Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris

First of all, let me preface this book review with a quick little disclaimer. I heart vampires and vampire stories. I have a bit of an (unhealthy?) obsession with these creatures of the night. I'm not sure why, but I do. That being said, I shall proceed.

Dead Until Dark is the first in the Sookie Stackhouse series by Charlaine Harris. I don't know why I'm just now reading these - what with my obsession with vampires and all. But I guess I was a little wary of another vampire series. I tried reading that series by Laurell K Hamilton and just wasn't able to get into them. And I enjoyed Twilight to an extent but had issues with Bella and Meyers kind of jumped the shark with the last book. So I held off on this series, but after looking for something quick, easy and fun to read, these were suggested to me (my friends know of my vampire penchant) and I've fallen in love.

But I digress. As I was saying, Dead Until Dark is the first of a series. We are introduced to Sookie Stackhouse from Bon Temps, Louisana and she has a special ability to hear people's thoughts, though she tries to block them out as much as possible. She's a waitress at a local bar and is extremely excited when they get their first vampire customer. See, vampires are "out of the closet" in this series - they are integrated with humans for the most part, but a vampire in Bon Temps is a pretty exciting deal considering how small the town is.

Sookie quickly realizes that this vampire, Bill Compton, is special - different - she can't hear his thoughts! And he realizes that she's not like most humans. So begins the love story. But it's not all sex and lame romantic stuff. No, there's murder and humour and mystery and a cameo by a supposed dead "King" (which made me laugh hysterically)...it's just a damn good story. Well, a damn good story for someone who hasn't read an actual book in almost 9 months at any rate. Plus? I actually like the heroine of this story. This is rarity with me but Sookie rocks. She has her flaws (as any good protagonist does) but she more than makes up for them.

READ THIS BOOK. Then, go watch the HBO series True Blood. The plot of season 1 basically follows this first book...loosely. And for the first time, I actually enjoyed both the book and the TV adaptation - even though the TV series has quite a bit of differences than the book I never once uttered "that didn't happen in the book!" And if you don't fall in love with Sookie and Bill (seriously, how could you not?) and all the others of Bon Temps then...well then I'm just sorry for you. But if you tire of Twilight's immaturity and Edwards creepiness and Bella's annoyance and want some good vampire stories - read this now.

Gossip Girl

Okay, I admit it. I love the TV show Gossip Girl. It started as a guilty pleasure, something I watched secretly every week, hidden in my bedroom, but soon it grew. Since I enjoy it so much, I decided to check out the book series it's based on, penned by Cecily Von Ziegesar (an Upper East Side name if I've ever heard one.) Now, I'm going to be honest here and say that the first book was absolutely terrible. So bad, in fact, that I refuse to continue the series. And here's why.

1) The characters are terribly written. Each character is a complete stereotype. There's the brooding poet, the hot rich girl, the sex-crazed guy friend, and so on. And not one is likable. It's hard to feel bad for them when you can't stand them. From start to finish, the characters never learn or grow, they just stay the same. Yes, this is high school, I get it, but it's also a book. Give me some depth! The book has none.

2) The plot is everywhere. I wasn't exactly sure where the book was going. Was there a climax? Was I excited about anything? No, not really. The author writes a typical day fine, but that's the problem with the book. It's all very...boring. And when something "big" happens, it's nothing of note.

3) What was the purpose of "Gossip Girl?" A various blogger called "Gossip Girl" intermittently adds various pieces of information about the cast of characters. None of it is important though. I suppose it's showing that we live in a digital age, but it doesn't help the story progress, nor does it matter.

I hate saying that a TV show is better than its literary counterpart, but that's the case here. I think Ziegesar should take a few notes from the creator of the show, Josh Schwartz, and liven up the books a bit. Bring some truth into them, make the characters relatable. Because the first book is like a thrift store t-shirt. Trendy to get, but not always perfect. Clean it up and accessorize a bit and then you'll have something special.

Breaking Dawn

(If you plan on reading the Twilight Series, you may not want to read this review, as it discusses moments in the previous books.)

