Dead and Gone: A Sookie Stackhouse Novel (Southern Vampire Mysteries, No. 9) [Mass Market Paperback]

Charlaine Harris (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 6, 2010

Visit our Sookie Stackhouse series feature page.

When the weres and shifters finally come out, the residents of Bon Temps, Louisiana, must deal with the violent aftermath. But a far greater danger threatens. A race of unhuman beings-older, more powerful, and more secretive than vampires or werewolves-is preparing for war. And Sookie will find herself an all-too human pawn in their battle...

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Telepathic waitress Sookie Stackhouse braces herself for trouble when another group of supernatural beings goes public in her disjointed [ninth] adventure (after 2008's From Dead to Worse). Following the vampires' lead, the shape-shifters decide to step out of the woodwork and announce their existence to the world. While the initial reveal goes smoothly, the brutal crucifixion of a young werepanther behind the local bar makes Sookie wonder if the people of Bon Temps, La., are as tolerant as she thought. Meanwhile, the FBI is asking questions about Sookie's uncanny ability to locate survivors after an explosion, and trouble is brewing among the secretive fae. Harris tries to cram too much into a single story, and even die-hard fans of Sookie's adventures in print and on HBO's True Blood will complain about the plot gaps. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

The Louisiana town of Bon Temps—along with the rest of the world—is about to be rocked with some big supernatural news: like the vampires before them, the Were people—humans with the ability to change into animals—are about to reveal themselves to humanity. Psychic barmaid Sookie Stackhouse is apprehensive about the revelation, given the way some people in the small town revile anyone with extraordinary powers, including Sookie herself. While the initial announcement seems to go over smoothly with most people, tragedy strikes when Sookie’s brother Jason’s estranged wife, a werepanther, is found murdered and nailed up on a cross. Jason is the prime suspect, but Sookie has even bigger problems to deal with when she learns that a vicious fairy prince is determined to kill her. Darker and more ominous than earlier entries in the series, Harris’ latest raises the stakes (pun intended) for lovable heroine Sookie and comes up a winner. With HBO’s True Blood, a series based on Sookie’s adventures, renewed for a second season, expect demand for this latest gripping installment. --Kristine Huntley --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Mass Market Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Ace; Reprint edition (April 6, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0441018513
• ISBN-13: 978-0441018512
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (816 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,767 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #1 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > Horror > Vampires
  • #25 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > General
  • #35 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Mystery & Thrillers > Mystery > General

More About the Author

Charlaine Harris (born November 25, 1951 in Tunica, Mississippi) is a New York Times bestselling author who has been writing for over twenty years. She was raised in the Mississippi River Delta area. Though her early works consisted largely of poems about ghosts and, later, teenage angst, she wrote plays when she attended Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee. She began to write books a few years later.
After publishing two stand-alone mysteries, Harris launched a lighthearted series "starring" Georgia librarian Aurora Teagarden, with Real Murders, a Best Novel nominee for the 1990 Agatha Awards. Harris wrote eight Aurora titles. In 1996, she released the first of the much darker Shakespeare mysteries, featuring the amateur sleuth Lily Bard, a karate student who makes her living cleaning houses. Shakespeare's Counselor, the fifth--and last-- was printed in fall 2001.
After Shakespeare, Harris created The Sookie Stackhouse urban fantasy series about a telepathic waitress who works in a bar in the fictional Northern Louisiana town of Bon Temps. The first of these, Dead Until Dark, won the Anthony Award for Best Paperback Mystery in 2001. Each book follows Sookie as she tries to solve mysteries involving vampires, werewolves, and other supernatural creatures. The series, which now numbers nine titles, has been released worldwide.
Sookie Stackhouse proved to be so popular that Alan Ball, creator of Six Feet Under, announced he would undertake the production of a new show for HBO based upon the books. He wrote and directed the pilot episode for that series, True Blood, which premiered in September of 2008. It was an instant success and was quickly picked up for a second season.
In October 2005, Harris's new mystery series about a young woman named Harper Connelly debuted with the release of Grave Sight. Harper has the ability to determine the cause of death of any body. There are now three Harper titles (GRAVE SIGHT, GRAVE SURPRISE, AN ICE COLD GRAVE) with a 4th (GRAVE SECRET) to be released in 2009.
Harris has also co-edited three very popular anthologies with her friend Toni L.P. Kelner. The anthologies feature stories with an element of the supernatural, and the submissions come from a rare mixture of mystery and urban fantasy writers.
Professionally, Harris is a member of the Mystery Writers of America and the American Crime Writers League. She is a member of the board of Sisters in Crime, and alternates with Joan Hess as president of the Arkansas Mystery Writers Alliance. Personally, Harris is married and the mother of three. She lives in a small town in Southern Arkansas and when she is not writing her own books, she reads omnivorously!

