Book Review: Deadlocked By Charlaine Harris

Charlaine Harris has just released book twelve in the Sookie Stackhouse series titled Deadlocked.

In case you don’t know, the popular HBO hit series True Blood is based on the Sookie Stackhouse novels and if you haven’t read the series yet, you have a lot of books to catch up on!

On the plus side, we are happy to report that Deadlocked is much better than the last book, Dead Reckoning.

First off, Deadlocked gave readers a glimpse of the old Sookie; a strong woman who doesn’t need a man or whine about trivial relationship issues. If you’re like me, you may have begun to wonder what in the world happened to Sookie? In Dead Reckoning, Sookie came off as weak, naive, and stupid, but she redeemed herself in Deadlocked.

SPOILER ALERT: If you have not read Deadlocked yet and do not want to know what happens, you may want to stop reading now.

The short and hasty version of the story is this:

Sookie’s fairy grandfather Niall returns to Bon Temps and takes Claude back to Faery with him (supposedly). Dermot takes over the day-to-day operations of Hooligans, which seems to employ a restless bunch of fae and other “twoeys”. Over at Hooligan’s Sookie and Tara discover how Tara’s husband JB is making extra  money in preparation of their twins.

As everyone else’s love life seems to be blossoming, Sookie’s seems to be dying. Sookie discovers Eric taking blood from another woman, who minutes later is found dead on Eric’s front lawn. The predictable whodunit ensued and it turns out a lot of people really don’t like Sookie. As always, there is a jealous Were who wants to get rid of Sookie because she’s just so dang awesome and pretty and all the men want her, including her own relatives! As always, Sookie is left cleaning up the mess – literally and figuratively.

The center of Sookie’s problems is the cluviel dor, the fairy love token her gran left hidden in a drawer. It turns out more people know about this magical gift than Sookie realized and their desire to get their hands on it only causes problems. Sookie  can only use the cluviel dor for herself or someone she loves and in the end, she does use it.

One person who wants her to use it is Eric Northman, her vampire husband. Eric knows she has it and knows she could use it to get him out of his arranged marriage to Fredya, the Queen of Oklahoma. But Sookie thinks Eric should choose who he wants to be with basesd on love and love alone. Sookie doesn’t think she should have to use the cluviel dor to save Eric from making a decision he should be able to make without the use of magic.

The book ended on a note that leaves the reader wanting more and that’s what every book should do.

Now I don’t know about you, but I am relieved that Sookie didn’t spend the entire book pining over Eric. It was a breath of fresh air. Instead, Sookie realized that there is more to life than waiting around for someone else. It’s time Sookie had a little fun and hopefully the next book (due out this time next year) will give readers exactly what they want and what I want is for Sookie to move on. Her relationship with Eric is clearly over, but who should she be with next?

Deadlocked by Charlaine Harris