There’s no better time than October to discuss Charlaine Harris’ Southern Vampire books. Thanks to Sandie Herron, there’s a review of the fourth audio book in the series, Dead to the World.

DEAD TO THE WORLD

Sookie Stackhouse is getting to know every type of supernatural being in the tiny town of Bon Temps, Louisiana. The “Supes” know Sookie is telepathic. Sookie considers reading minds a disability. It’s been difficult to find boyfriends when she always knows what they’re thinking. When vampires were proclaimed legal citizens three years ago, Sookie found vampire Bill Compton whose mind she could not read. She was a virgin until she met Bill, and oh my, what he taught her about sex.

In Sookie’s job as waitress at Merlotte’s Bar and Grill, she is mostly able to shield her mind from the cacophony of thoughts that swirl around her. However, this New Year’s Eve is different. Her ex-boyfriend Bill Compton is off to Peru to continue compiling a directory of vampires. Sookie is driving home following New Year’s celebrations, when she sees a partially naked man running for his life. When she stops to help him, she realizes that it is Eric, Bill’s boss in the hierarchy of vampires. Sookie has a love/hate relationship with Eric, but he doesn’t know who she is, or who he is for that matter.

Sookie calms Eric and takes him to her home where she calls Fangtasia, the vampire bar that Eric owns, to speak to Pam, his second in command. When Pam arrives at Sookie’s home the next day after dark, Pam tells her of an evil coven of witches who approached Eric and demanded money to not destroy his world. Hallow, the head witch, took a shine to Eric and offered a deal:  rather than a portion of the bar’s worth, Eric could spend several nights with her. Eric refused. When others tried to remove Hallow, Eric suddenly disappeared. Until this coven is found and the spell undone, all involved decide that the safest place for Eric is to remain with Sookie, especially since the witches have posted “wanted” posters to find Eric all over town.

The next day Sookie’s brother Jason doesn’t show up for work. With no other family than Jason, Sookie is lost for whom to turn to. She visits a fellow waitress who is a Wiccan who tells her Hallow called all the local witches together recently. She visits Jason’s last date, who is a shifter from Hotshot, and whose father takes a shine to Sookie. She visits Alcide, a werewolf she helped with a problem a short while back. She turns to the police. Even Sam, Sookie’s boss, a shifter himself, joins the various beings searching for Jason, protecting Eric, and finding and hopefully eradicating Hallow’s coven. Then the powers of the were-witches who drank vampire blood were revealed. Just when I felt a bit overwhelmed by all the supernatural beings, we learn about a fairy that saves Sookie’s life. The vampires lust after the fairy; the werewolves don’t really care for vampires, and Sookie is just dead tired and worried.

In the end, all’s well that ends well, but the ride there was twisted beyond my imagination. Sookie is the character that holds the entire story together with her very humanity among the witches, vampires, werewolves, shifters, and even the fairy. Her morality keeps the story centered and real so that it doesn’t whirl off into an incredulous fantasy.  Narrator Johanna Parker has skillfully brought us this far, but what will happen when the next full moon rises?