Book Review - Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris

Friday, January 22, 2010

Back when I working in a book store I shelved many a copy of Dead Until Dark (Book 1) [Southern Vampire #1] by Charlaine Harris as well as the other novels in the Southern Vampire series. They were in the Romance section, a section I rarely visited as a book reader but as an employee I learned it inside and out to better serve the customer. I knew the Southern Vampire books were Romantic of course and that they had vampires and to be honest I always thought they had to be a bit humorous given the covers. I never even read the back of it, I just knew it was too romance for me, then True Blood hit the small screen.

Like everyone else, I didn't even know it was on TV until the buzz started. After a few episodes I started hearing about it and by the end of the first season, I had heard it was good but with the anticipation of the second season came the real test. People were waiting for True Blood to come back and that is when you know you've got something so we purchased the first season through iTunes and watched. We were hooked from the opening title sequence and the rest is history, the more I watch the more I wanted to watch and so I did until now I am waiting for the third season. What's great about this wait is I can read the books in between. When I first found out True Blood the tv show was based on those little Romance novels I had been blowing off for years I was surprised and then I reminded myself to never judge a book by it's cover or it's section in the bookstore, for that matter.

I thought about reading the Southern Vampire series right after I finished season two of the television show last fall but just didn't do it, then when I saw the Sookie Stackhouse Reading Challenge I knew it was the push I needed to get started.

I checked Dead Until Dark out of the library and couldn't put it down, with a 3 year old running around sometimes I had to but I didn't want to. If you've seen the tv show it's similer but at the same time totally different, it's worth the read to get deeper into the characters that you already know and love. There are things that happen in the book that give deeper meaning to things that are in the show and vice versa. I have never experienced a book/television (or movie) combo that worked together as well as this one does. As long as you accept that some things will be different you will see that they compliment each other perfectly.