My impression of the novel is a book capable of inducing the feeling of eroticism, sexual energy, danger, and suspense all at the same time. In my view, the genre of the novel can best be described as an erotic thriller. The novel present a strange intermixing of humans and other supernatural beings. Indeed, the writer follows the modern tradition of presenting vampires as a romantic, erotic and elegant species rather than some demonic creature. The character of Sookie Stackhouse is indeed a very intricate one the more I read about her and the more I become familiar with her personality the more she excites me.
The most prominent themes apart from suspense and a thrilling plot are eroticism and issue related to sex and gender. The allusions to eroticism and sexual interactions are more than apparent in leafs of the book. While reading through the story the sexual energy vibrating through the characters of the story is very hard to avoid. Eroticism makes the central part of the story and on many occasion the author describes the sexual emotions of her characters in a conflicting manner. In a certain way, the female protagonist of the story is torn between the free nature of sexuality in the vampire species and her personal code of morality. Through the character of Sookie, the author presents a conflict between a person’s sexual desires and her moral fabric woven by her conscience.
Similarly, the author also touched the issue related to the concept of same-sex attraction and homosexuality in the story. The story depicts the issue of homosexuality as a matter of personal choice and the author tries to present the notion as an acceptable norm rather than a taboo. Highlighting homosexuality in such an open way seems to be an effort to remove the stigma from the notion gayism. In her story, the author describes a society that is open with regards to sexual preferences and where sexual attraction is not influenced by gender bias. Likewise, while presenting a story full of sexual energy the issue regarding the concept of fidelity and loyalty also emerges. The characters of the story seem to struggle between the fidelity and sexual freedom.
The story is another addition to the vampire literature and the author takes a great care in portraying the traits of vampires that are prevalent in the modern fictional literature. She describes vampires as a handsome, elegant, immortal and sexual attractive breed. Vampires in her story are not simply a manifestation of the evil rather they appears as a cardinal element of the story and the author provide her vampires with complex characters having their codes, aspiration, desires, and values. One interesting concept about vampire described in the story that strikes out is they cannot have a legal sexual relation with other vampires and a vampire must choose a human as a sexual partner. This strikes me as a strange insertion on the part of the author as she is projecting a society that has granted a generous amount of freedom to sexual interactions. It seems strange that on one hand Charlaine would promote homosexuality and would project a society that is willing to relinquish formal social controls from sexual preferences while on the other hand she herself created a gender discrimination with regards to sexual preferences.
While going through the story issues related to gender stereotyping and gender discrimination originates in my mind. Maintaining our social and literature norms, Charlaine presents her women charters as fragile and timid while she presents males as dominant and cold. The aura of male domination can be clearly discerned through the story. Also, she depicts woman as having weak control over their sexual desire while males as sexual aggressors, another presentation of gender stereotyping.
To conclude, the more I read about Sookie, the more I like her. She is a magnificent character and Harris depicts her extremely well. She is considerably more intricate than she appears and she generally makes me more interested in her story. The plot was somewhat more convoluted than it should have been, yet it was a great fun read and the book was over much sooner than I wanted it to be. Harris does leave us with an aura of an uncertain and suspended closure thus she abandons us gasping for more and pondering what Sookie is going to do next in her life and what choices she would make in coming stories.
Works Cited
Harris, Charlaine. Club Dead (Sookie Stackhouse/True Blood, Book 3). Ace; Mti edition, 2010. Print.
