Dead Until Dark By Charlaine Harris

Cover Rating: 4.5/5 Stars
Overall Rating: 3.5/5Stars
Synopsis: Sookie Stackhouse is a small-time cocktail waitress in small-town Louisiana. She's quiet, keeps to herself, and doesn't get out much. Not because she's not pretty. She is. It's just that, well, Sookie has this sort of "disability." She can read minds. And that doesn't make her too dateable. And then along comes Bill. He's tall, dark, handsome - and Sookie can't 'hear' a word he's thinking. He's exactly the kind of guy she's been waiting for all her life. But Bill has a disability of his own: He's a vampire. Worse than that, hangs with a seriously creepy crowd, with a reputation for trouble - of the murderous kind.  And when one of Sookie's colleagues is killed, she begins to fear she'll be next.

Dead Until Dark was a light, fluffy read. It was a lot less adult than I actually thought it was going to be considering what I've seen of the TV show is very steamy. There were many unique aspects of Dead Until Dark which were very interesting. Everybody knew about the vampires but they considered it a disability. I thought this was really different because the vamp's aren't skulking in the shadows but out in the open - though they do still have to be in the shadows because they burn and luckily don't sparkle! I did enjoy the story but it was slightly lacking... something.

I didn't really form an attachment to any of the characters but I don't think any really got on my nerves. Sookie was quite sweet and nice but she also seemed like a bit of an air-head. There was nothing striking about her apart from the fact she could read minds of course but even that wasn't really a huge part of the story. Then there's Bill. Well I just couldn't take him seriously! They describe him as a tall, dark, handsome vampire which is fine but then I hear the name Bill and my mind images an old man. No offence to Bill's out there but it really is the least vampy name EVER! He wasn't very interesting either. There was another vampire, Eric, who seemed a lot more interesting and I'm looking forward to seeing more of him. I also liked her boss, Sam, he was nice and quite cool. All of the characters seemed a little flat though so I'm hoping that gets better in further books.

I found the plot quite predictable but that is not always a bad thing. Sometimes it's good to read a book that you don't have to think much about because it's easy to see what will happen. I will probably read the rest of the series but there are a lot so it may take me a while. I would recommend this for a quick read and probably for adults even though it wasn't really fully that genre, who knows maybe it will get more 'adult'.
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