Sookie Stackhouse/Southern Vampire series

Dead Until Dark

Living Dead in Dallas

Club Dead

Dead to the World

Dead as a Doornail

Definitely Dead

All Together Dead

From Dead to Worse

Dead and Gone

by Charlaine Harris

Let me start off by saying, that I went into this series with a preconceived bad attitude. It was the series I read after the Twilight saga, which is a VERY tough act to follow. I was also reluctant because of the Science Fiction label (although I've been seeming to read a few more of those lately than I care to admit).

So I began the first book skeptical and reluctant, to say the very least. After I read the first page, I was going to give it up. I was completely thrown-off by Harris' direct writing style. The plot was just thrown at me and I felt like I had a lot of catching up to do even though it was the first book. It was like Harris threw these controversial and highly unrealistic premises at me, as the reader, and expected me to just accept them and move along.

Although, in her defense, she explains Sookie's world as I read on. In fact, upon reading the books, it proves to be very tactful as it allows her to implement several plots and subplots.

Once I got beyond that, and accepted that Bill (as every other vampire, with maybe the exception of Eric) will never be comparable to Edward Cullen, I fell into the story.

After the first one, I read the following six books in about a day's span each. I did, however, manage to savor the final two for about a day to a day and a half longer.

It's been said before, I think it must be repeated that Harris is a master of creating a colorful mix of genres in this series. Thus, the books contain a little bit of everything for everyone...vivid romance, twisting mystery, plentiful drama and even brilliantly and widely-targeted Sci Fi.

Another unique and refreshing ability Harris had was to in vale and adapt characters. Each of the major characters, in my opinion, changed drastically from beginning to end. It's not necessarily that they became different people (although one can argue Sookie certainly did), she simply chose which aspect of each character's personality to reveal throughout the series. In fact, I didn't really like Eric much in the first few novels but later found myself rooting for him in Sookie's favor toward the end.

Quite simply put, Harris is a brilliant author! She's also written many mysteries and short stories, all of which I intend to read.

Here's her Web site: www.charlaineharris.com