Continuing with this series in the theory that I'd like to get it finished fairly quickly. It is only 3 books after all.
This one moved a bit more slowly, I felt than the first book which is unusual because generally the first book in a series has a lot more info dump and allows the next book to just get on with the story.
Charlaine Harris has a different theory.
Especially in this series, she's dripping out information about the characters in a very slow, strategic way. We know early on that this is no ordinary town, filled with folks who are also not ordinary. But we don't know specifically what's different about them. So through the stories, we're gaining different insight into the characters. And it leads you to wonder what the next intriguing backstory to be revealed will be.
Harris' characters are always a slightly caricature-ish version of real people. It almost seems as if she's writing with comic or cartoon stories in mind. This isn't a bad thing, it's just unique. And it is what makes her books stand out among all the others in the genre. Everything is slightly more over the top than it needs to be, but not so far out that the reader needs to suspend belief completely. It doesn't pull you out of the story, because everything is balanced on that principle. Everything is over the top, not just one or two points. Everything is extreme in some manner, even the most ordinary things.
Enjoying this enough to complete the series. I fully understand why I didn't immediately jump to this series when it was released; there are a number of stories I've read since then that are "better", but it's not a waste of time so I'll keep on reading through the third piece.
Four stars. Not good, not bad, but also not just average.
#05-2020
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