From Dead to Worse / Charlaine Harris

4 out of 5 stars

After the natural disaster of Hurricane Katrina and the manmade explosion at the vampire summit, everyone human and otherwise is stressed, including Louisiana cocktail waitress Sookie Stackhouse, who is trying to cope with the fact that her boyfriend Quinn has gone missing.

It's clear that things are changing whether the weres and vamps of her corner of Louisiana like it or not. And Sookie, Friend to the Pack and blood-bonded to Eric Northman, leader of the local vampire community is caught up in the changes.

In the ensuing battles, Sookie faces danger, death, and once more, betrayal by someone she loves. And when the fur has finished flying and the cold blood finished flowing, her world will be forever altered.

Flufftastic. The Sookie soap opera rolls along in yet another installment. Life in Bon Temps, Louisiana, is never dull. This series is showing its longevity at this point, with an awful lot of threads to keep weaving, making this book very much a busy pattern.

Relationships are always the main focus of these novels, and lots of things shake out in this installment. Quinn gets kicked to the curb for being a mama’s boy, Alcide becomes an also-ran but gains in werewolf pack status, Bill attempts to re-enter the running for Sookie’s affections, Eric regains his memory of his time as Sookie’s favourite, Calvin has successfully moved on, and it seems to me that Sam is still quietly in the running. On the friend front, Sookie gains another female roommate who has potential to be a friend as well as a witchy helper. Yay for women friends!

There’s a lot of conflict in the book, as there are upsets in both the Were and Vampire worlds that Sookie must adjust to. She, of course, ends up in the middle of both of them, but at least not grieviously injured in either. In fact, she proves once again to be more street-smart than her vampire friends on at least one occasion. We also learn more about Sookie’s genealogy and about fairly lore in the Sookie universe (which I am glad to report is not all flowers and unicorns). When questioned by Sam about whether she would like her quiet “before” existence back, Sookie declares that all the trouble that she has been through has been worth it for the shake-up of her previous boring existence.

The writing is still not the best quality, but the story line is fun and pulled me along in the best serial-adventure style. The series is getting a bit convoluted and somewhat tired, but I’m still enjoying them.