Underway: Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris

“Dead Until Dark (Southern Vampire Mysteries, No. 1)” (Charlaine Harris)

I know what you’re thinking. “Finish the books you’re reading before you start on new ones.” And to that I say, “Bah, humbug!”

I’ve heard several interviews with Charlaine Harris on The Dragon Page podcast, and I’ve been meaning to sample her work for quite some time. What finally drove me to sink my teeth into the books (excuse the bad pun) was the release of the HBO television series True Blood based on the novels. I haven’t seen the show yet, but I’m told it’s fantastic. Being a bookworm first and foremost, I wanted to get a sense of Harris’s original material before judging how well the small-screen adaptation stacks up.

I’m a little ways into the book–I can’t give you a pagemark, as I’m once again enjoying the book aurally courtesy of Audible.com–and so far I’m finding the story engaging, if a little morbid. But hey, what else should I expect from a book about vampires? The story is told from the perspective of Sookie Stackhouse, a fiery young bartender in Louisiana cursed with the ability to read people’s minds. I lived in East Texas with many years, which is partly under the cultural sway of Louisiana, so I’m identifying with a lot of the novels language, characters, and situations.

I’ll have a full review up as soon as humanly possible. Well, that’s not strictly true, but it’ll be here in due course.