The Twilight series really excited me at first. Friends and relatives who rarely read were gung-ho about these books. I haven’t seen anything like it since the Harry Potter books, and I actually really liked those.
With Grandma’s reading them, and sweet aunt’s and teen cousins, I had high hopes when I picked these books up.
I read them all.
And they were ALL absolutely horrible.
And yet, I told little white lies to everyone about it, so as to keep up their enthusiasm for reading. I rarely get to talk about the books I read, and people sure wanted to talk about the Twilight books.
Sweet Aunt #1: “Don’t you just love the Twilight books?”
Sweet Cousin #1: “I want to be Bella SOOO bad.”
Me: “Those books sure are something else! It’s amazing how perfect Edward is, isn’t it? It’s hard to imagine someone that perfect in thought and action all the time. What do you think?”
Inside voice: “My God, these books are horrible drivel written with the vocabulary of a 5th grader. At best, they’re just romance novels for pre-teens!”
So, when a recent friend of mine suggested I read Charlaine Harris’s True Blood series, I was quite cautious.
Although they have similar themes, the Sookie StackHouse books are hands down better than the Twilight series.
My main beef with the Sookie character is she’s so lusty (even though virginal?). If you were to take out 75% of the butt and chest ogling, these books would still have a great story.
That being said, there is actually interesting and believable plots and characters in the True Blood books. They’re still not superior fiction, but they are definitely a cut above average, and definitely superior to any of the Twilight books. I enjoyed books 1-8, and am looking forward to reading the rest.
Highly recommended – especially for fans of the Twilight series.
