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Published in 2001, Dead Until Dark is a paranormal fantasy novel by Charlaine Harris. It takes place in a world where vampires are commonplace and follows the story of Sookie Stackhouse, who begins dating Bill Compton while another vampire stalks their small Louisiana town. The book was adapted into HBO’s television series True Blood, which has been running for seven seasons and counting. Harris has written more than forty novels since her first book came out in 1980; she started writing poetry as an undergrad at Texas A&M University before turning to plays and short stories after graduation. She now lives with two rescue dogs near Austin, Texas.
Sookie Stackhouse is a 25-year-old woman living in Bon Temps, Louisiana with her grandmother. She has no boyfriend and did not attend college because of telepathy. Telepathy makes it difficult to interact with other people, so she does her best to avoid that. However, others think she’s crazy for avoiding them.
Sookie works at Merlotte’s bar & grill. She is content with her life, but she wants to meet someone who will make her feel less lonely. One night, a vampire named Bill comes into the bar and talks to Sookie because he has never met a human before.
As Bill leaves Merlotte’s, a couple attacks him and steals his blood. Sookie saves him by killing the attackers. She realizes that she cannot read vampires’ minds when they are close to her, so she asks Bill for some of his blood in order to heal quickly from her wounds.
Meanwhile, the people of Bon Temps are experiencing a string of murders. All the victims were young women who were strangled to death. Stranger still, each was connected to vampires in some way. This makes the people suspicious and angry at vampires including Bill, but they’re not the only suspects since Jason also had sexual relationships with them before their deaths.
Sookie tells Adele about Bill, and Adele invites him to speak at her club. She also invites him over for dinner. While they’re walking together, Sookie learns that she cannot be glamoured by vampires; it’s a skill all vampires possess. Bill wants to settle down again and have a home of his own. He kisses Sookie when they return home.
The next day, Sookie visits Bill’s house to talk to him about what happened. She finds that he’s entertaining other vampires and some of their fans (people who allow the vampires to drink their blood). The fans are wilder than Bill is; they even try to bite her. However, Bill prevents them from biting her by saying she belongs with him. Afterward, Sookie takes a break from seeing Bill because she needs time to decide if she wants a relationship with a vampire in general or just with him specifically.
Sam, the owner of Merlotte’s, asks Sookie to help him with a waitress who didn’t show up for work. Sookie goes to Dawn’s house and finds that she has been strangled. She decides to use her telepathic abilities (which she had previously tried to hide) in order to find out what happened. At Fangtasia, a vampire nightclub owned by Eric Northman, Pam tries glamouring her so they can learn more about what happened at their club; when it doesn’t work on Sookie because she is a telepath, they tell her about themselves instead.
Bill is going to give a talk at the club of the Descendants of the Glorious Dead. Sookie goes with Sam, which makes Bill jealous. He shares his story about how he was turned into a vampire and it’s received well by the audience. Afterward, Sam takes Sookie home and kisses her; she doesn’t kiss him back.
Sookie finds Adele dead in her house, and police assume that Sookie was the intended victim. They think Adele must have been at home when the perpetrator arrived to kill her. Sookie turns to Bill for comfort after she buries her cousin, but he has a secret of his own. He admits to killing someone from Sookie’s past who hurt her as a child.
