Dead Until Dark

Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris
Subtitles: "A Sookie Stackhouse Novel" or "Southern Vampire Mysteries"
292 Pages
(Could contain spoilers)

Quite simply Dead Until Dark is Twilight for grown-ups! Sookie Stackhouse is our main character. She is a waitress/bar maid who can read minds. One day at work a gentleman enters and she can't hear him. Turns out this guy is a vampire named Bill. Sookie quickly falls for Bill and a romance begins. Meanwhile women are turning up dead in the town of Bon Temps. And everyone suspects the newest memeber of town, the vampire Bill. But is Bill really the murderer? Or is it another more dangerous vamipre? Or is there a killer loose framing vamps?

Dead Until Dark has the three things grown-ups miss most while reading Twilight.
To start with the writing is WAY better. Twilight is sometimes seems like it was written by a 12 year old fan girl. While Harris brings reality to her supernatural. First of all, Harris puts real fright into her vampires. Even the "good" natured Bill sometimes slips and feeds off humans, including Sookie. Secondly, Harris gives the reader a more realistic vampire. The myth has always existed but in her world vampires have "come out" in public as part of the real world and the community. Making her vampires much more believable than Twilight's sparklers. Lastly Harris gives her readers what they want. And what my dear friends does the audience want? Well it's simple.....SEX. Yep....Harris gives us that detail while the sex scenes in Twilight tend to "fade to black".

Overall Dead Until Dark was a quick and enjoyable read. Harris was able to keep me interested in her characters and her story. (P.S. Sookie is a MUCH better female lead than the whining Bella.) I liked the book enough that I would pick up the others in the series and so much that I am dying to see True Blood the HBO show based on the books. 3 out of 5 stars.

September Reading

If you haven't read them yet, my recommendation for a September read would be: The Harry Potter Series (1-7) by J.K. Rowling.
Book 1: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone : A solid first book to a series
Book 2: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets: The weakest of the series. But still ok.
Book 3: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban: This is my favorite of the series. It's the one that hooked me and made me a crazy obsessed fan.
Book 4: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire: The book where they start to grow up.
Book 5: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix: The teenage angst book.
Book 6: Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince: Prepare for the final battle.
Book 7: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Best series ending book ever. Proves J.K. Rowling is a genius.
P.S. They are WAY better than the movies.
So go...read. You won't be sorry.

The Year of the Flood

The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood. (advance Reading Copy)
Pages 386. (May Contain Spoilers)
What if humans were an endangered species? That's exactly what happens in Margaret Atwood's newest book The Year of the Flood. The book takes place in the near future, starting in a time they call "Year Five" and progressing to "Year Twenty-Five". Our two main characters are Ren, a dancer at Scales and Tails and Toby, the manager of AnooYoo Spa and an herbal specialist. Toby's story starts with the death of her mother and father. In order to escape her parents debt and crime, Toby decides to live off the grid, or underground. Eventually she secures a good paying job at SecretBurgers. Only to discover she has become the new "object" for her boss Blanco the Bloat. Blanco the Bloat is the kind of man who could "take a girl apart." After abuse at Blanco's hands, Toby is saved by God's Gardeners. Who are God's Gardeners? God's Gardeners are a religious cult who believe in preserving all life. To preserve all life Gardeners do not kill any animals (or use products obtained from killing animals). They also plant and maintain a garden, not only for themselves to eat but to help replenish a wasted Earth. God's Gardeners is run by men and women called themselves Adam's and Eve's with the head of the group calling himself Adam One. It is here among the Gardeners that we met Ren. Ren came to the Gardeners when she was 10, when here mother left her father for Zeb (an Adam with the Gardeners). As a result, Ren never feels like she truly fits in with the Gardeners. Ren however does kind a kindred soul in her friend Amanda, who she convinces to join the Gardeners. Eventually Ren's mother and Zeb have one too many arguments and Ren's mother removes her from the Gardeners. Soon after Ren graduates high school, Ren's mother disinherits her and she is forced to find a job. So, she does the only thing she is good at, she dance at Scales and Tails a high-end sex club. In "Year Twenty-Five" the "Waterless Flood" comes and man starts to die off. Ren and Toby survive the plague but must determine what's next for them? Are others still out there?

What I thought:
I loved that Margaret Atwood changed voices and perspectives between Ren and Toby and still managed to connect the stories. I also love the future she created that is full of liobams (a cross between Lions and Lambs), rakunk ( a cross between raccoons and skunks), and Mo'hairs (sheep with human hair in bright colors). The story kept me intersted and turning pages. And I would give it 3 out of 5 stars. What I didn't like was the ending. I was left wanting more. I also didn't like how people kept reappearing. It seemed sort of unbelievable to me that Toby and/or Ren would keep running into Blanco the Bloat, Jimmy, Oates, Croze, and Shackie. But if you love books like Handmaid's Tale and 1984, then this one is for you.