Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

SPOILERS! I think we all know now why Harris won't be touring to promote this book, because honestly, is ANYONE besides Harris herself happy with this book? Very few I would wager. Even Sam's pathetically small fan-base can't be terribly excited about Harris's poor execution of the HEA. I think one other reviewer summed it up best when she noted: "It's too bad Harris didn't care as much about her characters as her fans did." As many others have noted, the writing had declined over the past few books, but I had held out hope that Harris would put out her best efforts into the final volume, the conclusion to Sookie's beloved and long-running saga. Alas. It took 14-15 years and 13 books to have Sookie come full-circle, albeit bearing considerable physical and emotional scarring from her adventures? Is Sookie any better off now than she was in the beginning? No, definitely she is worse off. She's settled for second-best in her love life and hasn't expanded her life circle much at all. I can appreciate that someone like Sookie prefers the simple things in life, but at the same time, the supes opened up her world to so many more exciting possibilities than had ever existed for her previously (and she says as much, notably to Sam, in the 8th or 9th book). At the end of her journey of self-discovery, she's in the same place, having rejected what all along has been painted as something that energized and completed Sookie. I strongly favored Eric-Sookie, but I could have been happier with the actual resolution if Harris had painted Sam as a convincing alternative all along. While the reader has sensed throughout the series that Sam had interest in Sookie, she has never thought of him as anything other than boss and friend. I also think it's unfortunate that Harris opted to have Sookie TELL the reader about her friendship and bonds with Sam far more often than she SHOWED it in the previous 12 books. All of Harris's writing energy went into the larger-than-life character and fan favorite, Eric. And, in the end, she thumbed her nose at the vast majority of her fans and gave Eric a terrible ending, truly assassinating his character in a way I would never have dreamed possible. If Harris and I were having iced tea around the kitchen table, I'm sure she would tell me that Eric is HER character and that she was entitled to do what she wanted with him and that she understood him best, being his creator. But, I would counter that once a character is shared with others, that character belongs to us all, and thousands of fans (at least 75% of the Sookie fans were Eric/Sookie fans in poll after poll) can't be all wrong. Harris leaves most of her characters in a reasonably happy spot in the end (though I would quibble whether Sookie herself falls into that category). But Eric? Sold into sex slavery for 200 years, forbidden to have any contact with Sookie and exacting jealous vengeance by trying to thwart Sookie and Sam before that ever got underway so that Sookie can't even have fond memories of him? Really? That's the best you could do for the most beloved character you're ever going to create, Ms. Harris? That's your response to the years of devoted readership and loyal following from so many fans? Even if you truly did always intend Sam to be the HEA (and had to insert numerous deux ex machina and create inconsistencies galore and ignore completely much of what's been written in the last 8 or 9 books to get there), why would you leave Eric himself in such a terrible situation? You couldn't get creative and come up with a scenario wherein Eric and Sookie come to some heartfelt recognition that their differences were too great to overcome and have them part on good terms? Eric was the one who "got" Sookie - they shared the same sense of humor and the same exuberance for life, as Bill and others had pointed out and noted. Their relationship had taken books of gradual and sustained build-up. To have it end in such an out-of-character way was sloppy, small-minded and unfair in the extreme. It showed no respect whatsoever for the bulk of your fan-base, and I have no respect for you as an author as a result. The adage "readers like to be fooled but not deceived or conned or cheated" applies to you too, Ms. Harris. It was not a clever "aha!" twist to suddenly shoehorn Sam into the HEA. It required a good bit of cheating to get there, and doing so at the expense of the best character you're likely to ever create and his legions of fans was certainly not honorable or worthy of you.