Dead Reckoning

Sookie Stackhouse Southern Vampire Mystery #11

By: Charlaine Harris

Narrated by: Johanna Parker

Length: 10 hrs and 47 mins

Publisher's summary

With her knack for being in trouble's way, Sookie witnesses the firebombing of Merlotte's, the bar where she works. Since Sam Merlotte is now known to be two-natured, suspicion falls immediately on the anti-shifters in the area. Sookie suspects otherwise, but her attention is divided when she realizes that her lover, Eric Northman, and his "child", Pam, are plotting to kill the vampire who is now their master. Gradually, Sookie is drawn into the plot - which is much more complicated than she knows.

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©2011 Charlaine Harris, Inc. (P)2011 Recorded Books, LLC

Wonderful Audio Story

What made the experience of listening to Dead Reckoning the most enjoyable?

Although I never much got interested in this story when I read much of it in ebook form, I loved the story as read by Johanna Parker. Her ability to capture Sookie's personality as well as the other characters is amazing. I always knew who was speaking.

What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)

I pretty much liked everything about this story in the audio version, including the ending. It helps to have no opinions about how the author SHOULD end a book or series.

Have you listened to any of Johanna Parker’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I've never heard Johanna Parker before but now I regret having read this series in print versions until this book.

these seem to be on a downward trajectory

SPOILERS...
Meh. I've sat here for 3 minutes trying to figure out how to word this review, and MEH is what I have come up with. The last couple books have been lacking. Almost as though a ghost writer is producing them. This one is no different. It starts out well, but immediately after the bombing, it looses steam, and turns into a recitation of Sookie's daily minutia. The conflict between her and Eric is just irritating, with his announcement about the upcoming nuptials just being abrupt and weird. I have a feeling that the author is leading us to a Sookie/Sam combo, which would be nice, but why go to all the trouble with the Sookie/Eric combo and then just toss it away? of course, she did do a big built up with Quinn, then vanished him in a heartbeat with a lame excuse.
The story line of killing Victor is an excellent one, but it is dropped as well, almost as though it doesn't exist. And where is Pam? why is she so absent? and why has Alcede turned into such a male-chauvenist tool? It' just bizarre, the direction this is taking. I don't know that I will finish the series. Very unsatisfying.

Overall a pretty good book

Would you try another book from Charlaine Harris and/or Johanna Parker?

I have listened to the entire series

How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?

Her books are good, but can be a little slow at points and too many references to things you allready know about from the previous books mentions the character Bubba far too often.

Would you listen to another book narrated by Johanna Parker?

Yes excellent narration.

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

Yes

SO MUCH better than the last book

Yes, Harris does tend to get bogged down in the mundane details of Sookie's life. As many reviews have noted-- she spends a lot of this book cleaning, for some inexplicable reason.

However, this was a VAST improvement on the last book. The characters are evolving, and we have to let them do so. Eric and Sookie are NOT going to have the same chemistry and lust for eachother that they had in the earlier books. Their situation has changed, the world has moved on. It can be disappointing for people looking for the exact same thing, but I think its a fair decision on the author's part.

This installment seemed more of a wrap-up and correction of the last novel. There were some new developments that I'm looking forward to, but mostly, I think the author was regaining her footing. In my opnion, she did.

Johanna Parker, the narrator, is AMAZING, as usual. Seriously, that woman is "Sookie," in my opinion. I'd love to see her have a bit part on the show. I'm even tempted to buy more of the books that she narrates, even if they're not my style/ genre.

Not the Best, Not the Worst

When I bought this book, I noticed all the negative reviews and decided "what the heck". It was fun, I enjoy hanging out with CH's characters for a few hours, the story wasn't fabulous but it's just fine. I never thought I would make it this far in the series and I will buy book #12. If you want positive/negative details, please check out the other reviews. If you want some encouragement to hang out for a good story with some old friends, I say "Go for it!".

Dead reckoning falls dead

I have all of the applied stackhouse books in print and kindle and audiobooks. I love Charlaine Harris books. I didn’t care for this one. It wasn’t in keeping with the original story. Also I loved the true blood series until the fifth season, then it got weird. Money is not always good when you lose your desire to write great stories.

A lot of fun!

I was not sure I was going to like this book, but she took the story line in a whole new direction that I was not expecting. Much better than I thought it would be.

10 Stars for Johanna Parker

I enjoyed Dead Reckoning (book 11) much more than Dead in the Family (book 10). I thought Charlaine Harris was starting to lose her momentum with book 10 and worried about the rest of the series, but book 11 seems to have brought back some of what I loved about the earlier Sookie books but it was still lacking something (some of the humor maybe??? I can’t place it but it is missing something that earlier Sookie books had). In my opinion the first 5 books were the best in the series. The story line in this book was pretty good but not great, it pulled in a lot from past books and gave closure to some things and opened up future story lines on others. Sookie is drawn into helping Eric and Pam with Victor as well as trying to keep herself alive from a past enemy. There was also a little more with Hunter (her little cousin) which I hope they continue to include him as part of the story in future books. You learn more about Sookie’s fae connection and past and it hints at much more to come on that subject. Sookie also has some drama with Eric and you get the feeling that she and Eric have some series issues ahead of them. As always I feel Johanna Parker did a fantastic job as narrator and pretty much made the book for me. I truly feel the people who read the series instead of listening are missing out on one of the best parts of Sookie, Johanna Parker as narrator. I gave this book 4 stars because it did keep me entertained and got me interested in the future books. If I could I would give Johanna Parker 10 stars as narrator.

Fresh

Unlike many other listeners, I thought this book actually freshened up the series quite a bit. I thought the plot had dropped off about four books ago, but I really liked how this book starts to tie things together. In other words, this books has improved my opinion of the handful of books that set the stage. I am excited for the next book.

I don't mind the darkness dial being turned up a bit. Too much has happened to Sookie for her to stay the same person as she was in Book 1. I am fine with the character development.

5 stars for writing
5 stars for narration

Left hanging like a monkey!

I gave 4 stars just because it's a sookie stackhouse book and I agree that this was a bit of a let down. There are a lot of loose ends and it is a bit dark. A great way to keep people hooked and wondering what in the name of jeebus is going to happen next. You're really left hanging with this one. I agree that she beats herself up a bit much. I'm not a fan of people who wallow but I think as a human, Christian or not, if you were faced with dead people literally exploding, live people going ape nuts over killing you and gore on a regular basis, you would either end up in an institution or suffer from some sort of ptsd... just saying.