Dead Reckoning (Sookie Stackhouse, #11) (vuoden 2011 painos)

Felt like this book should have been part of the previous title; remove a few hundred pages of fluff/padding and it would have felt more like a solid narrative. ( )

This is a short novel (336 pages) that might have benefitted from being a little longer. It has the feeling of "The next episode in" rather than a full novel BUT it is a very pleasing episode (and so much better than the gratuitous, exploitive, porn-candy that Ball produces in "TrueBlood").

I continue to be impressed by how deftly Charlaine Harris uses Sookie's interior dialogues to create a distinctive and evolving world view. Her writing takes no effort at all to read but this is because she writes well, not because she has nothing to say.

This novel continues to explore the arc Sookie is going through from "telepathic girl next door" with a crush on a vampire to someone powerful and dangerous in their own right. In this book Sookie comes to terms with some hard truths about herself, learns new things about her grand mother and reappraises her relationship with just about everyone.

I admire the way Charlaine Harris can make a mundane baby-shower seem like the part of Sookie's life where she is pretending to be someone she has long ago stopped being.

There is a lot of violence and death in this book. It is described with flair and fills the mind while it's happening, but the violence is not gratuitous, its purpose is to show us how, with each killing, Sookie takes another step away from being human.

At one point in Sookie's interior dialog she notes, with some relief, that all the humans have left the room. I believe that she no longer automatically counts herself in that category.

I'll be back for the next episode. I'm happy to wait if that means there'll be more to feed on, but I know the publishing machine demands to be fed and I'm happy to take 336 pages slices of storytelling as good as this. ( )

Once again, I started another Sookie Stackhouse novel, not being able to remember who was who, and what was going on... and yet, I got sucked in! Harris does this to me, every time. The fact that Lily Bard and her BF Jack were there were a lovingly done, but very brief added bonus, that I thrilled at (having just finished the Shakespeare series recently).
An easy read, but altered from the original works, and seemingly watered down somehow. But with just enough back story and momentum to keep me interested enough to finish it a day later. But with a lot of loose ends, to keep one coming back for more. lol ( )

Wow. So much drama! So much to take in! Another great Southern Vampire Mystery! ( )

This book was both enjoyable and frustrating at the same time.
Dead Reckoning honestly feels like it's more filler than anything else and I never thought I'd say this but I'm over Eric and Sookie. Despite how much I love Eric, with the last two books their relationship has taken a nosedive and I kind of just want it to end already.
I'm also getting a bit tired of constantly reading the same descriptions of past events/characters over and over again. I understand it's part of a long going series so of course a little recap is necessary but it's a bit excessive.
I did however like learning more about the fae and since I don't quite trust Claude I'm curious to see how the fairy storyline plays out!
( )