From Dead to Worse (8th Sookie Stackhouse novel)

From Dead to Worse (2008) by Charlaine Harris shows the heroine Sookie Stackhouse, starring here in her eighth novel in a more cautious and reflective mood than before. Not world-weary but more worldly-wise. Her world being populated with not only humans but vampires, werewolves, shapeshifters, fairies and sundry other "supes" (supernatural creatures). She's more marked by sadness than before. Which makes sense because she's been through some stressful times with her supes, who have feuds that would make the Hatfields and McCoys look like friendly cousins to each other.


Sookie's more somber tone as narrator is evident in the novel's second paragraph, where she unusually telegraphs the action of the novel:

But what happened in my little corner of northwest Lousisiana wasn't an epic story. The vampire war was more of the nature of a small-country takeover, and the Were war was like a border skirmish. Even in the annals of supernatural America - I guess they exist somewhere - they were minior chapters ... unless you were actively involved in the takeovers and skirmishses.

She continues by letting us know that she was indeed involved: "Then they became pretty damn major."

The previous installment of the Sookie story, All Together Dead, had the strongest plot of the series so far so it's not surprising that this one isn't quite as engaging. The plot, that is, not the story as a whole, which is very engaging. One notable aspect of this story is that the exposition of past occurrences is smoother and more integrated into the narrative flow than in the previous books.

Along with the Were and vampire wars, which each provide some real mystery and excitement, Sookie's family saga takes a new turn when she meets here great-grandfather Niall, who is a fairy. He gives her some of the background on her family tree which has given Sookie a touch of fairy blood that enhances her attractiveness to the vampires in the increasingly complex mythology of Sookie's world.

But while this connection to Niall broadens her family network, her always-rocky relationship to her brother Jason deteriorates when he sets her up to find his werepanther wife in bed with someone else. At the end of the story they are not on speaking terms.

But at the end Sookie's maternal instincts find a new object of engagement, a cousin she only recently learned she had, a little boy named Hunter Savoy who lives in Red Ditch, Louisiana, not far from Sookie's hometown Bon Temps. She lets his father Remy Savoy know about her gift of telepathy (or disability, as she still sometimes thinks of it). And she determines that Hunter is also telepathic, a fact which Remy was beginning to suspect.

She expresses her developing sense of pragmatic caution about the world of the supes when she reflects to herself:

People all had secrets, and I was in a position to know most of them. Being a telepath is not any fun. You hear the tawdry, the sad, the disgusting, the petty ... the things we all want to keep hidden from our fellow humans so they'll keep their image of us intact.

The secrets I know least about are my own ...

And Sookie's love life continues to be challenging, with her two main vampire boyfriends Eric and Bill playing prominent roles as well as her were-tiger guy Quinn. Relationships to in-laws in the supe world can also be quite complicated.

Sookie's overall story is fascinating on a number of levels. One of them is the enticing sense is that the reality we think we know about the people around us is actually far more complex than we normally assume. And that having our curiosity satisfied about some of those hidden truths can be as terrifying and dangerous as it is exciting and satisfying.

I've always suspected, for instance, that one of my neighbors is a were-raccoon ...

Tags: charlaine harris, from dead to worse, sookie stackhouse, true blood