Author: Charlaine Harris
ISBN: 978-057-508-9341
RRP: $22.99
Finally I got to reacquaint myself with Sookie Stackhouse and all of the goings on in Bon Temps. It was a long wait and Dead In The Family certainly broke the drought.
Written in Harris’s distinctive style, Dead In The Family is easy to read and fantastic to escape the cold, grey, mundane world in the early stages of winter.
Picking up where Dead And Gone left off, after the Fae War and Sookie’s rescue from abduction and torture, Dead In The Family begins with Sookie still recovering from her injuries and Bill a little worse for wear also.
Dead In The Family really is a tale about family and the intricacies that become prevalent when the skeletons start coming out of the closet. We got to know Sookie, and her brother Jason, from the beginning and there was often talk of Gran being all they had left.
The further we get into the series, the further we delve into the Stackhouse family and it turns out that Sookie has quite a bit more family than she imagined; or sometimes wants to lay claim to.
Sookie’s cousin’s young son shares her ability and is in need of some gentle teaching to help him grow up as normally as possible, and how do you explain to a 5yr old about the private nature of one’s own thoughts?
There is also the Fae branch of the family that should all be sealed in Fairy with great-grandfather Niall, except there are the distinct scents of two Fae surrounding Sookie’s house – neither of which belong to her cousin Claude, who is staying with her for a while to combat his loneliness with the recent loss of his sisters.
It isn’t just Sookie having trouble with her family in this book. Eric’s maker arrives in town with the, very troubled, other vampire he sired and Bill needs familial assistance to help heals the lingering ailments he suffered at the hands of the Fae. The human familial connection that Bill still shares in Bon Temps is also explored a little more here.
Bill is holed up at home, ailing with silver poisoning and actually beginning to look his age; Eric is tied up trying to keep his Maker and his brother occupied and out of trouble and there is still a lot of backlash about the coming out of the Weres so Sookie finds she is spending a lot more time on her own than usual. But don’t let that fool you into thinking there isn’t a lot going on for our young Miss Stackhouse.
The Weres have come out and they are under watchful government eyes, which is why Alcide (the Shreveport pack-leader) has asked Sookie for a special favour which has hidden consequences that nobody could have predicted. Consequences which, of course, lead Sookie into more danger and bigger trouble.
The kinks in the new vamp hierarchy still haven’t worked themselves out, there are some whose ambitions are seeing them get a little ahead of themselves. This causes problems for Eric, and also for Sookie by association.
Dead In The Family brings you back into Sookie’s world with a bang. The storylines are certainly getting gorier and the body count gets higher. And it all combines to make for a more enthralling read!
I can’t wait to sink my fangs into the next chapter in Sookie’s life!
So I’m off to get started, see you back here soon!
I devour books, vampires and supernatural creatures are my genre of choice but over the past couple of years, I have broadened my horizons considerably. In a nutshell – I love to write! I love interacting with a diverse range of artists to bring you interviews. Perhaps we were perfect before – I LOVE WORDS!