From Dead to Worse (Sookie Stackhouse, #8)

by Charlaine Harris

Psychic cocktail waitress Sookie Stackhouse finds herself in the middle of big trouble of the supernatural kind in this novel in the #1 New York Times bestselling series—the inspiration for the HBO® original series True Blood.

After the natural disaster of Hurricane Katrina, and the manmade horror of the explosion at the vampire summit, Sookie Stackhouse is safe but dazed, yearning for things to get back to normal. But her boyfriend Quinn is among the missing. And things are changing, whether the Weres and vamps in her corner of Louisiana like it or not. In the ensuing battles, Sookie faces danger, death...and once more, betrayal by someone she loves. And when the fur has finished flying and the cold blood ceases flowing, her world will be forever altered...

• ISBN10: 0441019390
• ISBN13: 9780441019397
• Publish Date: 2 March 2010 (first published 16 April 2008)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
• Imprint: Ace
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 336
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9780441019397

Reviews

[celinenyx]

The storyline of From Dead to Worse is a bit... funky. It doesn't seem to have a clear purpose, and it becomes clear that in contrast to the previous book in the series, there is no central plot issue in this book. It's more about Sookie herself and how she's feeling after well, killing a few people throughout the course of the series. I really liked Sookie's personality in From Dead to Worse, and that probably was mostly caused by the fact that her boyfriend Quinn was mostly absent in the book. I tend to like Sookie better when she's single.

Actually, Sam is growing on me as a love interest. Never thought that would come out of my mouth, but he seems a good match. Their love for each other isn't the hot destroy-everything-in-our-path romance she has with Eric, or the tragic-melancholic romance with Bill. It's more of a comfortable and quiet match.

There are plenty of small things that irk me in the Sookie Stackhouse books. For example, the countries that accepted vampires are the US, Canada, Mexico, Sweden, Norway, Japan, and the UK. Ms Harris's world-view is in my eyes obviously limited (I mean - NO other countries in Asia? None in South-America?). It's easy to compare vampire-coming-outs to gay marriage, and same-sex marriage is allowed in Brazil, Spain and South-Africa, while it's not yet legal in the UK. It's not believable to me that the countries that Ms Harris calls tolerant would in the hypothetical situation of a vampire coming-out actually be tolerant. The Brits probably would make it a national holiday (OMG, IT'S LIVING HISTORY!) but I'm not so convinced that the US would be so welcoming. Same-sex marriage is only allowed in thirteen states. If they aren't ready to marry a woman to a woman, how on earth would they react to walking corpses screaming for civil rights?

These issues aside, I love the Sookie Stackhouse books as the light paranormal books they are. They are incredibly readable because of their combination of simple language and distinct voice. From Dead to Worse is an odd ducky, but I liked it.

Once again Charlaine does another good Sookie book, but it's nothing spectacular.

[ibeforem]

Lots of moving and shaking in this book, both for Sookie and for the supernatural world in general. I really like how Harris has used Hurricane Katrina to really drive the overall story arc of the series. She could have easily just mentioned it and moved on, but instead she has shown us some far-reaching implications. There’s no overall plot to this book, but a lot of loose ends are tied up (or are at least an attempt is made). Sookie also discovers a branch of the family she didn’t know about. I read this in about a day, so I must have been pleased.

[inlibrisveritas]

This was a very satisfying book, it ended with everything almost exactly how I wanted it. Very pleased with the development between Eric and Sookie.