Reviewer Comments: This is the first book in Charlaine Harris' "Southern Vampire Mysteries", which inspires the television show "True Blood". The book begins the tale of a fictional small Louisiana town called "Bon Temps", a town in a world where not only do vampires exist, they don't live in secret. Upon the Japanese developing a synthetic blood for medical purposes, the vampires "came out of the coffin" as they say, and began to integrate into mainstream society. Humans react in very different ways to the realization that a stronger, faster, and more attractive race of beings have shared their place at the "top of the food chain almost as long as humans have existed. One human who can't wait to meet a vampire is small town waitress Sookie Stackhouse. Sookie is anything but average, and she understands a thing or two about being different from the "norm". Sookie is telepathic, that is, she can read the minds of others. While it sounds like an interesting and useful ability, the reality of the constant noise of the human mind is an exhausting reality for Sookie. This "talent" makes her first encounter with a vampire all the more alluring, for the first time she meets Vampire Bill, Sookie hears the one thing she's always wanted to hear from the minds of her companions, silence. Romance, humor, suspense, and lots of Southern charm, if you like vampires and supernatural beings, I highly recommend "Dead Until Dark".
