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Living Dead in Dallas

by Charlaine Harris

"Living Dead in Dallas" is the second novel in Charlaine Harris's Southern Vampire Mysteries, narrated by Sookie Stackhouse, a telepathic cocktail waitress from the small town of Bon Temps, Louisiana. After her co-worker… more

First published 2002 · 291 pages · English

30 quotes ★ 3.96 (264,645) Fiction

Quotes from the Book

Sookie, my little bullet-sucker" Eric, my big bullshitter
By the way, I haven't heard an 'I'm sorry' from you yet." My sense of grievance had overwhelmed my sense of self-preservation. I am sorry that the maenad picked on you." I glared at him. "Not enough," I said. I was trying hard to hang on to this conversation. Angelic Sookie, vision of love and beauty, I am prostrate that the wicked evil maenad violated your smooth and voluptuous body, in an attempt to deliver a message to me." That's more like it.
You trust me?" Eric sounded surprised. "Yes." "That's . . . crazy, Sookie.
Hey, our hair's the same color," I said, eying us side by side in the mirror. "Sure is, girlfriend." Eric grinned at me.
Glass shattered, vampires roared, humans screamed. The noise battered at me, just as the tidal wave of scores of brains at high gear washed over me. When it began to taper off, I looked up into Eric's eyes. Incredibly, he was excited. He smiled at me. "I knew I'd get on top of you somehow," he said. Are you trying to make me mad so I'll forget how scared I am?" No, I'm just opportunistic." I wiggled, trying to get out from under him, and he said, "Oh, do that again. It felt great.
The last time I wore an animal hide; but this time I settled for this." Eric had been wearing a long trench coat. Now he threw it off dramatically, and I could only stand and stare. Normally, Eric was a blue-jeans-and-T-shirt kind of guy. Tonight, he wore a pink tank top and Lycra leggings[...]They were pink and aqua, like the swirls down the side of Jason's truck.
Hey, our hair's the same color," I said, eyeing us side by side in the mirror. Sure is, Girlfriend." Eric grinned at me. "But are you blond all the way down?" Don't you wish you knew?" Yes," he said simply. Well, you'll just have to wonder." I am," he said. "Blond everywhere," I could tell as much from your chest hair." He raised my arm to check my armpit. "You silly women, shaving your body hair," He said, dropping my arm.
You've reached Fantasia, where the undead live again every night," "For bar hours, press one. To make a party reservation, press two. To talk to alive person or a dead vampire, press three. Or, if you were intending to leave a humorous prank message on our answering machine, know this: we will find you.
Angelic Sookie, vision of love and beauty, I am prostrate that the wicked evil maenad violated your smooth and voluptuous body, in an attempt to deliver a message to me. -Eric
Wow," I said, since it was all I could think of to say. "Wow. That's some outfit." When you've got a big guy wearing Lycra it doesn't leave a whole lot to the imagination. I resisted the temptation to ask Eric to turn around. "I don't believe I could be convincing as a queen," Eric said, "but I decided this sent such a mixed signal, almost anything was possible." He fluttered his eyelashes at me. Eric was definitely enjoying this. "Oh, yes," I said, trying to find somewhere else to look. (Living Dead in Dallas)
You're lips are bloody.' He seized my face in both hands and kissed me. It's hard not to respond when a master of the art of kissing is laying one on you.
So you want me to go to a human orgy, where I will not be welcome, and you want us to leave before I get to enjoy myself? ~Eric Northman
I drank lots of water and orange juice and took a multivitamin and iron supplement for breakfast, which was my regimen since Bill had come into my life and brought (along with love, adventure, and excitement) the constant threat of anemia.
Sookie," Eric said. I didn't think he'd heard a word. "Yield to me." Well, that was pretty direct.
You'll have to ask Bill that, Sookie. And this is the only reason we're going? You're not cleverly using this as an excuse to make out with me?" "I'm not that clever, Eric." "I think you deceive yourself, Sookie," Eric said with a brilliant smile.
[Eric:] "I'm hoping that the more you see me, the more I'll grow on you." [Sookie:] "Like a fungus?
I am here," Eric said. "And I am here." I was a little amused at Eric's phone answering technique. "Sookie, my little bullet-sucker," he said, sounding fond and warm. "Eric, my big bullshitter.
And since I’m going to be in the neighborhood, you thought I might do as an escort? To an orgy?
i was momentarily sidetracked by the vision of Eric herding a cow into a trailer and driving it to the shoulder of the the interstate and shooing it into the trees.
JB’s mother had taught him early on that appreciated women are happy women.
I looked up into Eric's eyes. Incredibly, he was excited. He smiled at me. "I knew I'd get on top of you somehow," he said. "Are you trying to make me mad so I'll forget how scared I am?" "No, I'm just opportunistic." I wiggled, trying to get out from under him, and he said, "Oh, do that again. It felt great.
All the pictures on the walls, they all white as lilies and smiling like alligators.
It's hard not to respond when a master of the art of kissing is laying one on you.
I could tell Hugo was convinced that he would get to walk back up these stairs: after all, he was a civilized person. These were all civilized people. Hugo really couldn't imagine that anything irreparable could happen to him, because he was a middle-class white American with a college education, as were all the people on the stairs with us. I had no such conviction. I was not a wholly civilized person.
People fidget. They are compelled to look engaged in an activity, or purposeful. Vampires can just occupy space without feeling obliged to justify it.
Sookie: Hey, our hair's the same color. Eric: Sure is, Girlfriend.
[Eric] 'So you want me to go to a human orgy, where I will not be welcome, and you want us to leave before I get to enjoy myself?' [Sookie] 'Yes,' I said, almost squeaking in my anxiety. In for a penny, in for a pound. 'And... do you think you could pretend to be gay?
You, on the other hand, are a sweet little éclair on the outside and a pit bull on the inside.
The god entered some women so completely that they became immortal, or very close to it. Bacchus was the god of the grape, of course, so bars are very interesting to maenads. In fact, so interesting that they don't like other creatures of darkness becoming involved. Maenads consider that the violence sparked by the consumption of alcohol belongs to them; that's what they feed off, now that no one formally worships their god. And they are attracted to pride.
You've reached Fangtasia, where the undead live again every night...For bar hours, press one. To make a party reservation, press two. To talk to a live person or a dead vampire, press three. Or, if you were intending to leave a humorous prank message on our answering machine, know this: we will find you." -Pam

