Dead Until Dark

Sookie Stackhouse Southern Vampire Mystery #1

By: Charlaine Harris

Narrated by: Johanna Parker

Length: 9 hrs and 57 mins

Publisher's summary

Vampires have officially "come out of the coffin", and Miss Sookie can't wait for one to come her way.

Anthony Award-winner Charlaine Harris' New York Times and USA Today best-selling Sookie Stackhouse novels entice countless fans with an irresistible mixture of vampire romance, beguiling mystery, and old-fashioned Southern charm.

Listen to more titles in the Sookie Stackhouse series.

©2007 Charlaine Harris (P)2007 Recorded Books, LLC

Critic reviews

"An author of rare talents." ( Publishers Weekly)

Book better than the t.v

I loved this book. It's much better than the television series!!!! After listening to this book, I was very disappointed by the t.v. series for making so many alterations to the story.

LOVE the series!!

I absolutely love the Sookie Stackhouse novels. I've read them all roughly 2 years ago and I'm re-reading them again. I'm not quite as anxious to know what's going to happen next so I'm able to really take in the details of the story.

Listened to book 1 because of the TV series

I admit I binged watched the TV series before I started this book. It’s actually very similar to the show but the show has additional characters like Jessica and Lafayette plays a more prominent role in the show. I liked this book but not really enough to finish listening to the rest of the series. I think I would have if I hadn’t binge watched the series first. The book is very well written and I enjoyed the narration. Maybe down the line when the show isn’t so fresh in my head I may revisit this and listen to the rest of the books.

She gets smarter...

The narrator did a good job with the accents I thought. Her men all sounded pretty much the same but at least they sounded believably like men. It was a decent narration. I liked the story idea but I really hated Sookie in this book which came as a shock to me. I've read several of the later Sookie novels but not this one. She was just TOO naive and brain dead in this one. So, on the whole, I was too frustrated to enjoy the story. I do recommend books 4 onward in this series. Not a fan of this one and haven't read 2 or 3.

I put this off for far too long

I've almost read this book so many times. I was not familiar with the TV series based on it, and really didn't know a great deal about the book or the subject. But it always got such great reviews and so many people talked about it.

I rated the first book in the series after having read the first three or four books and probably rated it slightly higher than I would have if I rated it right after reading. But the series grows on you and as you learn more about the characters and the unique world they inhabit, the more you appreciate what came before. In the first few books of the series, but especially in the first, the author does a very good job of giving you quite a bit of background information without just reciting a list of "things you need to know to read further." Points introduced in the first book become far more important the further you go in the series. And since the author is creating essentially an alternate universe, I appreciate that she did it gradually, primarily in this book. It made it much easier to accept and believe.

I liked the simplicity of the first book. The number of major characters to keep track of was kept to a minimum. You really got to know them, before many, many others are introduced later on.

I started watching the HBO series after I read this first book. I would suggest that if you watched the series first and then tried to read the books, you would probably be disappointed in the books. To me the two are nothing alike, beyond the fact that some of the characters share the same name. But the HBO series is so much more intense and violent, and considerably less humorous. I was able to ramp up to enjoy the excess. But starting with excess then scaling back is far more difficult.

I will say one of the reasons I have avoided these books is I often have trouble with narrators using a heavy southern drawl, which is what I expected here. They usually exaggerate the unique characteristics of this accent to such a degree it is just annoying. It is not my favorite accent to listen to in real life. The exaggeration makes it worse. But I thought the narrator did a great job in this book. There is no doubt you are reading a book about southern characters living in a southern state. But she comes across as natural, not forced and definitely not over the top.

Love It!

Sookie Stackhouse has been looking forward to meeting a vampire since they came out to the public. She finally gets her wish after two long years. A vampire comes into the bar she works at out of nowhere. Sadly, a vampire showing up isn't the only thing new thing that happens. Women who have been with vampires start getting murdered.

I really enjoyed this book. It's not my first time reading it, but I read the series out of order the first time I read it. It was very embarrassing for me. I always vowed that I would go back and read the series in order. I have a few books at the end to read that I never read. I have a feeling that I will see this series completely differently this time around. I may even be ready to watch the show.

I'm not really sure I can actively give my opinion on the character. I have read nine books in the series. Out of order, yes, but enough to have an opinion of these characters that don't pertain to this book. I can say that I don't really like how Sookie is portrayed in the beginning of the book. She's portrayed as really stupid. Then, later in the book, she gets huffy if it's thought she's stupid. It just seems contradictory.

Running behind on schedule, I wound up listening to the audiobook. I got a deal because I owned the ebook. I love those deals. The narrator did a pretty amazing job. The book was narrated by Johanna Parker. I love how authentic she sounded to what I pictured of the book/series. I once listened to a book from a series that I love. I was disappointed to find that the person who narrated the book just didn't fit my idea of the narration of the story. Not that she wasn't good. She just didn't fit in my opinion. That wasn't the case with this one. She was AMAZING!

I'm glad that I took the time to re-read this book. I'm glad I'm finally getting the chance to read this series in order. I'm also looking forward to reading the last few books in the series. There were quite a few things that I had forgotten about the book. Including the fact that it had a slow start in my opinion. It's been an amazing read. I'll probably read it again in the future.

Love this book

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

I really like the way this book is written from the protagonists perspective. The reader really brings you into the book and makes you feel like you are there. For those that watch the true blood series the characters are the same but the story is not exactly the same. I think they should be different for different mediums that makes them good.

What did you like best about this story?

The way the story is told from the protagonist perspective.

What about Johanna Parker’s performance did you like?

She makes you feel like she is truly being Sookie not just reading her story.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

I don't know about a film but the television show is good,

Highly Recommended

While on vacation, I ended up reading the Harper Connelly series. It wasn't until I was into the second book that I realized that the author was the "True Blood" author. Don't worry about the other negative reviewers on here- if you like any other Charlaine Harris novels, you'll love this. I've only managed to see the first six episodes of True Blood- I loved that and loved these books although they are quite different in tone, suspense, etc. The main key factor is Sookie remains an enjoyable female heroine, of sorts. I also really enjoyed the narrator. I'm glad I ignored the negative reviews and started this series.

Great Performance and Great Reads for Running!

Would you consider the audio edition of Dead Until Dark to be better than the print version?

Johanna Parker is fantastic and keeps you enthralled. She is a real voice talent. I don't know how she does it but her voice is shockingly like Anna Paquin's. So if you enjoy HBO's True Blood, you'll love these books. The books are not completely true to the show so you get the characters you love and some similarity in the plot lines, but there are enough differences to hold your interest.

If you liked True Blood, you'll like this series

I was pleasantly surprised at how the HBO series True Blood kept all of the characters and events from the first season similar to this book. The narrator did an excellent job and kept me captivated for the entire book. I look forward to listening to the rest of the books!