The Southern Vampire Mysteries – Books 1, 2 & 3 of 13
True Blood Omnibus – Charlaine Harris
Goodreads rating: 4.19/5 (1400+ ratings)
My rating: 4/10
Why it’s on the list: I love True Blood the TV series, and had already read the first book, Dead Until Dark, and wanted to continue the series.
Genre: Mystery, Fantasy, Romance
The True Blood Omnibus is made up of the first three books of The Southern Vampire Mysteries:
- Dead Until Dark (Published May 1st, 2001)
- Living Dead in Dallas (Published March 2002)
- Club Dead (Published May 2003)
I’d previously read, and reviewed Dead Until Dark, so won’t talk about that in this post but check out that review for a basic rundown of the series.
Although I quite enjoyed Book #1, unfortunately I felt like Books 2 & 3 just combined into one long, boring, badly written novel. It reads like a constant circle of; Sookie is in love with Bill > Sookie is angry at Bill > Sookie gets in a fight/is attacked/is taken and is injured > Sookie saves herself > multiple male vampires/werewolves/shifters come to look after her > Sookie wants to have sex with said vampire/werewolf/shifter > Sookie goes back to Bill. And so the circle of Sookie’s life continues.
Unlike the TV Series, where you feel real danger for Sookie, the books make the fighting or tense scenes really quick and like Sookie gets out of bad situations much too easily. The only thing I liked about the books was that Sookie is generally a strong woman (most of the time) and knows what she wants.
The writing is really, really, bad. Sometimes I had to go back and re-read sentences multiple times before understanding what Harris was trying to say. This could be reflective of my reading skills, but somehow I don’t think so.
I will continue to read the series, as I hate to start something and not finish, however if you haven’t started this series yet, I wouldn’t bother and suggest you just go watch True Blood which is awesome.
-H-
Sorry to hear the True Blood books aren’t as good as the series. Perhaps it take the visual medium to make the drama better. I’ve felt that way about the Dexter book series compared to the TV version, too.
So, are you trying any other vampire series?
It could be but I think the books just don’t build the story up well. I don’t think it’s the visual element, I feel the books are badly written.
I will be reading some others I think, but not In the next few months