Book Review - Deadlocked

Deadlocked by Charlaine Harris

May 2012

Hardback auto shipped from Amazon

Why?  Deadlocked is the 12th installment of the Sookie Stackhouse series, and I've read all of the others.  I wasn't thrilled with the last book, Dead Reckoning, the emergence of so much fairy stuff, and Sookie's relationship with Eric instead of Bill.  But, how could I not read this? 

What Now?  I thought that Deadlocked was the last of the series, but I found out just this week that the 13th book is the last and it won't be released until next June.  I'm still in.

Golden Lines

Her rich brown eyes narrowed.  Clearly Freyda was having second thoughts about something.  I hoped those thoughts weren't about whether to let me live, but I was pretty sure she was considering how much of a threat I represented.  If she did me in right now, she would have the luxury of apologizing to Eric after the fact.  Warning bells were clanging too loudly for me to ignore.

I slept between three and six, I think, and woke up to a summer day that mocked me by being beautiful.  The downpour had washed everything, cooled the air, and renewed the green of the grass and the trees.  The delicate pink of the old crepe myrtle was unfurling.  The cannas would be open soon.
I felt like Hell hungover.

It seemed that all the separate parts of my life were finally colliding.  My personal highway was jammed with fairies, werewolves, vampires, and humans. 


"After that, you tell me that [...] you want to be mine forever, and that to share my life you will permit me to make you a vampire like me."
The silence was now thick, and the fun had drained out of the fantasy.
Then [he] added, "You know what I'd say when you told me this? I'd tell you I would never do such a thing.  Because I love you."

Summary

King Felipe is in town, looking for answers about the disappearance/murder of his regent Victor.  Even though Felipe is not really upset about the loss, vampire law requires that someone accept responsibility and be punished.  All eyes are on Eric, and even Sookie begins to question him after walking into his home and finding him feeding on another woman, the same woman who is later found dead on Eric's front lawn. 

Queen Freyda of Oklahoma wants Eric as her own...by marrying her, Eric will gain great power and presige in the vampire world and will be protected from punishment if indeed he is proven guilty of killing Victor.  As Eric's "human wife,"  Sookie is also protected from harm, but that same title creates an obstacle for Freyda...an obstacle she must somehow remove if she is to get what she wants.  And, she wants Eric. 

Sookie's great uncle Dermot (half fairy/half human) and cousin Claude (full fairy) are living in Sookie's attic after being left behind in the human world when Sookie's great grandfather Niall closed the opening to the fae world.  A population of fairies besides Sookie's two relatives was also left behind, some blending in with humans better than others.  They all feel the presence of the cluvial door, a gift given to Sookie's grandmother Adele by her lover and Sookie's biological grandfather Fintan (full fairy).  The cluvial door can grant one wish on behalf of its owner to someone the owner loves.  The fae  hope that the cluvial door can help them get back home.  They also know that it can provide a dangerous weapon in the hands of the wrong person. 
Sookie's grandmother left Sookie the cluvial door, and she must decide how to use it before someone finds it and steals it from her.

Should Sookie use the cluvial door to free Eric?  Should she use it to help her human friends and family who are all at turning points in their lives?  Should she use it to help her fae friends and family return to the homeland they desperately love and miss?  Should she use it to help her Were friends who are struggling to strengthen the pack while battling rogue Weres and adjusting to Alcide's new leadership?

Sookie has to dig deep inside herself to make the right choices before Deadlocked comes to a close.

What I Liked

The end.  When I first started reading, and, in fact, at least half of the book, I was just about outdone with all the fae relatives and the seemingly disjointed plot.  Where was Harris going?
 However, right about the time I had decided I wasn't going to like Deadlocked, the winds began to change.  Connections were made, and the real Sookie began to show herself.  As the rest of her loved ones lives begin to come together, she begins to closely and realistically examine hers.  Although she loves Eric, she seriously begins questioning whether or not they belong together...for the long term, will their relationship be able to stand the test of time?  Are they compatible enough to have the kind of relationship Sookie has always known she was meant to have?  Does Eric even want that kind of relationship?
I can't tell you what happens in the end, of course, but I can tell you, I closed this one and felt good about it.   We don't have the answers yet, but I didn't feel like throwing it against the wall like I did Dead Reckoning.  I think Harris is going to bring us full circle in the last installment.  The original Sookie that I fell in love with at the beginning of this series is back, and she will make all the right decisions for herself.

What I Didn't Like

While some authors repeat too much background, Charlaine Harris doesn't provide enough.  One of my biggest complaints once all the faeries came on the scene in the last book was that I couldn't keep up with who was who.  There are just too many of them, with too many loose connections...It's as if Harris spends the first 10 books getting us close to the main characters of Bon Tempe, and then in Books 10-11 throws in all these other characters at once. 

Sookie in Deadlocked is not the same Sookie as Dead until Dark.  While she shouldn't be of course, and I would have had a problem with that if it had been the case, she almost seems too brash, too accepting, too casual, especially during the first half of Deadlocked. 

Eric - Eric is nothing but a cavemanesque neanderthal in Deadlocked...oh, wait, that's how he's always been :p  Seriously, I'm biased against Eric...I don't like he and Sookie together, never have, except for the time that Eric had lost his memory and wasn't himself.  He's back in full form with memory in tact in Deadlocked unfortunately though.

Overall Recommendations

Sookie fans should push through the first part of Deadlocked to get to the real story, the good stuff, in the 2nd half.  I have high hopes for the last installment of this series.