Charlaine Harris - Dead Until Dark

Sookie Stackhouse is a small-time cocktail waitress in small town Louisiana. She's quiet, keeps to herself, and doesn't get much out. Not because she's pretty. She is. It's just that, well, Sookie has this sort of "disability". she can read minds. AHd that doesn't make her dateable. ad then along comes Bill.
he's tall, dark, handsome-- and Sookie can't hear a word he's thinking. He's exactly the type of guy she's been waiting for all her life...

But Bill has a disability of his own: He's a vampire with a bad reputation. He hangs out with a seriously creepy crowd, all suspected of - big surprise - murder. And when one of Sookie's coworkers is killed, she fears the next...

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2 years ago the vampire community had its coming out, acknowledging to the world it is true, they are there and "alive". Since then Sookie Stackhouse has been waiting for the first vampire to enter her place of work, the "Merlotte's" in Bon Temps, Louisiana. She recognizes him instantly only because of his gorgeous looks but also because he is so quiet in his head. Sookie has this ability that makes her life very difficult at times: She read peoples thoughts. When they slowly get to know each other they both have to learn the other persons live is as difficult as their own although Sookie fears Bill's live is one of blood and murder.
Their love is tested when two women in town are found strangled. They both were too vampire friendly and had them suck their blood in the past. Sookie's relationship to Bill doesn't stay unnoticed by the towns people and when her grandmother is killed in a gruesome way it becomes clear that this relationship doesn't seem to sit well with someone vampire or human.

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I got to read the first book of this series because I saw it on TV. I found it very frustrating how the TV series and book differ from each other and this fact alone took a lot of the fun away. Ultimately it was the series that made me want to read the book.
That aside, I think Dead until Dark is a fine read if you don't expect too much action but rather the difficulties between a mind reader and newly legalized vampire.

Good enough to pick up the second novel some time.

Rating:
Visit Charlaine Harris.

Mass Market Paperback: 292 pages
Publisher: Ace Books (May 1, 2001)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0441008534
ISBN-13: 978-0441008537