The Sookie Stackhouse Companion

By: Charlaine Harris

Narrated by: Johanna Parker, Christina Moore, Brian Hutchison, Scott Sowers, Celeste Ciulla, Laurie Birmingham, Andrew Watts

Length: 9 hrs and 55 mins

Publisher's Summary

Charlaine Harris has topped the best seller charts and become a nationwide phenomenon. Now learn more about Sookie and her family, friends, enemies and adventures.

Visit Bon Temps, the small Louisiana town that Sookie calls home. Examine all the branches of Sookie's family tree, and eavesdrop of the private conversations between rival vampires Eric and Bill.

Also, enjoy the compelling audiobook Small Town Wedding, in which Sookie accompanies Sam to his brother's wedding in Texas, where happily ever after seems very far away....

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

Critic Reviews

"I fell in love with these stories…I loved the world, I loved how funny it was, how sexy and romantic and dramatic and scary." (Alan Ball, creator of TV series True Blood)

Not new content

Despite this being released this year the content on the book is a good deal older. The chapter layout is as follows.

Chapter 1 - Intro from Charlaine Harris
Chapter 2 - 5 - Novella - Small Town Wedding - excellent short story
Chapter 6 - 18 - Description of what happened and the timeline of each novel from Dead until Dark to Dead Reckoning (one book per chapter)
Chapter 19 - Description of the short stories and where they happen in the story arc of the main books
Chapter 20 - Sookie discusses the types of creatures she has met
Chapter 21 - Alan Ball maker of True Blood answers questions from his fans (voiced by an actor)
Chapter 22 - The works of Charlaine Harris - short descriptions of her body of work up to including the Sookie novels (as far as Dead and Gone). The Founder of Charlaine's fan club talks about how Charlaine's work has influenced her and what she enjoys about the fan club
Chapter 23 - Charlaine Harris answers questions from her fans (voiced by an actor)

I would have enjoyed the Q&As if these had been more recent and Charlaine and Alan were looking back on the whole Sookie storyline. As it is the content is badly dated and all the questions have since been resolved.

If you think the price or the credit is worth it for a nice little novella that lasts just over three hours - then buying this is definitely worth it for you. If you were hoping for some new content or some additional perspectives on the Sookie-verse then this unlikely to suit.

I considered returning it since two thirds of the book is of no interest to me - but decided to keep it because I enjoyed the novella and will likely read it again. The ratings reflect 5 stars for the novella but 1 star for the rest - thus bringing the score down. The performance of the novella was excellent but the interviews were very wooden - likely because the actors were reading out written not spoken answers but it was stilted nonetheless knocking a star off.

Would be a lot better to read yourself

It drawls through the timeline of each book and that's boring. The only good point is the short story right at the beginning.

rubbish!

loved all the others... this just summarises what happens in each book and is just boring.