Southern Vampire AKA Sookie Stackhouse Books
So, I finished the Southern Vamp series yesterday. It's weird, because even though I thoroughly enjoyed most of it, I'm finding it difficult to maintain my enthusiasm for the series after reading the latest installment.
I was pleasantly surprised to find that the books were as cracktastic as the TV show, and the narration from Sookie's POV actually made the show more enjoyable for me, because I got a better understanding of the character than I had before, which was an unexpected bonus, and I actually started to love Sookie around book 6. Also, the writing improved considerably, which made the whole thing that much more of a fun ride. Now that I'm all caught up, though, I honestly wish I'd stopped reading at book #9.
I think that book #11, Dead Reckoning, was a total mess. Where do I even start? There's just so much wrong with this book, IDEK.
Characterization was horrific and inconsistent.
The continuity went to hell (more than usual).
The plot was all over the place.
The writing took a turn for the worse.
There was a grand total of two scenes in the book that I actually enjoyed, which is pretty pathetic.
I can't properly convey my dismay without going into details, so, Yeah. Let's dissect this, shall we?
The plot
Was there even a plot? It felt more like a bunch of disjointed events thrown together for no particular reason and in no particular order.
1. There was the Pelt thing. Okay, Sandra Pelt hates Sookie and wants to kill her. Again. We find that out pretty early on, so there isn't even a mystery to be solved, it's just a known and predictable Crazy Enemy ineptly throwing everything but the kitchen sink at Sookie throughout the book. Sookie is just the target of one badly planned assassination attempt after another, popping up at random, no real harm is done, and no one seems to bother to actually do anything to try and stop it from happening again.
2. There's the Killing Victor thing, which I believe was supposed to, and would've been, the A story, in a better plotted book, except that it goes something like this: We still need to kill Victor - We have no workable plan - Let's make a plan - We've got a plan - Plan Executed. Perhaps, had the plan seemed more elaborate or less obvious or had it included any twists, it might have worked, but as it stands, it felt more like an afterthought, and fell flat.
3. There was the Eric & Pam fighting thing. This had potential, at least, being the only bit of the book that was actually a mystery, but again, the execution was lacking.
3a. Half of it is about Pam's love interest who suddenly appears out of thin air, without there being any hint of her existence before, and without us getting any glimpse into who this woman is or why Pam is so uncharacteristically emotional about this woman, who she so desperately wants to turn into a vampire.
It could've been used as a way to expand on or develop relationships, or to gain new insights into several characters, but it wasn't, and instead it was just used as a (really lame) reason for Pam & Eric to be at odds (despite Eric not being the cause of the problem), and yet another reason for why Victor Must Die, which was unnecessary.
3b. The other half of the Pam/Eric rivalry had to do with Pam wanting to tell Sookie what Eric was hiding from her (this time), and Eric not wanting to tell Sookie. Again, this bit might have worked better had it not been so badly done.
Eric could've, at any point, ordered Pam to shut up about it, nipping the whole thing in the bud. Of course, had he done that perfectly reasonable thing (from his perspective), there'd be no hints for Sookie to angst over, but Eric's odd behavior was left unexplained, and so just felt contrived.
Sookie's eventual puzzling out of it felt equally contrived. She'd known the basic facts from the get go (Eric has a secret, it has to do with her), and Pam never actually supplied any extra information that would've made it easier to guess at what was going on, yet, suddenly, Sookie decides that since what Pam was trying to tell her had to be about Eric, and since Pam would know that Sookie doesn't care about his financial state, and that his health (of all things) wasn't variable, it had to do with another woman.
The entire logic behind this sudden revelation was painfully flawed. For starters, had it realistically been this simple to puzzle out, Sookie should've been able to figure it out long before she actually did. On the flip side, there are a million things that could threaten both Eric and Sookie, either individually or as a couple, that Eric might not want to tell Sookie about, so jumping to the "other woman" conclusion was just plain silly. Yet, somehow, she was suddenly dead-on with her wild guess, and Eric suddenly decided to confess the whole thing despite her not actually knowing anything.
Basically, we're supposed to accept the following:
Eric was being pushed to marry some queen, which would force him to leave Sookie.
He chose not to tell Sookie.
So far, so meh.
Pam, for some unknown reason, decided that, of all the many things that Eric never told Sookie about, this was the one she just HAD to make sure Sookie knew about.
Eric, for some unknown reason, decided to physically attack Pam repeatedly as she kept hinting about it, in front of Sookie, instead of simply preventing Pam from doing it.
