I've been reading a lot lately - the bus ride to work has been a good time to catch up on all those things I've been meaning to read. I've decided to chat to you about the Sookie Stackhouse books on which the HBO series True Blood is based. I don't expect anyone to read this or to agree, just my two cents' worth!
The first book is called Dead Until Dark and True Blood stays remarkably close to the plot of the book. The serial has taken a few liberties with a couple of characters - notably Tara who doesn't appear until the 2nd novel Living Dead in Dallas and does not appear to be related to Lafayette the black, gay chef working at Merlotte's bar, and with many minor characters that are merely mentioned in the book, but seem to feature more heavily in the show.
Sookie it seems to me is (almost) perfectly portrayed by Anna Paquin, the screen writers for True Blood have completely nailed her character. She is a smart, yet sensitive, seemingly pure telepath who finds herself unable to form relationships due to her 'disability'. Then she meets Bill who is a vampire and whose thoughts she cannot hear and her pureness dissipates (although not as quickly in the show as in the book).
This new relationship leads to many a sticky situation, not least the attention of a killer and the unwanted advances of the local vampire 'sheriff' Erik (he's also been in a Lady Gaga video) and The Fellowship Of The Sun, religious church nutters. I don't want to give too much away in this in case you have a burning desire to either watch or read....
Jason, Sookie's brother is not as big a feature in the book as in the show, however this does not seem an unreasonable leap. The book focuses much more on Sookie's point of view, but this approach might not have worked so well on camera. Jason is accused of being a killer in both the book and show, however there is much less of a connection between Jason and the crime scenes in the book than the show. The show makes a bigger deal of Jason's character whereas the book is much more subtle in this aspect. This then lends itself to the biggest plot skew away from book 2 with season 2 - Jason's involvement with The Fellowship Of The Sun.
There are a few differences that I want to note, there's a vampire in the second book/series that wants to "meet the sun" since he has massive guilt over all of the innocents he's killed. The book's implication that he is in fact a paedophile never makes it to the screen, little wonder really. The show seems to neglect the fact that the story is set in the deep south - there's very little of the racism that's apparent in the book. The show focuses on the mistrust and non-acceptance of vampires whilst forgetting that (in the book) there's still prejudice against the black characters. The show draws parallels between the issues, but in the book they are right there alongside each other.
The theme song (Bad Things, Jace Everett) is on a par with "Woke up this morning" by Alabama 3, the Sopranos theme tune and is well worth a listen!
All in all both the books and the TV show are pure indulgence. You feel somewhat guilty watching and reading, however I fully recommend them both in either order.
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