Living Dead in Dallas, by Charlaine Harris

Very addictive. I finished this book in one day; it was a definite page turner, and I just couldn't put it down. There are two main plot paths, one where the character Lafayette was sacrificed and one involving Sookie being employed to help with vampire cases. The fact that the second one became more prominent surprised me, because the book started out with the discovery of Lafayette's body. Even though the second plot had a missing vampire, I assumed that vampires can generally take care of themselves and finding him felt less urgent to me.

There was continuity, which speaks well for book series in general. I remembered Lafayette speaking about or hinting at having attended some unconventional party in the first book, so the time line seems very linear. It almost seemed expected that he would die, in hindsight, because he was introduced in the middle or latter parts of the first book for a single scene, and we never really heard from him again. Then we got distracted by the second plot, and wouldn't find out later that the two plot paths have essentially nothing in common except for a new supernatural creature - the maenad.

A maenad is another surprising twist, considering the other supernatural creatures introduced were vampires and shapeshifters. Those two seem pretty spread across the board in terms of cultural reference and relevance, so a creature out of specifically Greek mythology was a tiny surprise. The vampires' agreement to give tribute to this creature, after declaring that it was nearly impossible to kill, set up an idea as to the hierarchy of supernatural creatures - maenads are apparently more powerful than vampires, who seem to display less fear than the underground shapeshifters.

More shapeshifters were to be found in the quest to retrieve that vampire. The quest led Sookie and Bill to the organization the Fellowship of the Sun, which turned out to be this group of religious fanatics who believe that all supernatural creatures are abominations against the Christian god. The way that the followers seem so very civilized, but let no discussion happen so that they won't have to acknowledge any dissenting opinions seemed very true to life to me. It is this kind of behavior among people that creates a cult atmosphere in the practice of some religions. The way the organization's name appealed to the sun also seemed Greek-like and paradoxically polytheistic, since there are other stars and planets, but they only sought the sun's destructive abilities as "proof" that vampires were abominations.

The character Godfrey was fascinating to me. He seemed to be somewhat of a tragic figure, used for the organization's political agenda, until he makes known that not only did he agree to have someone burn with him in a spectacle - which is the supernatural rendition of a lynching - he also used to be a child molester and serial killer. A lot about his past was left unsaid, probably due to the gruesome nature of it, but I have to wonder what made him the psychopath that he was, how he got turned into a vampire, and what factored into his decision to turn himself in to the cult in an attempt at seeking salvation and redemption through death.

Speaking of which, I wouldn't mind seeing more child vampires. Especially since Bill's friend got burned with those aggressors in Dead Until Dark without a second thought. This preference is probably due to my taste when it comes to characters, and the fact that I watch anime.

When the minor character Bethany died - and characters seem to die like flies in Charlaine Harris's books, not to mention each book in this series has the word "dead" in the titles - I almost felt like it was supposed to be some fable or some sort. Watch who you hang out with, because the enemies of the people you hang out with might kill you just out of association. I'm sure I'm just overly interpreting this, but I also feel like people do sort of think of other people like that in reality, and it was a very unpleasantly limiting kind of unspoken judgment in society. An unhappy thought.

Down to the final arc in this novel, I thought the preparation for the events at the sex club were hilarious, more so highlighted by the vampire Eric's crooked sense of humor at everything. The orgy itself was nauseating, yes, but it just seems to be the literary fleshing out of another stereotype - that orgies mainly occurred in rural areas because there aren't that many things to do, and because a tight knit community sometimes leads to social pressures of the strangest sorts. There's a part of me that wants to defend this behavior, because if everything is consensual and everyone involved knows to keep their emotions in check, no one would really come to any harm, so the logic goes. The hard part there is for everyone to keep their emotions in check, though. Either way, I don't feel qualified to judge through lack of full understanding.

That doubtful sentiment gets amplified by how these characters who participate in the orgy get done in - by the maenad. It seems like poetic justice, given that maenads are worshipers of Dionysis and engaged in drinking, orgies and terrible destructive acts as well. In fact, the main differences between the maenad and these characters are that the maenad is now supernatural, she does the things she does for religious (and self righteous?) reasons, and that all maenads are female, as the legend goes. This particular maenad, Callisto, also seems to be modeled after Calypso, the witch who kept Odysseus on an island and turned all his men to pigs. I say witch for lack of a better term and clear understanding. Should I have said siren? Hm.

After all of this, I almost wish that Sookie slept with Sam instead, so that she wouldn't have to deal with the instinctive possessiveness that being with a vampire engenders. But then, the series would no longer a bunch of vampire novels, which was its main initial selling point. I have to admit that the sexual tension between Sookie and a handful of characters definitely gives the stories some oomph. One last thought: after Sookie and Bill fought over his not treating her like an equal, and the way the incident was attributed to pride at the end, made me wonder whether feminism has any standing at all in the Southern culture of North America. Oh well. Since this book was even more addictive than the pilot novel, I'm going to look for more.