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33 of 34 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Sookie gets darker, 20 May 2009
This is the ninth book in Charlaine Harris' long running Sookie Stackhouse/Southern Vampire series, a series that continues to be one of the most original of the genre avoiding many of the typical cliches.
The plot is relatively simple - the weres have come out to the general public and on the night of the announcement a were is murdered in the parking lot outside Merlottes bar. Sookie must use all her abilities and connections to uncover the killer or killers and protect herself from a new and deadly enemy connected to her fairy great great grandfather. The plot is much stronger than that of the last book in the series which felt to me a bit like a filler book tying off old loose threads, but I'm not entirely happy with what happened to certain characters, Claudine in partciular.
Sookie has always been quite a positive, sunny and upbeat character in the books up to this, but time and the events of the past seem to be knocking this out of her. Sookie seems a pale shadow of her Pollyanna like former self but in light of what has happend to her in previous books and in this book it does make sense.
Overall this is a good enough read. Charlaine Harris is a competent writer and this book is not bad, but theres a sense of darkness (or despair or something I can't really quite put my finger on) about this book that left me slightly saddened in the end with its not so happily ever after.
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16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Enter the furry, 7 Jun 2009
Vampires have been out of the coffin for awhile, but in the Sookieverse, it's time for the weres to show their stuff in public.
And of course that Great Reveal Part II stirs up murder and mayhem in the ninth volume of Charlaine Harris' bestselling urban fantasy series, "Dead and Gone." Sookie has a new array of problems from all walks of supernatural life (and some human ones), and Harris manages to balance them out neatly in her smooth, warm prose style. And yes, some new developments.
When the weres choose to publicly reveal their existence, the people of Bon Temps are relatively unruffled (except for the fanatical Arlene). There are some problems and controversies, but overall it's smoother than the vampires' Great Reveal. But it has caused new problems under the surface -- the new, uneasy vampire regime is affecting the were communities, Sam's mother has been viciously attacked, and the FBI has appeared in town about Sookie's psychic powers.
To make matters even worse, her estranged sister-in-law Crystal is found savagely crucified in the parking lot. Was it because she was a werepanther, or was it because she was a huge slut? As Sookie tries to unravel the mystery of who had killed Crystal (and why), she becomes embroiled in a very different kind of family feud among the royal fairy family. And she may be the next one murdered if she isn't very very careful...
Charlaine Harris' urban fantasy is not the usual kind -- it feels very cozy and down-home, and is set is a pleasant little town in the South. And while it's obvious that The Great Reveal Part II would cause a lot of social and religious problems, the focus here is on the struggles in Bon Temps primarily. They handle it pretty well, until the murders start.
Harris' warm, slightly tongue-in-cheek prose ("Did fairy parents tell fairy children human tales?") keeps the plot moving along smoothly, without getting bogged down in gruesome deaths. It also has half a dozen supernatural dilemmas (some directly related to Sookie, some not) that loop loosely through Sookie's life as the plot goes along, ranging from her sorta-kinda relationship with Eric to the FBI coveting her special skills.
Despite the light, pleasant atmosphere of Bon Temps, Harris is able to make it chilling when she wants too -- cold-blooded murder attempts, ghastly crimes (the brutal murder of a pregnant woman) and she even manages to portray rancid bigotry and racism without being preachy.
The biggest problem? While the plot speeds up in the last few chapters, it also sort of flies apart with some random character deaths and an anticlimactic fairy clash, as if she got rushed and had to finish it fast. And she glosses over the question of how the were Reveal would change things.
Sookie's plate is pretty full in this volume: fairy assassination, vampire pledges, the were Reveal and a double shift at work. Harris does a good job making her heroine all too human and fallible, while still making her sympathetic -- such as her worry that she's being selfish by not wanting to use her talents for the FBI, because she fears the horrors she'd be exposed to. And despite some meddling by her annoying ex-boyfriend Quinn, she seems to have more steam building with lovable Viking Eric, whose past marital experiences are revealed.
"Dead and Gone" is a solid ninth volume in a still-strong series, despite some flaws in the storyline's end. I'm looking forward to what Harris has yet in store for her telepathic waitress.
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49 of 56 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
A disappointing outing for Sookie fans, and what is with the continuity errors?, 1 Jun 2009
Charlaine Harris's Southern Vampire Mysteries was such a fun and creatively written series for a while. But the humor and wit that characterized the first four or five books seems to have completely run out by this ninth book, leaving with the reader a disconnected palette of characters, and a hectic pace in which the author seems to have been determined to get in every minor character at the expense of any clarity or reflection by the major characters.
The characters, including Sookie herself, seem to be in a fog in this book, and to be speaking out of character. Even big scary vampire Eric, always one of the most fun to read, just seems off. (Spoiler: he is willing to discuss his painful personal history out in the open in a public place, his bar???) Tossed off personal revelations are never absorbed by the characters and never revisited. The pace of the book is such that it is actually counterproductive in terms of feeling any empathy for the central characters.
Readers should be forewarned about the tremendous violence in the book. (Spoiler: Are the multiple deaths of pregnant women just a heavy-handed device signaling lost promise or hope? Maybe they are the stunted hopes for this book?)
The dragging issue of suitor resolution and the lack of development, if not regression, of Sookie's character on the issue of relationships is disappointing. As a reader who has followed the series for some time, I'm virtually at the point where I no longer care who she ends up with. Not a good place for an author to be finding herself with her readers. Does she really intend to make her readers NOT care about her heroine or give the impression that her heroine is incapable of evolving?
The number of continuity errors for a book with this sales base is truly astonishing. From the fact that Eric no longer remembers that Sookie was never paid for her work in book 7, to the fact that Sookie doesn't remember her grandfather and great-uncle were twins, to the fact that Claude and Claudine's deceased sister was Claudia and not Claudette, to the fact that Chow and not Clancy killed Hallow the witch's representative back in book 4, to the fact that Eric says he `remembers' but seems to have forgotten what he remembers at a rather delicate moment. The writing, continuity wise, or even factwise, seems not to have been proofread at all!
The book reads like a rough draft and has a sense of disconnectedness that is disheartening in comparison to others in the series. Was the goal just to get this one knocked out before the new season of True Blood? Did the publisher and editor think the series fans wouldn't notice? It reads, frankly, like a sellout. And as a reader of the series, I'm seriously hoping this isn't the next Anita Blake series in terms of steady deterioration of quality and content. This book makes me wonder. The editor seems to have done Ms. Harris a great injustice by letting it go out in such disconnected form and with so many continuity errors.
Let's hope that Book 10 gets Sookie Stackhouse back on course.
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