Definitely Dead by Charlaine Harris: My Review!
When HBO started the series True Blood. I had never heard of the Sookie Stackhouse books. When I did hear about the books I had mistakenly gotten the impression that it was “chic lit” that it was for teen girls and HBO made it a much more adult type series. Because of this mistake I didn’t read the books.
It was a year or two later and I made a thread on a forum that I moderate about the True Blood series and someone suggested the books. I said, I thought they were like that Twilight Crap, books for teen girls that don’t give a shit that they’re disrespecting an entire genre with their silly sparkling vampires.
He corrected me and said that if anything, HBO tones it down for TV. Well, that was enough for me and 
I started the series on audio. I had already seen the first season of True Blood. My first impression was at how closely the TV show matched the book. There were some character changes. But, the girl that does Sookie Stackhouse for the audio books is amazing! Then I became impressed with the actress who plays Sookie on the show. She does the voice very close to the way the Johanna Parker does the audio books.
I tore through the first few books in the series. In fact I got to book 5 and then took a break for about a year. I hadn’t had Definitely Dead on audio yet so I had to put it off for a while and then got immersed in some great zombie books by Mark Tufo and Z. A. Recht.
So, while waiting for Mr. Tufo 6th book in his amazing Zombie Fallout series to come out I finally jumped back into the Sookie books. It didn’t take long to get back into the action.
Definitely Dead by Charlaine Harris involves Sookie having to deal with the death of her cousin Hadley. The Vampire queen of Louisiana, A witch that lived next door to Hadley, A new man in Sookie’s life. His name is Quinn. We also find out some shocking news about why Vampire Bill first started dating Sookie and it breaks Sookie’s heart.
There’s a lot going on this book and Charlaine Harris weaves a fun and easy to follow story. Good strong characters development as usual. I guess my only issue with the story is Sookie’s reaction to what Bill tells her. Now I don’t want to give it away even though this is an old book and the series is on like book 10 or 12 by now? I personally am almost done with book 7. So, I don’t want to give significant plot points or storylines away for those that even behind me. I certainly understood Sookies reaction at first. But, the one thing I hate more than anything are people who refuse to listen. I can certainly understand her feelings at first and refusing to listen to Bill. However, later on to still refuse to listen and to then not even be able to understand. It just disappointed me in her character. I adore Sookie and simple way of looking at life and always applying her respectful upbringing to these extraordinary situations she gets involved in. But, I personally feels like she needs to cut Bill some slack. She so eagerly believes the reasons why they first dated but then refuses to believe why he still continued to date her. It’s hypocritical of her in my opinion. But, then again, I am not a girl and not even women understand women so what chance do I have!?
Other than that this book is great fun. If you haven’t started this series, jump on it! I am kicking myself for waiting so long. There’s just something comfortable about the series and Sookie Stackhouse always makes you feel right at home.
