Published: May 2nd, 2006
Publisher: Gollancz
Pages: 324
Challenge: 100+ Reading Challenge
Other: Sixth book in the Sookie Stackhouse series. There are currently 11 books in the series, with one more being published in the future. The eleventh installment, Dead Reckoning, was published on May 3rd, 2011.
Buy the book: Bookdepository
In the saga's sixth installment, Definitely Dead, telepathic Louisiana barmaid Sookie Stackhouse finds out jaw-dropping information about her first love, 130-something vampire Bill Compton, as well as equally astonishing insights into her own ancestry.
After her only cousin, Hadley, is murdered by one of the undead, Sookie travels to New Orleans to close out the young woman's apartment and collect her things. The unsavory job gets complicated quickly; Hadley was the "honeybun" of the bisexual vampire Queen of Louisiana, the seemingly ageless bloodsucker Sophie-Anne Leclerq. The queen has recently married another powerful sovereign in an attempt to forge a formidable alliance, and tensions in the supernatural community are running high. But when Sookie and her new love interest, a were-tiger named Quinn, are inexplicably kidnapped, the mind-reading waitress must unravel the mysterious circumstances of her cousin's murder before she ends up dead as well.
Apparently, Sookie had more family than she told us about - in this book she's going to New Orleans to clean out her cousin's apartment after that cousin died - a cousin who happened to be a vampire and the lover of the Queen of Louisiana. Sookie gets attacked by a newborn vampire and ends up in the hospital, where Eric forces Bill to tell her things she would have never expected from Bill. Then, Sookie and Quinn get kidnapped and they have to think fast to get out of there alive.
Okay, first up: Bill sucks. I knew that, but this was just confirmation of what I already thought/knew. Way to go, Eric! I think Eric is trying to win over Sookie.. But knowing Sookie, she's not giving in easily. Why did she do that with Bill, anyway? Er, okay.
This book is the introduction to the vampire summit and the politics regarding the vampires across the state. We don't really know a lot about that yet, because Eric's not exactly chatty about it. It's interesting to see and I'm sure we'll see more of that in the next book. On the other side, Sookie is threatened by the relatives of Debbie Pelt and Sookie finds Quinn and herself to be abducted from her cousin's apartment, after several failed attempts to attack them.
It was one of the books in the series that was less put together, plotwise. It's difficult for me to keep up with all the minor characters and I had some difficulty with that again. Also, I didn't really find the book to be that interesting in terms of plots; but I do think the next book will build from this one (vampire summit). The last couple of events in the book are promising and I'm looking forward to read more!
Three stars and a it of change for Definitely Dead - but with the promise of a good next book.
I've just re-read this book, and realised that there seemed to be bits 'missing' at the start where Sookie had been told about Hadley's death. Then I read the short stories, and one is about that little event in particular, ...it makes more sense once you've read this, and it feels like this should really have been in the book.
ReplyDeleteSaying that, I do really like these books. They're entertaining, juicy and you can't help but like Sookie!
Yeah I read the short stories as well, afterwards and it made a lot more sense!
ReplyDeleteI think this is a great series and I'm definitely looking forward to reading the last couple of books :) (I actually just finished Dead in the Family)