Rating:


Author: Charlaine Harris

Publication: January 1st, 2005

Add: GoodReads | Amazon

Description: Small-town cocktail waitress Sookie Stackhouse has had more than her share of experience with the supernatural—but now it’s really hitting close to home.

When Sookie sees her brother Jason’s eyes start to change, she knows he’s about to turn into a were-panther for the first time—a transformation he embraces more readily than most shapeshifters she knows. But her concern becomes cold fear when a sniper sets his deadly sights on the local changeling population, and Jason’s new panther brethren suspect he may be the shooter. Now, Sookie has until the next full moon to find out who’s behind the attacks—unless the killer decides to find her first…
Via GoodReads.

My Review: 

In my review of Dead to the World, I said that this was the first series that seemed to literally be getting better as it went. Unfortunately, Dead as a Doornail broke the trend. Not to say that it wasn't good, I very much enjoyed it, but it wasn't the complete adoration that would've come after my blinding love of the last book for the series to really be "getting better".

As you can gather from the description, a lot is going on in Dead as a Doornail. Sookie's brother in now a were-panther, the local werewolf pack has to fight to decide the new pack leader, and someone is shooting the shifters and weres. And of course, poor Sookie is involved in it all. While this all was a lot of stuff going on, it still didn't feel "action-packed" to me. Maybe the stuff happening just wasn't as interesting to me or didn't grab my attention as much as the action of previous books, but it just didn't have what it took to go from a book I enjoyed reading to a book I loved. It didn't help that the other half of any Sookie Stackhouse book - the romance - was a little dry too.

As far as the love interests in Dead as a Doornail go, pickings are slim. Besides Eric, of course. Bill is luckily out of the picture for the time being, Sam is okay but nothing special as usual, Alcide uses Sookie for his own gain without even asking her, and Sookie spies an attractive bald guy (isn't that an oxymoron?) at the shindig Alcide takes her to. Hmm. How about thanks, but no thanks. But wait, there's Eric, Sookie! He still is completely clueless about what happened when his memory was taken away in Dead to the World, and he is dying for Sookie to tell him what happened. While he isn't the same sweet, sensitive guy from the last book, he's still just as hot and funny now as he used to be. Plus, he still has all of the feelings that he got for Sookie while his memory was gone, he just doesn't know what to do with them.

“Should I just bite you, and end it all?", he whispered. "I would never have to think about you again. Thinking about you is an annoying habit and one I want to be rid of.”

Sadly, Sookie doesn't see the obvious and get with the Viking hunk. In fact, Eric wasn't in this book nearly as much as I would've liked. Maybe I was just spoiled after the amazing Eric premiere on the romance front in Dead to the World. But it, like the action in this book, just seemed lacking. Well, at least I'd rather take "slim pickings" to Bill anyday..

All in all, I enjoyed Dead as a Doornail. Like the first and second books of the Sookie Stackhouse series, they were entertaining reads that I really liked, but were missing just a little something that would've bumped them into the realm of "love" for me. This time, that something was the slightly less than perfect action and romance.

Summed Up:

Great writing, storyline, and characters as usual from this series. Didn't grab my attention as much as previous books though - on both the action and romance fields. I wish there was more of Eric too!

Sookie Stackhouse Series

Review for #1: Dead Until Dark
Review for #2: Living Dead In Dallas
Review for #3: Club Dead
Review for #4: Dead to the World
Review for #5: Dead as a Doornail
Review for #6: Definitely Dead
Review for #7: All Together Dead
Review for #8: From Dead to Worse
Review for #9: Dead and Gone