Sookie suddenly puzzled out what the secret was about using terrible logic, with no new information to spark this unbelievable revelation.
Eric, seeing that Sookie is once again angry with him for not telling her, inexplicably accepts that she suddenly figured it out, for no apparent reason, and decides to tell her everything.
Not only is this chain of events really fucking lame and unbelievable, but the Big Secret behind it all wasn't really worth all this contrived plotting. Nothing actually happened yet, and had something happened, it would've just been a rehash of what had already happened with Bill, so not even a new or original idea.
4. There's Blood Bond thing. This seemed like a potentially major sub-plot, except it really wasn't. Amelia popped up with the blood-bond-severing spell, Sookie just went ahead and did it, Eric went from being furious and saying that it was the real protection for Sookie to apologizing for not offering to do it for her sooner in a blink of an eye, and that was that. Except that if it was so dangerous for Sookie if anyone knew that the blood bond had been severed, then perhaps Amelia blabbing about it in a Supe bar would be something worth mentioning, or that would have consequences, except not. Way to throw that potential bombshell away.
5. There was a bunch of other things happening. I can't really call them plots. They were just things that happened. Some were unrelated to anything else that was going on, some were repetitious, some were set ups for the next books, none needed to be there.
Sookie threw Tara a baby shower, Sookie went with Hunter to his new school, Sookie loaned Sam money for the bar, Sookie cleaned out the attic, Sookie found a Fairy Garbage Disposal Spot, Sookie's Fae relatives were creepy plotters, Sookie found out stuff that made no sense, Sookie found out stuff she already knew but acted as if it were news, Sookie found Magic World Changing Object, Sookie found Alcide in her bed, etc.
It's rather shocking how a book where so much stuff was happening could have so little actual plot going on.
Characterization
I've always been happy to discover that characters were freakier than they seemed to be, as it allowed for some terribly satisfying WTF moments. I also like a well crafted twist, or revelations about the history or hidden depths, or lack thereof, of various characters. I also really like it when characters evolve and change over time and in relation to their experiences and to events in their lives. I don't consider any of that to be either a bad thing or OOC. On the contrary, it's what makes characters real and fascinating and other good things. The only requirement is that it make some sort of internal sense, either psychologically or within the world as depicted, preferably both. In terms of characterization, Dead Reckoning is a great example of What Not To Do.
For example:
Alcide and Sookie's almost-relationship didn't work out, he resented her for all sorts of stuff, she resented him, they both moved on, he became leader of his pack, with all the responsibilities that entails, and he's had very little contact with her for a long time. What little contact they did have was businesslike and not very pleasant. So, this guy, who, regardless of anything else, has always been portrayed as someone who puts the interests of the pack first, suddenly decides to start something with a woman who he hasn't shown any romantic interest in for a long while, who he knows is MARRIED TO THE VAMPIRE SHERIFF OF HIS PACK'S AREA, and he doesn't think to maybe test the waters a bit and see if there's anything there, but instead throws himself at her in a way that is not only unlikely to work, but that might well start a huge diplomatic incident with the vampires, and by diplomatic incident I mean something along the lines of an all out war, or, alternatively, just getting himself very much dead, for no good reason. Basically, Alcide is now both very stupid and very careless, not to mention sexually predatory.
The only reason I can see for this outlandish behavior is to give Sookie an excuse to kick everyone out of her house. Now, I actually like that she kicked them all out, but Alcide's behavior requires an organic explanation for it to work.
I wanted to go on to talk about Pam's sudden lack of emotional control and her openly defiant attitude toward Eric, about Bill's comments about Sookie's tits, about Eric's weird behavior regarding Pam, and his freakish attack on Sookie after the Big Fight, and about Sookie's terribly inconsistent internal conflicts, her decidedly unloving behavior toward Eric, her sudden lack of concern regarding her killing of Alcide's ex and the death of the Pelt Monster, contrasted with her sudden squeamishness regarding the success of her plan to kill some evil vampires, her reverting to once again, in a very tiresome way, disliking her supposed "disability" etc., but I'm finding it too depressing for words. It's all just terrible characterization across the board, and none of it is internally justified, it's all just plot-point fodder for really lame plots.
Continuity
With almost all the core characters being unrecognizable and unlikable, and the plots being lame, boring, contrived, repetitive, predictable, or all of the above, I'm finding it difficult to care about the completely inconsistent timelines and just plain bad retcon of the whole Claudine/Niall/Eric history.
