I found this book a bit of a slog to get through, which is the complete opposite to how I felt about the first book.

It's strange, this book seems to reboot the series; it doesn't feel like a sequel. I struggle, in general, with these books because they have an ensemble cast of characters, but most of them are extremely under-developed, and you spend barely any time with anyone other than Sookie, Bill and Eric.

I've watched all of True Blood, so naturally it was time to turn to the books. I was disappointed with how dull this book was compared with the second season of the TV show. I didn't care about the majority of the plot - we've never met or heard about these Dallas characters, so why should I care about any of them? Being through Sookie's POV meant we didn't really get to know anything about them. I would have much preferred the plot to have taken place in Bon Temps.

I thought the maenad was wasted in the book, despite it being potentially the most interesting thing. You only get a very short scene right at the end, almost as an afterthought. I still don't really understand exactly what happened at the end. Please develop your characters more; I want to know more about the maenad!

The inconsistency with the chapter lengths irks me so much! There was a 50 page chapter in the middle, followed by one with 16, and then one with 9. The breaks in the chapters also make no sense, some will flow from scene to scene, day to day, but then others will just randomly stop in the middle of a scene. It makes no sense and I found it very distracting.

I was eager to read the series, but I'll give it a break for now. I hope the next books are set in more interesting locations. The main plot of this book felt like a side-plot! Also, is it wrong to admit that there wasn't enough smut in this one compared to the first book?