book. Though I really didn't understand why Harris throws all these men into Sookie's life IN ONE BOOK. Definitely worth the read though. Harris does it again. Several plot lines, great endings to all, and you are never, ever bored.
Up next, book 6 Definitely Dead, where we learn more about Sookie's family and we get closer to Quinn.  Quinn, the were-tiger, that is ;)

The Sookie Stackhouse Novels Book 4 Dead to the World

Because the last post was so long, I decided that maybe splitting the review into 1 book portions would be easier and faster to read. We get to delve deeper into the shifter/Were communities in the next 2 books, so it's a fun ride. Something life changing happens to Jason; the brewing chemistry between Eric and Sookie... Well, it's worth the read to be sure! So here is the next book!

At the beginning of book 4 Dead to the World, Vampire Bill Compton tells telepathic ex-girlfriend Sookie that he needs to go to Peru to do more research on his vampire directory, but that he wants to talk things out when he gets back. Sookie, still hurt by his betrayal and her own brush with death at Bill's hands, reluctantly agrees to meet with him when he gets back. She then goes to work at Merlotte's Bar and Grill. There she sees her brother, Jason with a new girl on his arm. A shifter girl. It's New Year's Eve, and Sookie doesn't get off until after 2 am and is completely worn out. That's why she doesn't quite believe it when she sees Eric Northman, Viking vampire and Sheriff of Area Five running along the side of the road barefoot in blue jeans. Oh it's definitely Eric. The only thing is, Eric has no idea who he is or why he's running along the road on the outskirts of Bon Temps, Louisiana. And he has no idea who Sookie is either. She convinces him to come back to her house and calls Pam, Eric's second in command. Pam gets Sookie to watch him for the remainder of the night until she and the new bartender, Chow, can come get him the following night. Sookie and Eric alone in her house... But he doesn't have his overly sexual, confident personality! He is confused and scared, needing Sookie's help and in his extreme loneliness seeks her for human interaction. It's a completely different Eric. He's so sweet that Sookie doesn't know what to think at first, but his shy, unassuming, and anti-Eric politeness makes her think she could get used to this new Eric.
The next day, Sookie asks her brother Jason to go get some clothes and necessities for Eric. When he returns, he tells Sookie that there are missing person posters up with Eric's picture on them with a $50,000 reward for any info about Eric's whereabouts. As Chow and Pam explain, Eric had a meeting with a witch coven that went awry. The coven, led by a Were named Hallow and her brother, are trying to take over the supernatural community's stakes in business and enterprise. When Eric refused the coven's offer, the witch cursed him which transported him to the middle of no where (Bon Temps's surrounding woods, in this case) and erased his memory. Because of the posters all around that the witches posted in an effort to find him, it's decided that Eric should stay with Sookie where he won't be seen or looked for while the others try to find the coven and a way to un-curse the Sheriff. Sookie begins to protest until Jason talks the vamps into paying her for her babysitting. $30,000 to look after Eric Northman (sign me up!).
Sookie gets a call the next morning from Jason's boss saying that he never showed up for his road work supervisor job. Even though Jason is a hound dog with the ladies, he's always faithful to his work. Sookie reports his disappearance to the police, but immediately decides somehow the witches must be behind his abduction. She looks around his house, not seeing much until she notices blood on the pier of his pond. The police find a panther print nearby and begin to suspect Jason went hunting for and/or got attacked by a panther. Sookie has heard that some of the coven witches are shifters though, so she begins to expect the worst.
In her hunt for the coven, Sookie starts investigating at Fangtasia, Eric's bar where the witches first approached him. When she gets there, she notices the back door ajar and finds two waitresses, one of them dead, lying on the floor, the victims of another cruel curse. From the live waitress she learns that the witches are still on the hunt for Eric and have been drinking vampire blood. Add that to the fact that at least one is a Were and several are shifters, and you got yourself a lot of bad coming your way. With this news, Sookie heads to Alcide's to warn him of the threat. She can see far enough into his mind that he has gotten back with his ex-fiance Debbie who has had it out for Sookie since she spotted them at Josephine's (Club Dead) in Jackson. Debbie has done some pretty bad things to Sookie, including putting her in harms way of a starved vampire. After hearing the disturbing news of a coven with shifters, Alcide takes her to meet the packmaster of Shreveport, Colonel Flood. Flood thinks there may be a connection between the witch coven and the fact that his second in command didn't show up for their meeting the night before. Alcide and Sookie, who becomes a Friend of the Pack, head over to the place the missing woman worked to also find her body. Things are getting grim.
