Deadlocked: A True Blood Novel (Sookie Stackhouse 12) (edizione 2012)

It seems Charlaine Harris is finally winding things down. I can’t say I’m sorry that this series is ending. It’s one of those series that was a lot of fun for the first four books, then just kept going for years.

After a young shifter girl dies outside Eric’s house one night, a murder investigation begins. On top of that, Sookie is dealing with issues in her Fae family. Eric and Sookie are on the rocks in this one, which means no Viking sexy time. That was, admittedly, one of the only reasons I picked this book up. I’ve always loved Eric, but he was barely present in this book. There was a weird mystery with a random girl dying at Eric’s house, part of her Fae family disappearing for a bit, and a crazy werewolf who has it out for Sookie. As in many of the Sookie books, it’s all linked somehow. Frankly, I was disinterested in pretty much everything that happened in this book. This series has just been run into the ground. Couldn’t it have ended sometime around book four? That’s the last one I remember loving. I can hardly remember anything that happened in the following books. It was just really unsatisfying. Looking ahead to the last book, I can only say that I’m kind of hoping that Sookie just gets back together with Bill and everyone who’s been a problem for last million books dies. That’s how ready I am for all this to be over. I’ll pick it up just because I want to know how things wrap up.

This one just didn’t hit the mark. This series is dead. ( )

The Sookie Stackhouse series has had its ups and downs, but this book is the worst of the series. It is so boring; nothing really happens until the last chapter, and I had to force myself to keep reading. The only reason I managed to slog through this book and eventually finish it was the fact that I'm rather attached to this series, and there's only one more book left. If this had been the first book in the series I'd read, I never would have read another one. ( )

I really enjoyed this book, it was so much better than the last few books. I have a feeling Sookie might be getting a new love interest. ( )

I'm rooting for Sam . . . hey, I used to handle dead bodies for a living. Sleeping with one? Hooooo boy! NOT a nice thing to consider! Dead flesh is NOT pleasant, kids and kiddies! Can we all say making whoopie with a dead fish with an icicle between it's legs? Ewww, people . . .

And speaking of kids and kiddies - Sam can give her all the things that she has REALLY always wanted - a real life. Family, children, a real home, a life in the SUN. Remember, no matter what, Sookie is a true child of the Sun, her fairy blood assures that. And anyone who actually reads the books KNOWS that. She has mentioned, time after time, how much she loves the Sun, how much she loves children and how she would love to have children herself. Certainly can't do that with a vampire! And Sam loves her for HER, not for what she can do for him, how much status she give him, how she can be used to promote one or another agenda - nothing but the fact that he adores her for who she is - Sookie, the kind, gentle, honest, tough, independent, Southern barmaid with heart, grit, and a deep and abiding sense of kindness and fair play.

Now that I have said that - - - I can't BELIEVE some of you reviewers!! Oh. My. God. Ms. Harris does _not_ deserve the viciousness that some of you are displaying. Let's see - - - she writes a series of books, which I am sure are planned out in her head, and probably on paper, as a set storyline with an arc of happenings and an ending that she will have planned. There will have been flexibility as the ideas grow and developed, but she has a plan. She then commences to get rave reviews, and her books are loved so much, even a television program based on the books (albeit very loosely based) is developed, and all of a sudden, she has a contract for, what, four more books? Five? Well, splinch.

Now, Ms. Harris has to develop what amounts to a whole new series, based on the same characters she had already started putting to bed, so to speak. She has other books, other stories to tell, which she has no doubt already begun turning her thoughts to, when she now has to start stretching out the stories of her characters. Not through her own wishes, but because her publishers say "Hey, this is a money making machine! Let's get her to stretch out a story that she has finished so we can make barrels more money!" Not "Let's let her do what she does best and write stories SHE wants to write - stories that may be JUST AS LUCRATIVE as the Sookie storyline . . . " So, Ms. Harris has to sit down and start again on characters she has already, in her mind, sent on to their happily ever afters. Do you all REALLY think that this whole writing thing is EASY??? That books just arise, fully formed, in the author's heads? That they simply sit down and start typing away, writing down the happenings of Real People?? When YOU can do what Ms. Harris does every day, develop a story line, get published to raving acclaim, and then suddenly have to come up with six (or however many) new books based on the same characters, when you had only designed a certain number, then you have the right to talk. Until then, I think you owe Ms. Harris an apology. If you don't like the story lines any longer, STOP BUYING THE BOOKS. Go do something else. Support new authors. Volunteer at the animal shelter, for Goddesses sake!

