Dead Until Dark is the first book in the Sookie Stackhouse novel series (by Charlaine Harris). It sets up the whole “world” of Sookie. The action takes place in Bon Temps, Louisiana. Sookie is a waitress at Merlotte’s Bar where she meets the vampire, Bill. Wait…vampire? Yes. In Sookie’s world, vampires have come out of hiding due to the availability of synthetic blood. Because Sookie has special mind-reading abilities, she is able to know not only that Bill is a vampire but that he is going to meet with trouble. Her rescue of him is the start of their relationship and her entry into the world of the supernatural.

I was taken aback by how many similarities there were between Dead Until Dark and Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight. Beautiful girl falls in love with vampire who has been dead for hundreds of years. Without giving away too much of the plot, the beautiful girl learns about a world that most people do not know really exists. Various supernatural men vie for her attention. Two major differences are that 1) in Sookie’s world vampires are known to intermix with the humans, and 2) Sookie has an active sex life.

The book is a very quick read and introduces a number of characters that will become more important in later books. In addition, we see the love story between Bill and Sookie unfolding. In later posts we’ll get into the similarities and differences between Dead Until Dark and the first season of HBO’s True Blood.