From Dead to Worse (Sookie Stackhouse, #8)

by Charlaine Harris

[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.