Sookie finds out the name of the shifter who Jason was seeing (not that he knew) and tracks her house down in the little community of Hot Shot outside of Bon Temps. Things are weird in Hot Shot, and Sookie can tell that everyone is a shifter. She finds Jason's date, Crystal Norris, who is more than reluctant to talk to her until her uncle, Calvin Norris, the apparent leader of the Hot Shot community. Crystal tells her the night Jason went over to Sookie's that when he came back she heard him pull up and open the truck door, but he never came inside and she heard shuffling noises around the back of the house, but didn't notice anything else. Now Sookie is really worried. Calvin Norris offers to let her stay at his place and be his woman. He would take care of her, and she would have a whole community of family members close by for protection, plus she would help thin out the blood pool. Sookie just can't get behind the idea of being Calvin's kept woman in the small and inbred community (what an offer!) and decides to turn him down, but nicely. Good thing she has Eric at home to comfort her (repeatedly ;)).
After the coven goes to Bill's empty house to check for signs of Eric, ending in a Were getting hit by their getaway car, the Weres and vamps meet up at Merlotte's to decide what to do about the evil witches. When friendly fairy, Claudine shows up, there is a lot of tension in the air between the groups. Being the naturally upbeat fairy she is, she dissipates the tension and reveals that she knows where the coven is hiding out. Who else comes to this meeting? Debbie Pelt, Alcide's girlfriend, who calls Sookie a bitch to her face as she walks out. What a peach. In a juxtaposition from TrueBlood, Debbie's character in the book, while just as mean and hateful as her character in the tv show, is actually well educated and works at an advertising firm. At the conclusion of the meeting, the group realizes that maybe the coven is trying to drain Eric to sell his very old and very potent blood on the black market. The group decides to act quickly and attack the coven at their hideout, after checking with the local Wiccans around to see if they will help.
The date is set for the next night. The group gathers again at Chow and Pam's house. Then Bill shows up back from Peru. He notices Eric and Sookie being friendlier, but more than that, he noticed Debbie Pelt in the group. Bill reveals that Debbie was part of the group that tortured him in Jackson, Mississippi. With that news, Alcide does something serious. He "abjures" Debbie from the pack. Figuratively, they can't even see her. But since they can't just let her walk out knowing all the plans, Bill is in charge of her. If she steps out of line, she's dead. Sookie is put in charge of listening in to the house to count people inside. The vamps and Weres wait outside to rush in while the Wiccans try to put safe-guarding spells on the Bon Temp/Shreveport group. Sookie learns there are innocents inside, so she can't just let the Weres and vamps rush in and kill everyone, so she sticks around for the fight. Then things go down. There's a lot of blood and a lot of animals. Debbie Pelt tries to kill Sookie, but Eric stops her. Then it's over. The group captured Hallow and plan to use her to un-curse Eric, but Eric goes home with Sookie because she's the one he feel most comfortable with. That turns out to be a good plan, since Debbie Pelt is waiting at Sookie's with a gun. Eric takes the bullet meant for Sookie, spoiler alert and she grabs a shotgun and ends Debbie Pelt for good. Eric heals his wound, buries Debbie's body, and hides her car. Sookie starts cleaning and pondering how her life could have led her here. She concludes that she acted in self-defense and decides to not dwell on it. I agree. Debbie was murderous trash.
The next day, when Eric awakes the next night, his curse is broken. He doesn't remember any of his time with Sookie, or in fact, anything after meeting with the witches the first time at Fangtasia. On the one hand, Sookie is hurt because she lost the easy-to-talk-to, kind, and loving Eric, but then again, she knew it wouldn't last and she is kind of relieved that he doesn't remember any of it. Like telling her he would give up everything for her. Everything. And most importantly, that he helped her dispose of a body. Pam comes to pick him up, and Sookie heads to work. They leave not a $30,000 check, but a $50,000 check for services rendered.
Sookie learns from Sam that the animals the Hot Shot community turns into are panthers. She puts two and two together, heads to Hot Shot with Sam, gets Calvin caught up (it's obvious he never suspected anyone in his community would take Jason), and they go to Felton Norris's house. Felton has had a crush on Crystal forever and wanted her for himself. In order to achieve this, spoiler alert Felton kidnapped Jason, kept him in a shed, and bit him over and over again in his panther state in order to turn him into a were-panther and make him less desirable to Crystal. Jason might turn into a panther at the full moon.
The next night, Sookie gets a visit from Eric who has a lot of questions that she won't answer. One of which being why he found brain tissue on his coat sleeve. Sookie can't tell him for fear of the power he would have over her with that information. She is saved by a knock on the door from a Were who is doing a routine questioning with the people who were present at the "Witch War" about the whereabouts of Debbie Pelt, who hasn't been seen since that night. Sookie plays it cool, and the Were leaves. While she was asking questions, Eric found Sookie's coat from that night, covered in blood stains. He is utterly suspicious, but can't get a straight answer. At least until book 5 Dead as a Doornail which the synopsis of is coming soon!