As for the whole Eric thing? Come on, people!! Do you REALLY think that Eric is going to stick with Sookie when the Three B's start sagging??? (For the uninitiated, boobs, belly and butt) When the neck starts to wattle, when 30 passes, then 40? 60? When Sookie is no longer the perky, sexy, blonde bombshell? Oh, Bill would. He would stick by her through it all, honor her and love her to her death bed, I have no doubt. Just as he did with old Mrs. Belfleur, he would sit by her bed as she died a happy, contented old age, and might even happily meet the Sun, lying at her side on her deathbed. Well, if the vampire hierarchy would allow it. He does love her, and I really don't believe that he would not, after what he has shown after the fiasco of his Maker, abandon her, or turn her. Remember, he said when they were in the car after yet another life-or-death emergency, something to the effect of (I read in Audible, and don't have bookmarking on my device, so I can't quote the exact words) that he would love her forever, but he would never turn her, _because_ he loves her. And she has never, ever wanted to be changed. Remember, she is a child of the Sun, not the Moon. Eric is, above all, in love with Eric and ALWAYS HAS BEEN. Sure, he was happy with Sookie, in his own way. He gave her presents and protected her, and apparently loved the sex. But how long would that REALLY last? Eric is a creature who craves power and prestige above all. If you really read the books, you know this. Bill would stick around when the wrinkles, achy joints and thinning gray hair appeared. Eric? Uh. Not so much. But would Bill, in reality, make her happy? He could not give her what she really wants - a real life, under the Sun, with dogs and babies and long rides in the car with the Sun streaming down and the breeze blowing their hair. (Remember that scene from a previous book? She was thinking of Eric at the time, but the concept is the same.) Love is nice. Apparently, in the storyline, sex with a vampire is nice. (Eww. Icicles.) But could the kind of relationship that didn't allow any of the things that Sookie loves the most (well, besides the sex) be truly satisfying if those things weren't available to her?

I don't know with whom Sookie will wind up. Heck, with all the viciousness of some of you, maybe she will kill Sookie off, just to spite you people. She did make her will, right? And even had the attorney let her sign her list of wishes, just in case? I hope Ms. Harris doesn't do that, and her REAL fans hope she doesn't do that, I am sure, because We. Love. Sookie. We love her trips to Walmart and the Dairy Queen, her broken water heaters and sore feet. She is a real person to us, and we want her to be happy. Everyone who she has ever loved has betrayed her in one fashion or the other. Bill, Eric, Quinn. Her fellow community members like Andy Belfleur and many, many others. Hey, trying to get your 'boyfriend' to string Sookie up on a cross and set her on fire in the parking lot is a pretty big betrayal, wouldn't you think? Even Jason, her own brother, betrayed and hurt her. Sam never has.

Ms. Harris writes these things because, in real life, these are real things. True things. This is what life is, especially in a small, rural, southern community. (Hey, on my White ((shudder)) side, my Grandfather was KKK - you think I don't know from small southern communities? Can we all say lynch mob?) As I have said previously, I read these books because they are true things that happen to real people. I just adore that they happen to a real person who happens to be fascinatingly different and who hangs out with creatures who are fascinatingly different. Ms. Harris writes complex characters living within a small town atmosphere that anyone who lives, or has lived, in a small town can immediately identify and relate to. You can relax into Bon Temps, say to yourself "She is really writing about old So-and-So down the street, I can just see her doing that!"

So. Get. A. Grip. Write an apology to Ms. Harris for being such nasty wankers. Then, if you don't like the books, don't buy them. If you don't like what publishers cajole, beg, and threaten writers into doing, don't buy the books. Support an unknown author. Go out and buy Ms. Harris' other books. Just try to remember that, although it is apparently declasse these days to give a nod to common courtesy and manners, it might be a nice thing to bring those attitudes back. Maybe take a page out of Ms. Sookie's book and be polite. What a unique concept that would be for some of you.

Thank you for all your hard work, and for bringing me a series I adore, Ms. Harris. I will be looking forward to seeing what stories you come up with in the future, what characters I am all ready to come to love. Unless you give up in disgust at the behaviour of some of your readers and decide to live off your profits and write only for yourself and close friends. If so, I hope you include me in that group of friends - I love, love, love your stories, your characters, and your heart. Thank you. ( )

3.5 stars
I rather liked this instalment of the Southern Vampire series :) A whole lot of stuff happened, of course, and Sookie had to fight both physically and mentally on all fronts.

What I didn't like was that there was so little Eric in the whole story, and I was disappointed with the lack of actual communication between Sookie and Eric. I also didn't like that Sookie was left to fend for herself, with nobody to really look out for her for a while.

I loved some of the visits she got, and I was very happy with how some of her problems were solved as well.

The writing was very fast paced, but I do agree with some of my Goodreads friends that the voice has changed a little since Trueblood started. At the same time, Sookie has grown, and has been through a lot of things, so that might also be partly what has changed, not the fact that there is a TV show losely based on the books. ( )