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Up until this book, I held out hope that he and Sookie would make it work. I felt as though a huge chunk of the story was missing with only bits and pieces left to fill in. I like Quinn, like that he wants to protect her--but he has an incredibly annoying habit of referring to Sookie as "babe." We finally see his tiger shift in this book, and fortunately for the human citizens of Louisiana, most of them never witness it.As for the queen of Louisiana, there is far more to her than meets the eye. What. But with Eric and Quinn and even Bill ready to protect her, she isn't worried about the queen's favors even though cousin Hadley was the queen's favorite lover.All in all, as usual, I am quite pleased with this Sookie story.
For instance, we're told Sookie's absentee cousin has been killed, and at her death, she was a vampire. It isn't mentioned in any of the precious books.We also discover that Bill is not what he seems. Now, I've changed my mind due to events in the last 1/4 of the book.Sookie finds herself immersed in New Orleans drama as she draws closer to Quinn. I only wish Harris had given us some sort of lead-in to Hadley's death and the queen's visit to Bon Temps. While I was generally pleased with this Sookie book, there were some inconsistencies I didn't expect.
Where did this come from. By the end of the novel, she finds herself indebted to Sookie--as she should be.
Plus, as the only group that has come out to humans, they retain power that way as well. The machinations of the supe world have been confusing to me, but now, as the Queen of LA and the King of AR have decided to marry, one can see how this is going to give the vamps a lot of power over other local groups. I'm off to find it now, as I did find the beginning a bit confusing. I really enjoyed this sixth outing with Sookie and her friends. I feel Harris has really nurtured what is turning out to be a several book story arc and Definitely Dead helps fill in some pieces. Several other reviews mention the short story detailing more about Sookie's cousin Hadley.
Bill's revelation was disturbing, and Eric wasn't really "there" for this one - seemed somewhat out of character. Readers should get a copy of the short story "One Word Answer" and read it first (might be available at the author's website, or read it in the "Touch of Dead" anthology), or they'll be confused about what's happening. Overall, I think the last 2/3 of the book made up somewhat for the slow beginning, but not enough to give it 5 stars. This one had a slow start, with a few too many different plotlines running through it. Once the author settled into the New Orleans plot (and dropped the others), it got much, much better. I enjoyed Quinn, though.
I was so turned off of the almost paranormal romance, that I told myself I wouldn't read anymore from Harris. Definitely Dead was definitely missing something and it wasn't till the end of the book that it picked up enough to buoy the book from a dismal outing.Right from the beginning the writing seemed so loose and flighty, nothing substantial at all. There were some interesting moments, but for the most part I was a little bored. The next 4 leading up to Definitely Dead were, for the most part, great books in the series (with the sole exception being Club Dead) and I'd come to respect the series.
I would recommend only for those devoted fans to the series, both paper and television, and I would certainly still recommend the series.3.5 stars. You kind of see Quinn in action, always behind the scenes in his were form, and more is hinted at about Sookie's supernatural ancestry. You meet the Queen of Louisiana and her husband, the King of Arkansas, along with their retinue of thousand year old vampires. Her books are too up and down for me, starting with the first in the series. I read the first and didn't like the style of writing at all. I bought the rest of the series. The characters seemed like they were going through the motions and the plot was just there, was nothing more than a string of events.
All in all the last quarter of the book breathed life into an otherwise uninteresting book. I've come to love and, well that's too harsh, like Harris's Sookie Stackhouse series. Then along came True Blood and the series was revived and my imagination picked up and I wanted to read more. What kept me reading was that the writing was fast paced, even though nothing really was going on, so you could always get to the next scene really fast.Luckily for Harris the book culminated in New Orleans and a whole slew of stuff happened that piqued my interest and injected life into the paranormal fiction, now making me look forward to the next book.
Definitely Dead is definitely a stellar Southern Vampire novel. I'm not quite sure about this Quinn fellow, but at least his character is interesting. Each mystery had a conclusion that completely surprised me. It looks like we'll be seeing a lot more of her, which I'm really looking forward to. Definitely Dead is full of truly shocking revelations. There is so much going on in this novel, it's surprising how easy it is to follow all the action. I absolutely loved all of the focus on Queen Sophie-Anne.
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