Review: Dead and Gone, Charlaine Harris

This is book 9 in the Sookie Stackhouse series (and thus completes the challenge for me.  Yay!).  For the first book in the series, see my review of Dead Until Dark.

The weres are finally coming out to the world, and Sookie stands by as her friend and boss Sam changes in front of all the bar patrons where Sookie works.  Not everything about the reveal goes well; Sam’s stepfather shoots his mother when she tells him that she’s a were, for example.  But even worse happens when Crystal, Sookie’s brother’s cheating pregnant wife, turns up crucified in the bar’s parking lot, with parts of her in panther form.  Sookie wants to exonerate Jason, but she has other problems, namely that she’s caught in the middle of a fairy war, and half of them want to kill her.

As with all the books in the series, I enjoyed this book.  I finally found it in the library (these books are very popular and they only have one copy) and dove right in, finishing it the same day.  I do think it was better than book 8, which seemed sort of random.  This one is put together more coherently and all the plot elements are, amazingly, related.  Things change a lot in Sookie’s world, too.  The outing of the weres is not particularly smooth, and the fairy war is difficult for Sookie to deal with given that no one believes in their existence except for supes.

For perhaps the first time the simple writing grated on me; even though I enjoyed the book, I wondered how often I really needed to hear about Sookie slicking up her ponytail or putting on her barmaid outfit or putting her purse in the spare drawer in Sam’s office.  I think this is because I’d just finished the fantastic Kate Daniels series, which doesn’t really have any of that going on.  And I noticed that even though violence happens, it’s hardly described, and doesn’t necessarily give off the same horrific feel.  I think that’s why these are comfortable rather than scary given the subjects dealt with, and even though a lot of bad things happen, I wasn’t really that worried about the characters, though perhaps I should have been.  I was also really disappointed that the tantalizing ending in book 8 just wasn’t at all expanded upon, and it’s like the author just dropped that plotline except for a short mention.  And I was glad that Eric and Sookie seem to be having a relationship, but then Eric went and shared a whole lot of information about his past in the bar, which struck me as odd, and also that Sookie doesn’t even care that he’s now controlling her life.  She’s more obsessed with the blood bond than trying to figure out why she likes him suddenly, and I was a little tired of hearing about that, too.  Have to say I may have even liked Vampire Bill better in this book!  He was given a lot of great lines and I think he’s gone very far in trying to prove himself.

In short, I can’t say Dead and Gone was the best installment in the series.  I have to wonder if it’s ever going to end, because it certainly doesn’t seem to be heading for an ending, and ten books is a lot for a series.  I will continue reading it through the library, though, and I look forward to the release of book 10 this year.

I am an Amazon Associate. I borrowed this book from my local library.