The Book Addict Reviews: Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris

Genre: Contemporary Fiction, Paranormal, Vampires
Order Online: Amazon.com
Author Info: Goodreads | Website
Rating: 3 stars
Borrowed this book from the library. 

In A Nutshell:
I had some idea of what to expect from this book since I had seen a couple of episodes of True Blood (from HBO) before I started the book.  Overall, I felt like the book met my expectations but did not in any way wow me or exceed those expectations.  It was a good book, but I am not rushing to read the next one in the series.

Review:
Prior to reading this book, I had seen a couple episodes of True Blood--just enough so that the actors and actresses who played the characters I remembered the most influenced how I pictured those characters in my mind.  I do not know if this influence was necessarily good or bad, but it was an influence none-the-less.

The character of Sookie Stackhouse is interesting--even endearing in her mix of innocence and tenacity.  She is a small town girl with a disability--at least that is what she calls her ability to read the thoughts of the people around her.  For most of her life, her disability has made her an outsider--even in her own hometown.  In some ways, this separation is her own doing because she finds it exhausting to constantly shield her mind from the thoughts of others.  In other ways, this separation is prompted by the fear of the people around her. 

And this perception and the relationship(s) that Sookie has with those around her serve as a strong foundation for the story.  It is part of the reason that she finds such a strong connection with Bill the Vampire--the only person she has ever met whose mind was closed to her.  It is so refreshing for her to have quiet time that she immediately throws herself heart-first into a relationship with him.  She does this despite even his own warnings to her.

Outside of this relationship, the story focuses on a fairly compelling mystery about a series of murders.  The first major suspect is Sookie's brother, but since there also seems to be a vampire connection to the murders there are a lot of people who blame Bill for bringing vampires and vampirism to their community.  These murders end up furthering the connection between Bill and Sookie as they strive to protect Sookie (who seems to be an obvious potential victim) and prove her brother's innocence.

Overall, I felt the book was okay.  I am interested in getting more books from the series and finding out what happens next, but I am not compelled to do it right away.  The characters had some interesting aspects, but there was not a single character that drew me in so much or made me care so much that I cannot wait to read the next one.  But at the same time I am not disappointed that I read it.
 
Recommendations:
If you have not watched True Blood, then I definitely recommend getting the DVDs.  I think the casting, scripts and characterizations accentuate the story that I found when I opened the book:

However, I do plan to read the next book in the series. I am just not sitting on pins and needles in anticipation for it:

TBR Intervention (13)

I was at a conference last weekend so I missed the TBR Intervention.  But I am back this week happy with my progress--even if I have missed some of my targets.

Last TBR Intervention

I finished this one and it was a lot more intriguing than I originally expected. My review will be out on March 19 and the author will have a guest post on his journey to becoming a published author on March 20.


I finished this one--review is coming soon.  I have to say that Charlaine Harris has brought me into her world.  I have not decided if I want to get the DVDs for the True Blood the television series.


I had read One for the Money once before and was not impressed.  After watching the movie, I gave it another chance--and I liked it so much better the second time.  I am excited to read the rest of the series now.

Next Week

Luckily, I got to renew this one from the library.  But I am determined to read this one this week!


I have been very excited to read this one as I hear it is a great dragon-focused book!

Summary (from inside flap):
Dragons Exist.  They're ferocious.  And they're smart: Before they were killed off by slayer-knights, they rendered a select group of eggs dormant, so their offspring would survive.  Only a handful of people know about this, let alone believe it.  These "Slayers" are descended from the original knights, and are now a diverse group of teens that includes Tori, a smart, but spoiled, senator's daughter who didn't sign up to save the world.

Now the dragon eggs have fallen into the wrong hands.  The Slayers must work together to stop the eggs from hatching.  They will fight, they will fall in love.  But will they survive? 


This book is the one I will be giving away as part of the World Book Night celebration. I wanted to re-read it before April 23.

Summary (from Amazon):
Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor Southern tobacco farmer who worked the same land as her slave ancestors, yet her cells—taken without her knowledge—became one of the most important tools in medicine. The first “immortal” human cells grown in culture, they are still alive today, though she has been dead for more than sixty years. If you could pile all HeLa cells ever grown onto a scale, they’d weigh more than 50 million metric tons—as much as a hundred Empire State Buildings. HeLa cells were vital for developing the polio vaccine; uncovered secrets of cancer, viruses, and the atom bomb’s effects; helped lead to important advances like in vitro fertilization, cloning, and gene mapping; and have been bought and sold by the billions.

Yet Henrietta Lacks remains virtually unknown, buried in an unmarked grave.

