Club Dead (Southern Vampire Mysteries, Book 3) | 
| Author: Charlaine Harris
Publisher: Ace Books
Category: Book
List Price: $7.99
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Avg. Customer Rating:  131 reviews
Sales Rank: 2283
Media: Mass Market Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 258
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 6.7 x 4.1 x 1
ISBN: 0441010512
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780441010516
ASIN: 0441010512
Publication Date: April 29, 2003
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Product Description
Sookie's boyfriend has been very distant-in another state, distant. Now she's off to Mississippi to mingle with the underworld at Club Dead-a little haunt where the vampire elite go to chill out. But when she finally finds Bill-caught in an act of betrayal-she's not sure whether to save him...or sharpen some stakes.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 126 more reviews...
 Cinful March 20, 2008
Best book yet in the Southern Vampire series. Although I am dissapointed in Bill the vamire, you can not help but admire Sookie's strength and mental fortitude. Poor kid...it's amazing she's survived thorugh book III and hasn't let Eric or Bill bring her over. Already started Dead to the World and ordered all the books, I CAN'T wait to finish the series (although I will really miss these characters when I am done). Remember to keep checking HBO for the new series "True Blood" which will air this fall (hopefully) and is based on the Southern Vampire series.
 Werewolves and vampires and Shifters, oh my! March 14, 2008
In Club Dead, the third novel in Charlaine Harris's Southern Vampire series, Sookie finds herself trying to discover who kidnapped her vampire boyfriend Bill after he disappeared while working on a secret project. Her journey takes her to Jackson, Mississippi, at a supernatural club popularly called Club Dead. Her host is Alcide Herveaux, a handsome werewolf, who in addition to accomodations, provides a good deal of sexual tension during Bill's absence. Bill's Viking vampire boss Eric also lights Sookie's fire (as the series progresses, who isn't Sookie trying to sleep with?!?).
As several other reviews have mentioned, Harris's Southern Vampire books all contain something akin to softcore vampire/human porn of all persuasions, in addition to graphic violence. Sookie loves herself a good time in bed, and Harris certainly doesn't shy away from lurid details.
There were more varied supporting characters in Club Dead, including an extended appearance by Bubba, who is actually The King (yes, Elvis), but whose drug-addled transition to vampire didn't go as planned. Alcide is a likeable introduction to werewolves and fairly well-fleshed-out, as is his psycho on-again, off-again Shifter girlfriend Debbie Pelt.
Sookie spends a good deal of the novel coming to grips with Bill's betrayal of her; he'd gone back to dating/bedding his vampire mistress Lorena, leaving Sookie furious (and sexually frustrated). I would group these books into a Southern Vampire Chick Lit Light classification; you've got hints of Southern English, Civil War references, Southern culture, and supernatural lore (vampires, werewolves, goblins, shifters).
Honestly, the Southern Vampire books are highly formulaic, something along the lines of a) Sookie discovers something ominous at or after work, b) great vampire sex, and c)at least one instance where she is severely beaten or injured to the point of death, but hey, it's my literary equivalent of junk food and I enjoy every guilty (and calorie-free) minute of it. The third book in the series was an improvement over Living Dead in Dallas, and had a much more cohesive plot and backstory. Fans of vampire novels such as Anita Blake will probably enjoy Club Dead.
Not Free SF Reader March 4, 2008
What's one of these paranomal romance books without a vampire nightclub with its own peculiar rules of etiquette?
Not to mention slim-hipped pillow pretty boy proprietors or staff that fancy a well buildt young small town for playtime and plaything.
Luckily for her, her main sucker squeeze can hold his own.
3 out of 5
Awesome Series you can not miss January 21, 2008
I read a lot and recently got into reading myster thriller type of books and some how ended reading the book 2 of charlaine harris sookie stackhouse series. It was a book I enjoyes so much that I have actually already bought several other books and I down reading to book 3 =) Great series
Better than 2, not as good as 1 October 27, 2007
Some spoilers follow.
I am probably having a different experience coming to this series when so many books are already done. Thus I can move from book 2 to book 3 in a day, and not have to wait a year the way the folks who have been reading the books as they come out do. With that in mind, it seems to me that Harris changed her mind about what book three was going to be. Book 2 ended with Sookie's relationship in fairly good shape and the implication that she was going to have to deal with her increasing superhuman-ness (she was worried about glowing again as the book ended).
To my mind, the change in direction was a good idea. In my review of book 2 (Dallas), I complained that the series was not enough "Urban Fantasy" and too much "Supernatural Romance". You didn't have to worry too much because no matter what, TRUE LOVE would win, and Sookie and Bill would always be together. This book reminds me a little more of Kim Harrison's Rachel Morgan books. In those, Rachel fell head-over-heels for a rat and finally ended up leaving him. I'm not saying that Sookie _should_ leave Bill, but he has some heavy duty explaing to do, and I really like Harris's leaving the possibility open. Furthermore, I complained that in book 2, Sookie was very much on a "high horse" about other's moral failings. In this book, she has some "failings" of her own, especially in allowing Eric to get to third base with her.
I would probably rate the first book as five stars for introducing Sookie. I rated the second book at two stars for some plot and character problems. I would probably rate this one as four stars for the change in direction, but plot and setting problems knock it back to three. First, I simply do not buy the vampire organizational setup. They divide authority into regions which map exactly to US states? That just does not make sense, especially since the book drives home how old the vampire setup is by mentioning the Lousiana Purchase. State boundries are pretty recent. Does the vampire king of Virginia still "rule" West Virginia? If not, why not? Second, the mcguffin of Bill's list (confusingly called a "computer program" here as if the words "list" or "database" are unknown to Harris) is just not convincing. How much structure can these vampire kingdoms have if they don't even know who most of the vampires are? Why not wait until Bill was finished with it? If Bill was worried about it endangering him, why not just put it on the internet? He wouldn't make any money, but the cat would be out of the bag and the list would be out there for anyone who wanted it. Third, Harris is introducing too many supernatural species without thinking it out. In this book, there's a goblin, ergo there must be _lots_ of goblins. Same for the shapeshifters. She even raises the possibility (though she doesn't confirm it) that there might be human magic workers (witches). At some point it gets to be too much to keep quiet about. Fourth, there was that bit about her meeting her high-school friend in the vampire bar. What was that all about? It seemed to serve no plot purpose and raised a lot of unanswered questions: a) It seems to re-write the history of the disastrous 'orgy' in book two. In that one, Tara was mind-wiped. Here she seems not to have been. b) What in the world was she doing with a vampire? She should be well shy of the supernatural after the events in book two. c) She's now Sookie's "best friend"? It had been several years since Sookie had much to do with her in book two. d) She & Sookie had 'no idea' their high-school talent show dance was 'sexy'? Come on, Sookie admits to having plenty of sex drive back in book one, even if she never did the deed, and she can read minds. Right, she had no idea.
Anyway, you get the idea. It appears to me that Harris understands that the series can't _stay_ the story of a rural working-class girl dating a vampire. (Realistically, Sookie can't even keep her job through many more absences like this), and I'm glad she's growing the character and really making her think about her life, but she has some rough edges on the plotting world-building that need some more work.
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