There are a couple of things that really annoyed me that I have to call out. First, throughout the series, Harris insults the reader's intelligence by discounting Sookie's. For example, we are constantly reminded that Sookie is merely a waitress and doesn't have a college education; the larger words in Sookie's vocabulary are always explained as being from her Word-a-Day calendar (gah!); and her entire knowledge about the world is apparently based on romance novels and mysteries, because she says so. Why can't she just be a smart, sassy heroine, damn it? Sookie agrees for the benefit of Sophie-Anne to listen to the thoughts of humans at The Summit, attended by powerful vampires. Sophie-Anne is accused of killing her husband, though Sookie knows that she is innocent. Sookie discovers a bomb planted outside of the Louisiana suite and warns Sophie-Anne. At Sophie-Anne's trial Sookie helps to prove that Sophie-Anne's accusers are being manipulated. Sophie-Anne's child, Andre Paul, forces Sookie to exchange blood with him to try to tie Sookie to Sophie-Anne. Eric exchanges blood with Sookie to prevent Sookie being tied to Andre. This exchange with Eric causes Sookie to become more closely bonded to Eric. Sookie and fellow telepath Barry Horowitz, who met previously in Dallas, learn that multiple bombs have been planted in the hotel by the Fellowship of the Sun. Sookie and Barry help to get some humans and vampires free before the bombs detonate. Sookie and Barry discover that if they hold hands their telepathy is magnified and by doing this they help find humans buried in the rubble. Sookie finds Andre alive but Quinn stakes him to stop his intentions to use Sookie. Sophie-Anne escapes but loses her legs. Sookie rescues Eric, Pam and Bill.

The relationship between Bill and Sookie is getting closer to a normal human relationship. They have fights, they buy gifts, they do human things together. In the meantime, there are several murders in Bon Temps, and people believe that Bill is behind the murders because many of the bodies have fang marks. The Bon Temps police suspect Sookie's brother Jason and arrest him because he has been romantically linked to two of the victims. Sookie wants to help her brother and asks Bill to take her to a vampire bar called Fangtasia in nearby Shreveport. I rated this series with 3 stars, because some of you may reasonably get into the story. As well, the writing style is great. IMO the story got a bit redundant; the main character always looking for Bill, having to bully her way around many other characters to find him. And then it turns out later that things in the main relationship between the main characters don't turn out as planned anyway... And then fairies are introduced... in a vampire/werewolf story. I wont give any more away than that. I did have a fun time, for the most part, reading through the first few books, but I just couldn't get into them overall. You may like them, especially if you are a teen female reader. Not trying to stereotype.

Bill Compton - First vampire in Bon Temps and Sookie's boyfriend. Bill is trying to mainstream (A vampire who is trying to live among humans and live as humans do or at least live in harmony with them.) My mother finally took me to a child psychologist, who knew exactly what I was, but she just couldn’t accept it and kept trying to tell my folks I was reading their body language and was very observant, so I had good reason to imagine I heard people’s thoughts. Of course, she couldn’t admit I was literally hearing people’s thoughts because that just didn’t fit into her world.” Following his broken relationship with Sookie, Bill briefly dated a real estate agent named Selah Pumfrey. Bill makes it obvious that he still carries a torch for Sookie and continues to try to be involved in her life. Despite the dated outfits and the stereotypical characters, there are some really originat characters as well. Eric is a good character, as is Pam, Jason and Amelia. Sookie's ok...we would just not be besties...

For example: Bubba. We all know who Bubba is don't we? But the secrecy of bot saying his name is so (dare i say it) suspenseful! I think the vampires seemed more creepy than they do in more teenage vampire books. I think in vampire books for young adults they come across as kind of mysterious and you always seem to think they're trustworthy by the third chapter and they're meant to seem attractive and like you would want to be friends with them. In Dead Until Dark they come across as creepy and untrustworthy but still slightly mysterious at the same time. And with Bill you're not supposed to be sure whether you can trust him or not but with most of the other vampires in the book they seem completely evil. Charlaine Harris has been a published novelist for over thirty-five years. A native of the Mississippi Delta, she grew up in the middle of a cotton field. Charlaine lives in Texas now, and all of her children and grandchildren are within easy driving distance. It was written a bit too simply to hold my attention. The sex scenes were more Cinemax, not imaginative. And the character Sookie has an interesting talent but is otherwise incredibly dull. After I finished the first book I didn’t thought that the next one would be as good. But I was wrong. The next one was way better than the first one.My brother, Jason, came into the bar, then, and sauntered over to give me a hug. He knows that women like a man who's good to his family and also kind to the disabled, so hugging me is a double whammy of recommendation.” Next, the vamps. Bill has his moments, I suppose, but by and large he’s pretty uninspiring. I was perfectly content when we started thinking of him as “Nameless”. Despite the fact that he veers dangerously close to a number of bad romance novel stereotypes, I rather like Eric. At least he has a sense of humor and a little panache. I actually think I prefer the version of Eric from “TrueBlood”, who’s a bit less romance novel and more a very tall, put-upon bureaucrat who takes undue pleasure in making veiled threats and bossing Pam around. Speaking of Pam, I really can’t get enough of her. It’s that mix of dry literalness, Dear Abby, bloodthirstiness, perfect candor, and PTA-chic wardrobe. She’s my favorite character hands down.