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

483 of 531 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Beyond Disappointing...I feel so let down, I think I'm depressed, May 6, 2009

By 

C. Wilson "apricot32" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Dead and Gone (Sookie Stackhouse, Book 9) (Hardcover)

I wanted to give the book atleast three stars bc i love the series so much, but I have to agree with the majority of the negative reviews on this one and say,"what happened?". The last book, from dead to worse, was so detailed and long, it was wonderful! I felt like I was reading a short hand version, or an extremely edited down piece that had to fit into a certain number of words. If CH had kept the same story line for this book and just given us the plot detail and character depth evidenced in the last book, this book would have been simply phenomenal! As a fan, I find that not only disappointing, but extremely frustrating.

ARGH!***BEWARE***THERE BE SPOILERS HERE**********************************

OK, so the two stars were basically for giving us atleast SOME progression with the whole Eric/Sookie relationship, although it still basically went NOWHERE. So he tricks her into what is basically a vampire form of marriage and she barely reacts - she had more of a hissy fit when he yelled at her for dancing with barry bellhop in rhodes! She blames her lack of anger on her blood bond, but she also states that she hasn't seen him for months and that should lessen a little over time...it just seemed weird. And as neat as that story line is, it wasn't even addressed or reacted to by anyone (except sam, but barely). I mean, come on! I don't know why it matters though, bc I figure in the next book she will find something to be mad at him for and he will be on the outs like bill, quinn, and everyone else she get's involved with - I just feel like the whole Eric thing has been building up over so many books that there should be more time devoted to finally developing that before it get's ruined for further plot development - we've been "teased" enough. Give us something more than a few scenes!

Perhaps the most frustrating aspect of this book, for me, was sookie's lack of initiative in seeking supe support and protection for herself! Especially after the last book ended recapping her strong favor with the vamps and weres! It was ridiculous that she knew she was being targeted to be killed (or worse), actually ends up killing a fairy sent to kill her, and she takes days to ask for any real assistance or call in her supe markers with the vamps or Alcide. When she finally does ask for help, it's lame coverage that falls through and she doesn't ask for back up? The coverage doesn't tell their bosses that they have left her unprotected? She doesn't want to worry her friends, who could help her, or at the very least be warned that being around sookie can be dangerous,so she doesn't tell them? She doesn't tell her brother that he is also a potential target, until after that fairies approach him?!

And why does Eric leave her bed, knowing the issue of her safety is unresolved? Yeah, he suggested maybe she stay at his place, but the whole issue of her safey is sidetracked by "what are you looking for in this relationship", vs. "hey, killer fairies are out to get my lover whom i've just officially claimed in the supe community, even tried to murder her today, and I'm out the door with a 'see ya soon'?" That doesn't seem at all like Eric. Mister, possessive vampire guy who always sends Bubba over the moment he has ANY concerns?! I mean really he had Pam DATE Sookie's roommate Amelia, just to get Pam even closer to protect Sookie, but he leaves her completely unprotected after knowing a fairy tried to KILL her?? Why would he leave w/o having her safety arranged for? Why the heck hasn't Niall arranged safety for her from the beginning, or even after the first attempt on her life? Why doesn't Claudine, who shows up when sookie falls asleep at the wheel of a car, show up when faries are trying to kill her? What the heck? And why, in God's name, would you be out running errands when you need a body gaurd bc killer fairies are out to assassinate you - do you really need to go to the post office that badly? Come on!