It's kinda sad that I managed to write so many paragraphs detailing what's wrong with the book, and I not only still had at least as many to add, but that I couldn't be bothered to finish, because the more I think about it, the less able I am to care anymore.
I was pleasantly surprised to find that the books were as cracktastic as the TV show, and the narration from Sookie's POV actually made the show more enjoyable for me, because I got a better understanding of the character than I had before, which was an unexpected bonus, and I actually started to love Sookie around book 6. Also, the writing improved considerably, which made the whole thing that much more of a fun ride. Now that I'm all caught up, though, I honestly wish I'd stopped reading at book #9.
I think that book #11, Dead Reckoning, was a total mess. Where do I even start? There's just so much wrong with this book, IDEK.
Characterization was horrific and inconsistent.
The continuity went to hell (more than usual).
The plot was all over the place.
The writing took a turn for the worse.
There was a grand total of two scenes in the book that I actually enjoyed, which is pretty pathetic.
I can't properly convey my dismay without going into details, so, Yeah. Let's dissect this, shall we?
The plot
Was there even a plot? It felt more like a bunch of disjointed events thrown together for no particular reason and in no particular order.
1. There was the Pelt thing. Okay, Sandra Pelt hates Sookie and wants to kill her. Again. We find that out pretty early on, so there isn't even a mystery to be solved, it's just a known and predictable Crazy Enemy ineptly throwing everything but the kitchen sink at Sookie throughout the book. Sookie is just the target of one badly planned assassination attempt after another, popping up at random, no real harm is done, and no one seems to bother to actually do anything to try and stop it from happening again.
2. There's the Killing Victor thing, which I believe was supposed to, and would've been, the A story, in a better plotted book, except that it goes something like this: We still need to kill Victor - We have no workable plan - Let's make a plan - We've got a plan - Plan Executed. Perhaps, had the plan seemed more elaborate or less obvious or had it included any twists, it might have worked, but as it stands, it felt more like an afterthought, and fell flat.
3. There was the Eric & Pam fighting thing. This had potential, at least, being the only bit of the book that was actually a mystery, but again, the execution was lacking.
3a. Half of it is about Pam's love interest who suddenly appears out of thin air, without there being any hint of her existence before, and without us getting any glimpse into who this woman is or why Pam is so uncharacteristically emotional about this woman, who she so desperately wants to turn into a vampire.
It could've been used as a way to expand on or develop relationships, or to gain new insights into several characters, but it wasn't, and instead it was just used as a (really lame) reason for Pam & Eric to be at odds (despite Eric not being the cause of the problem), and yet another reason for why Victor Must Die, which was unnecessary.
3b. The other half of the Pam/Eric rivalry had to do with Pam wanting to tell Sookie what Eric was hiding from her (this time), and Eric not wanting to tell Sookie. Again, this bit might have worked better had it not been so badly done.
Eric could've, at any point, ordered Pam to shut up about it, nipping the whole thing in the bud. Of course, had he done that perfectly reasonable thing (from his perspective), there'd be no hints for Sookie to angst over, but Eric's odd behavior was left unexplained, and so just felt contrived.
Sookie's eventual puzzling out of it felt equally contrived. She'd known the basic facts from the get go (Eric has a secret, it has to do with her), and Pam never actually supplied any extra information that would've made it easier to guess at what was going on, yet, suddenly, Sookie decides that since what Pam was trying to tell her had to be about Eric, and since Pam would know that Sookie doesn't care about his financial state, and that his health (of all things) wasn't variable, it had to do with another woman.
The entire logic behind this sudden revelation was painfully flawed. For starters, had it realistically been this simple to puzzle out, Sookie should've been able to figure it out long before she actually did. On the flip side, there are a million things that could threaten both Eric and Sookie, either individually or as a couple, that Eric might not want to tell Sookie about, so jumping to the "other woman" conclusion was just plain silly. Yet, somehow, she was suddenly dead-on with her wild guess, and Eric suddenly decided to confess the whole thing despite her not actually knowing anything.
Basically, we're supposed to accept the following:
Eric was being pushed to marry some queen, which would force him to leave Sookie.
He chose not to tell Sookie.
So far, so meh.
Pam, for some unknown reason, decided that, of all the many things that Eric never told Sookie about, this was the one she just HAD to make sure Sookie knew about.
Eric, for some unknown reason, decided to physically attack Pam repeatedly as she kept hinting about it, in front of Sookie, instead of simply preventing Pam from doing it.
Sookie suddenly puzzled out what the secret was about using terrible logic, with no new information to spark this unbelievable revelation.
