Living Dead In Dallas (2002) by Charlaine Harris is the second novel in the Sookie Stackhouse vampire series. I think there might be six or seven total? So far? Anyway, I thought Dead Until Dark was kind of fun and once I start anything, I like to finish it--unless it's absolutely horrible, so I grabbed the second novel.Sookie Stackhouse, the young, uneducated, mind-reading, southern waitress is still in a relationship with her vampire boyfriend Bill Compton. And pretty much every man and vampire who comes into contact with her is still lusting after her. The regional leader vampire, Eric, sends Sookie and Bill down to Dallas where Sookie uses her mind-reading abilities to help find a missing vampire in the area.
This book was much like the first in the series, a fun and quick read. Sookie is a generally spunky and likable character and the plot moved along quickly enough. I guess I still have some reservations about these books, though. There is so much sexual violence throughout the book and it only seems to serve the purpose of titillation. I'm kind of curious what will happen to Sookie Stackhouse in the long run, but I can't help but feel kind of dirty after reading these novels. And not because I mind reading about sex in novels--if there's a point to it; but I feel like the vampires are just an excuse for different sexual fantasies and then there's some more violent sex thrown in for good measure, and that's the whole basis for the book. I'm always rather averse to authors throwing in some rape to show how protective a man is towards his woman. And I don't know anything about the author, but I get the feeling she's basing Sookie Stackhouse on the kind of woman she would like to be, which I also find kind of disturbing. Oh well, I'll probably eventually read the rest of the series and then I might have a better idea of what's bothering me.
2 comments:
I don't feel like the sex is the main point of this series at all. Yes, it is important because the books start at the beginning of Sookie losing her virginity and joining the rest of the "adults" and feeling normal, but even with that experience she is still never looked at as being someone the rest of the town can trust or wants to be friendly with. I think it is more important to look at the fact that she is being alienated by most of the characters she comes in contact with, whether it's the vampires using her just for her abilities, being judged by every townsperson who isn't her friend, and even her friends don't know what to do with her half the time. I would definitely recommend you read more, because little aspects of the plot become huge in later books. Things like how she came to have her telepathic ability, or how some of the vampires came into being, and also the other supernatural creatures that come into the book. Obviously we all have different tastes, but I found the Twilight series to be too juvenile and unimaginative for my tastes. It just seemed like someone brought out their diary from junior high and wrote about the crush they had that never came to fruition, and she doesn't develop the characters in any sense of the word. They are very basic and shallow in my opinion, but again, I guess it depends on what you are looking for in a book! Anyhow, happy reading!
I just recently read the first seven of the series (they came in a boxed set), and I was hesitant for the first few books. For me, I started enjoying them a lot more around book 4. The main issue I have isn't so much with the sex but with the fact that just about every single supernatural character Sookie meets at some point or another wants to have sex with her.
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