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cosymilko's review against another edition
5.0
What an ending to the Sookie Stackhouse books! It's so bittersweet. I would read these as long as Harris wrote them but it is time.
I would love an epilogue or a wrap up on the universe. I still have so many questions about the characters but I'm happy.
I'm impressed that Harris took a step back to a smaller scale but still twisted and loaded plot. There was plenty to keep the book moving and plenty to look forward to.
I did feel that a few characters were brought in just so we could see them one more time but you get that.
I love this series. I love this ending.
I am glad that Sookie will be happy in the end.
I would love an epilogue or a wrap up on the universe. I still have so many questions about the characters but I'm happy.
I'm impressed that Harris took a step back to a smaller scale but still twisted and loaded plot. There was plenty to keep the book moving and plenty to look forward to.
I did feel that a few characters were brought in just so we could see them one more time but you get that.
I love this series. I love this ending.
I am glad that Sookie will be happy in the end.
marytrix92's review against another edition
5.0
Unlike many people I enjoyed the book. I wasn't totally satisfied with Sookie's choice of partner but I liked that there was not an Epilogue and that ,to me, there is no certainty that Sookie stays with him forever. I respect the author's choices and I think everyone should too.
In my opinion a moment of anger from the fandom is acceptable but more than that is an exaggeration.
In my opinion a moment of anger from the fandom is acceptable but more than that is an exaggeration.
bookishabbey's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
2.5
This book was a bit underwhelming. It didn't quite feel like last book in the series. A bit anti climactic. It didn't give that end of the series , end of the book feel. I could already tell from book 12 who Sookie would end up with. It was just kind of bleh.
starrywonder's review against another edition
4.0
To be fair, this was one of the better Sookie books. Although, basing the use of the cluviel dor on a comparison to Terry isn't fair. Sookie sacrifices herself for her friends - had it been Eric, Pam, Bill or Alcide she would have used it. And each use would have created a different outcome.
While I agree Harris' characters seemed out of character the past couple novels - Eric saved Sookie as always, Pam and Sookie still remain on good terms. And Sookie has finally grown up.
The ending of Sookie alone is nice, she no longer feels the need to be defined by the men in her life. It's the only ending that truly works if she's not with the man who continues to save her and know her better than herself.
Nice end to a series way to drawn out.
While I agree Harris' characters seemed out of character the past couple novels - Eric saved Sookie as always, Pam and Sookie still remain on good terms. And Sookie has finally grown up.
The ending of Sookie alone is nice, she no longer feels the need to be defined by the men in her life. It's the only ending that truly works if she's not with the man who continues to save her and know her better than herself.
Nice end to a series way to drawn out.
selenajean's review against another edition
2.0
I did not think I would be disappointed since I've seen the spoilers. I was sadly mistaken though. She could have just tacked on the break up with Eric and the maybe future with Sam onto book 12. The rest was meandering thin plot lines.
edusanek's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
mhumby123's review against another edition
3.0
Meh. Not the type of ending that makes it all worth a re-read. I can only hope true blood doesn't end the same way.
geezenstack444's review against another edition
2.0
I feel cheated for spending time on a series that was going to end like this. There were too many characters, Harris could have just written a spin off with some of them. Also, I have a huge issue with who she ends up with. I could have seen it after the first few books, but now their chemistry is gone.
veronicab90's review against another edition
3.0
I have officially finished the Sookie Stackhouse series!! The ending was a little anti-climatic for me, but overall I liked the series (I feel like 13 books was a little long though)
aceinit's review against another edition
1.0
Sadly, I can pinpoint when most of my favorite series went to hell. I can remember a time when those series were good. Great, even. When I didn’t pick up each new volume with a sense of dread, wondering how characters I once loved so dearly are going to be butchered at the hands of their creators. But mostly, I look back to the good old days, and point to the moment where the series jumped the proverbial shark, and think “if only that hadn’t happened....”
