I'm on book 5, "Dead as a Doornail" now after having breezed through the first 4 books and I gotta say I feel like not enough people talk about this series as a great example of world building and monster lore.
So I liked True Blood when it first came out, was disappointed in most of the things people complain about (Jason and Tara becoming unbearable characters, them not really knowing what to do with Lafayette, the annoying love quadrangle, etc.).
I honestly didn't get into the books because I thought they were going to be a messy romance series and that's just not my thing. To my surprise they're so much better than I expected! Sookie is a great protagonist, even if she's a bit of a bitch at times that just seems to add to her charm and makes her feel more 'real' to me.
The romance stuff is surprisingly few and far between, and the characters have so much more likeability to them and you can see why Sookie feels the way she feels about the monsters in her life.
Now, I haven't read the other books so I don't know what happens with her and Bill in them, but so far I feel likes he's the worst. He's that first relationship you get into when you still don't know yourself and if anyone knows what a childhood like Sookies can do to a person's psyche, the relationship where any interest in you feels like true and everlasting love. I feel like the show tried really hard to make him more sympathetic and the book doesn't even bother with that mess.
Overall I just think it's a fun series with way more world building than I expected, interesting lore, and characters that make sense and do (usually) rational things. True Blood the show really did it no justice and focused way too hard on Sookies love life when it should have focused on the monsters and more buffyesque life of Sookie.
by QueenOdonata
33 Comments
I 100% agree. I adored these books and still find myself going back to them.
So underrated they adapted into a tv show that ran 7 seasons!
Who said they are under rated. They were so popular they made a series out of them.
I remembered reading the first of her Gunnie Rose books a few years back. Like a sidewinder western with wizards. It was actually really fun, so you might like that as well.
I spent a summer reading through them and they are perfection as a beach read.
They are really fun. But the author writes the worst sex scenes.
Love the books.
Read the whole series and strongly encourage you to finish them off. They are a pretty fun, and easy, read. I was so disappointed by the show I barely made it to the second season. If they would have stayed true to the books it would have been so good. Why don’t they ever stay true to the books?
I enjoyed the books, though my affection was definitely strained by the last two. I never even made it through Season 1 of the TB series.
I liked these books at first – good stories, fun reads – but stopped reading the series after maybe the 7th or 8th book. The main reason was that I got really tired of Sookie. That character never seems to learn anything or evolve. At first, she was an interesting character. She was naive and overly-trusting, but it worked for her and was realistic for the environment she lived in. But you’d expect her to learn something from her experiences as time went on. That deep into the series and she’s still making obviously bad choices? Like hey, lady, you hang out with vampires and stuff, stop meandering down random dark alleys. When I found myself hoping that Sookie would get murdered by someone, anyone, I knew it was time to go read something else.
Oooh I’m glad you posted about them! I’d considered reading them after enjoying true blood but kind of forgot about it.
I loved them, read them all quickly as they were coming out. Was not a fan of the show, but enjoyed all the novels, except for the very last one. I will eagerly await an update when your all done, I just don’t want to share my opinion and potentially spoil something for you.
I loved them, all, but the last one left me a little “eh”.
*The early sookie stackhouse books.
A lot of the time I don’t like when show adaptations aren’t faithful to the books but True Blood is the one case where I think it works well. The Sookie Stackhouse series is so much fun on its own and then the show does certain things that are better than the books like with Tara, Lafayette, Arlene, Terry, and Andy’s character development and storylines. I always come back to the books though for Sookie and Sam.
Agree entirely. I was really surprised that True Blood changed so much to add drama when they really could have just followed the books and had a much better story. Hearing about shows like the witcher now where it seems like the show writers just want to write their own story in an established fan base and world it makes me wonder if that was the case with True blood. They can’t stand following the authors original story line.
Also I hate that they cut how supportive and fun Eric was. They flattened a lot of the vampire characters to make it more dark and broody ascetic. He showed up ready to play the part for her from the beginning (love the them going to the orgy together to find info).
I read this series with my Mom in my late teens before the show came out; since we don’t have similar reading taste, it always brings up fond memories. I enjoyed the Harper Connelly series as well.
Well, you are at a point in the series that is sooo good. I don’t remember all the plot details any more, but I remember the sweet tension between the protagonists and the action scenes still felt fresh and new. It gets old quickly though. Sookie goes to the library, sunbathes in the garden, but soon enough wades through some blood pools in fights, witnesses the craziest creatures in action, and goes totally unfazed back to her library trips, the sunbathing, the random flirting. Eventually you can’t distinguish one book from the other. I stopped towards the end of the series and have zero regrets.
Loved the books so much – have reread them multiple times. Liked the show but was a bit disappointed (which is normal for most adaptations, I think). Charlaine Harris is one of my go to, just want to read and not have to think much authors – her stories and characters are just easy to enjoy and get invested in without having to try to dig deep into the why are they the way they are
They’re my favorite books and she’s my favorite author. I love Charlaine Harris’s writing so much. You must read her other books too
I too loved these books and flew through them. I think it was just after my Linda Fairstein phase? Definitely recommend, thanks for reminding me to keep an eye out for them at thrift stores, etc. in hopes of one day rereading. 🙂
I love this series! I have reread them a couple times, they are a fun, quick read to pull me out of a reading funk. I have watched the first few seasons of true blood too and like others have said, the first one is ok but then it goes downhill quick. Definitely stick to the books.