For starters, I admit that at the age of 24 I still enjoy young adult literature. There's something about the Twilight Series, by Stephenie Meyer, that's ridiculously addictive. The plot is enticing, the characters are so well drawn out that they become friends, and the overall books are satisfying. With that being said, the last book in the series, Breaking Dawn, is a bit underwhelming.

Eclipse, the third book in the series, leaves off with Bella's ultimate choice. After almost being murdered by a gang of young and angry vampires, she finally chooses that her love for Edward, her vampire boyfriend, is stronger than her friendship with (and possible love for) Jacob, her werewolf best friend. With that, she rejects Jacob and agrees to marry Edward. Breaking Dawn starts on a hopeful, gentile, and happy note: preparations for the wedding and honeymoon. There, Bella will, as planned, finally join her future husband in a life of bloodlust as a vampire.

Naturally, there are some complications. These early set complications, along with previously noted problems, all culminate to lead up to the climax 700 pages later.

In my opinion, the problems with the book start with the voice. Between Eclipse and Breaking Dawn, Meyer penned a book out of the series entitled, The Host. Although the characters in The Host sound exactly like those characters we've grown to love in the Twilight Series, some of her writing style changed and with that, left Breaking Dawn different. She lost some of her characters, giving them new personalities and new motivations. Jasper becomes friendly and winks at Bella. Rosalie becomes angrier than normal. Also, what's with the nicknames? Since when was Jasper "Jazz" and Emmet "Em"?

A third of the way through the book she changes voices completely. Rather than having Bella narrate the middle chapters, she has Jacob. The reason is unknown. After three books of learning, accepting, and loving Bella's narrative, this new voice is different and irritating. Important at times, definitely, but there could have been ways to explain what happened without changing the voice. And most importantly, it's not very masculine. Meyer tries too hard to make him sound like a teenage boy, which results in dialogue even movies wont use. Thankfully, the narration is changed back to Bella's at a very crucial part.

I think the biggest problem Meyer faced, however, were her fans. It's not unknown that these books have created quite a following. With millions of fans aching to read the last book, message boards were filled with predictions, hopes, and fears. Wanting to suffice every fan, Meyer created a plot that lacked the passion she originally had in the series. Wanting to appease the fans, she lost many.

The plot itself was endearing at times, yet ridiculously over the top at others. My wildest prediction was proved to be true, something I truly hoped would not happen. Sure, a story of a vampire, human, werewolf love triangle is a bit out of the ordinary, but that's acceptable compared to what she proposes in the book.

Complaints aside, the book was decent. Not nearly as satisfying or complete as the others, yet still good and still very enjoyable. It had moments where I couldn't put the book down, moments that I reenacted in my head while at work. Moments that made me smile because it reminded me WHY I loved the series so much. With liking the characters as much as I do, I wanted to keep reading. I wanted to love it. And because of that, I did enjoy it. I did like how it ended, a happy ending, as she promised, and I liked what happened with each character. It was a solid ending to the series.

New Moon

I've noticed recently that there are reviews for both Twilight and Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer on this website, however none for the second book, New Moon. With the fourth book in the series, Breaking Dawn, coming out in less than two months, I figured I'd add the missing review, hopefully convincing others to join me in enjoying this series.

(As a general warning, if you plan on reading the "Twilight" series, please don't read any further as this post may give away some key plot points. I wouldn't want to ruin it for anyone.)

Before starting New Moon, my roommate Megan simply told me to get through the book and that Eclipse (the third book in the series) is much better. I doubted her, wondering how a book that continues the wonderful tale could be disappointing? Boring even?

Megan, like always, was pretty much right.

New Moon continues where Twilight left off. Bella is starting her senior year of high school in Forks. She and Edward are deeply in love and everything seems more than perfect. That is, until a disastrous accident occurs during her birthday party. Edward sees it smart for him to leave her, to get her away from vampires and danger. Naturally, this doesn't sit well for her.

As she learns to piece herself back together, as hard as it is, she becomes rebellious, lost, and friendly with the boy Jacob Black. She learns that cheery Jacob might have some secrets of his own, ones that might effect everything around her.

