Sunday, November 01, 2009

NaBloPoMo post # 1: Living Dead in Dallas by Charlaine Harris

Its November 1., and that means that it is time for another round of (at least) one blog post a day during all of November. Read more about this fun challenge on the official NaBloPoMo-page here. Actually, you can choose any month as the month where you post one blog post a day, but November is the one month with most participants. I also joined last year, and while it was hard, it was also worth it when it was over. I did enjoy it a lot, and it made me get into the swing of blogging in English again after a hiatus of about a year! So I am on again this year.

My first post this year is a review of Living Dead in Dallas, which is book 2 in the Sookie Stackhouse series by Charlaine Harris. It is also the first book I have finished in BethF's Sookie-reading challenge. Read more about that on BethF's page.

Sookie is still dating the vampire Bill, whom we met in the first book, Dead Until Dark, which I read a long time ago. Except that he can only be up at night and except that the society has not really gotten used to the idea of vampires "mainstreaming" yet, Bill and Sookie's relationship is much like any old girlfriend/boyfriend relationship. They fight and make up and travel together. Sookie is still working waitressing at Melotte's Bar in Bon Temps, a small, Southern town and Bill has his own business to take care of. Sookie, who never really were like the others (she is a telepath) has finally found something worth living for, and generally her life is good. Until she is attacked in the forests around Bon Temps after a fight with Bill, where she has stomped off in a huff. Her attacker turns out to be a mighty special creature, but before we can go back to that and to the murder of Sookie's colleague Lafayette, the cook of Merlotte's Bar, we need to make a long de-tour to Dallas, where the head-vampire Stan has some serious problems. He has asked Eric, head-vampire in the Bon Temps area for help, and Eric has decided to send Bill and Sookie, mainly Sookie, who he thinks will be able to help Stan and his nest of vamps in Dallas.

While this does not turn out to be a mistake, Sookie goes through an awful lot of things in Dallas, and since a lot of it takes place during the day, none of the vamps are really able to help her. So she is on her own, although she recieved help from some unexpected sides.

Back in Bon Temps it is now time to find out exactly what happened to the murdered Lafayette, and in order to do this, Sookie has to ask for favors from the vamps, specially Eric, who is now openly flirting with Sookie, much to Bill's dismay. It is going to be fun to read more about this.

Living Dead in Dallas is a light and easy and funny vampire-read containing both blood, death, mayhem, humor and sex. The sex is definitely steamier than in the first book, but nothing that would make any hardened vampire-novel-reader blush that much.




This is the first post in the NaBloPoMo-challenge. See my page here. Its also the first review in the Sookie Stackhouse reading-challenge.

3 comments:

Dorte H said...

I like smart people who combine their challenges!

I wish I could combine more of mine right now, but at least I came up with a few ideas today for a story I have promised my readers.

I love my writing course, but I always get over-involved in reading and commenting on people´s texts. Fun, but most days are just too short.

Beth F said...

I remember when you did this last year. Good luck -- you made it last year, you can do it again!

And Sookie is just fun to read about -- no messages, nothing to think about.

Michelle Fluttering Butterflies said...

Good luck with NaBloPoMo, I did it a couple of times, but not recently!

Love the Sookie Stackhouse books. I've read 5 or 6 of them. They're like crack, so very addicting..