Review: Dead Reckoning

Reviewed by Jen
 

Have you ever noticed that every time an enemy of Sookie Stackhouse bites the dust, another is waiting in the wings to make her life miserable?  If you think about it, our girl has got a lot of carnage in her wake: from Lorena... to the vamp who killed Hadley... on to Andre and Debbie and Appius Livius. But you cut off the head of one beast and another grows in its place.  Our beast du jour for Dead Reckoning is our old pal Victor.  He is making life more and more miserable for Eric, and he's an ever-present threat to Sookie.

And he's not the only one.  Someone has firebombed Merlotte's; some drugged out thugs are sent to snatch Sookie; and that's just the beginning!  Sookie has to figure out who is targeting her, while helping Eric come up with a plan to get out from under Victor.

Emotions are running high.  There's a schism between Eric and Pam, and Sookie knows she has something to do with it.  (The basis of their discord, when it's finally revealed, is real kick to the gut!)  At the same time, Pam is trying to gain permission to create her first vampire child. And there are major developments in the blood-bond issue between Eric and Sookie.

Sookie is coming to see how much she has changed since the supes have come into her life. Much of what she's done has been necessary to her own survival, but she's not sure she likes who she's become. Things are strained between her and Eric. I've been Team-Eric for as long as I can remember, but the cracks are forming. That's an understatement, really. We see what can easily be the mechanism to separate them once and for all. But things are left unresolved. I just wish Harris would just rip the band-aid off already. I've softened towards Bill, though I can't see the two of them ever reconciling --and we even have a surprise appearance from another potential suitor. But when all is said and done, I feel like we're just getting more groundwork laid for Sam as an eventual HEA. Sure, he's got a girlfriend here, but he is now firmly ensconced as Sookie's best friend. I feel like it's just a hop, skip and jump from becoming something more.

I can't wrap up without acknowledging that Sookie makes some great new discoveries about her family history. And we finally know where her telepathy comes from. (A fun surprise, I thought.) We have resolution on the main story arc, but the relationship issues are left hanging in a most frustrating way. I just didn't feel like the book was as cohesive as some of the ones that came before it.  The best books in the series were obvious in what they were about: whether it was the vampire summit, the evil witches or what-have-you.  The weaker ones tend to meander from event to event, or perhaps more accurately... from disaster to disaster, in Sookie's life. Almost 4 stars.