Eric, seeing that Sookie is once again angry with him for not telling her, inexplicably accepts that she suddenly figured it out, for no apparent reason, and decides to tell her everything.
Not only is this chain of events really fucking lame and unbelievable, but the Big Secret behind it all wasn't really worth all this contrived plotting. Nothing actually happened yet, and had something happened, it would've just been a rehash of what had already happened with Bill, so not even a new or original idea.
4. There's Blood Bond thing. This seemed like a potentially major sub-plot, except it really wasn't. Amelia popped up with the blood-bond-severing spell, Sookie just went ahead and did it, Eric went from being furious and saying that it was the real protection for Sookie to apologizing for not offering to do it for her sooner in a blink of an eye, and that was that. Except that if it was so dangerous for Sookie if anyone knew that the blood bond had been severed, then perhaps Amelia blabbing about it in a Supe bar would be something worth mentioning, or that would have consequences, except not. Way to throw that potential bombshell away.
5. There was a bunch of other things happening. I can't really call them plots. They were just things that happened. Some were unrelated to anything else that was going on, some were repetitious, some were set ups for the next books, none needed to be there.
Sookie threw Tara a baby shower, Sookie went with Hunter to his new school, Sookie loaned Sam money for the bar, Sookie cleaned out the attic, Sookie found a Fairy Garbage Disposal Spot, Sookie's Fae relatives were creepy plotters, Sookie found out stuff that made no sense, Sookie found out stuff she already knew but acted as if it were news, Sookie found Magic World Changing Object, Sookie found Alcide in her bed, etc.
It's rather shocking how a book where so much stuff was happening could have so little actual plot going on.
Characterization
I've always been happy to discover that characters were freakier than they seemed to be, as it allowed for some terribly satisfying WTF moments. I also like a well crafted twist, or revelations about the history or hidden depths, or lack thereof, of various characters. I also really like it when characters evolve and change over time and in relation to their experiences and to events in their lives. I don't consider any of that to be either a bad thing or OOC. On the contrary, it's what makes characters real and fascinating and other good things. The only requirement is that it make some sort of internal sense, either psychologically or within the world as depicted, preferably both. In terms of characterization, Dead Reckoning is a great example of What Not To Do.
For example:
Alcide and Sookie's almost-relationship didn't work out, he resented her for all sorts of stuff, she resented him, they both moved on, he became leader of his pack, with all the responsibilities that entails, and he's had very little contact with her for a long time. What little contact they did have was businesslike and not very pleasant. So, this guy, who, regardless of anything else, has always been portrayed as someone who puts the interests of the pack first, suddenly decides to start something with a woman who he hasn't shown any romantic interest in for a long while, who he knows is MARRIED TO THE VAMPIRE SHERIFF OF HIS PACK'S AREA, and he doesn't think to maybe test the waters a bit and see if there's anything there, but instead throws himself at her in a way that is not only unlikely to work, but that might well start a huge diplomatic incident with the vampires, and by diplomatic incident I mean something along the lines of an all out war, or, alternatively, just getting himself very much dead, for no good reason. Basically, Alcide is now both very stupid and very careless, not to mention sexually predatory.
The only reason I can see for this outlandish behavior is to give Sookie an excuse to kick everyone out of her house. Now, I actually like that she kicked them all out, but Alcide's behavior requires an organic explanation for it to work.
I wanted to go on to talk about Pam's sudden lack of emotional control and her openly defiant attitude toward Eric, about Bill's comments about Sookie's tits, about Eric's weird behavior regarding Pam, and his freakish attack on Sookie after the Big Fight, and about Sookie's terribly inconsistent internal conflicts, her decidedly unloving behavior toward Eric, her sudden lack of concern regarding her killing of Alcide's ex and the death of the Pelt Monster, contrasted with her sudden squeamishness regarding the success of her plan to kill some evil vampires, her reverting to once again, in a very tiresome way, disliking her supposed "disability" etc., but I'm finding it too depressing for words. It's all just terrible characterization across the board, and none of it is internally justified, it's all just plot-point fodder for really lame plots.
Continuity
With almost all the core characters being unrecognizable and unlikable, and the plots being lame, boring, contrived, repetitive, predictable, or all of the above, I'm finding it difficult to care about the completely inconsistent timelines and just plain bad retcon of the whole Claudine/Niall/Eric history.
It's kinda sad that I managed to write so many paragraphs detailing what's wrong with the book, and I not only still had at least as many to add, but that I couldn't be bothered to finish, because the more I think about it, the less able I am to care anymore.