Dead Reckoning by Charlaine Harris (Southern Vampire Series: Book 12)

10/10

Like all the other Sookie Stackhouse novels, this is thoroughly addictive. The True Blood novels form a long story which continues to twist and turn from Dead until Dark until Dead Reckoning, where we are constantly learning about Sookie and the inhabitants of Bon Temps and the Surrounding Areas. If you haven’t read any of the books you will need to start at the beginning to understand all the connections between the characters. Also, as a warning, the TV series True Blood has changed a lot of the details to make the show more accessible to a viewing audience.

I am always gripped by the amount of detail in these books, they are quite fast paced which means that each book is self contained and if you skipped one you would lose a lot of what has been happening as there is no real way to recap who is who to each character, especially when recurring characters turn up for a guest appearance. This is a full self contained world that works well between the normal human world and the supernatural’s who seem to dominate Sookie’s world.

There are the usual themes that run through each of these books, “who loves Sookie most” “who is out to kill Sookie, or use her for their own purpose”. What I am happy about is the growth of the characters throughout the series, people learn from their previous mistakes and realise that they are changing for better or worse.

I can’t wait to read what happens next.