I absolutely loved them and was so stoked to get to meet Charlene Harris! TrueBlood actually killed my love of the series and I don’t think that I ever finished it up. Thanks for the reminder to revisit them!
I really liked them at first, but I found the quality diminished with the later books so I stopped reading them. I liked True Blood at first too, but it also started getting worse, so I skipped the last season. Though, I tried rewatching recently and didn’t like it at all, so maybe it didn’t start to suck, I just got old enough to notice lol.
I like the books and the show. I reread and rewatch fairly regularly.
The thing that always gets me is the illustrated sort of childish covers? How many kids picked up the series and got a BIG shock?
I love these books. Sure they’re not high literature but they’re a fun easy read with a protagonist who isn’t perfect and don’t rely on bland stereotypes or tropes.
I think the last book in the series really suffered from coming out at the height of the Twilight craze because it attracted a lot of young readers who were very into the love triangle aspect and panned the final book for not feeding into their fandoms – when the books and Sookie were so far beyond any love triangles by that time it shouldn’t have even been a blip on the radar. It got review bombed – and some of the criticism is valid but a huge amount of it was ‘boy vs boy’ nonsense.
I like that the whole series doesn’t revolve around Sookie agonising over which choice of two toxic assholes she should be with forever.
I was so sad that true blood was so dark. Some of the silliness of the books really made them special and enjoyable. Eric liked to braid Skokie’s hair? Bubba? If you like these, you should try the Kate Daniela series by Ilona Andrews. similar vibe
My 40m girlfriend 42f is moving in as she speaks. True Blood rewatch is going to be our first ritual. She doesn’t know.
I haven’t read these since the last one came out in… oh god. May 2013. 10 years is probably due for a re-read
Imo these books did not age gracefully. The first few books are fine but charlaine makes sookie come.off super conservative sometimes and liberal other times. She says fuck in 1 sentence, then heck in the next.
I really wish they adapted Quinn to tv!
And the plot gets so redundant..charlaine also makes sookie come off as dumb a lot of times too.. especially after the word calendar became a trade market. She.also spends so much time recapping the previous book!
I’m re reading and watching the show right now.
I love the books so much more than the show. I’ve read them over and over. Easy to read, a great babysitter for the brain with all the fun characters and storyline. Show Sookie annoys me to no end, book Sookie is funny, humble, accepting, resourceful and clever. Show Sookie is judgmental, a whiner and not funny at all. She’s always mad at someone or moping about some imagined slight. I was over Anna Paquin’s portrayal by the second episode. Just awful.
Book Bill Compton is much more palatable than show Bill. I feel like the only time you really get to see Bill on the show as he’s written is after the ridiculous “Billith” arc. He’s tortured but not in a galling way. He’s kind, quiet, and still a bit of a loner. His friendship with Sookie is a wonderful read, you know he loves her but he’s not as desperate about it, imo.
Book Pam is also superior. She likes Sookie, she’s funny, and she’s a lethal fighter. You don’t get any of the crudeness of show Pam, either. Show Pam also has some amazing moments but I really missed the relationship she forms with Sookie over time in the ooks.
I love Skarsgård as Eric but I wish they’d let him be as funny and mischievous as the character is in the books. He really enjoys toying with Bill in his flirtation with Sookie, he doesn’t take him seriously at all. I’ve laughed out loud at times, reading the interactions of the 4 main characters.
I do love what the show did with the Lafayette Reynolds character. I was heartbroken when Nelsan Ellis died, his portrayal of that character was truly brilliant and in the show I don’t think any other character comes close to being as well fleshed out.
I also loved the addition of Jessica Hamby to the show. It was fun watching a ‘baby vamp’ struggle with being made vampire. I can’t imagine anyone but Deborah Ann Woll playing her, either. She’s laugh out loud funny, too, with the antics she gets up to using her new abilities.
“Becky Eubanks is a stuck up whore who let Jace finger her in the church!!”
I will say I also have watched the show in its entirety, too, several times but if I had to choose between the two, it would be the books.
The Hotshot folks were pretty grossly portrayed in the show, I just found it sickening. I really liked Calvin Norris in the books and making them all out to be a bunch of gross, mentally deficient, inbreeding, drug dealers
was so disappointing and just so cliché.
Also, the difference between the fae in the books and show was vast. I loved Claudine in the books but show Claudine was just so bad. She’s not nearly as gorgeous and every time you see her she’s in that ridiculous fairy dress and mincing around. Book Claudine was beautiful, tall, always cheerful and smiling and when necessary, a lethal fighter as well.
Do yourself a favour if you liked the show, and go pick up the books.
Oh yeah, Jason and Tara? Unbearable in the show, just…unbearable.
These books have been my ultimate comfort reads for over ten years. I LOVE them!