Did you know?

  • It is the second book in Charlaine Harris's Southern Vampire Mysteries (Sookie Stackhouse) series.
  • The novel opens with the line "Andy Bellefleur was as drunk as a skunk."
  • The story sends telepathic waitress Sookie Stackhouse to Dallas to find a missing vampire.
  • It introduces the anti-vampire church known as the Fellowship of the Sun.
  • The Southern Vampire Mysteries series was the basis for the HBO television series True Blood.
  • The series ultimately ran to thirteen novels, concluding with Dead Ever After in 2013.

About Charlaine Harris

Charlaine Harris is an American author best known for the Sookie Stackhouse / Southern Vampire Mysteries, a #1 New York Times best-selling paranormal series adapted into the HBO show True Blood. She has written mystery and urban-fantasy fiction across several series since the 1980s.

More about the author →

About the book

"Living Dead in Dallas" is the second novel in Charlaine Harris's Southern Vampire Mysteries, narrated by Sookie Stackhouse, a telepathic cocktail waitress from the small town of Bon Temps, Louisiana. After her co-worker Lafayette is found dead and Sookie herself survives a vicious supernatural attack, she becomes indebted to the local vampires who save her. When they call in the favor, Sookie travels to Dallas to use her telepathy to help locate a missing vampire, agreeing to help on the condition that any humans she implicates are turned over to human law rather than vampire justice.

In Dallas, Sookie's investigation brings her into conflict with the Fellowship of the Sun, a fanatical anti-vampire church, and draws her deeper into a hidden world of shifting alliances and danger. The book braids a paranormal mystery with romance and dark comedy, continuing the fraught relationship between Sookie and the vampire Bill Compton while the charismatic vampire Eric Northman grows more central. Harris blends small-town Southern voice with vampire lore, telepathy, and a mounting sense of threat.

Published in 2002, the novel helped establish Harris's long-running, best-selling series, which spans thirteen books and became the basis for the HBO series True Blood. Its mix of supernatural mystery, wry first-person narration, and romance made it a cornerstone of the urban-fantasy and paranormal-romance boom of the 2000s. The series' themes of prejudice, otherness, and belonging run through Sookie's efforts to navigate a world where humans and the supernatural uneasily coexist.

Key characters

  • Sookie StackhouseTelepathic cocktail waitress from Bon Temps and the narrator
  • Bill ComptonVampire and Sookie's boyfriend
  • Eric NorthmanPowerful vampire and sheriff who oversees the area's vampires
  • Sam MerlotteOwner of the bar where Sookie works
  • Stan DavisLeader of the Dallas vampires who hires Sookie
  • GodfreyA vampire connected to the Fellowship of the Sun

Book details

First published
2002
Length
291 pages
Reading time
2 hours
Genre
Fiction
Goodreads rating
3.96 (265k ratings)
First line
“Andy Bellefleur was as drunk as a skunk.”

Series & reading order

  1. 1 Dead Until Dark
  2. 2 Living Dead in Dallas
  3. 3 Club Dead
  4. 4 Dead to the World
  5. 5 Dead as a Doornail
  6. 6 Definitely Dead
  7. 7 All Together Dead
  8. 8 From Dead to Worse
  9. 9 Dead and Gone
  10. 10 Dead in the Family
  11. 11 Dead Reckoning
  12. 12 Deadlocked
  13. 13 Dead Ever After

Movie & TV adaptations

  • IMDb
    True Blood 2008

    HBO television series based on the Sookie Stackhouse novels

If you liked this, read…

  1. 1
    Dead Until DarkThe first Sookie Stackhouse novel that begins the same series
  2. 2
    Guilty PleasuresLaurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake vampire mysteries, a similar supernatural detective blend
  3. 3
    Storm FrontJim Butcher's Dresden Files mixes noir mystery with urban fantasy

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