True Blood Season 5

**Possible Spoilers if you haven't yet seen Season 4 of True Blood...

Excuse the big Target sticker. I love to save. :)

Last year I wrote on the pros and cons of the season 4 premiere of True Blood. While I ended up enjoying the season simply because the amazing acting coupled with magic and the supernatural creates an awesome 50 minutes per week, with the premiere of season 5 tonight (based on Dead As A Doornail), I am both excited and a little wary because of the creative liberties Alan Ball and his team have taken with the show. The Charlaine Harris Sookie Stackhouse Novels, which the series is loosely based on, is a fantastic literary series; each season of the show follows a book in sequence. It's so fantastic, that while I realize a 12 episode season can't contain everything a 300+ page novel can, I have had my share of disappointments of veered plot lines and some missing characters.

For instance, Claudine was drained and killed by an amnesiac Eric in season 4 when she's supposed to be around to protect Sookie for about 5 more books/seasons; Jason never turned into a werepanther; Bill is king and a bit of a d-bag; Russell Edgington is still the big bad. Many of my pros have centered on the additions of some characters who add to the dynamic and some plot twists I didn't see coming. So let's see what this season has in store for us! But I tell you, if Quinn (the sexy, tall, bald, purple-eyed, strong, weretiger who also happens to be my book-boyfriend;) doesn't show up towards the end of this season, I might have to write an angry-toned letter. But also, the dynamic of Quinn also hinges upon who is chosen to play him. I always find it interesting that True Blood is filmed each year and the vampires are supposed to maintain this timeless, un-aging look. If the show follows the 13 novel timeline, 8 years from now, Bill and Eric may be looking a bit rough. Haha.

Sookie Stackhouse Novels

UPDATE 5/20: So I recently finished the latest novel, Deadlocked, in The Southern Vampire Mysteries and it was wonderful! You can read that post here. Below is an updated order of the novels with the addition of Deadlocked. The different short stories of A Touch of Dead fall in between the first few novels, so I placed it after the last novel where a story appears, chronologically. Enjoy!

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Dead Until Dark (2001); Living Dead in Dallas (2002); Club Dead (2003); Dead to the World (2004); Dead as a Doornail (2005); Definitely Dead (2006); All Together Dead (2007); From Dead to Worse (2008); Dead and Gone (2009); [A Touch of Dead (2009)]; Dead in the Family (2010); Dead Reckoning (2011); Deadlocked (2012); Dead Ever After (2013); After Dead: What Came Next in the World of Sookie Stackhouse Coda (2013)

If you know me, or read this blog then you'll know that I love to read and write. One of my favorite authors is Charlaine Harris. You may know her as the best selling author of The Southern Vampire Mysteries (also known as The Sookie Stackhouse Novels). The novels have gone on to be chronologically adapted into the award winning HBO series True Blood. Each season of the show is based on a book and the show will be returning this year on season five based on Dead as a Doornail.

After the first season of the show my parents got me the first book in the series, Dead Until Dark, for Christmas and that quickly spawned the addiction which has now taken me through all eleven books in the series. The twelfth book, Deadlocked, comes out May of this year and the only thing keeping me hinged on sanity and not losing my marbles in anticipation is re-reading the series. Harris' other books outside of The Southern Vampire Mysteries are also wonderful, but I've grown attached to heroine, Sookie Stackhouse, her adventures, and the unique cast of characters that have graced the pages. I honestly don't know what I'm going to do when the thirteenth and final book comes out in 2013. I think I may go crazy hanging on the ellipsis of, "...Sooo, what do I do now?" I hope Ms. Harris understands my fear and likely potential of going into a catatonic state when this series ends.

UPDATE!! Sooo, I'm almost ashamed to admit that it took me this long to get The Sookie Stackhouse Companion but I just bought it today and am psyched to read it! Especially, "Small-Town Wedding" which has a surprise cameo by my favorite SVM character, Quinn!! More on him to come in a later post. ;)