Dead to the World (Sookie Stackhouse / Southern Vampire Series #4)

Dead to the World (Sookie Stackhouse / Southern Vampire Series #4) - Sookie has a new year’s resolution – no more violence, no more being beaten up, no more dangerous situationsUntil she finds Eric, the ancient vampire Sheriff, running half naked down the road without his memories. This rapidly leads to her harbouring the ancient, but clueless vampire from the attentions of a vicious and lethal witch who not only has the vampires in her sights, but is also kidnapping the local witches and killing off the local werewolves as well.As if keeping an ancient – and beautiful – vampire safe wasn’t enough, her brother has also gone missing. And it’s not like she can rely on any of the supernatural community to make finding Jason a priority at the best of times, let alone at the cusp of a war against invading vampire blood drinking werewolf witches. Which leaves it to her to investigate.The story in this book is well done, paced and revealed. Starting from a basic standpoint – Eric being targeted and Sookie’s accommodating that was slowly expanded as we saw Hallow and her forces having a wider and more all-encompassing agenda. It wasn’t a story with twists – we had a clear enemy from the very beginning, a clear goal and the only thing that really changed was the scope of the enemy’s focus and the abilities she had in which to pursue her goals. But it wasn’t a story that needed twists, beyond a second parallel running alongside – it worked on its own back by expanding the world considerably with the witches and the werewolf pack. These new threads being drawn into the story to face off against Hallow added depth to the plot without the need for twists, turns and surprises.I do also like a story that has multiple threads running through it, even if they act as red herrings. It makes it clear that just because something is the primary issue in Sookie’s life, doesn’t mean it’s going to be the all encompassing issue in everyone else’s and there can be several actors, with their own agendas, their own threads and their own drives. It’s good to see that not all issues are resolved with just one battle, one enemy defeated.One thing that works well in this book and in the series in general is the community ties. I can really get a sense of Bon Temps as a real place. Everyone knows everyone else, Sookie can track relations and degrees of separations with everyone. She knows who is whose relatives, who is whose friend, their histories, their ties to everyone else in the town makes even the smallest characters into people.The one downside to this is that, as I explain before, Sookie knows everyone and has nothing kind to say about them.With the introduction of Claudine this world is expanded a little more – I think I’d like it a lot more if I didn’t know that it’s not going to be expanded much more on that. But the world still remains solid and interesting – the introduction of magic and witchcraft certainly adds new dimensions to the world.Read More