Charlaine Harris 336 pp Orbit ISBN: 184149299X
Introducing our plucky heroine Sookie Stackhouse, a real stunner. Now Sookie works as a waitress in a local bar in Louisiana but before you accuse her of being some retarded Southern chick you’d better know that there is nothing ignoble about her chosen profession and she’s very intelligent actually. We know this because Sookie re-emphasises her mental faculties, drop-dead gorgeous looks and quality employment at every opportunity. Oh and she has sex on her mind. Sometimes it’s because some hunky male makes her heart go a-flutter and sometimes it’s because a bloke imagines having sex with her. Sookie, you see, has a gift. She can read minds. This creates an internal conflict in that she wants sex, looks like a million bucks in her lavishly described skimpy outfits but can’t get any. Sex that is. It’s because she can read her potential partner’s mind and knows what he wants. Sex, normally.
Fortunately there is a solution to this sorry state of affairs because it turns out that vampires’ minds can’t be read. Even better a really fit looking undead smoocher called Bill has just moved into the area. He’s eligible and sooooo dreamy and what’s more she saved him from being drained by a couple of hicks who wanted to sell his elixir blood on the black market. Vampires, you see, have been recognised as bona fide citizens although they find it difficult to vote because most polling booths only operate during daylight hours. But they are still regarded with suspicion, especially when a number of fang-bangers (groupies who hang around vampires for sex, oh, there’s that word again) are found brutally murdered. With the police floundering it’s down to the resourceful (and incredibly good looking) Sookie to solve the mystery, because dating hot romancer Bill has put her very much in the firing line…
Dead Until Dark is another entry in what is becoming a burgeoning sub-genre – the Violent Femme Kinky Supernatural Romance Novel. It’s a natural extension of the dark romance of Dracula but infused with contemporary culture and not a little Buffy post-modern ethos. As with its contemporaries (Anita Blake, the Kelley Armstrong books) we’re in page-turner territory and not high art, indeed Dead Until Dark tends to wear its pot-boiler tendencies with pride. It’s this defiance that is the book’s main weakness, if it would just get on with the tale instead of ranting about the nobility of working class America we could all just enjoy what is, after all, a fun light read. There are lots of neat ideas and a real sense of Sookie’s community and, in contrast to many of the VFKSRN’s, Sookie has a family history that drives her character motivation. Her on-off relationship with Bill is at times infuriating, but has a sense of plausibility that is notably absent during the occasionally hilarious sex scenes. Whether Sookie can develop remains to be seen, but for the moment she is a diverting, if somewhat guilty, distraction. Oh, did we mention sex? You must have read our minds…
