Book Review - Charlaine Harris' Deadlocked
Deadlocked by Charlaine Harris
Published by: Ace
Publication Date: May 1st, 2012
Format: Hardcover, 336 Pages
Rating: ★★★★
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Sookie's life is a bit of a mixed bag at the moment. Her job is wonderful, better than ever. Sure Merlotte's is still in a slump, but since she helped Sam with a loan he now views her as a partner. Sookie loves the new responsibilities and the new decisions, like lockers for the staff! Yet then there's Eric. Eric and his fiance... when Sookie is already technically his wife! Why do vampires have to be so complicated? Then to add to the problem, the King comes to visit inquiring after the man they all plotted to murder. Keeping secrets from a powerful vampire is dangerous, but what happens next could cause even more trouble. There's a dead girl in front of Eric's house, one Sookie just happened to catch him snacking on. She knew Eric had to get his sustenance from somewhere, but the way he did it so cruelly and callously in front of Sookie makes all her senses tingle. This wasn't right.
Sookie has got to prove Eric's innocence, even if their relationship doesn't survive this, Eric is not responsible for this death, others yes, just not this one. There is a way out for Sookie, a magical, oh so easy way... the cluviel dor. The fairy magic that Sookie found tucked away in her attic. It has basically made her fairy catnip, yet the one wish it contains could solve all the problems of her and Eric. The thing is, does Eric know she has it and is trying to force her hand? As she tries to solve the murder she realizes that everything that is happening to her, vampire, fairy and werewolf might all tie into the cluviel dor. If you had one wish, what would you use it on?
I know there are many people out there who didn't like this book because not much happened, and you know what, I liked that. Being the penultimate book, this seemed to be Charlaine clearing the decks and getting Sookie back to her human roots. I loved that! Sookie's world has become so convoluted and she's ended up so entwined with all the Sups that it was nice to take a step back, see her as she was before and could be again. Some reviewers have been bandying about the deus ex machina way that Charlaine handy got rid of Jannalynn and established the deeper bond between Sookie and Sam. So what? It's her world and I loved that she just wiped Jannalynn out of existence and just with the flick of the pen got rid of all the fairies. As for those Eric shippers out there... you KNEW that she was never going to end up with Eric. Sookie, in a logical world, in my logical world, gets a life. Not an undead vampire forever life, but sun and daylight and love and children. She gets everything she deserves and a man that loves her unreservedly. All that she could only get from Sam, in my mind, Alcide, with his pack and troubled past could never give this to her. Eric in the end loves power and money more than her could ever love a human.
There where also tons of just little human moments I loved. Sookie waiting for the birth of Tara's twins. Sookie going all Gollum over her cluviel dor. Sookie having a birthday! If she where to be reborn, a birthday would lose it's significance. Just going to the library and picking up a book or swinging by the Dairy Queen to have a blizzard. It's the little mundane things that made this book magical to me. I really can't wait for the final book and hope that all that I wish for Sookie comes true... if the direction that Charlaine took for this book stays true, then I think Sookie is going to get the happily ever after I wish for her. After all these years of reading her exploits, she deserves it... and yes, I know she's fictional, but is she really to you or me?
