Minireview: Dead Until Dark, by Charlaine Harris

Dead Until Dark is the first book in Charlaine Harris’ “Sookie Stackhouse” series of books. Like many others, I first encountered this series via TV; the awesome new(ish) series True Blood is based on these books and turns out to be a fairly faithful adaptation. The first series covers this first book, and I expect the second to cover the second one.

It’s fun to contrast this book + tv series versus another one in the same(ish) genre: The Dresden Files. That’s also a series with a “modern supernatural” theme, and was also made into a (short-lived) TV series. With Dead Until Dark, I have to say that both the book and the series are really good; I actually like the series a bit better, since I love the actors, visuals and general “look and feel” there… and I’m a fan of Alan Ball (the series creator, also responsible for Six Feet Under). There are differences; some characters and subplots are slightly different between the book and the series. The series has a bit more subplots going on, but that’s only natural since it’s 12 episodes which cover the plot of one not-too-thick book. Still, both stories are the same, and the general feel is the same in both.

Contrast to Dresden Files. There I also started reading the books after first seeing the series – but the quality levels are vastly different. I’m now a big fan of the books… but the series was (at best) mediocre. It skipped much cool stuff (Susan, Harry’s no-technology house, the Blue Beetle, Bob the Skull as written in the books), and substituted it with lots of “safe for TV audiences” crap. In other words, the series erased most of the gritty and unusual stuff from the books, and absolutely failed to take any risks whatsoever. And it failed, resoundingly, getting canceled after one season. It’s not absolutely horrible… but it was extremely mediocre, and nothing much like the Dresden Files books (which rock).

True Blood is a lot of things, but safe it’s not. It’s an HBO series, so they can push the envelope with sex and taboo subjects much further than mainstream TV can. And hey, Alan Ball is no stranger to TV controversy, Six Feet Under was also very far in the “not safe for general TV audiences” direction. And that’s also why True Blood works, and is a worthy adaptation of this book.

So far I’ve mostly contrasted books versus their TV adaptations. So what about the book itself? Well, it’s fairly well written, and the main character (Sookie Stackhouse) is fun. Sookie is a waitress in a Southern small-town bar, and is burdened with a “condition”: she can read minds. Far from being a “cool superpower”, this has turned her life to hell. Sex and romance has been impossible (knowing what the guy is really thinking all the time is a cold shower), and she’s generally gotten a “weirdo” stamp. However, she’s no angsty teenager, and has more or less come to terms with her unusual life.

Now, in this world vampires have recently “come out of the coffin”, made themselves public and gotten official recognition as people. They are still objects of mystery and sometimes lust (their blood is somewhat addictive), but they do now and then circulate among normal humans. They are a new weird minority.

The book begins when an honest, real vampire walks into the bar where Sookie works… and she discovers that she can’t read his mind. Stuff happens, and soon Sookie is in the middle of a murder spree, romance and other good stuff.

This is no Twilight (this book predates the whole current “vampire” craze by almost a decade). The main characters are adults instead of mopy teens, the writing is decent, and the vampires here are actually dangerous creatures instead of safe, teen-girl infatuation targets. Sookie would kick Bella’s useless bitchy ass in a minute.

The story veers dangerously close to “romance novel” territory at times, but the author usually manages to steer the story in non-stereotype directions. There are fun surprises and side characters, Sookie is an interesting and personable main character, and the deep Southern small-town vibe works nicely. I’ll probably read the other books too… but I’ll also probably wait to see the TV version first.

1 comment »

1. 

   By Pare about 12 hours later:

   
   

   I’ve also watched the first season of True Blood and read some of the books - I think I’m now reading the fifth one in the series. I like the books more, though the first season wasn’t by all means bad.

   I can understand most of the decisions made to the series. It’s hard to make a TV series in first person, really. I can also understand the need to use more of the same characters in the second season, as well, and I’m watching the second season at some point.

   There’s is just one jarring change made in the last episode which I really didn’t like at all. I won’t go into details here because of spoilers, but you can probably guess what it was. Also after reading the subsequent books, the mood is somewhat altered in the TV series because of what happened there. I think the books handled that one better.

   Anyway, good fun, both.

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