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!
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