100 Books in a Year: #62 Definitely Dead by Charlaine Harris
Cannonbal Read /
Brian Prisco
Book Reviews | April 1, 2009 | Comments (15)
Another Sookie Stackhouse novel down. Book five in the series. She’s starting to reach that point in her writings where she’s settled in for the long winter’s nap. It’s now become episodic rather than a contained story. It seems to be suffering from the same problems “Lost” and “Heroes” did when they were direction-less and didn’t know how long they would have to sustain themselves.
Harris won’t kill any of her principles at this point, so it’s become a case of advancing myth points. She wrote this novel to deliver a major thorn in the side of Miss Stackhouse, which is a pretty brutal one at that and will have ramifications down the road, and then to set up a new relationship. But really, this felt less like a single solitary adventure and more like a stop gap until she works on the next one. I don’t know how far Harris is planning on going with the Stackhouse series, but if she’s planning on keeping pace with her brother-in-arms Jim Butcher — who’s said he’s going into the late twenties at the very least with the Dresden Files — she’s going to really have to pick up the game. Butcher keeps his cast of characters tight, and that helps. We’re already dealing with over twenty in Stackhouse, with the introduction of ten more in this novel. It’s falling dangerously into Anita Blake territory, so either Sookie needs to get some or Harris does.
I’ve only got one more Stackhouse left in this batch of the hundred, so I’m probably saving that for late in the run as a sprinter. I’ve still got ten or more 800+ novels facing me down. I can use a quick 300 pager here and there.
This review is part of the Cannonball Read series. Details are here and the growing number of participants and their blogs are here.
Comments
Posted by: lizzieborden at April 1, 2009 9:42 AM
Jim Butcher — who’s said he’s going into the late twenties at the very least with the Dresden Files
Music to my ears.