The Sookie Stackhouse novels

[MrsCatHead]

Just finished Definitely Dead and I'm a little confused. Did I miss something? Did I miss a book about Sookie meeting the Queen? And all the Hadley stuff? The way Harris writes it, it's as if this stuff has happened in a previous book and she is simply referencing it in DefinitelyDead so you'll be caught up (in case this is the first book you've read in the series).

[Deleted]

Yeah, that confused the hell out of me too when I first read it. Apparently there was a short story Harris wrote for a collection (one of those with various writers, not a book of her own short stories) where Hadley was introduced. Which I had to learn by Googling, so a note at the beginning would have been nice. Not everyone buys every random horror anthology that comes out (because most of them suck). I heard she was publishing a book of the Sookie short stories soon, though - she's done several for various anthologies - so I guess everyone can catch up now if they want.

And yeah, both of the wet pants moments were Eric, and both times I was like...uh, thanks for that. I mean, I don't want a Twilight-inspired world where biology doesn't exist or anything, but some of the things that Charlaine Harris chooses to mention in her sex(ual) scenes are kind of "bzuh?" to me. (I also think she's definitely a butt woman, judging by her descriptors.)

[londonstill]

Jul 18, 2009 10:39:52 GMT -4 glitterbug said:

Her and Bill aren't this grand twilighty romance

- which, yeah, good thing, but it's hard to see why it's worth doing if he's not the love of her life - I mean, they're facing a lot of adversity, as well as the smaller irritations like only being able to do stuff at night, not being able to go out for dinner etc. I suppose I never actually thought she would end up with anyone other than Bill.

The weird thing is, apart from mentioning not being able to have babies with a vamp she never talks about the run of the mill issues you’d face in a relationship with a vampire. I guess it is refreshing that she isn’t doing a Bella about aging but still!

[MrsCatHead]

I have finished all the books (and done nothing else! Now I can get back to Life) and wow, so many little inconsistencies.

For one, I could have sworn that Sookie knew Hadley had a son. All the books run together for me but I swear it was mentioned in a throwaway sentence way before Sookie "found out." Still, I liked the books generally. The last two were kind of lame.

I still think she should kick it with Eric and stop waffling. I think she was most comfortable with Quinn but still, I'm Team Eric all the way.

[footballerswife]

Okay, can we talk about the clothing descriptions for a minute? Those were the funniest part of the books to me. Half the time I pictured Sookie dressing like a 25 year-old Golden Girl ("yellow slacks" and heels?!). Awhile back I saw on Charlaine Harris's website where someone had started a discussion on how un-stylish book Sookie's clothing choices were. A bunch of people got really defensive, saying that's how people dress in the south (um... not really), and Charlaine had posted some haughty reply about how Sookie wasn't supposed to be stylish and didn't care about what she wore. If she didn't care what she wore, why were there paragraph-long descriptions of her outfits? That just cracks me up. It reminds me of the Baby-sitters Club books at times.

[MrsCatHead]

Yeah. The author really shows through when describing things like music preferences and clothing. She dates herself and can't give us Sookie without giving us also Charlaine.

[glitterbug]

I'm reading Club Dead and I can't understand how Sookie can be so calm about Bill's betrayal, yet talk about human-vamp marriage being illegal and mentioning (yet again) that Bill hasn't proposed. She refers to him as her boyfriend yet she is definitely tempted by both Alcide and Eric .

Count me in for Team Eric - or in fact Team Anyone But Bill at the moment; I'm so annoyed with his behaviour, although I haven't finished the book yet. I agree that Harris can quite often seem to leave out big chunks between books. It's like she hints at something vaguely, and then in the next book she expects you to know all about it.

Okay, can we talk about the clothing descriptions for a minute?

Yeah, like Sookie's "beautiful dress" which was red, extremely short and sleeveless with sleeves that you put on separately - WTF?!! AND she has matching red shoes, bag and nails - niiice. I imagined her looking like a hooker tomato.

[Deleted]

Then there's another reason to go Team Eric. If she spent more time in Shreveport maybe she wouldn't feel the need to shop the bargain rack at Tara's Togs and Wal-Mart, not that Charlaine's Sookie's taste will necessarily change. After the first few interesting outfits I started to skip over the descriptions. She tends to veer between trampy and dowdy with the middle being the Merlotte's uniform I guess.

I was going to say I've never read a description of clothing that I'd want to wear then I remembered Pam seems to dress pretty nicely.

I was going to start re-reading Club Dead. I was big on Alcide's side for a while- not nocturnal, breathes, could have kids, until the whole need to be part of the pack complications.

[Deleted]

Jul 26, 2009 7:36:48 GMT -4 @footballerswife said:

Okay, can we talk about the clothing descriptions for a minute? Those were the funniest part of the books to me. Half the time I pictured Sookie dressing like a 25 year-old Golden Girl ("yellow slacks" and heels?!).

Yes yes yes! And I am the same age as Sookie (you know, if she were real) and have lived my whole life in the South. I agree Harris really dates herself. A big one for me is how often she mentions Sookie wearing a slip, or that the dress is lined so that she doesn't have to wear a slip. I have never owned a slip, and I have worn one exactly once in my life, when my 7th grade choir dress was see-through and my mom had me wear hers. I especially do not wear a slip under my short, cleavage-baring nighttime date dresses (book one). And in the southern heat? Seriously, watch television and look at what people are wearing, or walk into Wet Seal or somewhere equivalent and tell me how many of those dresses look like they are designed to wear with a slip. Ours is the spaghetti-strap top with bra-straps showing generation.

The random fancy wrap/shawl with the Hooker Tomato dress (heh) also got me. And then there was Eric wearing Lycra to an orgy. Laurell K Hamilton does this too - describes people wearing spandex or lycra like it's the height of slutty/sexy. No, it's the height of workout attire. Bike shorts are not what the whores are wearing these days. (Insert "I would know" joke here.)

Oh, and another thing? Sookie and Tara, in high school (late nineties, 2000, 2001), supposedly doing a slutty lesbian-tease-looking dance they'd copied off of MTV...to the song LOVE IS A BATTLEFIELD.

[glitterbug]

Yeah, but "Benatar was right"!!! Love IS a battlefield. That's deep, y'all.

Just getting into the fourth book, and I am LOVING vulnerable Eric in skimpy undies. I hope they manage to get that into the TV series somehow.