Dead in the Family by C. Harris

With the way things were left in Dead and Gone, I couldn’t wait for Charlaine Harris’ tenth Sookie Stackhouse novel, Dead in the Family.  I was counting down the days for this book, looking forward to getting lost in another thrilling story with Sookie; however, Dead in the Family isn’t quite up to the usual standards that the fans are so used to.

After enduring torture and the loss of loved ones during the brief but deadly Faery War, Sookie Stackhouse is hurt and she’s angry. Just about the only bright spot in her life is the love she thinks she feels for vampire Eric Northman. But he’s under scrutiny by the new Vampire King because of their relationship. And as the political implications of the Shifters coming out are beginning to be felt, Sookie’s connection to the Shreveport pack draws her into the debate. Worst of all, though the door to Faery has been closed, there are still some Fae on the human side-and one of them is angry at Sookie. Very, very angry…

In Dead in the Family, we learn a lot more about Eric. With the appearance from someone in his past, his relationship with Sookie is threaten and while I could say more, I’m not going to.  Read the spoiler section below.

I didn’t have a problem not wanting to read it, but it wasn’t like the other books that dragged you in until you couldn’t put it down.  There are a lot of subplots throughout the book, but I thought Dead in the Family was lacking a major plot and the excitement the other books in this series had. It seemed like everything was cluttered together and there was just too much going on to really focus on one thing. Overall I was disappointed and thought it fell short of the rest of the series.

Dead in the Family gives a lot of background on other characters as well and answers a lot of the questions some may have regarding various characters in this series.  One thing I did like was that I thought Sookie has changed as a character. Before Dead in the Family, I thought for all she has seen and gone through, she should be harder. With this new addition, you were able to see that start to show.

Read Order:
Dead Until Dark
Living Dead in Dallas
Club Dead
Dead to the World
Dead as a Doornail
Definitely Dead
All Together Dead
From Dead to Worse
Dead and Gone
Dead in the Family

Also reviewed by:
A Snarky Space
The Book Guru
Wicked Little Pixie

—– SPOILER ALERT —– SPOILER ALERT —– SPOILER ALERT —–

From the synopsis I thought we would have more Eric and Sookie time throughout the book. However with his Maker, Appius Livius Ocella, and his vampire brother in town, Eric is off dealing with that. You see him throughout the book from time to time, but honestly I expected more. Even though Sookie and Eric are married in the vampire way, Sookie does not feel married she only thinks of Eric as her boyfriend. There are some against their relationship, but they seem to have a very solid relationship, even if Sookie doesn’t get to spend as much time with him as she would like.

Throughout this book there was much going on, Amelia leaves for New Orleans, Sookie’s cousin Claude appears at her home and asks to move in with her, since he’s one of the last fairies, and misses the company of others. Bill is suffering from silver poisoning, and Sookie has to find someone who can help him, unidentified fairies have been crossing Sookie’s land, and someone is trying to frame Sookie for a dead body that is buried on her land (and it’s not Debbie Pelt’s).

8 Comments

  1. I just finished reading it and I am inclined to agree with you. It wasn’t like her other previous books. I think that it was more of an intermediate book that was explaining and setting up for the next book. Would it have been better if it was a short, maybe. It tied up some loose ends that were missing.
    I saw it more as a familial book and how Sookie’s family was changing and growing and therefore her perspectives towards life and those who wished to hurt those she was close too. At least that is how I viewed it. Yet we still have this linger subplot of Sookie and Eric’s relationship and where that will lead too and the growing problem of the vampires. I didn’t love it but I didn’t hate it either

  2. I have to agree completely with you. I explained it the exact same way to my friend when I loaned her the book. In the previous books it always felt like there was a major event that the book centered around. This book almost felt a little schizophrenic there were so many other things going on. None of the drama felt that major either, everything seemed a little forced. I still enjoyed the heck out of the book though, so can’t complain too much!

  3. I loved the book. I used to hope for more of romance in Harris’ series, but Charlaine Harris doesn’t really do romance, although there is romance in her books. As she said in the New York Times recently, she wrote the series to reflect on the issue of homophobia and prejudice, and I think she’s done a wonderful job with that. But this book, I think, is more about mental illness and what it does to a family. I was actually a little surprised that she didn’t deal more with the issue of Eric’s sire being a predator (er, a predator-predator), but really, what more could be said, but that the guy was a REAL monster? I also loved seeing that the people in Sookie’s life were all doing okay. And that Sookie has gotten so strong that she isn’t dependent on Eric, but more of a real partner. For me, this was a satisfying read, and if she didn’t write another, I would still be satisfied. : )

  4. I was disappointed with this book. There was no main plot to carry the book. Instead, it was a series of scattered scenes barely held together by what might generously be called the thinnest possible thread of a plot. It seemed like the only purpose of the book was to tie up loose ends that had been left dangling in previous books. There was so much going on yet none of it really went anywhere. Very little progress was made in any area. She introduced a few storylines that could have been developed to create a larger plot but weren’t. The conflict with Victor could easily have formed a central plot, but it felt like it was thrown in as an afterthought. I’m guessing it will occupy the next book instead.

    There were only a few things I liked about the book. We got to see a stronger and slightly harder Sookie, which was good. Sookie also didn’t immediately agree to do something without asking any questions about why she should do it, what it would involve, or what the consequences might be. She’s made that mistake in almost every previous book, so it was nice to see she finally learned to ask a few questions and actually consider what was being asked of her before agreeing to it. I like the fact that her character is finally evolving.

  5. I never thought I’d say this, but the series is not one of my favorites anymore. I’d already been disappointed with _From Dead To Worse_ (#8), which felt like a compilation of several plotlines that needed to be addressed and ticked off (like the base for several TV episode scripts?). So I didn’t bother to buy book #9 in hardcover, and the in the year-long wait for the pb, I lost any interest in the characters.

  6. This would have to be my least favorite Harris book, but I still enjoyed it. I think it shoved “TrueBlood” the tv show a lot. I wish she didn’t. I do like that Eric and Sookie are still together and I hope Bill will move on, but that’s only because I am on Team Eric side. This book did feel like filler though…sad.

  7. I was so looking forward to this book. It was good but not as good as the others. I too, felt that it had to many sub plots setting up a plot for a future book.
    Now we wait another year and only hope the next one is better.

    Ms. Harris has several other interesting book series. I can only hope they will be better.

    Sue:)

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