Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris bk1

Dead Until Dark
by Charlaine Harris

Published: 2001
Genre: Horror, Mystery, Vampires
Warning: not a YA book
Paperback: 292 pages
Rating: 5

Inspiration: Sookie Stackhouse Reading Challenge hosted by Beth Fish Reads

Description from from the book:
Sookie Stackhouse is a small-time cocktail waitress in small-town Louisiana. She's quiet, keeps to herself, and doesn't get out much. Not because she's not pretty. She is. It's just that, well, Sookie has this sort of "disability." She can read minds. And that doesn't make her too deateable. And then along comes Bill He's tall, dark, handsome--and Sookie can't hear word he's thinking. He's exactly the type of guy she's been waiting for all her life...

But Bill has disability of his own: He's a vampire with a bad reputation. He hangs with a seriously creepy crowd, all suspected of--big surprise--murder. And when one of Sookie's coworkers is killed, she fears she's next...

My thoughts:
In-a-word: Soulmates?

Not so sure if this is YA, but a lot of YA readers are getting into this series. This is my first post for the Sookie Stackhouse Challenge.


I first encountered this series last year while browsing for books at the bookstore. The True Blood series was hyping itself up a storm and all the books were in the spotlight. The cover with the close-up on the woman licking the blood on her lips caught my eye. I was intrigued. When I read the description on the back I was hooked.


As I read the book, I couldn't help but compare it to Twilight by Stephenie Meyer which I had just recently finished. It was interesting to see some similarities. However, Charlaine's book was published before Twilight. And, Charlaine has definitely created her own special vampire universe.


Dead Until Dark does a great job in telling its vampire tale and solving its murder mystery. The characters are colorful - even the dead ones. Sookie has such sass and independence you can't help but love her.

Southern Vampire Mysteries Series:
Dead Until Dark
Living Dead in Dallas
Club Dead
Dead to the World
Dead as a Doornail
Definitely Dead
All Together Dead
From Dead to Worse
Dead and Gone

Other covers:


This is the cover that I had. But I love the original cover art by Lisa Desimini.












I'm not too crazy about this one which is for the re-release.

Audio version

Omnibus for books 1 to 3.

Whimisical one that was created here.