Book: Dead and Gone
ISBN-13: 978-0441017157
Author: Charlaine Harris
Series: Book Nine of The Southern Vampire Mysteries
Publisher: Ace Hardcover
Genre: Urban Fantasy / Paranormal Romance
Release: May 5, 2009
Length: 320 pages (Hardcover)
Verdict
Harris’ Southern Vampire Mysteries continues to be one of the most engrossing and entertaining on-going series the fantasy genre has to offer, and it’s seriously doubtful that anyone who read the first eight books of this series will want to stop now. Harris just does too good of a job building potential into her stories for her deservedly loyal fanbase not to dive head first into the next installment.
Dead and Gone is a page-turner that does the series credit by keeping readers guessing. It’s one of this summer’s must-read novels.
Synopsis
Official: Except for Sookie Stackhouse, folks in Bon Temps, Louisiana, know little about vamps—and nothing about weres.
Until now. The weres and shifters have finally decided to reveal their existence to the ordinary world. At first all goes well. Then the mutilated body of a were-panther is found near the bar where Sookie works—and she feels compelled to discover who, human or otherwise, did it.
But there’s a far greater danger threatening Bon Temps. A race of unhuman beings—older, more powerful, and more secretive than vampires or werewolves—is preparing for war. And Sookie finds herself an all-too human pawn in their battle.
UnOfficial: When the corpse of someone close to Sookie turns up in dramatic fashion right after the weres come out to the world, it falls to Sookie to figure out whodunit before it happens again. But winnowing out the suspects from the already amassing dangers that surround her daily life is more difficult than it sounds. To make matters worse, there’s a war brewing between the fairies, and the FBI have come to town. The more Sookie investigates, the more clear it becomes that she herself is the one in real danger.
Review
The worse thing that can be said about Dead and Gone is that it fails to pick up the most exciting threads of Sookie’s story where From Dead to Worse left off. Namely, Sookie’s newly discovered telepathic cousin, her former love interest Quinn, and her new benefactor, the King of Nevada, are all largely absent from this installment.
On one hand, that could be frustrating to readers who’ve been waiting a year to pick up the next book in this series. On the other hand, the ability to tell a story that follows an entirely unforeseen track eight books into a series is certainly an indication that the quality of these books lies in the skill with which they’re written, rather than some happy intersection of interesting gimmicks.
In the end, the turn taken in Dead and Gone only leaves readers wanting more. Saying what that turn might be would only serve to spoil the plot for others, but it will suffice to say that this book won’t disappoint Harris fans.
All expectations aside, Dead and Gone seems to mark a coming of age for the series. It’s story is noticeably darker than previous installments, with more gruesome action sequences and several very dramatic deaths. It seems that this story is beginning to move the series as a whole even further from its romantic roots in a slightly more action-oriented series. Though Sookie’s love life continues to be the heart of the story, for this installment, it takes a backseat to murder and mayhem. What’s more, several of the series’ secondary characters develop some very unexpected (and welcomed) depth, making the series’ cast even more easy to care about as characters.
All in all, Dead and Gone is definitely a must-read this summer.
On a side note, the faux-sticker the publisher has placed on the cover of the book to promote HBO’s “True Blood” is an eyesore. Ten years from now, the series will just be memory, like any of a dozen television series based on popular books. The book, however, will still be in my library. In an age of rampant electronic pirating, cheapening the hardcopy of your goods with commercial whoring only serves to diminish their value in the eyes of your customers. So publishers, Keep your advertising OFF MY BOOKS!
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