For Anita Blake, it came when the titular character inherited the ardeur and the series gravitated away from solving supernatural crimes to simply leading our heroine from threesome to threesome...usually with new, oh-so-conveniently hot, more-than-likely mentally anguished, and otherwise utterly unremarkable hunks of supernatural manflesh.
In The Dark Tower it was when Stephen King, author of the The Dark Tower series, introduced the central character, Roland Deschain, to a character named Stephen King, who happened to be the author of the The Dark Tower series and the creator of Roland Deschain. That one still pains me to this day.
For A Song of Ice and Fire, it was when Tyrion Lannister was reduced to jousting on the back of a pig.
For Sookie Stackhouse, it was the introduction of two characters named Claude and Claudine, who just suddenly showed up at the beginning of one book, but who were written like they’d been there all along. Their sudden inclusion baffled me so much that I spent several weeks thinking I’d missed a book in the series somewhere, and telling my friends who insisted I had not that they were wrong because who the hell are these people? Remember when Dawn just showed up at the start of season 5 of Buffy and everyone acted like she’d always existed? For me, Claude and Claudine were exactly like that. Except without the awesome backstory that was eventually revealled in Buffy.
I never liked Dawn, by the way. The same can be said for the faerie population of Harris’s world.
Which is not to say that the faeries are solely to blame for the downfall of the Sookie Stackhouse. No. Eric asking to have his hair braided factored in, too. So did bringing in lost heirs to Russian dynasties. And the family that shares a bed together sends off super-creepy vibes together. Period.
There were a lot of things that contributed to the series spiraling from something I looked forward to reading into a hot mess, and then continuing on until it actually made hot messes look respectable in comparison. But the faeries started it. They brought the initial crazy that started this downward slide. Everything else was just a side effect.
When you get to that final volume in a series you once loved, but which has now derailed into something unrecognizable, you just want there to be that one moment. Just one. Where things go back to the way they were—not in a literal aspect—but where you can find some semblance of what once made that series so great, and its characters so fantastic, what made it fun and interesting. You want that spark that makes all that post-shark-jumping insanity worthwhile.
Suffice to say, that didn’t happen.
The actual review for this book will be contained under the following spoiler tag. It gives away everything. Including the ending. Consider yourself warned.
The simple fact of the matter is, that as a closing volume in one of the most popular series of modern fiction, this book is a gross disappointment. You want to go out with a bang, to have some great final battle against a wholly memorable villain. Which I guess was Harris’s intent by introducing the “Devil.” And that would’ve been fine if he wasn’t a bit player. Our main bad guys for this installment are a preacher we haven’t heard from since the early days of the series, a lawyer who was barely mentioned in one book and whose existence I’d forgotten about entirely, Amelia’s overly-ambitious father who’s pissed because he couldn’t steal a fairy artifact, Possessed!Alcee Beck, and Arlene. That’s not bringing your A-game. That’s scarping the bottom of the barrel for a list of people you haven’t killed yet.
Oh, and the evil mastermind of the while thing is Claude, who's whole SUper!Evil!Agenda! is to teach Sookie about what ultimately comes down to a prison metaphor. Remember that point I made about the faeries ruining the series? I rest my case.
There is the continued problem the characters readers have come to love now entering into book 3 or 4 of being nothing but pissy, moody bastards. Eric remains a barely-mentioned shell of his former greatness, who get the added bonus of behaving like a petulant child who’s had his favorite toy taken away. Bill only pops by to say hello on occasion and to drop a convenient plot bomb when it becomes apparent Harris has no other way to do it.
Sam…well, I reckon after what happened in the last book, Sam’s allowed to be pissy and moody, so he gets a pass even though I really don’t want to give him one because of the way he rolls over and takes the whole situation between him and Eric that's happening in the background. Eric’s a childish brat behaving like a childish brat, even more so than he ever has before. That’s about all you need to know.
