Something to "Squee" About

I'm not kidding... when I found out that there would be five of these screenplays I really did squee!
I haven't seen the movie yet, but I am really looking forward to seeing it soon.
After Rowling's play the year before last of the Cursed Child, I really didn't know what to expect (because while I was happy to have another Potter tale, I felt that Rowling was right the first time and that she should have stopped at seven books).
 Fantastic Beasts was marvelous!  I am delighted with the whole idea of a magizoologist whose main concern is for his creatures (since I am a hardcore vegan). Newt Scamander's focus and dedication to the protection and care of his fantastic beasts has elevated his status in my eyes to "rockstar".  Plus the fact that this is an entirely different story in Rowling's universe that doesn't have Harry Potter or Voldemort in it is really exciting and a refreshing idea.  I know that there will be lots to look forward to in the next four screenplays as Rowling has really loaded up this first one with lots of hints of what is to come... and I love it that there is a little romance in there too.

Dead Ever After (possible spoilers!)

It has been more than a week since I finished Dead Ever After and I took some time to mull it over before I decided what to write about it.  After four months of the excitement and build up to the end of this series, I don't know what I was expecting.  I was a little deflated and even a little bit disappointed after finishing it and I think that was because I had built myself up into such a froth that I was full of too much anticipation for the end.   After a few days I could see that there was no other way this could possibly have ended, it all makes sense (and we don't need to have a whole bunch of bells and whistles to show that). 
To be really clear, I loved this ending.  All of my wishes came true.  I don't think there could possibly be a book out there by Charlaine Harris that I couldn't like and I wasn't disappointed by how she polished off the Southern Vampire series.  Polished (until it sparkled) is what she did indeed do.  Everything that you can imagine as a loose end was tied off (in neat little bows), and this story is definitely over.  I do hope that from time to time when one of Harris's anthologies comes out, we will hear about how Sookie is doing, but I'm pretty happy with how it all ended, and don't feel the need to know what happens next with any kind of urgency.
I know I have remarked on it before but I think that Charlaine Harris's ability to write a series which did not flag in any way throughout all thirteen books, proves her to have a special talent for planning, perception and execution of a well made story, and when it was all over, I realised that she really knows how to wrap it up beautifully too.
I was saving the fan fiction for the very end for after I had read all of the books because I didn't want it to bias what was canon, but today when I looked at the website I just couldn't do it.  I saw just from the summaries that there was a few that had decided to rewrite their own versions of book thirteen because they were unhappy with the ending.  I don't wish to be insulting (and hopefully I won't be!), but I don't understand their disappointment.  Well...actually I do.  I think that those people are perhaps what I would lable the True Bloods.  The ones that care more about the vampires and probably the television show rather than what I think is the whole point of the books.  This is Sookie's story, it always has been, and everything else has just been a means to an end for that story.  It's too bad that they couldn't see that, and I have absolutely no interest in reading their fan fiction.
Thanks Charlaine...and I look forward to seeing what you do next.

Deadlocked

       After the last puzzling and depressing instalment, Deadlocked was a breath of fresh air.  We swung back again to what I know and love about the Sookie Stackhouse universe.  I laughed quite a bit, and it was such a relief to have good old Sookie back to her spunky, sarcastic old self.  I had really missed her, and was worried she wouldn’t spring back.  There was so much emotional turmoil involved in everything that happened ( I am amazed at how much was stuffed into one book) so at the very end of Deadlocked I was very close to tears.  Naturally, Sookie can never really go back to what she used to be, and I am really very impressed with how over the years Charlaine Harris has developed this wonderful, intricate character.  I have always enjoyed reading about the journey that a character struggles through until they reach their true self, and I really love how Sookie has grown.
While it seemed like some storylines were being tied off, there is still just a little bit more to be told, and I am aquiver in anticipation for the grand finale.  I still have absolutely no idea how it will end even after what Sookie did in the final chapter.  We all know by now what I hope for and I will find out in just a few short days...can't wait!

