Sookie Stackhouse Series Book 4 - Dead To The World

Firstly I'd just like to say that yes, I will be reviewing every book in this ever-lengthening series, because there is a difference between them. As usual there are spoilers in this if you haven't yet read the book, so be warned.

For those of you who have read book 4, I'm going to assume you've joined Team Eric, just like I have. For the first three books I could see that although Bill was her first love, the author became quickly bored with the idea of monogamy, as I have previously stated. It was also apparent that Eric was being prepared as his successor, though she did have a few other options.
In this book Eric loses his memory, and Sookie finds him running through the woods near her house. She takes him in and looks after him, while the vamps that work for Eric try to find a way to restore his memory. Sookie, who is already incredibly attracted to Eric, falls for him even more after he loses his memory, and becomes a sweet version of himself. It's completely understandable. The thing with this scenario is that Bill is out of the country for basically the entire book, so she is free to be with Eric without actually having to see Bill. This seemed a little too convenient to me, in fact, the ever increasing lack of Bill in the last two books has seemed a little convenient. Give him a chance! Obviously since Eric is a lot older than Bill he has a lot more going for him in the... experience department, so what with that and his self-confidence he is pretty irresistible. Whereas Bill... well, what makes him better than Eric in any way? Maybe it's the fact that he isn't always sure of himself, and he's not perfect. Regardless, he is slowly being pushed out of the picture, and I can't really see him returning.

Sookie Stackhouse Series Book 3 - Club Dead

Warning: Spoiler Alert.

Attention all fans. I have finally figured out what was bothering me about this series, and it was so obvious that I should probably slap myself in the forehead and mutter something about my lack of intelligence recently. I'm not a published author, as I have previously stated, but I believe as a writer, and an avid reader, my opinion is valid.
This series constantly jumps between past and present tense, and that frustrates me more than most other foibles. Yes, sometimes words like 'this' and 'now' can be used in the context of the past tense, but not too much, and not in the same sentence. Here's an example:

"Eric had gotten me situated on the bed, which was so high, I might need a stepstool to get down." (Club Dead, page 169) The issue here is that most of the sentence is in past tense, until it gets to "might need" instead of "might have needed". A small distinction, yes, but when it's on every page, in almost every sentence, it's a bit too noticeable.

Now to the book. It's quite apparent that the author got bored of monogamy quickly. Sookie has kissed basically every good-looking guy she knows (vampire, shape-shifter, werewolf, human), or at the very least, had impure thoughts about them, and considered acting on them. The first few books have only taken place within a year or so, by the way. So Bill will become the bad guy, like he basically was in this book, and plenty of other options will become available to Sookie (like Alcide and Eric). I understand that it's exciting to go for the unfamiliar, and Eric's raw sexual appeal is definitely a bonus in this situation, but come on, she got bored with Bill by book 2, so he didn't really get a chance to be anything other than someone who used Sookie, and tried to leave her for someone else. What can I say, I just wanted Bill to be the one for her, but clearly the author doesn't.
Pictures courtesy of Photobucket and Twistedplot

True Blood: Season 1

So, today I started watching True Blood. As the first thing I've ever watched with the R18+ rating, I must admit I'm feeling a little strange.

The storyline is a lot like the first book, except for the addition of a main character in Sookie's best friend Tara, who opens up a whole other set of story lines for them to show in between scenes of Bill and Sookie, or Jason and every woman in town. Does anyone else think that Sam's pretty all right to look at? I wasn't expecting that, I kept imagining him older even though I knew he wasn't. I'm not sure why.
I'm not yet up to the introduction of Eric the vampire, who seems to be the most popular vampire of the lot (though from pics I've seen I wouldn't know why). So we'll have to see how it goes. Well, it's the weekend now, so I have plenty of time to figure out his attraction.

Bill is definitely a good vampire so far. He's dark and brooding, and incredibly intense. Let's just see how that plays out...

True Blood: The Sookie Stackhouse series

After reading the hype surrounding this series, and getting a positive recommendation from @SpankRansom of Twilight-headed, I decided it was time for me to start reading (plus I really wanted to read something else before starting on the Twilight series for my third read through). I've got to say, you definitely have to be a hard-core vampire fiction fan to really enjoy this.

The series takes readers into the gritty, more common ideas of vampires. They sleep during the day, get burnt in the sun, and have an affinity for all things human-blood related. The twist here is that the vampires have 'come out of the coffin', as it is put at the start of the first book, and are widely believed to be victims of a virus that leaves them with the appearance of being dead for a few days, and then they are allergic to sun, garlic, etc, for the rest of their existences. These vampires are opposite to those of the Twilight series. If they live in groups they become more vampire-esque as they 'egg each other on', and it's the nomads that retain some of their former humanity. They still drink blood wherever they can get it (often from certain men and women who enjoy being bitten), or otherwise they drink a 'synthetic blood developed in Japan'.
You also get a dark and gritty view of humanity. People are cruel to each other, crude, extremely promiscuous, and they have no problem with beating up women (Sookie in particular).

As I said, you'd have to be a vampire fiction fan to be able to read these books, or the first one at least, and even though there are some editting/grammatical issues (like the use of then instead of than, and using 'unwisdom', which isn't a word, but I am annoyingly particular about these sorts of issues when I'm reading), there is a good storyline underneath it all. It's unique for the common views of vampires, and it shows what the world could be like if vampires actually existed, and were welcomed as members of society, if they should chose to 'mainstream' (try to blend into society and have a normal life). It should get better as the books progress, I'm definitely going to continue reading.

Definitely for readers aged 18 and older.