The Sookie Stackhouse Novels by Charlaine Harris Books 1-3

The Sookie Stackhouse novels are the books on which the HBO series "True Blood" is (these days, incredibly loosely-) based. Spoiler alert: the show and the book have so very little in common anymore. Since about season 2, HBO has definitely taken some liberties. Here's an example: there is no Jessica. Bill never had to make a vampire. As much as I love her character, she isn't actually in the books. Another thing (SPOILER ALERT) is that Lafayette's character has such a small role and in fact he is discovered murdered at the start of the second book. Bummer. They really created Lafayette out of thin air for the show though, so props to HBO for the character development from scratch.
I tell you this so you understand that the books and the show are not completely the same. Also, the books ROCK. I love them so much. I have read 1-8 already, but for blog purposes I am re-reading them up to at least book 11. I will review three at a time so that my blog isn't overrun with posts.

This post contains the summary of books 1-3 of the Sookie Stackhouse novels, that is Dead Until Dark, Living Dead in Dallas, and Club Dead respectively. Get excited!

First off, I have to say that I love Charlaine Harris's writing. She is so good at giving the reader complete and rounded characters. The Sookie Stackhouse novels are written in first person, so you have to listen to Sookie's thoughts, much like she does to the people she meets. The thing is, her thoughts don't bore you, and in fact keep you utterly entertained. I read these 3 books in a week. We are introduced to characters that have been completely thought out, with back story, personal dilemmas, and futures. We are given a wide cast, but one that is developed and thoroughly explained to us by our narrator.
Not only does Sookie get a voice, but she gives a voice to the rural South. Having been born and raised in a small East Texas town, Sookie's observations remind me so much of home. From the mannerisms to the believable dialogue, Harris takes us into rural Louisiana and paints a picture so true and so rewarding, that readers beg for more. The small town of Bon Temps, with its mystery and its separateness from normal city-life, intrigues us and leaves us wanting more.
Another way Harris has us on the edge of our seats is of course with the suspense of the plot. Or plots, I should say. The idea of several plot lines weaving throughout the books may make you think it would be a hard read and confusing to the point of dislike, but Harris's roller coaster is a premium rush. The stories never get convoluted, and because Sookie can prioritize and compartmentalize, we aren't left wondering about one part of the story for too long. Some other turn comes, and we are right back to the front row of suspense and fun. The flow of the books is the perfect speed to keep you entertained while making you just as mad as Sookie, or making you laugh at one of her quirks. They are hard to put down, and I recommend them to anyone who likes vampires or dark fantasy.

