So, I just finished reading
Dead Ever After by Charlaine Harris, the last book in the Sookie Stackhouse series (actually called
The Southern Vampire Mysteries, but I don't like that title, so I'm going to ignore it), a series I only started reading after I watched the TV show,
True Blood. Now, I have to admit that, while usually I'm a proponent of the whole the-book-is-better-than-the-movie thing, I liked the first season of
True Blood more than I liked the first book. And I definitely liked the second season way, way more than I liked the second book. Despite it's unabashed use of profanity, gratuitous violence, and the tendency of many of it's characters to do unfaltering things with their hair (season one Eric, I'm looking at you), I like
True Blood.
But after season three, the TV show definitely took a bit of a nose dive. The sixth season of
True Blood is about to start and I'm definitely up to giving the show another chance, but it seemed to me that, as the TV show got worse, the books got better. Now, I'm not saying that it's any
Pride and Prejudice, but the Sookie Stackhouse series isn't bad; it's something light and fun to read when you don't want to have to concentrate very hard. I'd say that average reading time for one the Sookie books is somewhere between 4 to 7 hours, depending on your reading speed; although, I do remember once reading an entire Sookie novel on a one hour flight that ended up being more like two because they needed to defrost the plane first.
Now, you could say that about quite a lot of books, but I maintain that the Sookie Stackhouse series is more than a cut above your average 'paper back novel'. It's well written, funny, and
sincere. Sincerity counts for a lot with me. Most importantly, as you advance in the series, you get to know and like the characters. Actually, I find that I like them more and more as the series progresses. That's something I cannot say of the television show. Sure, I started out liking most of the
True Blood regulars in season one, but after Eric regained his memory in season four (sorry if that was a spoiler for anyone), I found that he had lost a lot of what made his character so attractive. Quite simply, he was not behaving like Eric and I didn't like it.
The same can be said of Sookie; I think she started being really annoying about the same time as Eric did, late in season four. She had gone from being such a strong woman who handled everything with such strength and dignity to a weepy, confused mess who really didn't make sense as a person anymore. Although she's really supposed to be the title character, it seems to me that very few fans of the show really like Sookie anymore. In the book series, if Sookie maintains one thing, its consistency. With everything she does, her decision making process is clear; her motives and emotions make sense; the reader gets to know her and understand her as a person. That's something that was well on it's way in seasons one and two of the TV series but went missing after that. On television, she just came across as an irrational, vampire-obsessed mess, trapped in an increasingly sickening love triangle (or rectangle if you want to consider Alcide's potential for romance).
It's not like we're watching
Twilight here.
My point is that, if your a disillusioned
True Blood fan, you should give the Sookie Stackhouse books a chance. Don't judge the book series too harshly. HBO took a series with a lot of potential and made a real mess out of things. I think a lot of fans of the show would be happier if the Sookie from the novels shone through on the TV show. That's not to say I'm not going to watch season six. I'm ready to give the show another chance, especially since they left season five on such a cliffhanger. I mean, really, who could escape the crazed wrath of 'Bilith'.
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