Book Review - Charlaine Harris' Dead in the Family

Dead in the Family (Sookie Stackhouse Book 10) by Charlaine Harris
Published by: Ace Hardcover
Publication Date: May 4th, 2010
Format: Hardcover, 320 Pages
Challenge: Fantasy
Rating: ★★★
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Sookie is slowly healing, but she has had enough. She will no longer be as peppy or as perky. In fact, she could even get herself a little hit list going if she bothered, Eric's direct boss being number one on that list. But what with Amelia moving out and Claude moving in, it looks like the Fae War wasn't the end of the fairies in her life. Plus, the Weres have noticed that there are other fairies prowling the woods behind the Stackhouse property. As Sookie opines, wasn't the sealing of the worlds meant to take care of all these pesky fairies? Of course a corpse then ends up on the property, Sookie's house being a magnet for all kids of trouble. But she has little time to think of who could be planting bodies on her property line when two more vamps show up sharing the same blood as her. Eric's sire, Ocella, returns with a Romanov in tow. Being around the three spins Sookie around, and she doesn't know which way is up. Plus Eric's sibling, Alexi, he's not exactly right in the head, more of the mass murderer sensibilities. If it wasn't for Sookie's respite with Hadley's child Hunter and helping Bill find his own sibling to heal, she might just go crazy.

In the latest installment of the beloved Southern Vampire novels we have a book almost veering out of control. Starting unlike any other in that months elapse in a matter of pages, we then proceed to slog through a book with no plot. There is much character development and back story and little vignettes with different variations on family. From human blood, to fairy blood, to vamp blood, Sookie sure has a lot of "blood relatives" out there. If it wasn't for the hilarious and horrifying Alexi, I don't really think this book would have had any umph to it. I try to think about it and my mind is almost blank, not an impression that an author wishes to leave. With the series continuing on I think we need to have an end in sight. There's only so many more people left that can die and soon Bon Temps could be left unoccupied. I just hope that come this time next year Charlaine will have a plot in mind. But as a final note, the thing that bothered me most. Sookie felt herself not whole until she had an orgasm. So, apparently, despite all that she's been through, she didn't feel herself whole until Eric helped her come. Ah... ok, interesting... I thought it might have been the absence of pain and being able to function, and yes, pleasure is important, but still, I felt it a little crass.