Scott Reads It!

Seen at Scott Reads It There will be some minor spoilers. Dead Reckoning is the 11th book in Charlaine Harris's bestselling Sookie Stackhouse series. It's not necessarily a bad book but I had difficulty getting through the first half of the book. I hate leaving books unfinished but I just couldn't read any more. I had started reading in August and didn't finish until this week (nearly 5 months later). I was in the mood for something light on New Year's Eve so I decided to pick up where I left off. The Sookie Stackhouse series started off in 2001 with Dead Until Dark. In 12 years Sookie Stackhouse has really going through alot including murder plots, a bombing, an affair with a weretiger, being attacked by various supernatural creatures and so much more. She has fallen in and out of love multiple times with different men. There is something addictive about this series but the series started to lose steam with Dead In The Family. Dead In The Family was ridiculously slow paced and nothing seemed to happen as I recall. (I even went back on wikipedia and read the plot summary yesterday. I didn't miss anything by the way and I could tell why I hated it.) Dead Reckoning was very mediocre for the majority of the book. Much of the book follows our protagonist Sookie Stackhouse following errands and talking to Eric about a murder plot on Victor. Sookie got on my nerves several times during Dead Reckoning and I hated how helpless she kept acting. In the first nine books Sookie would always be brave and couragous but lately she has been so helpless. When danger arrives at her home Sookie just runs to Bill's house, strips down, and jumps on naked Bill. Yes, you heard me right. "Sookie" he murmered. "Bill, thank God you're awake." "You're unclothed." Trust a man to mention that first. Sookie what is wrong with you? You come to Bill's house in the nude and you have the gall to think Bill is hitting on you. Personally Bill is one of my favorite characters but I wanted to cringe during this scene. It felt unnecessarily awkward and so unlike Sookie. I think Harris was trying to make it seem like Sookie isn't completely head over hells for Eric but it just made me feel disgusted. Then Harris being the writer she was, added some unnecessarily added a peculiar Alcide scene. There was someone in my bed. "Excuse me?" I said. Alcide Herveaux sat up. He was bare-chested. The rest of him I couldn't see under the sheet. Alcide decided to takes his chances now that Sookie and Eric broke the bond. Do you really think showing up naked in Sookie's bed will make her love you? I seriously couldn't stand many of the characters in this Sookie Stackhouse novel because they weren't the characters I loved in the first 9 books. All the characters were complete repulsive strangers to me that lacked common sense. The two characters I didn't mind in this book were Pam and Bill. I felt really bad for Pam with the whole Miriam and Victor situation. It wasn't Bill's fault that Sookie ended up naked in his house. So many of the scenes in Dead Reckoning were frivolous and were complete drivel. I don't understand why Harris added all these scenes that were unnecessary and as a result Dead Reckoning's plot didn't flow well. Literally half the book was scenes like this one: Just in case, I stopped at the Piggly Wiggly and got some. Grabbed up some milk, too. And some bacon. I hadn't had a bacon sandwich in ages.." I don't know about you but I don't like reading about a character doing errands. I wanted to see some awesome vampire action scenes or maybe a little bit of mystery. The name of this series is Southern Vampire Mysteries yet there is no actual mystery in this book. Besides the fact that Dead Reckoning lacked mystery and conflict for the majority of the novel, the novel also had some terrible dialogue. "What?""You heard me. I am so angry with you." He really mean it. "Come here," I said."No.."Where's the humor and the witty dialogue that I loved in previous books. The last 1/3 of Dead Reckoning deserves it's own paragraph because it's the best part of the book. I actually enjoyed the ending so this book because there was finally some action! The ending was the most well written part of the book and it lacked the cringe-worthy dialogue that made the first half intolerable. I really liked the way this book ended and I will be reading the sequel. The ending reminded me of the previous Southern Vampire Mysteries books and it was phenomenal (compared to the rest of the book). What made Dead Reckoning so difficult to read? It might have been the fact that nothing happened for most of the book. Dead Reckoning felt like a collection of random meaningless scenes, & the characters weren't acting like themselves. The writing didn't have the addictive quality that previous books had. I had to take a 5 month break from Dead Reckoning because it was that irritating. I feel like the series has been dragged out too long and that Charlaine Harris is in it just for the money. Harris's previous books were well-written and I felt like she put alot of effort creating the plot. I felt like Harris is burnt out and just wrote this book to get it over with. Whatever the reason that Dead Reckoning was a mediocre book, I will be reading this book only to find out who Sookie ends up with.