Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Spoiler Disclaimer: I will try to write this review with as few spoilers as possible however be aware that it is difficult to review a book without talking about the plot or characters. There are many troubling aspects in the writing of this book. The most troubling of all is with the heroine, Sookie, herself. Until Chapter 9 Sookie does not bear any resemblance to the Sookie in the previous 12 books. She is extremely angry toward everyone, often snapping at people for no reason. She is also profane in her thoughts and words to the extent that profanity appears at least once or twice on every page until Chapter 9. Also, her mood is very dark, her thoughts are very dark and her whole outlook is very dismal. But, perhaps the most jarring of differences is the bigotry of Sookie in this part of the book. It is in stark contrast to the Sookie in the previous books who always defended the underdog who was suffering from some sort of prejudice. She talks constantly throughout the book of how being a human is better. It gets so bad that you expect to suddenly see a sign outside a store that reads, Vamps and Weres enter here. All the while that she is saying and thinking these things, she forgets that she and Sam are supes themselves. In one section she's telling how afraid she is of vampires and how awful they are for being killers, but in the next section she's talking blithely about Sam having the same propensity. She speculates that he could have killed Arlene and dumped her body, but probably didn't. You get the feeling that she and Sam are "passing" for normal and like others who have hid their true selves in the past, they persecute those like themselves who are not "passing." It's very disturbing as the books are driven by the vampires "coming out." There are also sections where she is emotionally dead and they last for long periods. She seems to be behind a grey veil. For awhile I wondered if the CD had changed her as she speculated it had changed Sam, but she was back for awhile in Chapter 9, the same girl we always knew. Her sudden shift from proclamations of love and incessant thoughts about one character then jumping in bed with another character about 10 days later are also out of character. In previous books she always took much more time between relationships. She indulges in some sex that can only be described as trailer trash, Jane Bodehouse-style, D-list porn. Then she claims it is the best she ever had and that she may be with this character by Christmas...or maybe not. Frankly, all of this is just jarring and serves no purpose to the book at all. The foul language and blatant discrimination are repulsive and also serve no purpose to the book. There are many other ways this character could have been written and the plot driven in this book. Any good editor should have and would have caught this. (This is a lesson in why you never employ friends or fans.) The main character as a result becomes a complete failure in her last hoorah which is sad to say the least. The use of 3rd person omniscient is not used for any useful purpose here. The prologue would have sufficed for the mystery. After that it was unnecessary and was incredibly intrusive. It felt like the author was saying, "Oh you didn't get it so let me hammer it into you." As if anyone who had read the books wouldn't recognize who was reading the bible or listening to his old sermons. (Not a spoiler as the prologue was published before.) A better use of 3rd person would be to enter the minds of those other significant supporting characters who have been around for so long taking up much of the books. She could have spent the time shedding light on their thoughts and motivations rather than shining light on an already obvious plotline. Last the entire book feels like it was put together with a shoe horn. Different sub-plots seem completely unrelated and contrived to just get us to the end. There is so much telling rather than showing that it is insulting. By the end you will feel as if the author "schooled" you rather than showed you the story through Sookie's eyes. There are blatant consistency errors. A perfect example of this is when Sookie claims she cannot read supe minds. She has read Eric and Alcide's minds very clearly. She reads Sam's mind in the short story If I Had A Hammer which Harris herself says comes after the books. This as so many other things is contrived blatantly to get her to an ending that she claims she wanted from book 2. In all honesty the wind down of Sookie's previous relationship could have and should have been taken care of two books ago (one at the least). It would have made sense then and left enough time to build to the second relationship. Instead the second relationship is thrown on us out of the blue. While the build up to Sookie's desire for normalcy and children was built over the last book and first third of this one, her feelings beyond friendship for the man in her next relationship are not. As a result, this relationship seems very forced and unconvincing. This will be a let down for any fans of that pairing. There are still other blatant consistency errors that seem to be for the sake of shoving in the ending she wants, but they are just too numerous to mention. This book is an onerous snarl of a beast that offers no enjoyment. Harris' Southern characters always reminded me a bit of Faulkner despite the fact that she lacked his writing skills. After this book, I am left with a line Faulkner quotes in the beginning of The Sound and The Fury that describes Sookie's narration and her last tale precisely: it is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing. (Shakespeare, Macbeth, Act V, Scene v)