Customer Reviews

Sookie Stackhouse 7 Copy Boxed Set

5 star:		(33)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I am now hooked on the Sookie Stackhouse series. After watching the show, True Blood, I wanted to see how the books compared to the show. They compare quite nicely and took me into a crazy, vampire-filled world that seems to get better and better with each passing book. I highly recommend this set, so that once you read the first, you can go on to the second and so on and so forth. A great addition to any library! I also liked and would recommend Dead Sexy: Two Tales of Vampire Erotica.

I love this series! It is the best by far that I have read! I prefer hardcover but I bought this for a friend. It is a great deal to get started in this series! BUT WATCH THE ORDER OF THE BOOKS!! For some reason the manufacturer puts them in the wrong order in the boxed set and I have had more than one mortified friend start reading them out of order! Check the dates and the inside cover to make sure you are reading them in order! The Author's web page is also a good resource! Enjoy! I know I will, over and over and over again!

So much fun to read! I started as a fan of True Blood on HBO, found the books, and it kind of went from there. Keeps my attention, totally different than anything else I've ever read and just fun all around.

This set is a very good read for any True Blood fan or just a reader looking to escape into the fun world that Charlene Harris has created. The Sookie Stackhouse books are a great spin on the traditional vampire themed genre. The premise for the series is that vampires have outed themselves to the world at large and are trying to integrate within the larger society thanks to the invention of a synthetic blood drink called True Blood. The series focuses on a small town in Louisiana and how one residence there (Sookie Stackhouse) gets drawn into this new world while still dealing with everyday issues. The biggest compliment I can give Charlene Harris is that even though she continues to write many books in this series the stories have not become repetitive and she continues to expand the world in which these stories are set by building upon the social fabric and well introduced new characters. These are a fun read and highly recommended. Two points I would add;
1. If you can commit to reading the series, although each book is a self-contained story I think the story is not as rich without the back stories.
2. Again my biggest compliment is usually in this genre after the first book or two the confines of the world are established and then each book is usually formulaic.. .with main characters.. Introduce new characters, some big event, main characters work through event, new characters die or are sacrificed for plotline. Charlene Harris ignores this and has a rich universe of well developed characters that are central and peripheral to many books within the series.

Time well spent!

I cannot recommend this series more highly. Charlaine Harris is an amazing story teller, the books are compelling, sexy, funny, and utterly unique. I have not seen the HBO series spin off, so I can't compare then to the True Blood phenomena, but I have to say that Sookie Stackhouse is one of my all time favorite characters in literature, second only to Elizabeth Bennett of Austen's "Pride and Prejudice". Sookie is witty, ballsy, and knows herself to be as human as we all are. Her 'disability', her telepathic prowess, is not what makes her so special, it is her charm, her determination, and her utter likability. You will fall in love with Sookie, her world, her friends, and her struggle to live a 'normal' life in an extraordinary setting. I read the series of 7 books in just under 2 weeks, and you will find them impossible to put down. I eagerly await the delivery of the next two books in this series, and can only pray that Charlaine Harris supplies us all with a great deal more Sookie Stackhouse in the future!

Urban fantasy usually takes place in, you know, urban areas. Cities, big towns, and places where vampires and weres creep in dank alleys.

But Charlaine Harris took a slightly different approach in the Sookie Stackhouse series, the first seven books of which are compiled in this box set. While it has many of the genre staples -- fae, werebeasties and vampires -- this series is solidly entrenched in warm Southern charm and mellow mysteries.

In "Dead Until Dark," waitress Sookie Stackhouse can read minds, which is more of a curse than a blessing. But when she meets and befriends vampire Bill Compton, she discovers that she is unable to read vampire minds. Unfortunately she's run afoul of some vile people who want to drain Bill of his blood.

And she has some personal problems as well -- her grandmother has been viciously murdered, and she's quickly getting in over her head in the world of the mainstream undead. And as she tries to find the murderer, Sookie finds that the supernatural world is a lot more complicated -- and close to home -- than she ever dreamed.

"Living Dead in Dallas" is what it sounds like -- Sookie is hired by vampires over a kidnapping, and ends up mired in a disastrous situation involving werewolves, Texan vamps, and a fanatical religious cult that hates the supernatural. "Club Dead" brings Sookie some relationship problems when Bill becomes inattentive... and vanishes. Sookie sets out to find her absentee lover along with Eric and the werewolf Alcide, but the result isn't what she expects.

Post-breakup, Sookie has problems in "Dead to the World" when she's confronted by a devious band of witches in Shreveport, as well as handling her brother's disappearance and a newly amnesiac (and naked!) Eric. And "Dead as a Doornail" embroils Sookie in the inevitable werepolitics -- someone is shooting shifters, and there's a new potential werewolf leader in town. And Sookie may be the next victim.

"Definitely Dead" and "All Together Dead" brings Sookie back to the vampire political arena. First she heads to a pre-Katrina New Orleans when her vampire cousin is murdered, and learns a surprising fact about her family tree. And then she's called to a vampire summit where the Vampire Queen of Louisiana is being accused of murder. Of course, things get rough.

The Sookie Stackhouse series does a great job of avoiding the usual pitfalls of urban fantasy -- it's not all doom'n'gloom, gothic pomposity and angst. Instead, it's soaked in down-home Southern charm, the pleasant little town of Bon Temps, and a generally mellow, relaxed atmosphere all throughout the series.

Of course, it doesn't stop Harris from piling on gruesome murders and nasty psychos here and there, as well as a few subplots that are deftly juggled in each book. Her style is warm, steady and mildly tongue-in-cheek ("We'd dumped a body together, and that cre ates a bond"), and she introduces some unique ideas into the usual hierarchies of weres and vampires (such as Elvis Presley, now a vampire!).

What flaws? Well, Sookie's love life and attractiveness has her occasionally bordering on Anita Blake territory. That, we do not need.

Despite that problem, Sookie is a likable character -- an unpretentious and no-nonsense waitress who doesn't go looking for trouble, but whose telepathic talents often draw it to her. And there's plenty of other likable characters: the charming Viking vampire Eric, Sookie's flaky werepanther brother Jason, her down-to-earth werecollie boss Sam, and many others.

The only characters who don't click are the boring and slightly creepy Bill, and the weretiger Quinn (a machismo-dripping nonentity). Bill at least serves a purpose, but I honestly don't know why Quinn is there.

"Sookie Stackhouse Books 1-7" is a solid collection of Charlaine Harris's warm, Southern-scented urban fantasies. It has some rough spots, but it's a good lighthearted read.

I watched a few episodes of HBO's Trueblood and got really intrigued by the different take on this whole genre and decided to read the books. I absolutely love this book series. To my delight there's just enough difference between the TV series and the first novel to make it interesting and the characters and plots are so well developed it makes you want to keep reading book after book. There's such a wonderful balance of humor,romance and suspense with each novel having a new and refreshing angle so it never gets boring. I hope this book series never ends!

I've read all 7 of these books in a little less that 1 month. I just couldn't put the books down! Charlaine Harris writes so cleverly, and she makes the story so interesting (and steamy! lol) Once I read the books, I started watching True Blood. There are some differences in characters and stories, but I still am continuing to read the rest of the series. Great read! Even if you don't watch the show, you'll adore the books! I prefer the story of the books to the tv show.... A must read!

Fans of the True Blood series will really enjoy reading these books. Ms. Harris has a funny, engaging writing style that grabs your attention and keeps it until the very last page.

I breezed through these books within a month or two. They are soooo addictive! There is a theme or pattern that develops eventually: Sookie falls in love, Sookie gets hurt, Sookie is rescused. But love them!