Title: Living Dead in Dallas

Author: Charlaine Harris

Series: Sookie Stackhouse #2

Genre: Urban Fantasy

Rating: 3/5 stars

The Overview: Waitress Sookie Stackhouse is having a streak of bad luck. First her co-worker is killed, and no one seems to care. Then she comes face to-face with a beastly creature that gives her a painful and poisonous lashing. Enter the vampires, who graciously suck the poison from her veins (like they didn’t enjoy it). The point is: they saved her life. So when one of the bloodsuckers asks for a favor, she obliges – and soon Sookie’s in Dallas, using her telepathic skills to search for a missing vampire. She’s supposed to interview certain humans involved, but she makes one condition: the vampires must promise to behave and let the humans go unharmed. But that’s easier said than done, and all it takes is one delicious blonde and one small mistake for things to turn deadly…. -Goodreads

The Review:

I enjoyed this book quite a bit even though I don’t like reading about religious zealotry, which it had in abundance. From a series construction standpoint, this did a great job expanding what we know about vampires so far and the wide range of acceptance and prejudices humanity holds for them. Sookie, our main character, seems to be straddling the line between the two worlds, and drama ensues.

I don’t have much else to add. It continued the strong narrative I came to appreciate in the first book and advanced the plot sufficiently. Sookie, while not the sharpest tool in the shed is a really charming MC, mostly because she feels so real and earnest. I can totally see how the vibrancy of what I’ve read so far translated so well to tv. Also, Harris is shaping up to be one of the most adept writers I’ve come across in ages when it comes to perspective immersion – truly impressive!

Recommendations: if you’re craving an urban fantasy with good mystery elements, an endearing main character, and the most sexual content I’ve read in anything (not shelved in romance) to date, then give this one a go!

by Niki Hawkes