But mostly, there is Sookie, who is so caught up in her every-day banal activities such as food prep, cleaning and shopping that, when we do get some action, it’s quickly dismissed to go back to the mundane existence of her daily routine. If Harris spent half as much time actually plotting as she does describing Sook’s day-to-day existence, we might actually end up with a story worth reading.
There is a conversation with Sam that is so horrendously awkward that I physically cringed several times. Because if you want to start a relationship with the newly-discovered yet oh-so-obvious love of your life, talking about all the psycho exes you used to screw while trying to ask the new girl to be "yours"—and don’t even get me started on all this damn possessiveness in regards to how Sookie’s men consistently regard her—is not the opening gambit you want to go for.
Actually, you know what, that scene and everything after it where Sookie and Sam are together is just downright embarrassing to read. If this book isn’t nominated for the annual worst-written sex scene in literature award, I will be severely disappointed. It’s that bad. It’s worse than that bad.
And, while we’re at it, if Sam is so busy admiring Sookie’s ass while she’s line dancing, how does she manage to get kidnapped in the first place?
But it doesn't really matter, because we've devoted all that time to cooking and text messaging so we kind of need to get to the point now. So, only a few pages after our intrepid heroine is taken hostage by the villains who have been conspiring against her, the day is oh-so-dramatically saved by…queue the heralding trumpets…homophobia.
What the actual fuck, Harris?
You know, until that moment I might’ve given this one a two-star review despite its multitude of flaws. Now, I’m just wishing there was a rating below 1.
Oh, and we never do find out who the “devil” is that two people sold their souls to. Unless you can sell your soul to Claude. I’m guessing not. Apparently, who said devil is is not supposed to matter. At all. Which is bullshit after all the attention paid to him. So I am just going to assume the devil is Mr. Cataliades, because he’s the only demon standing, and that he’s been playing both sides for reasons that make about as much sense as hating the gay guy suddenly becoming more important than murdering our heroine.
At least, at the end, even the characters themselves have to admit that the entire plot they’ve been caught up in is “a bit convoluted.”
And disappointing. Very, very disappointing.
For Anita Blake, it came when the titular character inherited the ardeur and the series gravitated away from solving supernatural crimes to simply leading our heroine from threesome to threesome...usually with new, oh-so-conveniently hot, more-than-likely mentally anguished, and otherwise utterly unremarkable hunks of supernatural manflesh.
In The Dark Tower it was when Stephen King, author of the The Dark Tower series, introduced the central character, Roland Deschain, to a character named Stephen King, who happened to be the author of the The Dark Tower series and the creator of Roland Deschain. That one still pains me to this day.
For A Song of Ice and Fire, it was when Tyrion Lannister was reduced to jousting on the back of a pig.
For Sookie Stackhouse, it was the introduction of two characters named Claude and Claudine, who just suddenly showed up at the beginning of one book, but who were written like they’d been there all along. Their sudden inclusion baffled me so much that I spent several weeks thinking I’d missed a book in the series somewhere, and telling my friends who insisted I had not that they were wrong because who the hell are these people? Remember when Dawn just showed up at the start of season 5 of Buffy and everyone acted like she’d always existed? For me, Claude and Claudine were exactly like that. Except without the awesome backstory that was eventually revealled in Buffy.
I never liked Dawn, by the way. The same can be said for the faerie population of Harris’s world.
Which is not to say that the faeries are solely to blame for the downfall of the Sookie Stackhouse. No. Eric asking to have his hair braided factored in, too. So did bringing in lost heirs to Russian dynasties. And the family that shares a bed together sends off super-creepy vibes together. Period.
There were a lot of things that contributed to the series spiraling from something I looked forward to reading into a hot mess, and then continuing on until it actually made hot messes look respectable in comparison. But the faeries started it. They brought the initial crazy that started this downward slide. Everything else was just a side effect.
When you get to that final volume in a series you once loved, but which has now derailed into something unrecognizable, you just want there to be that one moment. Just one. Where things go back to the way they were—not in a literal aspect—but where you can find some semblance of what once made that series so great, and its characters so fantastic, what made it fun and interesting. You want that spark that makes all that post-shark-jumping insanity worthwhile.
