Dead Ever After! (SPOILERS)

[duckduck]

Let's get this party started!

I finished it last night and have to say that I liked it a lot despite its many weaknesses. At this point I just wanted closure, and it seems like Charlaine Harris did, too. I felt like every.single.character. who wasn't forever-dead showed up for at least a cameo in this book, and her efforts to give everybody their ending made the whole book feel pretty scattershot to me.

The third-person "elsewhere" passages drove me nuts and I don't think they added any information that couldn't have been worked into conversations they way such information was in the previous books.

Still, I felt like we got Sookie's real voice and personality back. I love that she is so resilient and faces everything with humor, and that got to really come through in this book after a few darker installments.

As to the infamous ending... Well, I've pretty much always been Team Sam and I've always had the feeling that she was going to end up with him, so that made me happy. I wasn't wild about how both of them seemed to credit the cluviel dor with "changing" them through magic and making them compatible, though. I think it was just a natural, non-magical result of Sookie making that kind of choice and realizing what it meant, and on Sam's side having such a "near-death" experience and evaluating his life and priorities. They've had the hots for each other, had a rock-solid friendship, and a great working partnership from the very first book, so I don't think they needed to "change" to be together; I think they just needed to realize who they were and what they wanted.

I loved the last couple of paragraphs.

What did you think?

[rootbeerfloat]

YES! I liked it, too, even though the haterade is everywhere.

I didn't love the third-person narrated part, or the murder mystery plot in general. I felt like CH just pulled a bunch of random villains together, but they were all conveniently disposed of, so we know Sookie can live a nice, happy life going forward. And I appreciated that it was a plot device to bring all her old allies and lovers back to help/defend her; I wanted to say goodbye to all of them! I loved her interactions with Bill (especially his moment to out Eric) and her closure with both Quinn and Alcide. She finally felt the support of her human community, too, which was great.

I expected her to end up with Sam, and if anything, I was hoping there would be more steam/romance there. But I'm fine with how that turned out.

I was disappointed that Eric had to be such a douche, though. Of course everything he did was true to character, and realistically, they weren't meant to be together. But I would've preferred a glimpse at funny, sexy Eric one last time. I also wanted to learn more about Karin.

[daydreamer]

I haven't been able to get a copy yet from the library, but I've gotten at least an hour of entertainment from the reviews on amazon.

I'm glad you guys liked it even with your reservations, and I'm still really looking forward to it. I'm also in a place where I just want the series to be wrapped up.

Although I'm fine with Sookie's happy ending, I do have to say that I've already been kind of disappointed by the run up to the ending romance. I remember thinking a couple of books ago how Harris was running out of time to build that friendship into a romance. I guess she didn't pull it off that well.

I'm also curious about her use of third person for parts of the book. I guess I'll see.