WARNING: Spoilers
The Plot Points:
- Sookie’s cousin, Hadley, dies and Sookie has to claim her inheritance.
Sookie travels to New Orleans to help clear out Hadley’s apartment. However, discovers Hadley’s connections to the vampire Queen of Louisiana.
- Something never thought to happen in a million years happens.
A werevampire is made from Hadley’s bite, and due to the high tension between Weres, shapeshifters, and vampires this is seen as unorthodox.
- Turns out Sookie’s “first lover”, Bill, was only trying to use her.
Sookie gets told that the only reason Bill ever came up to and had a relationship with her was because of the Queen’s orders.
The one reliability is that the characters are consistent… consistently horrible.
The Tolerable:
- Sookie’s relatable moments.
Sookie Stackhouse, although she is awful overall, has her moments that connect to the reader. When Sookie remembers how good she could have had it with Alcide, she becomes extremely upset and loses her appetite. This jealousy of Alcides new girlfriend and her own state of despair begin to consume Sookie, so instead of eating she “leaned against the refrigerator door and cried” (85). Sometimes a good cry is all anyone needs, and in doing this, the author, Charlaine Harris, makes Sookie a more relatable character.
Another very human moment is when Sookie is getting told about the logistics of the war between vampire rulers, which she was just in the middle of, and just doesn’t have the brain power to understand. She thinks to herself that she would have Quinn, a weretiger who’s her boyfriend (but also not her boyfriend), that she met at the packmaster competition, explain it to her later when she has “more brain cells to spare” (315). Thinking is hard and it’s always nice for a reader to be reminded that they’re not alone in their cognitive struggles.
Whether it’s crying into a fridge or only having one functional brain cell, having a relatable character makes readers more prone to liking the story.
The Rage Fuel:
- When is Sookie never not a pick-me?
Although Sookie does have her few ok-ish moments that the reader can connect to… she’s mainly just annoying.
When Quinn and Sookie were discussing the plans for their first date, Sookie offered to pay. Sookie, being a telepath, discovered that Quinn was “surpris[ed]” and “touch[ed]” by her offer to pay, but for some reason Sookie thinks to herself: “Hmmm. I didn’t like that” (28). Why wouldn’t someone be appreciative of an offer to help pay? It’d be more off-putting if he was upset that she would even say something like that… like it would’ve bruised his ego.
While still discussing the plans for their date, Sookie sees Quinn stretching and realizes how much bigger and stronger he is compared to her. She, in her head, says “the average woman would not be pondering how fast her date could kill her, but I’ll never be an average woman” (30). Maybe Sookie just doesn’t know enough about the world around her, but almost every woman is worried about getting killed or hurt by their date. This is just one of the many examples of Sookie being a pick-me who’s “just different from other women”.
Later on Sookie and the witch, Amelia (who she’s currently staying with), end up getting attacked by a vampire. When the cops show up and ask them if they’re okay, Sookie becomes even more infuriating. She tells the officer “I think not” (178). How hard is it to simply say: “No, we need help”? There’s no reason for her to have an attitude with the people trying to help her.
- The constant male and female stereotypes.
All of the books in this series have very stereotypical views on the roles of men and women. This book in particular had plenty that stood out.
Sookie goes to tell her boss, Sam, that she’ll be gone for a couple of weeks. She finds him at his house in a “male bonding ritual” which means watching sports, drinking beer, and eating chips with other men (137).
This is a fine activity to do, and many enjoy watching sports with one another, but it’s the way the author phrased this line that makes it so annoying. This however, is only the tip of the iceberg.
Sookie sees a male vampire at the table next to her and makes some off-handed comment about his appearance. To herself she thinks that he was “barbered and manicured and scented until he almost wasn’t a guy anymore” (208). Obviously societal expectations have changed from now and when the book was published (2007), but a man taking care of himself and having good hygiene doesn’t automatically make him feminine.
- At least the characters are consistent.
The one reliability is that the characters are consistent… consistently horrible. In book five, Dead as a Doornail, there was an odd comparison about the past racial issues to the present, now Sookie similarly talks poorly about black people.
The new cook at the bar where Sookie works is a middle-aged black woman who is described as being “sharp-edged”. Sookie believes that this “sharp-edgedness” could be because “she was old enough to remember the bad old days when black and whites” were segregated (37). Sookie could be right about this, maybe she still holds resentment towards the world or to white people (which is reasonable) and so she takes it out on Sookie when given the chance.
Another reason could simply be that Sookie is annoying and doesn’t follow the rules in place (also valid). This cook and the weird lynching comparison are about the only representation black people have been given in this series so far. Hopefully Harris can redeem herself in the following books.
And of course, what would this series be without the creepy men? Eric, who has previously been gross towards Sookie, believes he’s entitled to her due to their relationship that happened when he lost his memory. He tells Sookie that “[she] should be [his]” even though he doesn’t even remember what happened between them during that period of time (89).
The least to say about these books is that they keep expectations low. At this point nothing is all that surprising. This book is only the half-way point in the completed series… how many adventures does Sookie Stackhouse need to go on?
The Review:
- Relatability: 1 out of 5 “real”s
- Annoyance: 4 out of 5 disgusted side eyes
- Shock Factor: 3 out of 5 widened eyes
- Overall: 3 out of 5 stars
