Sookie Stackhouse is such a wonderful central character. She has her talents and skills, her quirks and idiosyncrasies, but principally she is the centre point around which a diverse range of supernatural beings orbit. Therefore any Sookie book delivers a solid dose of Sookie herself, but the main excitement comes from the vampires, shapeshifters, werewolves or fae that intersect in her life.

For me, Dead in the Family, book ten of the series, is inextricably linked with the prior book Dead and Gone. Without it, DITF, is more somber than we have come to expect; however add it to the prior book and you get a cohesion that ties plots together and allows the dark tones of DITF to be part of an emotional journey.

In Dead and Gone the werewolves reveal themselves to the world, the “great reveal”, with results that impact very personally on Sam, Sookie, Jason and Bon Temps. At the same time Sookie meets her great-grandfather, the fae prince Niall, from whom she has inherited her telepathic abilities and perhaps her attraction to vampires.

While the plot spirals and grows increasingly complex, Sookie remains our lodestone. Her brand of loyalty and humour consistently bring us back to what we love about her life and her unique perspective:

I added to my mental list of the odd things that I’d done that day. I’d entertained the police, sunbathed, visited at a mall with some faeries, weeded, and killed someone. Now it was powdered corpse removal time. And the day wasn’t over yet.

Even though Sookie tries to remain positive, she finds herself drawn into the middle of a fae war with dreadful consequences.

It’s at this point that Dead in the Family starts. Sookie has been most awfully tortured and it’s beyond her to simply bounce back. The trauma is too great, the injuries need time to heal and her fear of being confined is bone-deep. That’s not to say it’s unrelentingly dark because the point is that Sookie will always be herself, even when battered and bleeding. Even in chapter one we get:

I love spring for all the obvious reason. I love the flowers blooming (which happens early here in Louisiana); I love the birds twittering; I love the squirrels scampering across my yard.
I love the sound of werewolves howling in the distance.
No, just kidding.

However the wry comments are few and far between this time around. DITF has a raw emotional honesty that for me raises this book far above the more lighthearted books. The other books are fun – this is one that dares you to open your own heart and feel along with Sookie as she tries to rediscover the core of herself amidst the destruction of her life.

Readers who just want more of the lighthearted episodes in Sookie’s life might object to this darkness, just as they might miss the sexual tension, now that the Eric’s pursuit of Sookie (the “will Eric and Sookie love each other or not”) has been resolved in prior books. However they might be in a relationship – but we know that their road will not be a smooth one.

Above all else the focus of DITF is on family and the joys and dangers they can bring. Eric’s sire and psychotic ‘brother’ appear demanding his focus, Sam is still involved in his family’s acceptance of this mother’s and his shapeshifting, Sookie’s fae cousin moves into her house while Sookie also gets to know her young (and telepathic) second cousin and Jason is trying to rebuild his life after the death of his wife and child. At the same Bill is suffering silver poisoning and the weres are facing internal betrayals.

There’s a lot going on ……!

Dead in the Family isn’t perfect, in fact there’s an amazing juggling act going on keeping the various plotlines in balance and developing. At times this works and at other times you get vertigo with the changes going on. However Sookie is far more real and human in this book and she has finally toughened up.

So, re-read Dead and Gone to get back into the mindset and then delve straight into Dead in the Family and let the story unfold. You’ll find Sookie gets tougher, the dangers surrounding her more complex and the world of Bon Temps will draw you right into the middle of a whole mess of the unusual. Three and a half stars!