Dead Reckoning

The other shoe still hasn't dropped.  There was an underlying tension or suspense throughout Dead Reckoning that something really awful hasn't happened yet.  Lots of bad stuff did happen of course, but since reading the last book Dead in the Family I have had this feeling that there is more incredibly awful stuff yet to come.
I expect to be surpised!  I haven't yet predicted what might happen in any Sookie book and I have tried, with this re-read of the Southern Vampire Series not to make any predictions about how it might end (and the arsehat in Germany who published today the ending of this series by illegal means... you are a jerk! and I will not let you spoil it for me!)
We have a little of the Sookie that I love back.  She is still healing from her wounds, and she has done some amazing things (like she usually does).  She is one strong woman who has come back tougher and the most aggressive I have ever seen her.  There is this feeling of finishing up some stories, tidying up those loose ends, and it just has me more excited for the finish.  I am still rooting for Sam to be the one that Sookie will end up with but that's by no means a sure thing...yet.
I am a little more comfortable about how the story ended, there were some things that have been bugging me but they have been resolved or averted maybe (vague much?).  The finish line is in my sights, just two more to go until this wonderful story ends!

Dead in the Family

Okay, this was a hard one to read the first time through.  It was off, in a way I still have not entirely understood, and it was different from any other Sookie Stackhouse book.  I admire Harris for her ability to do this and I think she is an amazing writer.
Everything is different in the Sookieverse, after her survival of another supernatural war that happened at the end of Dead and Gone.  The atmosphere is so raw and just barely mended, everything that happened in the story was either awful or just plain ugly (though there were some very interesting bits too but I won't tell you about them...spoilers!).   They were overshadowed by this overall feeling that the other shoe hasn't dropped yet, so it was a hard book to read, and I missed Sookie as she usually is.  It was said in the last book  Dead and Gone that she would never be the same, and after reading this I agree... this is a different kind of world (or I just see it differently through Sookie's eyes).  There are just three more books to go now!

Dead and Gone

For a few books now Sookie has managed not to get too physically damaged, mostly the harm has been to her heart.  This time, this book seems to have caught up on all the pain she has missed previously.  There have been a lot of pivotal changes, some disappointments, new developments, and indications of what is to come (ambiguous enough for you?).  I was shaken after reading Dead and Gone, and I'm not too sure what to make of it.  This is my second reading (I haven't been tempted to re-read this one because of it's element of horror), but this was the last one to be read this month (I have been rationing them out so that by the time number thirteen has been published I would be ready to go!).  It has been a bit of a struggle to stop at just the three for each month, especially now that Tor books is promoting their own re-read of the books building up to the end...

From Dead to Worse

Things are getting dark in the Sookieverse.  Lots of action (almost non-stop), loads of awful things happening, and of course Alcide Herveaux has gotten himself well and truly written off and out of the running (in my humble opinion... I just can't concieve of Sookie taking him on now or ever).  It's unfortunate because at the beginning he seemed really promising, but the more I get to know him the more repugnant he is.  Eric has gained some points and is actually being quite sweet, I feel really sorry for Quinn who just doesn't seem to get a break,  Bill still impresses me with his constancy but he really doesn't have a chance,  and last but not least my favorite Sam has consistently proven his worth (though I really shouldn't get my hopes up). 
This book in a way was a Spring Cleaning kind of book. A whole bunch of loose ends were taken care of (quite satisfactorily), with the promise of some good things to come.  Naturally, it won't stay that way. 

Definitely Dead

Ya know what really 'get's my goat, turns my crank, bee's my bonnet'?  A story that has something missing.  Or rather makes you feel like you have missed something really important, and what makes this even worse, is there are quite a few referrences in the book to the 'thing' you have missed.  If you aren't in the know you are missing something important, so the first time I read this book, I was actually getting agitated thinking that I had missed something, that somehow Amazon.ca had messed up my order ( I had initially bought an eight-pack)...something was wrong because I had never heard anything before about the plot.   WHAT where they talking about!  It was driving me nuts!  So, just in case this is your first time, I can reassure you now, the problem is not with you!  The problem is with the fact that when Charlaine Harris is not writing her novels she is editing and contributing to collections of short stories, many of which are from the Sookieverse which are not one-offs, but little tidbits that advance the story along.  So if you haven't read the short story you could be missing out on something important.  So while it's not essential to read the short fiction for the integrity of the novels, this one, this particular little story featured quite a bit in Definitely Dead, and it was frustrating.  Which is not fair when there is already so much pivotal stuff happening in this book.  Six books in we could be in danger of it all being just filler keeping the space warm for when it gets interesting again, but not in this case.  Quite a few important things happen that further the general plot and develop the characters.  I can't wait to see what happens next!

