Review: Dead Until Dark (Sookie Stackhouse, #1) by Charlaine Harris

Title: Dead Until Dark (Sookie Stackhouse #1)
Author: Charlaine Harris
Published: May 1, 2001
Publisher: Ace Books
Pages: 332
Genre: New Adult, Vampires, Paranormal
Review: library book
Buy Links: Amazon, Amazon.uk 

Sookie Stackhouse is just a small-time cocktail waitress in small-town Louisiana. Until the vampire of her dreams walks into her life-and one of her coworkers checks out.... Maybe having a vampire for a boyfriend isn't such a bright idea.

I jumped on the bandwagon of falling in love with the characters on the show True Blood. I have been dying to read the books but never was able to find them in my library and I read other reviews and it was all a mixture of ups and downs. 

Finally was able to borrow the book from overdrive and was excited to see all the craze behind it. Was it going to be like the show? Was it going to be better? 

Well for me it wasn't truly amazing like I thought. Some of the characters that I liked are not playing a huge part in the book like I assumed they would, though that is okay. We have Bill and Sookie right? Well Bill didn't come across as the gentleman I thought him to be in the show he seems more on edge within this story. I think if maybe I would have read the books first before starting the show I would have a total outlook on everything.

In Dead Until Dark we are introduced to Sookie and her world and life. This story is through Sookie's eyes and not the other characters, not sure if the other books are that way or not.  She isn't scared of the vampire Bill that comes to Bon Temps though everyone isn't too friendly on vampires in general. 

We learn that Sookie likes Bill because she can't hear him and that is amazing for her. Though we don't know why Sookie has this powers it is a gift that is both a blessing and a curse for her.

When girls start dying could Sookie be next on the list? Will she use her gift to find the culprit? Can her boyfriend even save her? You got to read all that to find out.

If you have seen the show then you know what is going to happen. Though it doesn't go down like they portrayed it. 

The characters were well developed, the pace steady and intriguing. I will find myself reading book two to see what else is going to happen with Sookie, Bill, Sam and Bon Temps.

Charlaine Harris has been a published novelist for over twenty-five years. A native of the Mississippi Delta, she grew up in the middle of a cotton field. Now she lives in southern Arkansas with her husband, her three children, three dogs, and a duck. The duck stays outside.
Though her early output consisted largely of ghost stories, by the time she hit college (Rhodes, in Memphis) Charlaine was writing poetry and plays. After holding down some low-level jobs, she had the opportunity to stay home and write, and the resulting two stand-alones were published by Houghton Mifflin. After a child-producing sabbatical, Charlaine latched on to the trend of writing mystery series, and soon had her own traditional books about a Georgia librarian, Aurora Teagarden. Her first Teagarden, Real Murders, garnered an Agatha nomination.
Soon Charlaine was looking for another challenge, and the result was the much darker Lily Bard series. The books, set in Shakespeare, Arkansas, feature a heroine who has survived a terrible attack and is learning to live with its consequences.

When Charlaine began to realize that neither of those series was ever going to set the literary world on fire, she regrouped and decided to write the book she’d always wanted to write. Not a traditional mystery, nor yet pure science fiction or romance, Dead Until Dark broke genre boundaries to appeal to a wide audience of people who just enjoy a good adventure. Each subsequent book about Sookie Stackhouse, telepathic Louisiana barmaid and friend to vampires, werewolves, and various other odd creatures, has drawn more readers. The Southern Vampire books are published in Japan, Great Britain, Greece, Germany, Thailand, Spain, France, and Russia.
In addition to Sookie, Charlaine has another heroine with a strange ability. Harper Connelly, lightning-struck and strange, can find corpses… and that’s how she makes her living.
In addition to her work as a writer, Charlaine is the past senior warden of St. James Episcopal Church, a board member of Mystery Writers of America, a past board member of Sisters in Crime, a member of the American Crime Writers League, and past president of the Arkansas Mystery Writers Alliance. She spends her "spare" time reading, watching her daughter play sports, traveling, and going to the movies.