Dead to the World (novel)

Dead to the World
Cover of Dead to the world
Author(s)	Charlaine Harris
Country	United States
Language	English
Series	The Southern Vampire Mysteries
Genre(s)	Fantasy, Mystery, Gothic, Romance
Publisher	Ace Books
Publication date	May 4, 2004
Media type	Print (Hardcover, Paperback) e-Book (Kindle) Audio Book (CD)
Pages	320 (paperback)
ISBN	ISBN 978-0441012183
OCLC Number	60192550
Preceded by	Club Dead
Followed by	Dead as a Doornail

Dead to the World is the fourth book in Charlaine Harris's series The Southern Vampire Mysteries, released in 2004. In Dead to the World, Sookie aids vampires Eric and Pam in their struggle against a coven of witches seeking to take over control of their area, and takes care of Eric after the witches erase his memory.

The novel was adapted as the fourth season of True Blood, the HBO series based on the novels, however with a few notable differences.

Plot summary

This novel opens on New Year's Eve, three weeks after the events of Club Dead. Sookie Stackhouse finds Eric running down the road close to her home, but he seems to have lost his memory. Sookie, initially reluctant to get involved in vampire matters once again, takes Eric in. Eric's second in command, Pam, is relieved at Sookie finding Eric, and explains a coven of villainous witches, some of them also werewolves, has arrived in Shreveport, set on extorting money from Eric and taking over the local power he has. Hence, Pam believes the witches to be responsible for Eric's erased memory. After Sookie's brother Jason bargains on a financial settlement, Sookie agrees to keep Eric in her house and care for him, as the witches are on the lookout for Eric and might harm him. The next day, Jason is missing. Sookie oversees the slowly progressing police investigation of her brother's disappereance, but personally fears the witch coven might've gotten hold of him.

Later on, Sookie informs werewolf Alcide Herveaux of the witch coven being in town. Alcide and his pack master fear that one of their pack members might have defected to the witches' side, but Sookie and Alcide then discover this particular woman's murdered body. Back in Bon Temps, Sookie's workplace is paid a visit to by the leaders of the witch coven, Marnie "Hallow" and Mark Stonebrook. Meanwhile, Sookie and Eric give in to their sexual interest in each other, while Sookie realizes she wouldn't have done so if Eric still had his memory. Pam suggests Alcide's werewolf pack, her area vampires and some local Wiccans unite to fight off the witch coven. They do so and with Sookie's assistance, brutally attack the witches' main gathering place, wiping out everyone present but Hallow, whom Pam captures and forces to lift Eric's amnesia. Sookie returns home dismayed at the loss of her "relationship" with the memory-free Eric, and finally retrieves Jason with Sam's help in Hotshot, a local were-panther community. In Hotshot, Felton Norris, romantically interested in Jason's one-time fling Crystal, also a werepanther, had contained Jason and purposefully bit him to change him into a werepanther, so that Crystal would lose her interest in Jason.

Deaths

This novel marked the death of two previously introduced characters; Fangtasia's human waitress Ginger was killed by a witch curse, and Alcide Herveaux's jealous, shapeshifter ex-girlfriend Debbie Pelt was shot to death by Sookie after invading Sookie's house intending to kill her.

Television adaption

The television adaption, as the fourth season of True Blood, began its broadcast on June 26, 2011, and the season's finale was aired on September 11, 2011. So far, Courtney Ford has been cast to play Portia Bellefleur, sister to Andy Bellefleur and a character appearing in the previous three novels, but not in Dead to the World. Furthermore, a few actors have been cast in the roles of original characters or characters appearing in later novels. Alexandra Breckenridge was cast as a Wiccan, Katarina. Daniel Buran will play Marcus, Alcide's pack master, while in the books, Alcide's packmaster was named Colonel Flood. Characters from Dead to the World that already appeared in True Blood's earlier seasons include Lindsay Pulsipher as Crystal Norris, James Harvey Ward as Felton Norris and Lauren Bowles as Holly Cleary. Fiona Shaw was cast as Marnie "Hallow" Stonebrook.

• In the series, Eric owns Sookie's house, supposedly purchasing it after knowing she would return from Fae after over a year in earth time.
• The werewolves do not become involved in the vampire-witch feud, in fact the pack leader Marcus orders the weres to stay out of the argument.
• Debbie Pelt is shot and killed by Sookie, after shooting and presumably killing Tara who was protecting Sookie.

See also

Novels portal

• Characters of The Southern Vampire Mysteries
• Characters of True Blood
• True Blood