My Review of "Definitely Dead"

Written by Charlaine Harris
Released in 2006

Sookie (to herself): “So what if I was obliged to attend a vampire conference as part of the queen’s entourage? We’d stay in a fancy hotel, dress up a lot, attend long boring meetings, if everything other people had told me about conferences was true. Gosh, how bad could that be? Better not to think about it.”

Well Sookie, in the previous books your seemingly lesser involvement in the supernatural has had you nearly killed multiple times over. Becoming a bosom buddy of Sophie-Anne Leclerq will probably continue that spate of bad luck and this book is ripe enough with misfortune for Sookie.

The biggest slap to the face was learning that Bill had been sent to Bon Temps especially to spy on her. Given that these books haven’t been generous to Bill anyways, this seems like the ultimate way to kill his relationship with Sookie stone dead. Even though he gets an opportunity to save her, Sookie’s far too disgusted to even be around him. Not that I blame.

For the most part, relationship wise, this book tries to establish the beginnings of one between her and Quinn. Alcide is seemingly no longer an option and there’s a degree of frostiness between Sookie and Eric to make that one a no go either. I’m not sure yet, but Quinn seems alright enough.

He’s not as laden with issues and angst like Bill and Alcide but he does lack a certain sparkle that Eric undeniably possesses in spades. He is however more than handy when him and Sookie find themselves attacked by weres.

Having the Pelt family try and wreck vengeance on Sookie was a good idea, mainly because when Sookie was able to turn the tables, a resolution could be reached. God knows that Debbie’s disappearance wasn’t a plot I wanted playing out in further books. I hope this one was the end of it.

The main plot of the story involved Sophie-Anne and her husband’s attempts to make it appear she dishonoured him. Hadley certainly put Sophie-Anne with the missing bracelet and even when Sookie helped the queen save face, Peter still ensured the escalation of a war. If Sookie thinks her association with the queen is going to be a laugh, she’s kidding herself big time.

- Sookie has fairy blood and Claudine admitted that she’s trying to be angel. She’s certainly more likeable than Claude.
- Jason and Crystal lost a baby in this one as well. And Tara seems to be in better form along with the weddings for the Bellefleur kids.
- The ectoplasm was the only means we had for actually seeing Hadley in this book. We’ve already met her and Sophie-Anne in the Season Two episode, “Frenzy”.
- Sookie should tell Sam that Tanya’s a spy, just in case the Pelts are looking for payback.

Not my favourite book of the bunch but “Definitely Dead” has it’s moments and I did enjoy some of the ectoplasm scenes as well as the interactions between Sookie and Amelia (Hadley’s former landlady) as well as Sophie-Anne.

Rating: 8 out of 10.