One interesting thing about Harris's writing is how she introduced Bill compared to how she introduced the other men in Sookie's life. When Sookie meets Bill she is of course interested because she can't read his mind, but is isn't described as particularly good looking. Not only that, but in his first real dialogues with Sookie, tries to intimidate her and/or explain how deadly, dangerous, evil, and unlike humans vampires are. When Sookie meets Eric he is on a type of throne surrounded by worshipers (He's on a dais at Fangtasia surrounded by Fangbangers). He is described as tall and muscular. In his first interactions with Sookie, he flirts with her and makes passes (actually, that's kind of constant). Sure he may treat Sookie like a servant at times, but the readers can overlook that because she starts working for him, and he is a high ranking vampire official.
Then there is Alcide. One thing Sookie mentions often is how his body temperature is higher (and much higher than Bill's) than normal, and that is mentioned as an attractive thing. Not only that, but Sookie imagines herself living her fantasy life with Alcide: mornings with big breakfasts, meeting for lunch, etc. All these are daytime activities that Bill can't ever participate in in Sookie's life.
The big question is, was this contrast created by Harris intentional? I have mixed feelings about the answer. Either it's a major flaw in our male protagonist  or it's a way to create an under-dog effect for Bill at the end of the novels. None of those choices are particularly pleasing.
But ponder that while you read the synopses of the first 3 Sookie Stackhouse novels.

In book 1 we meet Sookie Stackhouse, telepathic waitress living with her grandmother in the rural Louisiana town of Bon Temps. Before you give up right there, keep in mind that Anne Rice wrote her famous vampire novels around New Orleans. See? It's kind of a Mecca for vampires. Anyway, because Sookie can read minds, she isn't too popular with the guys around town. That is until she meets dark and brooding vampire Bill Compton when he gets a table in her section of Merlotte's Bar and Grill. Vampires "came out of the coffin" two years ago when the Japanese created a synthetic blood drink that replaces the human blood needed for vampiric survival. Because they no longer have to feed on humans, they revealed their existence to society and were given basic human rights and made citizens. Bill is the first vampire Sookie has ever seen, and to her his brain is absolute heaven: she can't hear a single thought in his head! When Sookie uses her mind reading to save Bill's life from vampire "drainers" (people who steal the blood of vampires to sell on the black market because of it's euphoric, healing, and all-around bettering effects) she and Bill begin a relationship that turns into dating. Soon bodies start piling up and it's looking like the victims were into Fangbanging, hanging around vampire haunts wanting to be bitten. It turns out Sookie's brother Jason, the man-about-town of Bon Temps, also has a "connection" to the two victims. To prove that Jason hadn't frequented the places the murdered girls visited, Sookie gets Bill to take her to Fangtasia, "The Premier Vampire Bar of Shreveport." There we meet Eric Northman, tall, blonde, Viking, and very undead. Eric owns Fangtasia and is Sheriff of Area Five, which means that in vampire hierarchy, Bill has to listen to Eric. Since Sookie, in vampire terms, belongs to Bill, she also has to do what Eric asks. That means using her telepathic powers to snoop for the Sheriff. Sookie makes a deal with Eric to read minds whenever he asks, but that the humans she "reads," even if they are guilty, aren't harmed. Now Sookie kind of works for a powerful, lethal, and overtly sexual Viking vampire in her spare time from waitressing at the bar owned by a spoiler alert shape-shifter What a life.
Long story short, Sookie is almost murdered by the killer who targeted women who he felt were less than human because of their dealings with vampires. She narrowly avoids death, but she does give pause to dating Bill because she has a good chance of being hurt.