Suffice to say, that didn’t happen.
The actual review for this book will be contained under the following spoiler tag. It gives away everything. Including the ending. Consider yourself warned.
Spoiler
The simple fact of the matter is, that as a closing volume in one of the most popular series of modern fiction, this book is a gross disappointment. You want to go out with a bang, to have some great final battle against a wholly memorable villain. Which I guess was Harris’s intent by introducing the “Devil.” And that would’ve been fine if he wasn’t a bit player. Our main bad guys for this installment are a preacher we haven’t heard from since the early days of the series, a lawyer who was barely mentioned in one book and whose existence I’d forgotten about entirely, Amelia’s overly-ambitious father who’s pissed because he couldn’t steal a fairy artifact, Possessed!Alcee Beck, and Arlene. That’s not bringing your A-game. That’s scarping the bottom of the barrel for a list of people you haven’t killed yet.
Oh, and the evil mastermind of the while thing is Claude, who's whole SUper!Evil!Agenda! is to teach Sookie about what ultimately comes down to a prison metaphor. Remember that point I made about the faeries ruining the series? I rest my case.
There is the continued problem the characters readers have come to love now entering into book 3 or 4 of being nothing but pissy, moody bastards. Eric remains a barely-mentioned shell of his former greatness, who get the added bonus of behaving like a petulant child who’s had his favorite toy taken away. Bill only pops by to say hello on occasion and to drop a convenient plot bomb when it becomes apparent Harris has no other way to do it.
Sam…well, I reckon after what happened in the last book, Sam’s allowed to be pissy and moody, so he gets a pass even though I really don’t want to give him one because of the way he rolls over and takes the whole situation between him and Eric that's happening in the background. Eric’s a childish brat behaving like a childish brat, even more so than he ever has before. That’s about all you need to know.
But mostly, there is Sookie, who is so caught up in her every-day banal activities such as food prep, cleaning and shopping that, when we do get some action, it’s quickly dismissed to go back to the mundane existence of her daily routine. If Harris spent half as much time actually plotting as she does describing Sook’s day-to-day existence, we might actually end up with a story worth reading.
There is a conversation with Sam that is so horrendously awkward that I physically cringed several times. Because if you want to start a relationship with the newly-discovered yet oh-so-obvious love of your life, talking about all the psycho exes you used to screw while trying to ask the new girl to be "yours"—and don’t even get me started on all this damn possessiveness in regards to how Sookie’s men consistently regard her—is not the opening gambit you want to go for.
Actually, you know what, that scene and everything after it where Sookie and Sam are together is just downright embarrassing to read. If this book isn’t nominated for the annual worst-written sex scene in literature award, I will be severely disappointed. It’s that bad. It’s worse than that bad.
And, while we’re at it, if Sam is so busy admiring Sookie’s ass while she’s line dancing, how does she manage to get kidnapped in the first place?
But it doesn't really matter, because we've devoted all that time to cooking and text messaging so we kind of need to get to the point now. So, only a few pages after our intrepid heroine is taken hostage by the villains who have been conspiring against her, the day is oh-so-dramatically saved by…queue the heralding trumpets…homophobia.
What the actual fuck, Harris?
You know, until that moment I might’ve given this one a two-star review despite its multitude of flaws. Now, I’m just wishing there was a rating below 1.
Oh, and we never do find out who the “devil” is that two people sold their souls to. Unless you can sell your soul to Claude. I’m guessing not. Apparently, who said devil is is not supposed to matter. At all. Which is bullshit after all the attention paid to him. So I am just going to assume the devil is Mr. Cataliades, because he’s the only demon standing, and that he’s been playing both sides for reasons that make about as much sense as hating the gay guy suddenly becoming more important than murdering our heroine.
At least, at the end, even the characters themselves have to admit that the entire plot they’ve been caught up in is “a bit convoluted.”
And disappointing. Very, very disappointing.