The Sookie Stackhouse novels

[MrsCatHead]

well, on the show, Eric has cut his hair...well, Pam cuts it for him

[Deleted]

About the clothes: I'm about 1/2 way through the 3rd book and I am still wondering when this takes place. Mostly my confusion centers around the clothing. I honestly cannot place the fashions and it frustrates me. The Britney comments make me aware that it is after 1995 and possibly after 2000-something because of the short marriage reference but the clothing is ridiculous. Who ever wore that kind of stuff?

Charlaine Harris dresses Sookie as a 60 year old- a black and red sweater/black knit pants and a red and black bow. A big WTF to that. And honestly- what are knit pants? I'm 31. I'm fairly hip and while I know what knit pants are I cannot imagine a woman nearly my age wearing them to a pep rally. Don't even get me started on the lace up jeans etc. The only somewhat redeeming outfit so far has been the taupe knit dress in book 2.

Oh, and I went to Harris' website and her discussion threads- I find her to be a bitch. Idky. She just comes across that way. She reminds me of my neighbor I guess is what my problem is.

I do like the books though and either I've gotten used to her elementary style writing or she's gotten better. The first few chapters of book 1 were horrible writing wise (though I still shake my head at her clothing descriptions). I do like her character development of Eric and the way she writes/develops his humor.

Another question: does Harris continue to recap the characters background and previous books in every book? She has rehashed the parent's death, grandmother's death, etc. in 3 books. I'm guessing it's so soemone can pick up in the middle of the series but it is a little annoying when you read them in succession.

[unimpressed]

Nov 8, 2009 11:25:30 GMT -4 @greenapple2 said:

Another question: does Harris continue to recap the characters background and previous books in every book? She has rehashed the parent's death, grandmother's death, etc. in 3 books. I'm guessing it's so soemone can pick up in the middle of the series but it is a little annoying when you read them in succession.

This. I've read the first 7 in the series in rapid succession. I found that all the recapping of previous story lines and character back stories took up too much of the latest books for my taste. There seemed to be less and less character development and storyline progress. It finally became so redundant I lost interest.

Edited: because I cannot count

[Deleted]

Anyone read the new book yet? I just finished it and was not impressed. I didn't like book nine either, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised. It felt like so many things were left unresolved or just thrown in for no reason-- Jannalynn the evil bitch dating Sam, Kennedy the new bartender, Bill and his new girlfriend, Bill's recovery, Tara's pregnancy, Hunter, Tom Lattesta, the results of the Were pack meeting, even Sookie's physical therapy w/JB. It just seemed so lazily written to me. Also, I know the books are different from the show, and I don't mind that they are, but after True Blood's powerful scenes with Godric last season, it seems silly for Charlaine Harris to have brought in all the drama with Appius.

[Deleted]

Wall O' Text time!

I didn't really care for it, either. Luckily it was borrowed. I think these are definitely going to be library-only rather than purchase for me from now on. I don't know if the books have gotten worse (because it's not like I ever thought they were great, but I did used to be entertained by them), or if that series-fatigue where you've become aware of and annoyed by all the author's tics has set in, or if I've just lost my taste for them. There was arguably less going on in the earlier books, but at least they had a definable storyline. The last several books have been a lot of meandering - stuff gets thrown out there (there's a fairy in the woods! Lattesta is out to get Sookie!), but then it's usually just ignored while other random stuff happens, and then there's one scene wrapping it up at the end. Like, it doesn't create tension if you mention it but no actions actually ever occur as a result of it. >>(Finding out in hindsight that the cook was spying doesn't count.) I swear the first hundred pages especially were just Sookie wandering from character to character talking to them about how they've been doing. I know she's supposed to have been out of the loop, but we didn't need to see it in real time. And the one thing that does relate back to the previous storyline - the Victor thing - is brought up at the beginning and then derailed while Eric's maker comes into town for no real reason. <<

Also, I used to think Eric and Sookie were kind of fun together and that their scenes played more naturally than her and Bill's, but oh my God their romantic interaction was just cringeworthy in this book. >>("That looks painful, want me to nurse it?" GAH.) And Eric's living room? Sapphire walls with white trim and a gold-and-red couch? I...can't picture it. Then there was that random conversation where Sookie doesn't want Eric touching her stomach because it makes her feel fat, allowing Eric to voice Harris's his opinion on how skinny girls are gross and unfuckable. (And I'm not particularly skinny myself, here, I just think women bashing whole body types is fucking annoying and doesn't help anyone.)<<

I'm also getting a little weary of the number of women who seem to be dumb/slutty bitches in Sookie's world. Crystal, Tanya, Arlene, Debbie Pelt (bit of a pass here, though, since she was a villain from the get-go & for a reason). Is there a decent non-Sookie female other than Tara at this point (and Tara is also often implied to be shallow, with her vampire sugar-daddy, the subsequent stalker that was treated as her fault, and marrying JB for his looks)? Pam, I guess. But like, why was Jannalynn supposed to be such a horrible bitch, exactly? Until the end, when she comes out pretty bloodthirsty, we don't even really know much of her character. But Sookie doesn't like her from the start and it seems like we're not supposed to either.

[Deleted]

Word to your whole post, MarchingPenguin. It felt like Charlaine Harris threw out about a million different storylines and then couldn't decide which ones she actually wanted to follow through on. Maybe some of them are going to be resolved in the next book, but honestly, I'm not going to REMEMBER any of this stuff by the time the next book comes out a year from now! It's hard enough to keep up with all the human/telepath/vamp/were/shifter/witch/fae crap now. I agree that she makes all the women except Sookie bad, too (or she kills them off if they're "good"). And I was snorting out loud when Eric made the remarks about skinny women, too. It's especially funny since Alexander Skarsgard is dating Kate Bosworth. Does Charlaine have a crush on him or something?

The stuff with Jannalynn was just stupid. Okay, so Sam can never be happy and neither can Alcide. I don't know what's wrong with Bill's new woman yet, but I'm sure we'll find out eventually. Basically, all the men in Bon Temps are supposed to sit around pining for Sookie until she decides she wants one of them again.

And this is petty, but another thing that drove me crazy was how Sookie kept making buzzer noises ("Bzzzt! Wrong answer," etc.) during tense conversations. Who the hell does that? Is she supposed to be Doctor Who? That was so lame.

True Blood does get on my nerves sometimes, especially Anna Paquin and Stephen Moyer's acting, but the stupid books make me soooo thankful for the show. I will admit that there's something very captivating about the idea of Bon Temps and the characters that Charlaine Harris has created (that's what drew me into the books and then the TV show in the first place), but it's like she doesn't even know what to do with them now.

[MrsCatHead]

I want to read the newest book but I can't for the life of me remember the last book.

[Deleted]

Jun 15, 2010 22:17:27 GMT -4 MrsCatHead said:

I want to read the newest book but I can't for the life of me remember the last book.

You don't need to remember it; it's all recapped in the first chapter of the new one.

[Auroranorth]

Jul 26, 2009 18:45:18 GMT -4 @marchingpenguin said:

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.

I've only read the first two Sookie books but in her Aurora Teagarden series she did the same thing with the clothes. Sexy they weren't, boring they were.

Query- why would you wear lycra to an orgy? I've never attended one myself, but wouldn't you go for clothing that's easy to remove? Squirming out of lycra isn't exactly going to make somone think "hottie."

[angelaudie]

Can the Greecies help a girl out here? I just watched S1 and S2 of True Blood and really enjoyed it. I'm thinking about reading the Sookie Stackhouse novels but I'm worried it might somehow ruin the show for me. Is it possible to read the books and still enjoy the series?