4.5 Stars. Well Paced and Exciting.The funny moments give this book bit of a chick-lit feel, but the vampires are real vampires, and written in a way that you can believe they exist in our world. I liked the level of believability Charlaine Harris achieved.
Though at first I hated her name, I liked Sookie’s personality. She was straightforward and honest. I enjoyed seeing her being both a strong female lead as well as being protected by the vampire Bill. It felt like there was a good balance between making her a strong woman and keeping her soft. She felt like a real woman. Sometimes, however, her blunt questions and the dialog that followed felt a bit like an info-dump. In fact the dialog in general is where this book lost me a little. The author certainly captured the feel of southern speech, but sometimes the dialog felt strange. It didn’t always sound natural to me. The kids however did sound like kids, and I really appreciated that. Children’s dialog can be hard to write and too often they end up sounding either like babies or full grown adults. The author did a good job of giving them believable and age appropriate voices.
As for the other characters, I found them deep and interesting, many of them colorful as well, including the vampires. The vampires in this book were not thinly drawn monsters. They were people, fully fleshed out people with problems and issues and personalities. I think that really added to the believability of the story.
This book also had some nice descriptions making it easy to visualize Sookie’s world. Overall I enjoyed this story, and will continue with the series.
