Dead and Gone by Charlaine Harris

ISBN: 9780441017157
Sookie Stackhouse book #9
I bought this book.

The last book in the Sookie series was a palate cleanser, but this one doesn’t shape up like a traditionally formed mystery story. It doesn’t need to however, as now Sookie is official embroiled enough in the paranormal world that even when she doesn’t stumble into or seek out danger, it will come to her.

The first thing readers will notice is that Sookie has a lot of problems in this book. Some of them are external, but mostly she’s struggling to deal with the series so far. Unlike other urban fantasy heroines Sookie is not okay with being a killer, not even when it’s to save her own life. That she’s had to make that choice before is weighing heavily on her. In fact, it’s pretty clear in Dead and Gone that Sookie’s suffering from full on Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

So when her sister-in-law, Crystal is found crucified in Merlott’s parking lot and her great-grandfather, the fairy prince Niall, gives her cryptic warnings about his enemies seeking her out, and even worse, Eric, Sookie’s on-and-off vampire romance (who now remembers what happened when he was under a spell and they almost had a real relationship) pulls Sookie into vampire politics without her knowledge, Sookie is unable to really handle things. Raw, emotional, and on the edge of a break down, Sookie still has to try to clear her brother Jason’s name (again), deal with the backlash of the shifters coming out to the public, defend herself from a vampire and FBI agents who want to force her into their service, face the betrayal of people she thought were her friends, and dodge fairy assassins, which is the scariest of all.

There’s a serious emotional load in Dead and Gone, possibly the darkest Sookie book yet. While this does take up a large part of the book, there’s other plots too, woven back and forth and ultimately giving Sookie little time to handle any threat, much less deal with her own issues. Some readers might not be okay with the darker notes to Sookie’s voice. But others will be able to recognize Dead and Gone as the natural, and compared to some other urban fantasy series more honest, progression of Sookie as a character. In a way she takes on a beaten puppy dog feel, and many readers will sympathize all the stronger with Sookie as she reevaluates everything her life has become so far.