Also, the violence. Torture? Killing pregnant women? That added nothing to the story and was simply disturbing and unecessary. The characters she killed off - why? And more detail was given to sookie's reaction to octavia leaving than to the second pregnant woman's murder, which was just completely a waste - what a loss of a great character under such horrible circumstances.

And then, to top it all off, the whole amazing world of fae is just closed down in the end anyway, after all that - what a waste of plot and characters. I'm hoping that's not the case, and more will be done with it in the next book? Honestly, I would have loved it if Sookie had called in her marks almost immediately and all her supe friends & fairy family took the threat serioulsy, but were simply smacked down by how ruthless the fairies were, resulting in Eric becomming uber protective and rallying all the supes to work and fight together against the faires as a common threat to their common bond, our gal sookie! Yeah!! Atleast there would have been more action and the character deaths would have felt justified!

Quinn is in one scene and then is gone for the rest of the book - why bother? Heck, how bout if he had found out that Sookie was in trouble and insisted on staying to gaurd her regardless of Eric - the guy's a weretiger and a pit fighter trying to prove himself! That would have been kinda cool, and interesting from a love triangle point of view too!

We were told Hunter was in this book - what, one mention in a phone call? And then sookie just assumes the kid's not a target bc she THINKS Niall doesn't know about him? Give the kid's dad a warning, something, "get the kid away for awhile, be careful, look out for bad guys, stock up on lemon juice" - something!

Ok, obviously I found this book frustrating and I think my review has turned into more of a cathartic threapeutic venting session than a commentary. I'm not giving up on sookie, just hoping this is an anomaly, and hoping for more of CH's great writing in the future (please). Although, if the book continues to average 4 out of 5 stars (geez, are we reading the same book here people?), I can't believe that would give the author any incentive to give us better in the future! Why put more work into something when the readers are 4/5 happy with less?

This is such a wonderful series, I'd hate for it to deterioate!

689 of 771 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A disappointing outing for Sookie fans, and what is with the continuity errors?, May 8, 2009

By 

MG - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Dead and Gone (Sookie Stackhouse, Book 9) (Hardcover)

Charlaine Harris's Southern Vampire Mysteries was such a fun and creatively written series for a while. But the humor and wit that characterized the first four or five books seems to have completely run out by this ninth book, leaving with the reader a disconnected palette of characters, and a hectic pace in which the author seems to have been determined to get in every minor character at the expense of any clarity or reflection by the major characters.

The characters, including Sookie herself, seem to be in a fog in this book, and to be speaking out of character. Even big scary vampire Eric, always one of the most fun to read, just seems off. (Spoiler: he is willing to discuss his painful personal history out in the open in a public place, his bar???) Tossed off personal revelations are never absorbed by the characters and never revisited. The pace of the book is such that it is actually counterproductive in terms of feeling any empathy for the central characters.

Readers should be forewarned about the tremendous violence in the book. (Spoiler: Are the multiple deaths of pregnant women just a heavy-handed device signaling lost promise or hope? Maybe they are the stunted hopes for this book?)

The dragging issue of suitor resolution and the lack of development, if not regression, of Sookie's character on the issue of relationships is disappointing. As a reader who has followed the series for some time, I'm virtually at the point where I no longer care who she ends up with. Not a good place for an author to be finding herself with her readers. Does she really intend to make her readers NOT care about her heroine or give the impression that her heroine is incapable of evolving?

The number of continuity errors for a book with this sales base is truly astonishing. From the fact that Eric no longer remembers that Sookie was never paid for her work in book 7, to the fact that Sookie doesn't remember her grandfather and great-uncle were twins, to the fact that Claude and Claudine's deceased sister was Claudia and not Claudette, to the fact that Chow and not Clancy killed Hallow the witch's representative back in book 4, to the fact that Eric says he `remembers' but seems to have forgotten what he remembers at a rather delicate moment. The writing, continuity wise, or even factwise, seems not to have been proofread at all!

