Dead In The Family

Since their "existence," vampires have always been a cultural phenomenon, with popularity waxing and waning throughout the years. From Bram Stoker's classic Dracula, to Anne Rice's Interview With A Vampire, humans have always held a fascination for the blood-sucking, night-stalking seducers.  But as the times have changed — so too, have the vampires.

For the mainstream populace, Alan Ball brought the characters of True Blood to the small screen in HBO's immensely popular series.  But it was author Charlaine Harris who conjured them into existence and gave these modern vampires life, er, afterlife.

Anna Paquin as Sookie StackhouseThe world of HBO's True Blood begins and ends in the sleepy, backwater Louisiana town of Bon Temps, where barmaid Sookie Stackhouse holds a not-so-hidden secret: she's a telepath. This also makes her the town weirdo and no other series of novels has so deftly made a gift like telepathy also into a curse. Truly for Sookie, it is a bittersweet blessing.

The funny, sexy and often exhilarating Sookie Stackhouse tales are told through Sookie herself.  Mrs. Harris, herself a Southern gal, allows the the reader a sometimes uncomfortable, voyeuristic view of the inner machinations of the novels' protagonist.  We feel what she feels, we see what she sees, we know what she knows.  This includes her vanity, insecurities, her moral ambiguity and her developing sexual appetite.  Considering the novel's begin with Sookie as a virgin, this is a lot of absorb — but also very titillating.

Dead In The FamilyAs the show's third season is set to begin in June, we are treated to the tenth novel in the Stackhouse series,  Dead In The Family, available today, May 4th. This particular novel focuses on Sookie coming to terms with her deepening connection to vampire Eric Northman, her unintentional husband (but only in the vampire world) as well as, supernatural intrigue within the newly outed Were and Shifter community.  Nevermind the dead bodies which keep showing up on her property or unwelcome Fairies.  Oh, I've said too much — just get the book and immerse yourself in the world of vampires, werewolves, shapes-shifters and other "supes."