So, I'm in Europe with very spotty internet, but while I'm on vacation, I usually do a lot of reading. This is no exception. I read the first seven Sookie Stackhouse novels in a week. I bought a boxed set that I thought had the first eight books, but I can't seem to find the eighth. Maybe it's in my car, back in the states. Anyway, I just wanted to write a brief entry about these books while I have internet.
So, it's almost amazing that Alan Ball and the producers/writers of True Blood were able to make such an amazing series from the source material of the Sookie Stackhouse novels. That isn't to say that I don't like the novels, but the show is just SO much richer in every way. The characters are more interesting and developed; the stories are more detailed, etc. For instance, Tara barely rates mentioning in the books, and basically the same is true for Jason. I think part of why the show is able to do so much more is that the books are completely from Sookie's point of vies, so there are no scenes in the books that she isn't in. That makes it difficult to fully develop characters, since you never know what is going on with them outside of Sookie's presence.
That being said, these books are like crack. Like I said, I read seven of them in a week. I couldn't put them down. They are totally fun and funny. One thing I actually like better in the books is Sookie herself. I personlly think Anna Paquin is great in the show, but in the books, Sookie is a little more... believable? Maybe that's the word I'm looking for. I'm not sure that word has a place in a romance series about vampires. I would say these are better than the Twilight books, maybe n par with my beloved L.J. Smith novels.
I also just want to say, that if I had more time, I would have a LOT more to say about these books, but I'm trying to keep it relatively short. If you need some slightly smutty, fun summer reading, I highly recommend these books.
Monday, August 10, 2009
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I'd love to hear more of your thoughts on them. I like the early books more than the later ones, but I think this is influenced in part by my dislike of some of the other work I've read by Charlaine Harris. I'm starting to notice a trend where Harris's POV character (in the ones I've read, a woman in first person) is pretty judgmental of other sexual women, whether the POV character is having sex or not. And that bothers me a lot. It's very noticeable in Shakespeare's Trollop, which is one of her Lily Bard mystery series. After reading it, I started to notice it more and more in other books by her as well.
ReplyDeleteI think I'll have to reread the Sookie series soon, because I've had a couple people ask me to expand on these thoughts, but I don't have my books with me right now.
That's really interesting. I had a similar thought about Sookie and other people generally, not just women, having sex. She sees other people engaging in public displays of affection, and she is always described as being sickened by it, or she makes a comment that such things should only be done in private. I took particular notice of it in Club Dead, when she is at Russel's mansion and two guys are making out. She's described as being sickened, and then Harris quickly points out that this isn't because the men are gay, but because it is a public display of affection, which Sookie apparently has a problem with. The problem is that, in that particular circumstance, the order in which Harris places the information - i.e. two guys kissing, followed by Sookie's disgusted reaction, followed by an explanation why the disgust was due to something other than homosexuality - seems too similar to how a lot of latently (or patently) homophobic people react to homosexuality on a day to day basis, i.e. they see a same sex couple kissing, followed by "Ew, gross!" followed by "Oh, I don't have a problem with gay people, I just don't know why they have to flaunt it in public," etc.
ReplyDeleteI will have to look again on a third reading (I ran out of books on our vacation, so I've read the first seven books twice now), to see what pops out as to Sookie's reaction to other sexual women. I know she refers to another character as a slut, which was kind of jarring, since there was no indication that she had any idea about that character's promiscuity or lack thereof. There are also some female characters who suffer pretty harsh consequences for casual sex that I can think of off the top of my head. But, on the whole, I wouldn't say it jumped out at me as an issue in the series.