As I was reading reviews for this book, the most common complaint was that Edward wasn't in it nearly enough. Pathetically, I have to completely agree. I found myself flipping pages to see if I could find his name later on, if I could see any of the Cullens mentioned. It wasn't that I didn't enjoy the story between Bella and Jacob, it's just that it wasn't right. Juliet should be with Romeo, not Paris. 

The story moved slow and I believe that was the main problem. It wasn't bad, it was still interesting and I was still deeply addicted, but it didn't grab me nearly as much as Twilight did. However, Bella's emotions were very relatable. Which brings me back to my highest compliment for Meyer. She writes characters exceptionally well. They're very real, to the point that you feel like you know them. Or are them. I give her so much credit for that. She said on her website that the characters write themselves. I can almost see that happening.

Twilight

It's been a really, really long time that I've bought a book and read it from cover to cover in about 2 days (and this book is over 500 pages). This book brought me back to my old ways of getting lost in a story very quickly. From the first page of the first chapter, I was immersed immediately into the lives of these unknowns.

I must've passed by this book everytime I visited my bookstore a hundred or so times. And everytime I passed it, I would stop, pick it up, and put it back down. For some reason, I picked it up yesterday and decided I'd get it. My only regret is that I didn't buy the other two books that followed it as well.

This story is about vampires who live among humans. The concept of vampires has always fascinated me for as long as I can remember. I particularly am drawn to stories of vampires who have human characteristics about them. The ones who are able to quell their desires to drink human blood. The ones who fall in love and have relationships. Vampires are always perceived to be monsters, so when I read the back cover of this book, I knew that this was more than just vampires who sucked blood. I'm just a sucker for a love story I suppose.

This story is about a 17 year old vampire, (although he's more like 108 years old), Edward, who falls in love with a girl named Isabella (Bella for short). She is new to the town of Forks, Washington and has moved to live with her dad while her mom can travel freely with her new husband (who is looking to be signed to a minor league baseball team and isn't exactly stationed in one particular town). At first Edward tries to avoid her because he genuinely fears for her safety (he is afraid that he will give into temptation and drink her), but he takes precautions so that he can be with her. And she is utterly and completely intoxicated with him and, her learning what he is makes her feelings for him grow even stronger. His family is accepting of his love for her and go to great lengths to save her from a possible savage death by another vampire who tries to kill her. By the end of the book, Bella wishes to be transformed into a vampire so that she can spend eternity with Edward but he refuses to subject her to that. But, there are two other books that follow so who knows what will happen.

This is the author's (Stephenie Meyer) first book and I have to say that she did a really good job in getting the reader involved in the lives of these characters right off the bat. I couldn't put the book down. The love story she created was so forbidden, yet so beautiful and sacred at the same time. She created Edward to have such amazing human qualities that it was no wonder Bella could fall for him so easily ... I could not blame her one bit.

Well you can bet that I will be buying book two and three of this series. It was that captivating.

(Eclipse - the third book - was reviewed by Pam.)

Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer

I somehow got sucked into Meyer's Twilight series this past Spring. I blame the captivating cover for drawing me to the book on the shelf and then with the words "I found out he was a vampire" on the back cover sealed my fate. I flew through Twilight and quickly purchased New Moon to discover that the third book, Eclipse, would be released in August. Without giving too much of the series away, the story is set in northwest Washington State where it centers on Bella Swan and her relationship with the Cullen family (vampires), friends at her high school, Jacob Black, and Jacob's tribe on the nearby reservation. Anxious to revisit these characters, I could not wait to get this third book in my hands. Unfortunately, I simply thought that this book in the series was just mediocre. While Meyer does pace her stories slowly, the build up to the climax point in the book fell flat for me as there was not enough action and too much focus on back stories in my opinion. However, Meyer did a good job at both ending Eclipse and opening a doorway for the next book in the series. In the end, despite the slower pace of this book and those complaints, I enjoyed reading this one if only just to "catch up" with the goings-on with Bella in Forks, Washington.