'Dead Until Dark : Southern Vampire Mysteries' by Charlaine Harris (2001)

Description:

Sookie Stackhouse is a cocktail waitress in small-town Louisiana, but she keeps to herself and doesn't date much because of her 'disability' to read minds. When she meets Bill, Sookie can't hear a word he's thinking. He's the type of guy she's waited for all of her life, but he has a disability, too--he's a vampire with a bad reputation. When one of Sookie's coworkers is killed, she fears she's next.

QVamp says:

There is a gay vampire in this story. At one point, his human 'trick' is outed as having the vampire equivalent of AIDS. Another human in the book is also identified as being gay.

The premise of this book will ring strongly with many GLBT folks as vampires are an 'out of the coffin' minority fighting to get legal rights. There are vampire bashers and folks who feel they are immoral for religious reasons.

Rating

Queer Vampire Rating

Amount of Queer Content

same-sex relationship

User Ratings

By: crys

Overall Rating: B Queer vampire Rating: C+

Overall, Dead Until Dark is a well written book with neatly placed twists and turns. Charlaine Harris explores the vampire as being more human and completely misunderstood as oposed to them being ruthless blood thristing husks with a human form. However, the gay content, while interesting and intriguing, was very minimal and personally, I would have liked more, and the fact that one of the main characters is/or looks like (it's not very clear) Elvis doesn't really sit well with me. Besides this, Harris wins me over with her kirky humor and realism as I plan on reading more of her work.

- Crys

By: Devon Marshall

Overall Rating: A Queer vampire Rating: D

I love the Southern Vampire series as modern vampire novels go. True, the queer content is a little lacking ( with the exception of Pam and the queen Sophie-Ann LeClerq ) but somehow it doesn't matter. The likeable charm of the characters and their stories excuses it very nicely.