On that note, book 2, Living Dead in Dallas, finds Sookie dating Bill happily, doing some mind reading for Eric, finding a dead body in the bar parking lot and working at Merlotte's. On the way to Fangtasia, Sookie is injured by a maenad, a Greek era forest nymph of sorts who once worshiped the god Bacchus. She sends Sookie with a message for Eric: by striking her on the back with sharp poisoned claws. When Bill and Sookie finally get to the bar, she needs a blood transfusion to survive. Sookie lives, but has scars and a lot of questions. Apparently, maenads feel like they are owed tribute by supernatural bar owners for all their take of the alcohol, violence, and sex they generate. So Eric decides to pay the maenad so that she'll  hopefully leave Louisiana. When she is feeling better, Eric loans Sookie out to the Dallas area vampires who are missing one of their members. Bill and Sookie go to investigate and discover the Fellowship of the Sun might be involved. The Fellowship (not even close to Tolkein's) is a group who believes all vampires are evil and should be killed (for the final time). Sookie and one of the Dallas vampires' humans try to infiltrate the Fellowship headquarters, but are taken captive and held in the basement. Turns out the missing vampire is there along with Godfrey, a vampire who wants to commit suicide by "meeting the sun." The Fellowship has turned his wishes into a huge ceremony scheduled to take place at dawn, with the Dallas vamp and Sookie tied to him. Both vamps and Sookie (via close proximity) would burn to death in front of hundreds of witnesses.
When Sookie is beaten and almost raped by one of her captors, Godfrey rescues her and decides to help her escape. Because it's daylight, Godfrey can only do so much, and Sookie can't call Bill. On her way to find the exit, Sookie is helped by a shape-shifter who helps her escape in a fast-fleeing car. The Dallas vampire group rescues their missing member and throw a welcome home party. The party gets blasted on all sides from Fellowship members with assault rifles just seconds after Sookie tries to warn the group. Eric, who made a surprise visit, covers Sookie from the bullets, but is struck himself and makes her suck the bullet out. She ingests some of his blood (which was his plan all along), but tries to find Bill in the aftermath. She discovers that he went after the attackers, without checking on her safety. Sookie is about done with Bill now. When she returns home, Sookie tries to find who murdered Lafayette and left his body in the Merlotte's parking lot by going to an orgy. It's believed that Lafayette went to this orgy and bragged about it or mentioned who some members were and was killed for it. Sookie gets Eric to tag along and act as a kind of body guard. When Sookie has discovered who the murderers are and wants to leave, they are stopped by the maenad looking for more tribute. She is pleased with the orgy and the murderers, though she does punish the criminals by turning them into little more than hamburger meat. The maenad feels that is enough payment and leaves the area, and the murderers are wiped out. Two birds, one stone.

Book 3, Club Dead, opens with Sookie and Bill in kind of a rut. He is constantly working on his computer, being really secretive about it, and not giving Sookie the hot nights she has become accustomed to. When Bill tells Sookie he has to leave town for a couple weeks (a recurring theme) and lies about the destination, she has her suspicions. Then Sookie is almost hurt by a were looking for her in Merlotte's. She is saved by Bubba, the dimwitted vampire body guard she has when Bill leaves on trips. I won't tell you who Bubba really is, it's much more fun to read for yourself. When Eric and his second in command, Pam show up on her doorstep to tell her that Bill has been kidnapped and is being held hostage in Jackson, Mississippi, Sookie is heartbroken and terrified. That is, until they tell her that he went to Jackson to meet up with an old flame, his Maker and ex-lover, and that Bill was planning to leave Sookie in the dust. Oh she was going to be taken care of financially, which only made the anger colder for Sookie. As mad as she is, she doesn't want Bill to die, especially by torture, so she agrees to try to find him. Enter werewolf Alcide Herveaux, owner of a surveying company and a good looking bod. He owes Eric a favor and is going to escort Sookie to the bars in Jackson so she can "listen" to the patrons and see who might have taken Bill and where. She and Alcide hit up Josephine's a supes-only bar that the weres call Club Dead. It isn't like Fangtasia which caters to the Fangbanging variety, but is exclusive to vamps, weres and shifters. No humans allowed unless accompanied by a supe. There Sookie meets the King of Mississippi (another vampire hierarchy thing), Russell Edgington and in protecting a vampire from a stake through the heart gets injured and is taken back to Russell's mansion to recuperate. She takes more of Eric's blood to help heal, and sets out in the daylight to find Bill. Russell had him kidnapped to try to gain the computer program Bill had been developing: a complete database of all the vampires in the world. She discovers him tied up in a renovated stable, and as she is trying to get him awake enough to half carry, they are attacked by Bill's maker/lover. Sookie ends up staking the vampire and gets Bill safely tucked away in her trunk. By nightfall, Bill wakes up enough to try to explain that he had to answer his maker's call and go to Jackson. That doesn't explain the cheating and casting off, so Sookie gets Eric to drive her home. They are attacked by weres, looking for information about one of their missing pack members. This particular pack member's body was found stuffed in Alcide's closet by spoiler alert Bubba who killed him because the were was trying to get in to hurt Sookie. Eric and Sookie evade the weres and make it back to Bon Temps. A few days later, Bill goes to Sookie to try to talk things out, but really, she's just too upset and hurt to hear anything he has to say. In a moment of brilliance, she rescinds Bill's invitation into her house which makes him have to leave and not come back in until he is invited again. Sookie does the same thing to Eric, and tries to have a normal life. That is, until book 4 Dead to the World!