From Dead to Worse

I was disappointed in this book. After the action and over-arching plot of All Together Dead and the cover copy, I was thinking this would be even better. It felt very hodge-podge and the various plots did not tie together in any way, shape, or form. It didn't seem to do much, not even wrap up loose ends from the previous book, at least, not satisfactorily. But, I'm in for the long-haul. These are still fun, easy-to-read books that provide a needed break in a hectic life.

From Dead to Worse, the eighth book in the Sookie Stackhouse series, is an oddly transitory kind of book. A lot of plotlines from previous books--clear back to Book Four--get resolution of a kind, and groundwork is laid down for what will clearly be future plotlines for the series. We've got a New and Mysterious Relation of Sookie's showing up. We've got resolution on at least two Love Interest plots, and advancement on one other, possibly two. We've got new evidence that Sookie's brother is a mighty ass. We've got vampires vs. vampires and werewolves vs. werewolves. We've got followup on the backlash from a certain action Sookie had to take to defend herself in Book Four, and we've got followup on the screwup a side character made a couple books ago. We even get Sookie making a Significant Family Discovery at the end.

All of this is very well and good, but with so many things going on in the story, it made it a crowded read for me. All of the individual plotlines were interesting, but none of them really felt like they got enough attention. Overall, the book feels very much like a bridge between what's come before and what's due to come after. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but the problem with a bridge is, it takes you from point A to point B and seldom gives you a reason to linger on itself. For this bridge of a book, three stars.