In which I get all fangirly about Charlaine Harris -- SPOILER ALERT!!

LAST WARNING: HERE BE SPOILERS...
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>


Do any of my blog peeps read Charlaine Harris's Sookie Stackhouse series? I just read the two latest books in quick succession (I'd been one book behind for a while) and loved them. I can't wait for the last book!!! I'm dying for a Sam-Sookie match up.

I feel like the last book or two have come under a fair bit of scrutiny but I found them to be just as good as the previous books in the series. One of the things I loved most about the last two books was the slow demise of Sookie's relationship with Eric. I think Charlaine (cuz, you know, we're totally on a first name basis) deftly and realistically handled the break down of their relationship from something that *is* love to something that seems like love but is maybe more of a habit, to something that isn't really love at all. It's easy (or, I should say, easier) to write about big dramatic endings to relationships where one person dies or there is a deep betrayal. But what happened with Sookie and Eric is much more understated and, therefore, much more difficult to carry out in an engaging and believable way in a story.

Sookie and Eric start out being very in love with each other and that simmers down to a comfortable relationship that starts to feel less honeymoon-ish and more everyday. When trouble starts chafing at the feelings between them, they carry on with the things that have grown into a habit - asserting they love each other, telling themselves that they care about each other, making some decisions as though they are still and always will be a couple in deep, passionate love. But eventually, Sookie realizes that maybe she's just saying these things. And that Eric's actions don't back up his words. And that just because the idea of them breaking up is soul-crushing doesn't mean they're still in love after all.

As a reader, I came to these realizations quicker than Sookie did, as I'm sure Charlaine intended me to. But that almost made it better for me. It certainly made it easier for me to handle the letdown of the breakup (even if that didn't help poor Sookie any!). Genius reader-handling. Without this plot point being handled so carefully, I don't think we would be properly reconciled with the ending of DEAD RECKONING or for what Charlaine has in store for DEAD EVER AFTER. (Which I'm only, of course, guessing at.)

I don't know if you read her Harper Connelly series, but she handled another very big, very controversial plot twist in much the same skillful way.

That Charlaine. She's pretty damn talented.

Charlaine's the bomb. May can't get here fast enough!