Dead As A Doornail

With this fifth book the Sookieverse has become more complicated.  Harris has introduced some more background to her fictional world and it has just made things more exciting than before (though I like some of her characters even less).  But that's natural.  Some of them are just the biggest arsehats imaginable, though there is some new blood mixed in to make things more interesting. 
There were so many threads to this particular book it was kind of like a soap opera which is okay because it changes things up, we don't get the same old routine (this is what probably has kept Harris' story so fresh for so long).  Sookie gets hurt again, but not as bad as before.  I can't really go into it because I hate to drop spoilers.  I am particularly fond of the new character introduced, and, since I have already read everything up to date I am looking differently at the others (especially the one that was just stuck in oh so sneakily...I 'll be watching him carefully).  Ooops....well that was just a vague allusion, there are so many guys in the plot now.  A great rollicking read which was a pleasure from start to finish.
To date Sookie has been hurt five times in various horrible ways, I don't know how she continues to plug along as she does, it 's not like she earns this treatment! 

Dead to the World

Beginning this book I had a sense of visiting with a girlfriend.  I know Sookie pretty well by now and she really feels like my friend.  I once wrote to another author that whenever one of her books was due to come in the mail it felt like a visit from an old friend who was anxiously waited for,  excited over and very welcome.  Its' the same thing with Sookie.  We're all friends here now, it's just us girls, we love to hang out, have some coffee and stick together through thick and thin.
Sookie's had her fair share of both in this book (thick and thin), but for once, she did not get beaten up (yay).  Some serious life changing things have happened, and she handled them with the usual courage and strength.  Eric Northman was the focus in this book and it was actually kind of sweet.  I liked Sookie's attitude of enjoying the affair while she could, she's being kind to herself as well as just plain sensible.  Her life is just so different to everyone elses so I'm glad she found some happiness while she could (and it helped put Bill into the background).  Of course, her life is still hard, and I dont' see when it will get better, I think she will probably have to struggle the rest of her life, but it would be so much better if she had someone (Sam...please make it Sam!).

Wiseassery Times Ten

Fourteen books into this series and it does not get old!
Amazing right?  Admittedly there is repetition, for instance the protagonist always gets his butt kicked, he is always faced with impossible odds, and powerful foes. But I am relieved to say that he has wonderful friends to help patch him up.  It wasn't always that way, there were a few books in the beginning when he was miserable, alone and terribly misunderstood.   His sheer determination to do the right thing no matter the cost, topped off with the most satirical, wickedly hilarious, smartarsiest sense of humour, makes him the most awe inspiring and sexiest fictional wizard I know.  I spend so much time holding my sides in laughter. 
In Cold Days it's getting exciting, which is amazing because Jim Butcher just seems to pile on the suspense and tension with each book ( so you can imagine fourteen books in that the stress kind of feels like an elephant sitting on you).    I mean, just how much more can a person take, wizard or not, but there is still some more story to go.  I haven't heard anything yet but it looks like Butcher is beginning to sum up this series.  I will be sorry to see it go, but you know the saying, "all good things...".  Just go read them already, you won't regret it I promise!

Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell

Sometimes I can't help but feel that certain things out there in the whole wide world were written  just for me.    This is one such book.  Lovely and long (intimidating at first), it didn't take long to be drawn in to this story, with its intriguing twists and freshly original story that is just so interesting that you don't want to stop until you know what will happen next (and since it is such a long book you are in this state of anxious suspense- mild as it is - throughout most of the book).

   I say it was written just for me as it is a Regency era tale (and I am particularly fond of this time period because of its literature, music and art).  Throughout the book I read phrases that were happily familiar...  having read Jane Austen's books many times I love the language and feel comfortable in it. This is a good thing as it lends  an authenticity to the story that Clarke is telling (and feeds my love of all things literary from that era).  Even Lord Byron makes a cameo appearance in this tale.   And magic!   An alternate history where magic is commonplace.   I just love the illustrations, they provide a depth to the sinister undertones of this story.
   There are so many novels out there about this period they kind of run together after a while (more of the same), but this one was so fresh and invigorating I read it with pure joy.  Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell stands alone.

Don't try to figure out what will happen in the story, or try to forecast how the book will end... let it slowly creep up on you.  It's really worth it, I promise, to just trust the author to just take you where she wants you to go. I wont tell any more as I really want you to go out and buy this book for yourselves and discover the many special features and pleasures inside.