Book fifty-six: All Together Dead

All Together Dead* (2007)
Charlene Harris

Rating: 1.75/5

Great. Another series that started out good, got better and in the last few books has crashed down to boring. And annoying.

Louisiana cocktail waitress Sookie Stackhouse has her hands full dealing with every sort of undead and paranormal creature imaginable. And after being betrayed by her longtime vampire love, Sookie must not only deal with a new man in her life-the shapeshifter Quinn-but also contend with the long-planned vampire summit.

The summit is a tense situation. The vampire queen of Louisiana is in a precarious position, her power base weakened by hurricane damage to New Orleans. And there are some vamps who would like to finish what nature started. Soon, Sookie must decide what side she'll stand with. And her choice may mean the difference between survival and all-out catastrophe.

I really liked the first few books in this series. I forgave Sookie for being annoying and let’s face it, just a little bit conceited. I looked over her judgmental nature, and the fact that she let Bill take advantage of her.

I even over-looked the fact her name was Sookie.

I was relived – and happy – to find the series was taking a turn for the better when she kicked Boring Bill to the curb and finally started taking Eric seriously.

But… wait. Something went wrong. Very wrong.

The last book, Definitely Dead, is to blame.

While I enjoyed the fact that we found out Bill was not only boring, but also that his motivations were slightly evil (ha! I knew it! No one can be that boring without being slightly evil!), I don’t know if the series will ever be able to come back, from what I will call the Great Anita Blake Mistake.

You see, this was also a series that started out good, got better than crashed and burned so badly that I don’t even bother to pause and look at the back in the bookshop to find out what happened to the characters. I just don’t care.

And you know why?

a) The mystery/crime element started to get boring/obvious
b) The introduction of a new romantic lead/s, just so that things would not have to be resolved with the ones already in the series

While All Together Dead had a much better premise than the last (where it was so obvious who the “bad guy” was, it was painful), it still wasn’t that interesting. I do give Harris points for not only acknowledging but also incorporating Hurricane Katrina into her Southern Vampire series. I think she handles that very well.

However, that is the only thing she did well. Because she also committed crime number two (or number one when you think about it, because a boring/obvious mystery doesn’t matter as long as the romance part is going well… or at least in my opinion): who the hell is the Quinn person? Why the hell should I care about him?

I already have too many male characters to keep track of: Bill, Sam, Eric, who-ever-that-warewolf-one-who-was-the-former-Quinn-who’s-name-I-know-forget-was… yes, we already have enough male leads to pick from, thank-you Miss Harris, you are not going to make your storylines anymore interesting by throwing a few more in. Just ask Laurel K. Hamilton.

And she’s also doing that annoying thing, where Sookie keeps going on about how safe and comforted and happy she feels when Eric is around. But oh no, I will just ignore those feelings and go hang out with this annoying, boring guy who isn’t nearly as funny as what Eric is… what’s his name, Bill? Oh, no, it’s the new one: Quinn.

Ok, so maybe I’m just annoyed because I think the scenes with Eric in them are the funniest. And maybe I should be happy that Sookie hasn’t “picked” Eric, because then he would probably become Annoying and Boring… but come on…

One more book. I’m only giving this series one more…

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Finished: 27/5