A Touch of Dead by Charlaine Harris
>> Friday, June 18, 2010
A Touch of Dead by Charlaine Harris
Genre: Short Stories
Publication Date: 2009
Pages: 192
Challenges: Support Your Local Library #25
Source: Library
The Short Version:
A handful of Sookie Stackhouse short stories originally published in a variety of places and formats collected into a quick and fun book.
Why I Read It:
I went looking for a particular one of these short stories after I read Definitely Dead (the 6th in the series). At the beginning of that book I felt like I’d missed an important development and found out later that the story of Sookie’s cousin Hadley and her death was in the story “One Word Answer”. I wanted to go back and catch up on that missing piece and the rest of the stories.
The Book:
There are 5 short stories included in the book. Most of them are fairly independent of the novels with the exception of the one mentioned above.
Fairy Dust introduces Caludine the Fairy’s brother Claude and the third of the triplets, Claudette. Claudette is dead and Claudine needs Sookie’s telepathic assistance to find out the truth about her death.
Dracula Night is the story of an annual party at Eric’s bar Fangtasia. It’s a celebration in honor of Count Dracula and it’s fun to see Eric all atwitter about the possibility of a celebrity appearance at his party.
One Word Answer really should be read before Definitely Dead as it introduces Mr. Cataliades and explains the death of Sookie’s cousin Hadley. It also includes an appearance by Bubba (possibly my favorite recurring character).
Lucky happens after the events in All Together Dead as Sookie and her housemate Amelia discover that perhaps luck is a finite commodity and taking more than your share has consequences.
Gift Wrap takes place after From Dead to Worse as Sookie prepares herself for a lonely Christmas that turns out to be otherwise.
My Thoughts:
These were all fun and entertaining additions to the Sookie Stackhouse novels. The only one that really has storyline implications for the novels is “One Word Answer”. It was good to read that and round out some things I’d clearly missed before reading Definitely Dead.
It’s a quick read and a fun extension to the sometimes heavier elements of the novels. If you’ve stuck with the series I’d recommend taking a look at this collection of related short stories.
Rating 3/5
No stars – I couldn’t even finish it
1 star – I didn’t like it but I managed to finish it.
2 stars – It was OK. Not good, but seriously just OK.
4 stars – I really liked it. I really think you might like it too.
5 stars – It was amazing. I’d recommend this to just about anyone.
3 comments:
I read Definitely Dead without having even known about the short stories (although I later discovered them). I knew I was missing something, so to speak, but since I was reading the books in order I just figured she wanted us to make an imaginative leap. So it worked out fine for me; I still loved all the books! But you're right; it would be better to see the story first!
I pretty much had the same feelings about the stories as you I think. I was definitely a little confused until I read One Word Answer and then I felt like it was a missing puzzle piece I finally found. I really hated one of the stories, I think it was the last one, but the others were an interesting break from the series.
RhapsodyinBooks: I agree it worked out fine, but once I found out the missling link in the story was here I haed to read it.
Ashley: Oh I agree, the last story was the weakest of the collection.
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