Dead in the Family Advance Review

Dead in the Family, the next book in the Southern Vampire Mysteries series, hits bookstores on Tuesday, May 4. We were privileged to receive advance copies to review from Penguin, and both eagerly dove in to find out what happened next with Sookie, Eric, Bill, Jason, and company. Here are our reviews. (Warning: minor spoilers!)

Liz’s Review

Dead in the Family will be available May 4, 2010.

Dead in the Family picks up about a week after the end of Dead and Gone, where some pretty gruesome things happened to Sookie during a war between the faeries and the vampires. Dead in the Family starts out with Sookie trying to recover from her injuries, both physical and psychological, from a torture session with two psychopathic faeries. Recovery is slow and painful and the book takes us forward week by week for the first month, until Sookie’s life settles back to some semblance of normalcy. Normal, that is, for Sookie.

I think I liked this book a bit better than the last one only because this one went back to being lighter than Dead and Gone. After Sookie recovers, we see the same witty, snarky Sookie we’ve all come to know and love. Sookie is also much wiser and a bit more hardened concerning some things than she ever was. This is no surprise, although to me, it’s a little melancholy. I guess it’s the loss of innocence that gets to me.

Rather than prattle on and on, let me just list some of the highlights and a couple teasers for you from Dead in the Family.

• One question that is settled pretty quickly is why Eric didn’t come to Sookie during all the torture. I’m not going to spoil it for you, but I can say that for me, it was not what I expected at all. Thank you, Charlaine! I love surprises.
• Charlaine has mentioned often that Eric’s maker appears in this story. Boy does he, and he brings a surprise for Eric. Eric has quite a few in this book.
• Jason has evolved into someone I actually like.
• Sam deals with some family issues and a new girlfriend who turns out to be more than he bargained for.
• Alcide is very much in this book and up to his same tricks with Sookie.
• Bill was indeed, as Charlaine revealed, very ill throughout the book. However, healing comes from a surprising source.
• Hunter pays Sookie a visit and I hope we see more of him in future books.
• Debbie Pelt makes a cameo appearance.
• A nod is given to HBO’s True Blood.
• Sookie gains another housemate.

I don’t want to say too much more so I’ll stop there. Overall, I’d have to say that Dead in the Family will be one of my favorites in this series. Ms. Harris sets up the next book quite well and we are not left with a huge cliff-hanger practically in the middle of a sentence. The title of the book is the theme throughout, of course. And Sookie will make you laugh again, which was something I worried about after Dead and Gone.

Mel’s Review

With nine books’ worth of material to work with, Charlaine Harris must have felt like a kid in a candy store when writing Dead in the Family. The tenth book in the Southern Vampire Mysteries series is an example of how to use a rich mythology that has already been established while keeping the story fresh. The author deftly weaves threads from as far back as book one into a story that longtime fans will enjoy, bringing new insights and answering old questions.

Dead in the Family combines vampires, fairies, weres, and telepaths in a way that somehow feels so normal, I actually chuckled when I realized that, like Sookie, “supes” no longer seemed unusual. Sookie has a lot to handle in this book, but it’s a testament to her character’s growth that she does it with a maturity and insight that wasn’t there previously. Her terrible ordeal at the end of Dead and Gone has changed her irrevocably, but in true resilient Sookie fashion, she’s choosing to grow instead of wallow. OK, there is a little wallowing at the beginning of the book, but can you blame her? The physical evidence of her torture is almost healed, but the emotional wounds require more time. I appreciated that we were given the week-by-week prologue to deal with that as well as get some answers about Eric’s whereabouts and Bill’s condition. The fallout from the fairy war impacts more than the fairies, most of whom are now sealed into their world, and Charlaine’s manner of addressing it felt appropriate and respectful without being too depressing.

Once we reach the first chapter of Dead in the Family, we leave much of the darkness from book nine behind as the next mystery is introduced. With the weres now out in the open, there are some who want to legislate them practically into illegal alien status. Conspiracies and paranoia abound, and naturally Sookie is caught up in it thanks to her “friend of the pack” status with Alcide’s pack, plus Jason and Sam’s shifter abilities. In addition to that, she must deal with a couple of fairies who did not go back with Niall, even as she grieves for Claudine. Meanwhile, Eric is mired in complex vampire politics and hierarchy now that Louisiana is under the rule of the King of Nevada and his devious second in command, leaving Sookie both worried about and missing her boyfriend.

After finishing the novel and reflecting on everything that happened, the title took on so many implications that I had to applaud Charlaine. Family is the theme of this book, both literal and figurative, good and bad. There are some wonderful moments between Sookie and Jason that show how strong their bond has become, and how much Jason has matured. Sookie’s grief over the loss of her cousin Claudine is palpable and her death impacts Sookie in unexpected ways. The complicated “made” families in the vampire world are also highlighted, giving us more insight into the differences (and similarities) between human and vampire connections.

Dead in the Family is a rich, rewarding book for fans of the series (and there’s even a clever tip of the hat to True Blood). So many previous stories and connections are touched on that it could have read like a lame television clip show; instead Charlaine used the abundance of material already established to write a story that simply could not have taken place any earlier. She even sows the seeds for the remainder of the series, particularly in a few introspective paragraphs with Sookie considering her options for the future. While not as lighthearted as some of the earliest novels, when Sookie was still very naive, Dead in the Family is not nearly as dark as the last book, even delivering a few adorable and laugh-out-loud moments. It’s engaging and entertaining without being frivolous, substantial without being heavy. I suspect this will land pretty high on the list of favorite Sookie novels for many fans.

Dead in the Family hits bookstores on Tuesday, May 4, 2010.