The book reads like a rough draft and has a sense of disconnectedness that is disheartening in comparison to others in the series. Was the goal just to get this one knocked out before the new season of True Blood? Did the publisher and editor think the series fans wouldn't notice? It reads, frankly, like a sellout. And as a reader of the series, I'm seriously hoping this isn't the next Anita Blake series in terms of steady deterioration of quality and content. This book makes me wonder. The editor seems to have done Ms. Harris a great injustice by letting it go out in such disconnected form and with so many continuity errors.

Let's hope that Book 10 gets Sookie Stackhouse back on course.

71 of 76 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Where oh where has Sookie gone???, May 12, 2009

By 

J. Copeland "book lover" (Chicagoland Area) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dead and Gone (Sookie Stackhouse, Book 9) (Hardcover)

I was so looking forward to this book! I love the entire series. I watch True Blood and enjoy it for what it is even though it has diverged so much from the books. I will also admit I like Bill better in on the tube than in the books and like Eric better in the books than on the tube.

Having said that, I am just at a loss for this latest book. What is going on? Or not. Sookie is just not Sookie. Not to mention, she is getting a potty mouth that is just so not her. Octavia's leaving was overblown and redundent. The love scene with Eric was so by the numbers. It had no magic or even real affection. Just a 'do-it-to-me'ness about it. ACK.
And then when Eric tells Sookie his backstory.... uh - okay, here it is. Let me read it off the teleprompter...

And killing pregnant women? What is going on here?

I've read a number of reviews where folks didn't like Dead to Worse because it seemed to be transitional. Which is sort of was. However, I was 3/4 of the way through the book before I realized that CH was tying up a bunch of loose ends and introducing G-Grampa Niall. But you know, I didn't really care, because everyone was IN CHARACTER and it was so well written. Sookie was her sassy sweet self. There was humor and pathos. We didn't have a lot of pod people & pod vamps masquerading as Sookie, Bill, Eric and Pam running around.

I just have to get this off my chest. Continuity has been an issue with this series from the beginning. I've read them all multiple times, and have all the audio books and have listened to them multiple times. In Dead Until Dark Bill tells Sookie he was made vampire when he was 30 years old and had 5 living children. We get to book three, and looking at the famiy Bible he was not quite 28 when the was turned and has only three living children. In book two, I believe that he was 29 years old when he was bitten. Come on!! An editor/copy editor/Ms. Harris should have a spread sheet SOMEWWHERE that has all pertinent major character info, and they need to REFER to said spread sheet.

But I've also forgiven all that continuity stuff (one time Eric slides into a booth and then pushes his chair back...HUH????) because I love these books so much. Sookie is intelligent, smart, sassy and Southern. Eric is such a hoot, and even tho I liked the HBO Bill better (he's more of a tragic hero) I still miss him. Quinn I just never could stand (from his first decription I always thought of him as looking like a tanned Mr. Clean - sooo not sexy - and all that 'babe' nonsense) so was glad when he got the boot.

So that's my .02 worth. I'll still get book 10, but hope that Ms. Harris gets back on track, otherwise I'll just have to stake books 9 & 10 and leave them out in the sun...

ADDED 5.19.09 - CAUTION - EVEN MORE SPOILERS!!

Jeeze, how could I have forgotten Ms. H killing off Tray who was one of my favorite strong secondary characters! Sookie's world is classed as Urban Fantasy which means mostly darker stuff. BUT, having said that, I still can't believe CH killed off Tray! OY! Did she not watch Star Trek? Kirk, McCoy and Spock beam down with a landing party to the planet. They may get bent, spindled and mutilated some, but do any of them get killed? Ah - that would be a big NO! Ensign No-Name-From-Central-Casting gets his clocked cleaned. Not the regular folks!

And poor Bill! Granted I liked HBO Bill better, becuase I think he's more of a noble-tragic-hero. But he's proven numerous times in these last books in that he's willing to sacrifice himself to keep Sookie safe. But now he's on the verge of a second death and we're just left there. Some cliff hangers just ain't right and this is one of them.

I could go on even more, but you'd get bored, doze off or need to drink something stronger than iced tea to get you through the rest of my complaints. So, I'll just leave it at this with a sigh and, again, hope that book #10 gives Sookie some happy time and that the Bon Temps community, supes and otherwise get back on track.