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From Dead To Worse

Charlaine Harris

Published 2008           359 pages

Summary (from the book jacket)

The supernatural community in Bon Temps, Louisiana, is reeling from two hard blows – the natural disaster of Hurricane Katrina and the man-made horror of the explosion at the vampire summit the month before in the up-north city of Rhodes.  Sookie Stackhouse is safe but dazed, yearning for things to get back to normal.  But that’s just not happening.  Too many vampires – some friends, some not – were killed or injured, and her weretiger boyfriend, Quinn, is among the missing.

It’s clear that things are changing—whether the Weres and vamps of her corner of Louisiana like it or not. And Sookie—Friend to the Pack and blood-bonded to Eric Northman, leader of the local vampire community—is caught up in the changes.

In the ensuing battles, Sookie faces danger, death, and once more, betrayal by someone she loves. And when the fur has finished flying and the cold blood flowing, her world will be forever altered.

The Review

From Dead To Worse is the eighth outing for Sookie Stackhouse, small-town barmaid and telepath, in Charlaine Harris’s popular Southern Vampire series.  If you are new to Sookie Stackhouse and haven’t read any of this series before, you don’t want to start here.  From Dead To Worse continues (and finishes) events that started in previous novels so new readers would be better served by starting with earlier books in this series.

For established fans of this series From Dead To Worse has everything readers have come to expect from author Charlaine Harris: A richly imagined and well realised alternative reality rural Louisiana populated with quirky, yet realistic characters – all combined with a top-notch mystery plot line and fast paced supernatural action.

In addition to the above, From Dead To Worse is also something of a pivotal novel for the series.  This book sees Sookie firmly reassess her relationships with her family, her friends and her errant boyfriend, Quinn.  As some relationships, plotlines and lives come to a close during the story, new characters are revealed and new plotlines are spawned – leaving fans safe in the knowledge that even eight books into this series the author’s imagination is still in overdrive and that there are plenty more exciting Sookie adventures to come.

The huge plot and character developments in From Dead To Worse make it difficult to write a review without giving away too many of the story’s secrets - but here goes!

Events in From Dead To Worse follow on from shortly after where All Together Dead finished.  The upheavals of Hurricane Katrina and the bombing at the vampire summit are still fresh for Louisiana’s supernatural community.  Sookie has no idea of the tumultuous and painful times she has ahead of her as the local Weres go to war with each other.  The vampire war comes completely out of the blue too and since Sookie is the narrator of this story, readers don’t see the events coming any sooner than Sookie does.

Sookie finally comes face-to-face with the reason she has some fairy blood in her bloodline and this helps to clarify the presence and purpose of Claudine in her life, which has been something of a mystery for several books now.

Surprising, shocking, sad and funny by turns, From Dead To Worse piles on the romantic tension between Sookie and her would-be lovers at the same time as it effortlessly delivers exciting supernatural thrills and action. 

Highly recommended reading.

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