Title: Dead as a Doornail
Author: Charlaine Harris
Publication Date: 2006
Book Description (from Amazon.com): Harris’s rousing fifth Sookie Stackhouse fantasy-mystery (after 2004’s Dead to the World) pits vampires, were-creatures, shifters and one fairy godmother against a sniper with an apparent aversion to nonhumans. If trying to discover who’s behind the shootings isn’t enough, the telepathic cocktail waitress from Bon Temps, La., has to cope with a few other distractions: her sexy “Were” friend, Alcide Herveaux, needs her help in his father’s bid to become the next leader of the local werewolf pack; her boss, Sam Merlotte (a collie in his spare time), gets shot; her house partly burns down; and what’s she to do about the handsome vampire bartender who dresses as a pirate at Sam’s place? Between one mishap and another, Sookie is one busy gal. Harris does an admirable job of creating a heroine who’s not only interesting but completely believable in a world of the strange and the different. Natural and humorous dialogue and a nicely paced plot that doesn’t dwell so much on Sookie’s old boyfriends help make this entry the best yet in the series.
Dead As A Doornail is the 5th book in the Sookie Stackhouse series and I enjoyed it just as much as these others. I did like, as the description above suggested, that this book doesn’t focus on Bill and Eric as much. New characters from the last two books get a bit more attention in this book as well. Also, Sookie gets a little bit more… personality. You get to see her more as her own person instead of as an extension of Bill or Eric.
I do worry about Harris making Sookie seem like a horny little teenager. I know she is 26, but her sex life has just started. It seems like she starts thinking dirty things about every good looking man she meets. Well I guess it is more like every supernatural creature she comes across, since she doesn’t have any interest in normal humans. I think seeing this sexual side of Sookie, but just worry that after a couple more books she is gonna start to seem like a slut. But what do I know? I have no idea what Harris has in store for Sookie in the coming books.
The books have really gotten me interested in watching the TrueBlood series again. I watched the first season and a couple of episodes of season 2, but that was ages ago. I added season 2 to my Netflix queue and will hopefully be able to get caught up starting this week. I’m really interested in seeing how different the storyline for the show varies from the books. I all ready know from the first season and a half that it is at least a little different, but it will be interesting to see just how different.
