From Dead to Worse

A mystery visitor arranges a meeting with Sookie that will forever change her life and world as she knows it. Sookie also discovers that she has more family left in the world than she previously thought. Between the new mysterious visitor killings of then Weres keeping happening which lead to an all out Were war where several lives will be lost. At the end the Weres have a new leader and so do the Vampires. Sookie also discovers where her cousins husband and child are and pays them a visit, one that leads them all to realise they will forever be connected.

I am so happy with this seller! I was expecting a used book, I’ve been collecting the hardcovers at used book stores and know what to expect with the wear and tear. The seller definitely lowered my expectations by cautioning buyers if the used quality, BUT this book is beautiful! This is one of the nicest I’ve gotten of the series! I couldn’t find From Dead to Worse at my local bookstores so I’m so happy I could find it on Amazon and I got such a nice book!

I love the Sookie Stackhouse series. At it’s best, it’s a fun, campy romp through southern America with vampires, demons, fairies, and some romance. At it’s worst, and this book is it’s worst so far, it provides me with some silly puns to title my review with.

From Dead to Worse is described by the publisher as the “pivotal eighth book” in the series. Having read the novel, I understand why. There isn’t so much as a unified plot or mystery in this book as there is a series of short stories, all arranging pawns and changing plotlines for future payoff. That’s what’s rough about this book: there is no payoff. This makes the entire novel extremely boring as we move on from one character to the next.

The writing style is great, as usual. Charlainne captures Sookie’s voice and hometown with the same thrilling vocabulary we’ve come to expect. This book also has a “prologue” of sorts that acts as a previously-on-True-Blood type of device which was very helpful for me (I read these books at a rate of like once per year with a million other books in between).

I don’t really have much else to say about this novel, if you can even call it that. Another reviewer referred to it as a series of vignettes, which is much more accurate. If you are already a fan of the series, this won’t turn you off of it one bit. In fact, I am more excited to read the next one because it at least seems like its possible to have an actual mystery.

Luckily, if you’re reading the 8th book in a series, you’re pretty much committed to it at this point. I don’t think this book is “bad” in the sense that it would turn anyone away from a series they have thus far loved, but it’s definitely mediocre, especially compared to the other books in the series. If this had been the first book in the series, I probably wouldn’t have even finished it, let alone continue reading others.

The problem I had with this book is that it felt like nothing happened, although quite a bit did. Everything felt so sporadic and disjointed that by the end of the book, it felt like what happened at the beginning had to have been part of a different book. There were plenty of interesting things that happened, but they were introduced so sloppily and then ended so abruptly that I just ended up feeling frustrated. The vampire war especially I felt was not given enough time. Some of the characters who died in that war deserved much more than a short mention in conversation. A lot of things that happened seemed like things the characters would never do or agree to, but they happened so that there would be a quick resolution to the situation. I found the last chapter a bit more intriguing than the others, but it was so far removed from the other storylines, like everything else in this book, that it was harder to enjoy. It really should have been the closing chapter of a previous book, since Hadley had nothing to do with anything else here.

This felt like a bunch of short stories all lumped together that had nothing to do with each other except that, naturally, they all had Sookie in them. On top of that, there was no mystery whatsoever. Usually, I’m trying to figure something out while I’m reading, but there was simply nothing to try to figure out here. It almost felt like a first hand narrative of some historical event rather than the present story telling that I’ve grown accustomed to in these novels. To me, this didn’t even feel like a bridge novel to tie up loose ends. It felt like lazy writing, and as a fan, I expect much more than that. Will I continue reading the series? Absolutely. But I pray that the other books are significantly better than this one.

Charlaine Harris’ entire Southern vampire series is worth a read. The Japanese invent ‘True Blood,’ a synthetic substitute, which prompts vampires to create a PR campaign and come out to the public. Nevertheless, difficulties ensue, which must be overcome. Harris creates mystery, horror and even a bit of romance between humans, vampires, shapeshifters and other not so usual types. Read book one, ‘Dead Until Dark,’ and see if you can resist reading more. My opinion; the HBO series ‘True Blood’ is not nearly as interesting, nor is it as believable as the novels. Read the books.

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