WARNING: Spoilers
The Plot Points
- Sookie Stackhouse meets the new vampire in town.
Sookie is said to have a “disability” where she can read people’s thoughts. Her ability has created a life for her she never would have imagined. When the vampire, Bill Compton, arrives Sookie finds her ability doesn’t work on him. Her fascination with him leads to their controversial relationship.
- Killer on the loose!
Even in their small town of Bon Temps, Louisiana, a serial killer is running around strangling women all similar to Sookie. Sookie’s worried she’ll be next on their list.
The Tolerable
- Sookie has a couple decent enough thoughts…
Sookie is a lot of things; however, her main personality trait is being the basic, cliche female. She’s the damsel-in-distress but doesn’t need anybody, kind of character. With that being said there are some (very few) times where she says something that is actually worthwhile.
After Sookie’s grandmother, Gran, was murdered and the funeral was held Sookie had to decide what to do with the items left in the house. During this she began to reminisce about her childhood and fell into a pit of pity for herself. She started to realize she didn’t have many friends when she was younger. However, she snapped out of it saying “I was what I was, and I had a life, and I could enjoy the little treats that kept me going” (139).
Rather than boring the reader and making them hate Sookie even more the author, Charlaine Harris, utilizes this small section in order to show that Sookie has more to herself and in return is also giving the reader decent advice. Sometimes those “little treats” are all you need.
- Surprisingly, there is an actual plot twist of who the killer is.
The reader gets multiple options of who the killer might be ranging from Sookie’s brother to the dangerous vampires from nearby cities. However, the least noticeable suspect is the true criminal.
The reader gets all these subtle clues in different parts of the novel, but unless they’re looking specifically for them it’ll go right over their heads. The reader finds out at the same time as Sookie making the high paced chase, near the end of the novel, more adrenaline inducing. The reader is put into the scene feeling the fight or flight reactions Sookie has to make.
The Rage Fuel
- The word choices and the phrases incorporated could have been better selected.
This book was published back in 2001, so some of the wording is understandable for the time period; however that doesn’t mean it was enjoyable to read.
Starting out on just the first page where Sookie is being described. Sookie gets the humble “of course I’m pretty” speech and then Harris decided that it was okay to write in for Sookie that “[her] bosom is substantial” (1). Just the word “bosom” is enough to make the reader puke, but adding that it’s “substantial”… really? It’s pretty self-explanatory on why any reader would find this somewhat rage inducing and gross to read.
There are also a couple scenes where it’s just a bit wordy. It’s to the point where it feels like the author is trying to meet a word count.
In one scene Sookie is fighting with the Rattrays. The Rattrays are regulars at the bar where Sookie works. They drain vampires of their blood and sell it on the black market. After catching wind of Bill Compton’s arrival they decided to attack him, so Sookie tries her best to save Bill. In this scene there are words added that lose the flow of the story. It’s written that Mr. Rattray doesn’t “hold back one little bit” which works, but it doesn’t flow (29). It feels wordy and could’ve been rewritten to keep the high pace of the attack.
Similarly, when Sookie is talking about Gran and her cleaning abilities she says “even a housekeeper as good as my grandmother had been had not been able to defeat that dust” (140). Reading this without realizing there should be a pause between “had been” and “had not been” creates a pause of confusion for the reader, again making it so the story loses its flow.
Going along with the weird phrasing there’s also odd words. Harris uses the word “rest-deprived” to describe Sookie while she chose to be awake at night to spend time with Bill (169). Rest-deprived sounds more harsh to read than just sleep-deprived, which could’ve been Harris’ intention, but using context clues that doesn’t seem to be the case.
Another example of this is when the killer is called a “multiple murderer” (282). There’s a word for that isn’t there? Serial killer. That’s all Harris needed to say.
- What’s not to love about Sookie Stackhouse? A lot.
Sookie’s character was touched on in the tolerable section; however, she mainly fits under this one. Sookie talks badly about other women, tries to imagine something no one should want to imagine, and lets men walk all over her (just to name a few).
Sookie, in her head, comments about the way other women present themselves (who knows if this is a reflection of the author or not). One of the female vampires, Diane, was wearing a matching legging and top outfit to which Sookie claimed she “looked cheap as hell” but “mouthwatering” to a man (64). Not only is she putting another woman down, she is also assuming that she chose that outfit for the male appeal.
On the next page she makes another comment, this time about a human woman, saying she looks like she’s wearing “a pound too much makeup” (65). No one asked how much makeup she was wearing. The reader doesn’t need to know this about some character that’s only seen in this one scene. All that’s needed is that she’s a “fang-banger”, which means she likes to hang out with vampires a lot (22).
The author is just begging the reader to hate Sookie and view her as a “pick-me” character, even though that’s clearly not the intention.
Later on when Sookie sees Diane again she decides to think a… suggestive thought about the bodysuit Diane was wearing. Sookie states in her head that she could “count her pubic hairs if [she] so desired” (151). Just like before this information isn’t necessary to the reader, the visual of the bodysuit is plenty imagery.
Moving away from the gross opinions Sookie has, we have her trying to imagine her brother “having sex with [a] woman and filming it” (243). Even taking in the context that her brother, Jason, was being investigated for the murders of the local women with the main piece of evidence against him being those films, there’s still no good reason why Sookie needs to visualize this.
Lastly (for purposes of this article), there’s the fact that she lets her boss, who also turns out to be a shapeshifter, go off-the-hook after he does some creepy-not-ok-things.
While he’s in dog form, before she knows it’s him, he watches her change clothes with “great attention” (249). Then when she finds out about his ability she doesn’t do anything. Later on in the following pages he changes back into his dog form and then proceeds to stick his nose up her skirt. And what does she do? She tells him “now you cut that out” (255). She doesn’t do anything worthwhile and he continues to be creepy.
If she’s miss independent she should know how to better handle these situations and actually be upset about them.
The Review
- Shock Factor (in a weird way): 6 out of 5 what the ****s
- Cringe: 3.5 out of 5 crinkled noses
- Annoyance: 4 out of 5 eye rolls
- Overall: 3.5 out of 5 stars
