From Twihard to Fangbanger

I LOVED LOVED Dead Until Dark. I loved it so much that I just finished the second book in the series and plan on reading the rest!

I think its really interesting how each vampire book we've read has had a different spin on vampires and I really liked this particular story line. Sookie is a great leading female character. She is obviously weak at times; she cries a lot through the first book, but she really comes into her own by accepting her "disability" and using it to her advantage to survive the attack of a rapist/murderer and to catch him. Sookie cries a looot, which at first kind of bugged me but then I realized that if my world was crashing down around me I'd probably be crying all the time too.

I like the way she handles her relationship with Bill, because she is opinionated and not nearly as pathetic as Bella seems to be. I actually found myself rooting for her to form a relationship with Sam, and not Bill, which I thought was funny because usually I would be all for the vampire relationship. In Twilight I was always "team Edward" not "team Jacob" but with Sookie I think she would fit better with Sam. Maybe its the fact that Bill isnt drooled over so much through the entire novel and his faults are shown more so than Edwards. The tension between Sookie and Sam is unbelievable, and Im sure its even better in the show, True Blood.

One criticism is that I thought they jumped over the death of Sookie's grandmother's death too easily. This woman was the only family she and her brother had left and I thought it was odd that Sookie immediately moved into her room and began sleeping with Bill in it. Maybe it was her way to feel like she was moving on or her way to stay connected with her grandma; either way it was kind of weird. Also, is Bubba supposed to be Elvis? Or am I totally missing something and he's someone else??

One thing I found interesting about Bill and Sookie's relationship is that he doesnt like to watch her eat, and especially hates when she eats garlic (which is so very cliche vampire), when in Fledgling, Shori really enjoyed watching her symbionts eat and described what they were eating in great detail. I also thought it was interesting how a lot of the cliche vampire myths- sunlight, sleeping in coffins, silver bullets- were used in the novel, while in the others only one or two myths were involved or they were changed in some way (Edward sparkling).

Throughout the books we've been reading its also becoming apparent that if you want to get with a vampire you have to have special powers. Edward can't read Bella's mind, Sookie can read minds, and Anita is an animator. Apparently there's no hope for the rest of us.

As I said before, I lovee this series. Im really glad we were assigned this novel and especially that we were assigned it last because I plan on reading the rest of the series now!

Peace, Love & Vampires
-kgirl