Book 39, 2020

[chez_jae]

Living Dead in Dallas by Charlaine Harris

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



Once again, I spent the morning finishing a book. It was Living Dead in Dallas by Charlaine Harris. This is the second book in her "Southern Vampires/Sookie Stackhouse" series. Story is told in first person pov by Sookie, cocktail waitress and telepath.

Now that the vampires know Sookie can read minds, she is a hot commodity. The vampires in Dallas seek her services to help them find one of their lost "brothers". The local vampires graciously loan Sookie to Dallas. She chafes at this new burden but agrees to take it on. Before she leaves for Dallas, however, Sookie is up to her knees in trouble closer to home. Someone murders one of her coworkers, although no one seems to care about it as much as Sookie does, and she encounters a dangerous creature in the woods who harms her as a message to the vampires. As a result, Sookie is already salty before she arrives in Dallas. There, she meets the local vampire nest, headed by geeky appearing Stan. She also encounters a cabal of humans who operate as a religious cult, with their only goal being to eliminate vampires. When Sookie tries to infiltrate their base so she can read minds, she is imprisoned in the fortified basement. She manages to escape, with the aid of supernaturals. The vampires recover their missing brother, and Sookie is relieved. However, the Fellowship is not yet done with the vampires in Dallas, and there's still the matter of who murdered her friend.

This was at turns touching, funny, and frightening. At one point, Sookie tells a human, who remarks about her obvious injuries, that the monsters didn't hurt her, people did. I found that rather sobering. I admire Sookie's tenacity and loyalty, along with her willingness to endanger herself for a good cause.

Favorite lines:
♦ "Okay, who's there?" I called. "If you're going to eat me, let's just get it over with."
♦ I looked like I was going to a party at the outpatient ward for battered women.
♦ "For bar hours, press one. To make a party reservation, press two. To talk to a live person or a dead vampire, press three. Or, if you were intending to leave a humorous prank message on our answering machine, know this: we will find you."

Very good book, fraught with danger, creepy in places (especially where the members of the Fellowship were concerned), sexy, and thought-provoking. Five stars!