Fangs aint what they used to be....yes, it's another vampire pun! (Dead Until Dark: A Sookie Stackhouse Vampire Mystery - Charlaine Harris)

Member Name: sparkymarky1973

Product:	Dead Until Dark: A Sookie Stackhouse Vampire Mystery - Charlaine Harris
Date:	07/08/09 (39 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: hmmmm.....it has vampires and it has sex and sex with vampires

Disadvantages: But the story is poor, the writing style poor and this is disguised chick-lit at best

Recently, in bookshops all across the country, I have discovered a worrying new trend that has seemingly been invented for the next Mills N Boon generation; I am talking of course about the genre of Paranormal Romance. Laurell.K.Hamilton was one of the first writers to inspire this new phenomenon though when I started her books the first time they were published over here, this genre did not then exist. In actual fact, the first five or six Anita Blake novels were genuinely very good but then something happened. Sex happened. All the way through the books. Anita Blake became a nymphomaniac who only got her kicks having sexual relations with the supernatural collective that inhabited her world and suddenly publishers came up with a revelationary new idea: let's create a whole genre where female characters can fall in love (or lust) with supernatural beings and target an untapped market. It was from this acorn that Dawson's Creek~meets~Buffy series, Twilight, was whence born along with a whole host of other titles that substituted buff males for werewolves, vampires and occassionally a combination of both in a twisted threesome!

Dead Until Dark falls into this latter category, the genre of Paranormal Romance of which whole shelves (in fact bigger shelves than are devoted now to horror novels) have been dedicated. When I first read it last year, I didn't think it too bad in a kind-of chick-lit horror kind of way, but re-reading it this week I have since changed my opinion and decided actually, no it is a pile of dross! I know this goes against the rest of the opinions so far published on this site but then when has that ever stopped me before!

Sookie Stackhouse (and what kind of name is Sookie?) is a waitress but unlike most waitresses, she can read people's minds. Then Bill walks into her bar and immediately she senses something different about him. Sookie can not read his mind! He is also a vampire!!

Set in a similar themed enviroment to Hamilton's Anita Blake series, the main premise is that vampires are slowly becoming more accepted in society following a change in Goverment legislation. Vampirism is currently classed as an infection that gives the appearance of death and a laboratory in Japan manufactures a blood substitute for those wishing to curtail their symptoms; namely the overpowering desire to suck on a tasty human's life-juice. Sookie finds herself falling for Bill but has to deal with small town prejudice and a killer who patrols the night killing female victims with connections to the undead. Throw in the usual Vampire politics, a werewolf or two and an undead Elvis(no joke?) and you have a very mish-mashed tale aimed at the female market looking for a bit of romance liberally spliced with some rampant naughty bits! When I compared this earlier to chick-lit, I wasn't far off the mark as this is as easy on the eye and unchallenging as the feminine-aimed genre with about as much gore and blod thrown in as in an eoisode of hollyoaks uncut! After finishing Let The Right In recently which challenged the more conventional vampire novel, this almost feels like a step backwards and how this series has become so popular I am not sure. Apparently it has also been made into a TV series which also confounds me ( I saw the mess they made of The Dresden Files thank-you) but then I am not a soppy female in case you hadn't noticed and, as such, similarily fail to see the attraction of Edward and Bella's exploits in Twilight. Not that I have read the books or seen the film, you understand ~ I deliberately missed out the word yet there though I expect I will find myself reviewing them at some stage ~ but from male feedback I have heard, these are made of very girly material. And wannabe teen girly material at that!

As for Sookie Stackhouse ~ well, the writings not great, the death and violent scenes are deliberately toned down for the ladies who are presumably more squeamish (don't expect any grisly scenes a la Simon Beckett or Kathy reichs) and Sookie herself is...dare I say it...a bit of a drip. The sex scenes are obviously written for women as Bill is an excellent, gentle and considerate lover of course and with a bit more detail you could include these in the Black Lace publishing circle and nothing would be admiss! It certainly feels like a horror verson of Mils N Boon... and not in a good way either. No, no no no no no no.

I can't see me picking up any more of the series and for me, this is a damning advertisment for the genre of...excuse me ~ *cough* bull**** ~ Paranormal Romance. There is obviously a market for this sort of stuff as evidenced in all your local bookstores right about now but blokes, give this a miss and pick up something with a bit more balls instead!

Summary: Sookie meets her ideal man.Unfortunately he's dead and has an allergy to garlic and sunlight.Bummer!