Dead Until Dark (Sookie Stackhouse, #1)

Author: Charlaine Harris

Rating: ⭐ 3/5

Date Read: 2014/09/17

Pages: 292

Most of the time I talk about books in a somewhat snobbish way, so it may surprise people to know that I do enjoy a bit of camp from time to time. Of course, in order for camp to be done well, it needs to be both completely unapologetic about being campy, while not being too serious about the whole thing. A wink needs to be implied, but not completely spelled out. <a href=“http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I16_8l0yS-g”>The plane scene from Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus is a fairly good example of this.

I always kind of liked True Blood: it’s amusingly, knowingly tawdry. Dead Until Dark, the first in the series on which True Blood was based, is similarly fun. The fact that there are vampires involved should temper my amusement somewhat, but I’m surprisingly okay with it. I’m still trying to work out why that is.

I do think that the book benefited significantly from me having seen the television show. Showtime typically puts out well done stuff, and True Blood combines excellent cinematography and good acting with the ridiculously campy storyline, to great effect. So, if you’re on the fence about reading this, just watch the tv show instead.