Now Rebecca Skloot takes us on an extraordinary journey, from the “colored” ward of Johns Hopkins Hospital in the 1950s to stark white laboratories with freezers full of HeLa cells; from Henrietta’s small, dying hometown of Clover, Virginia—a land of wooden slave quarters, faith healings, and voodoo—to East Baltimore today, where her children and grandchildren live and struggle with the legacy of her cells.

Henrietta’s family did not learn of her “immortality” until more than twenty years after her death, when scientists investigating HeLa began using her husband and children in research without informed consent. And though the cells had launched a multimillion-dollar industry that sells human biological materials, her family never saw any of the profits. As Rebecca Skloot so brilliantly shows, the story of the Lacks family—past and present—is inextricably connected to the dark history of experimentation on African Americans, the birth of bioethics, and the legal battles over whether we control the stuff we are made of.

Over the decade it took to uncover this story, Rebecca became enmeshed in the lives of the Lacks family—especially Henrietta’s daughter Deborah, who was devastated to learn about her mother’s cells. She was consumed with questions: Had scientists cloned her mother? Did it hurt her when researchers infected her cells with viruses and shot them into space? What happened to her sister, Elsie, who died in a mental institution at the age of fifteen? And if her mother was so important to medicine, why couldn’t her children afford health insurance?

Intimate in feeling, astonishing in scope, and impossible to put down, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks captures the beauty and drama of scientific discovery, as well as its human consequences.

What books do you plan to read this week?

TBR Intervention (12)

I am calling it a draw.  Some successes that I am proud of but I did not make my mark entirely.

Last Week

I finished this book. In some ways it is very different from her YA books but in other ways it is not. I really liked it and I hope Ellen Hopkins does more adult books in the near future!


In some ways I found this one to be more predictable than her first book--but I really do like Kinsey. I already have the next on reserve.


Here is my failure. Triangles took me longer to read than I expected (or maybe it is more accurate to say that I did not get as much uninterrupted reading time as I had planned), so I did not get this one started as early as I thought I would. But the opening has grabbed my attention!

This Week

First, I have to finish Best Seller.  I am definitely looking forward to this one. 

After that, I have a book coming due to the library:

Summary (from inside flap):
Liesl lives in a tiny attic bedroom, locked away by her cruel stepmother.  Her only friends are the shadows and the mice--until one night a ghost appears from the darkness.  It is Po, who comes from the Other Side.  Both Liesl and Po are lonely, but together they are less alone.

That same night, an alchemist's apprentice, Will, bungles an important delivery.  He accidentally switches a box containing the most powerful magic in the world with one containing something decidedly less remarkable.

Will's mistake has tremendous consequences for Liesl and Po, and it draws the three of them together on an extraordinary journey.

From New York Times bestselling author Lauren Oliver comes a luminous and magnificent novel that glows with rare magic, ghostly wonders, and a true friendship that lights even the darkest of places.

For my audiobook--I have decided to start a series I have heard so much about by have not had a chance to start.  Better late than never, right

Summary (from Goodreads):
Sookie Stackhouse is a cocktail waitress in small-town Louisiana, but she keeps to herself and doesn't date much because of her "disability" to read minds. When she meets Bill, Sookie can't hear a word he's thinking. He's the type of guy she's waited for all of her life, but he has a disability, too--he's a vampire with a bad reputation. When one of Sookie's coworkers is killed, she fears she's next.

And because I always like to set my bar high, I am hoping to re-read (this time as an audiobook):

Summary (from Goodreads):
Welcome to Trenton, New Jersey, home to wiseguys, average Joes, and Stephanie Plum, who sports a big attitude and even bigger money problems (since losing her job as a lingerie buyer for a department store). Stephanie needs cash--fast--but times are tough, and soon she's forced to turn to the last resort of the truly desperate: family.

Stephanie lands a gig at her sleazy cousin Vinnie's bail bonding company. She's got no experience. But that doesn't matter. Neither does the fact that the bail jumper in question is local vice cop Joe Morelli. From the time he first looked up her dress to the time he first got into her pants to the time Steph hit him with her father's Buick, M-o-r-e-l-l-i has spelled t-r-o-u-b-l-e. And now the hot guy is in hot water--wanted for murder.

Abject poverty is a great motivator for learning new skills, but being trained in the school of hard knocks by people like psycho prizefighter Benito Ramirez isn't. Still, if Stephanie can nab Morelli in a week, she'll make a cool ten grand. All she has to do is become an expert bounty hunter overnight--and keep herself from getting killed before she gets her man.

So do you what do you want to read this week?