Dead in the Family

Level: Explicit Lite

Genre: Fantasy/Horror > Vampires/Urban Fantasy

Obtained: Borrowed from library

Reviewed by: Nic Echo

About the Book:

In then tenth installment of the Sookie Stackhouse series, our main heroine runs into more murder and still remains entwined in the supernatural world.  After Sookie allows the Shreveport pack to roam her woods on a full moon night, one of them tells her that he smelled several odd things: an old corpse and fairies. The corpse is none other than Debbie Pelt, a shifter Sookie killed in self-defence in Dead and Gone, so she isn't terribly worried about that. However, the portals between the human and Faery world have been locked shut, causing Sookie to wonder who it could be. Is it a good fairy like her cousin, Claude? Or is it a fairy with malintent? Perhaps it's even her crazy half-human, half-fairy great-uncle Dermot.

A few days later, Sookie has the werewolf's claims verified by one of Eric's vampires, but something new has arisen. The vampire has scented that another fairy has been on Sookie's land, and there is also a fresh corpse buried there.

Rating: 6/10 Stars

 There seems to be too much going on in this books: murders, mysterious fairies, and even Eric's maker makes an appearance to stir up trouble. Subplots are one thing (such as Sookie's romances), but I think this book may have been better if there didn't seem to be three separate plots pushed together (although they do tie together in the end). The plots were, at least, interesting.

We do get to meet some new characters, some of which proved to be quite interesting such as Appius Livius Ocella, Eric's maker, and his new fledgling, Alexei, a Russian royal who "died" at the age of thirteen. Although the latter has had a traumatic past, Harris writes him off quite well, causing the reader a small tension whenever he is on the page. Sookie also meet Dermot for the first time, who turns out to have been cursed for some time now. Dermot doesn't seem to be quite as interesting as Appius or Alexei though he doesn't really get as much "screen time" either.

However, even with the interesting characters and the busy yet interesting plots, there were three things that had me seething. The first is right after Sookie finds out about the new body. Eric comes over and Sookie only wants two things: to tell Eric about the body and to have sex. Now, I can understand the latter to a point. Sex can be quite the stress reliever. However, after Eric bores her with tedious information (during which she is whining that she rather be having sex), she decides that the problem involving the body isn't nearly as important as getting a nice shag. Seriously, Sookies poo poos the idea of telling her vampire lover about a BODY simply so she can reach the "ultimate ecstasy." If she keeps this up, Sookie may find herself following in Anita Blake's footsteps.

Actually, another of the things that pissed me off was in that same scene. When I said Eric bored Sookie with tedious information, I wasn't lying about it being tedious. When Eric enters, he tells Sookie that had important information that cannot wait. So what is so drastic? How the United States is divided up for vampires. Not only was the information confusing at times, but it had nothing to do with the book at hand. Maybe it will be used in a future book, but if that is the case, it would have made more sense to put it in that story rather than wasting our time for several pages.

The final thing that irratated me involved Dermot. When we meet him, we learn that is cursed, but by the end of the book

he is cured by Claude kissing him. I kid you not! There could have been such potential there, but instead Dermot's insanity is cured in one sentence by something so ridiculous your eyes will be stuck from rolling.

END SPOILERS

So, all in all, the plot wasn't too shabby though there seemed to be too much going on at times. Harris also introduces us to some new and interesting characters, but her old characters seem to be getting more irksome (let's hope this isn't the start of a downward slide for Harris). It's not the worst book there ever was, and it still provided a light and enjoyable read. However, I have to say this is not the best in the Stackhouse series.

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