I love the show True Blood. Last summer, my girlfriends and I had a Sunday night ritual: I got off work at 8:00, and six of us would descend into my basement in various states of sweatpants/pajama attire with bottles of (appropriately) red wine. Occasionally a guy friend would try and intrude on this girl-time (and would immediately regret it, failing to realize that thanks to the technological magic of the DVR, we could watch any scene featuring sexy Viking-vampire Eric over...and over...and over, before continuing with the episode). The whole concept of the show makes it so great. It combines two opposites: the elegance and exoticism of the supernatural world (think Interview with a Vampire, before you think Twilight) and pure white-trash, hillbilly South. However, True Blood does not get original credit for this off-beat, unique idea. It started with Charlaine Harris's Sookie Stackhouse novels.
Here is my recommendation: read the books. If you are a fan of the TV series, you will be a fan of the novels, and they are different enough you won't feel like you are re-living the same content. For starters, the TV show is obviously a drama. The books run more along the dark comedy genre. Sookie still kills evil supernatural housebreakers - but she proves less concerned with the emotional effects of murdering another soul, and more focused on which solvent will best remove werewolf blood from the linoleum. The plotlines also begin to diverge very dramatically after Season 1/Book 1. Maryann (who, along with her increasingly graphic woodland orgies, takes up a majority of Season 2 airtime) merits a mere chapter in Book 2. And further proof of the differences? Let's just say Lafayette did not survive this long in book-world, and Sarah was not even a character in the novels (let alone one Jason could envision seducing over bbq). These changes are a good thing though. Rather than ruining the original concept, True Blood instead offers you, as a reader/viewer, double the small-town murder, sex, scandal, and drama.
So. You have over a month until True Blood (the show) starts up again and ideally, you have at least a few days off before you start that awesome post-grad career you have lined-up (less ideally, you have a whole lot of time to read these books between sending off even more cover letters from your parent's basement). So, dive into the series and start catching up! If you are up to speed, book 10 (Dead in the Family) comes out on Tuesday!
Here is my recommendation: read the books. If you are a fan of the TV series, you will be a fan of the novels, and they are different enough you won't feel like you are re-living the same content. For starters, the TV show is obviously a drama. The books run more along the dark comedy genre. Sookie still kills evil supernatural housebreakers - but she proves less concerned with the emotional effects of murdering another soul, and more focused on which solvent will best remove werewolf blood from the linoleum. The plotlines also begin to diverge very dramatically after Season 1/Book 1. Maryann (who, along with her increasingly graphic woodland orgies, takes up a majority of Season 2 airtime) merits a mere chapter in Book 2. And further proof of the differences? Let's just say Lafayette did not survive this long in book-world, and Sarah was not even a character in the novels (let alone one Jason could envision seducing over bbq). These changes are a good thing though. Rather than ruining the original concept, True Blood instead offers you, as a reader/viewer, double the small-town murder, sex, scandal, and drama.
So. You have over a month until True Blood (the show) starts up again and ideally, you have at least a few days off before you start that awesome post-grad career you have lined-up (less ideally, you have a whole lot of time to read these books between sending off even more cover letters from your parent's basement). So, dive into the series and start catching up! If you are up to speed, book 10 (Dead in the Family) comes out on Tuesday!
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