Club Dead

By: Charlaine Harris

Narrated by: Johanna Parker

Length: 8 hrs and 24 mins

Publisher's Summary

In this entry from Anthony Award-winner Charlaine Harris' New York Times best-selling series, the gorgeous and feisty telepath hits the road to find her missing boyfriend, who may have run off with his former lover - a notorious vamp.

Listen to more titles in the Sookie Stackhouse series.

©2003 Charlaine Harris (P)2008 Recorded Books, LLC

Simply Fantastic

I have read all of the first 8 books in the series, and am anxiously awaiting book 9 coming out in May. The author has stated she is currently writing book 10 so more Sookie to come. This books takes us on a new spin in Sookie's love life, but one that I can promise just keeps getting more and more exciting as each book moves forward. I recently started purchasing them on audio because my husband is interested in the story, but not to actually read it. This is one of my favorite in the series. If you are new to the Sookie Stackhouse series, begin with Dead Until Dark and continue on from there. Don't read/listen to them out of order or you will lose so much. There are also many short stories and novellas about Sookie in other books that Charlaine Harris has co-authored with other writers, so look for those as well!

9 people found this helpful

Eric is to die for...

I'm up to book seven but so far this is my favorite, Eric- this vulnerable unabashed version makes you melt. I was looking for something to peak my interest after finishing the Twilight Saga, and the HBO series drew my to the author. Audio books in the past failed to hold my interest for too long, but the combination of great writing and an amazing narrator makes this series addictive.

6 people found this helpful

Another great Sookie book

Charlaine Harris is really a great suspense writer in that there are quite a few twists and turns and I truly have a tough time putting them down. That in combination with the intrigue of Sookie's love life and where it might end keeps me wondering and wanting to read ahead. I personally am not too disappointed in the direction her love life is taking and in fact am hoping for the change. Make sure you start with the first book "Dead Until Dark" and continue on in the series as one takes place in time right after the other and the books would lose alot of their meaning and enjoyment without the history. Speaking of which, Book No. 4 is not available on Audio yet so I am having to actually READ the book before downloading Book 5.

4 people found this helpful

I love this series!

Whether you've read this series in print or not this is an excellent series! I've read all the books and I still love to listen on Audio. This series is one of my favorites.

7 people found this helpful

Dracula meets Sex and the City

I really enjoyed the first book in the series, but the second one fell a little flat for me. I found it confusing. This one, though, was awesome. I really enjoyed all the action, and I feel like Sookie's reactions to her undead boyfriend and all the problem he causes is very realistic - as realistic as it can get considering he is a vampire LOL. But unlike Twilight, which is all teen-angst love, this feels more like Dracula meets Sex and the City. And since I love them both, it is perfect for me! I can't wait for the next one to see what happens!

3 people found this helpful

Sookie Stackhouse Southern Vampire Mystery

Simply wonderful listening!
The Sookie Stackhouse Southern Vampire Mysteries are an enjoyable new twist on supernatural fiction.
Start with book one and go through all the sequels.
I sure hope this author continues with this series!

3 people found this helpful

Club Dead

I started listening to these books after watching the HBO Trueblood series and I can not get enough. Within a week, I have listen to all of them but book number 4 and I am having a hard time finding it. I think Club Dead makes you yearn for more. It was a very good listen and I could not put my IPOD down!

14 people found this helpful

Club Dead

I haven't read the entire series but I intend to. The author has such a sense of humor, which I really like. The book is full of action and romance. I would highly recommend the series. I like it much better than the Twilight series.

2 people found this helpful

More of the same

Continuation of the story. If you liked the previous ones you'll probably like this too.

1 person found this helpful

Harris’s capable hands bring us an alluring tale.

Where does Club Dead rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

That's not fair! They're almost all good for one reason or another.

Sookie Stackhouse is back in her third adventure, and I couldn’t be happier. She’s a telepath in love with a vampire, who are now legal in the United States since the invention of synthetic blood. The relationship works especially well because she can’t really “read” vampires. In addition, she works for a shape shifter at Merlotte’s Bar in Bon Temps, Louisiana. This is billed as a “Southern Vampire Mystery” which really is a very accurate description although I’d sure throw a dash of romance into the mix liberally sprinkled with erotic scenes. It may all sound over the top, but in Charlaine Harris’s capable hands, it’s an alluring mix.

Lately Bill, the vampire, has been spending inordinate amounts of time in front of his computer, and Sookie is missing the great intimacy they once shared. All of a sudden Bill says he must take a secret trip to Seattle on behalf of the queen of Louisiana without his direct superior, Eric, the sheriff of Area 5, knowing about it. Sookie has no choice but to go on with life as usual until a very uncouth werewolf shows up at the bar and tries to kill her. When Eric shows up to protect her, she is told that Bill never went to Seattle but met up with an old girlfriend, and Bill has now been kidnapped in Mississippi in broad daylight. Eric enlists Sookie and her telepathic abilities to go to Mississippi to see what information she can gather from the humans who hang out with local vampires at Club Dead. While there she is escorted by stunning shape shifter Alcide.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Club Dead?

While all this story may sound very far fetched, Charlaine Harris has a way of making it all seem quite normal. Explanations are given on qualities of the supernatural, and human Sookie even reacts with laughter at hearing of the kingdoms and queendoms that America is divided into. She learns more about shape shifters and “weres” from her new companion right along with us. She’s lived such a protected life in her small town where she stays away from all the input from other people. Now she’s involved with all sorts of mystical beings and realizes that they are individuals, too, although oftentimes with a different set of morals.

When Sookie shares with her shape shifter companion Alcide what she’s learned from his sister, he says: “You seem like the most regular person I ever met, and it’s hard to remember you’ve got all this extra stuff.” Sookie keeps her wits and humor intact. In the middle of trying to find Bill, she shares, “I had never supposed that our romance would go smoothly. It was an interspecies relationship, after all. And Bill was a lot older than me. But this aching chasm I felt now that he was gone – that, I hadn’t ever imagined.”

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

Yes, all the Sookie series, and this is just as well done as the rest. She does change her tone to try and represent the other characters, but it has to be difficult to impersonate a thousand year old, male Viking vampire! She does tho, and well.

Earlier entries in this fascinating and fun series are DEAD UNTIL DARK and LIVING DEAD IN DALLAS. While the reading of this story is very much enhanced knowing the background behind Sookie’s telepathic “disability”, her relationship with the vampire Bill and his world, and other inhabitants of Bon Temps, Louisiana, this story certainly stands on its own.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

No, I rarely do. I enjoy savoring the book, or the listening experience would be frustrating to me. Sure you can push a speed up button on the iPhone etc, but unless I've lost my place, I don't use it.

Don’t miss one word of this charming tale. This may sound cliché, but once you’ve read the twist at the end of this book, you will not be able to wait for the next entry in the series any more than I could.

Any additional comments?

Sookie comes to realize that she is involved with these extraordinary worlds whether Bill returns home or not because the vampires know of her telepathic abilities and will go to great lengths to obtain her services. Yet it is wise to remember how rebellious and resourceful Sookie can be.

I thoroughly enjoyed all aspects of this story – the mystery of Bill’s kidnapping, the romance of Bill and Sookie, the Southern values and locales, the erotic overtones, the supernatural worlds mixing with the human world – all balanced with each other as if this were commonplace. It is a delightful merging of different cultures to create a broader view of life.

1 person found this helpful