Mass Market Paperback, 323 pages
English language
Published May 24, 2008 by Ace Books, Berkley Publishing Group.
Betrayed by her longtime vampire love, Louisiana cocktail waitress Sookie Stackhouse must not only deal with a new man in her life—the oh-so-handsome shape-shifter Quinn—but also contend with a long-planned vampire summit. With her power base weakened by hurricane damage to New Orleans, the local vampire queen is vulnerable to those hungry for a take-over. Soon, Sookie must decide what side she'll stand with. And her choice may mean the difference between survival and all-out catastrophe...
Betrayed by her longtime vampire love, Louisiana cocktail waitress Sookie Stackhouse must not only deal with a new man in her life—the oh-so-handsome shape-shifter Quinn—but also contend with a long-planned vampire summit. With her power base weakened by hurricane damage to New Orleans, the local vampire queen is vulnerable to those hungry for a take-over. Soon, Sookie must decide what side she'll stand with. And her choice may mean the difference between survival and all-out catastrophe...
Somewhat better than its predecessor, but still, the books are lacking more and more. I am compelled to finish them, because I've started. Oh well.
Somewhat better than its predecessor, but still, the books are lacking more and more. I am compelled to finish them, because I've started. Oh well.
If Book 6 of the Sookie Stackhouse series was a turning point, then Book 7, All Together Dead, is the drawing of battle lines. Vampire politics, were politics, and an upsurge of human fanatic reaction to the undead are all in the forefront of this plot, making it arguably one of the most substantial of the Sookies to date.
Sookie is called upon to join the party of the Queen of Louisiana for a vampire summit in the (fictional) city of Rhodes. Once there, she has all sorts of competing pulls for her attention. The only other telepath she's ever met, from way back in Book 2, makes another appearance here. Rumblings about a civil war among the weres are growing stronger. And the politics between not only various factions of vampires but also between vampires and humans take center stage--forcing Sookie to question whether her life can truly …
If Book 6 of the Sookie Stackhouse series was a turning point, then Book 7, All Together Dead, is the drawing of battle lines. Vampire politics, were politics, and an upsurge of human fanatic reaction to the undead are all in the forefront of this plot, making it arguably one of the most substantial of the Sookies to date.
Sookie is called upon to join the party of the Queen of Louisiana for a vampire summit in the (fictional) city of Rhodes. Once there, she has all sorts of competing pulls for her attention. The only other telepath she's ever met, from way back in Book 2, makes another appearance here. Rumblings about a civil war among the weres are growing stronger. And the politics between not only various factions of vampires but also between vampires and humans take center stage--forcing Sookie to question whether her life can truly be "normal" again, and in fact, to which vampire she's willing to bind herself now that she's seized the Louisiana Queen's attention.
There's a glaringly obvious "oh for fuck's sake" moment that gives away the intentions of the antagonists in this plot--or at least, obvious to the reader; I did wonder how exactly this escaped the attention of all of the significant characters in the book. Granted, they've all got other things on their minds at the time, but it's still enough to make one go "wait, what?"
But that's the only bump in an otherwise thoroughly solid story. Three and a half stars.
