The Last of Miss Sookie Stackhouse

I was in town today to visit my aunt at the care home where she lives. And since I was in town already, I also picked up a really cute Yoda t-shirt (In summer, I often wear t-shirts with movie, comic and cartoon characters to school, cause they’re comfy and the kids like them) and the print edition of Hugh Howey’s Wool.

While I was at the bookstore, I also saw something I did not expect to see there, namely Dead Ever After, the twelfth and final installment of the Southern Vampire a.k.a. Sookie Stackhouse series by Charlaine Harris (upon which the TV show True Blood is based), since the book isn’t officially released until May 7th. Nonetheless, the bookstore already had copies on the shelf. I suspect they got them early and whoever was in charge of shelving in the foreign language section had no idea that the book was still supposed to be embargoed. I debated whether to inform the staff that I was pretty sure that book wasn’t supposed to be on the shelves already, but in the end I didn’t. After all, they weren’t all that pleased when I pointed out that J.R. Ward’s Black Dagger Brotherhood series really doesn’t belong in the YA section.

I didn’t buy Dead Ever After, because it was a hardcover and I don’t do hardcovers. However, I couldn’t resist taking a peek at the end to see how and with whom Sookie ends up. By the time, the paperback comes out (I have the rest of the series in print, so I want the full set) the ending will have been spoiled all over the internet anyway, so I might just as well spoil myself.

And nope, I’m not saying anything. My lips are sealed. Because spoiling the ending of a much anticipated book on the internet two weeks before the official release date would just be mean.

However, I’ll say one thing. It’s exactly the outcome I’ve been hoping for. 🙂

ETA: Apparently, Dead Ever After has shown up early in several German bookstores (or maybe just mine, since I doubt I’m the only Sookie fan in Bremen) and some people did talk, cause here is a True Blood fansite discussing the ending (spoiler alert, obviously, so don’t click if you don’t want to know). Those fans are not very pleased with the ending, which is kind of understandable, given the focus of their site.

Meanwhile, Charlaine Harris herself is understandably not pleased that the ending of Dead Ever After has been spoiled and asks fans not to spoil it for others. Which is only fair, especially since some fans whose preferred team did not win didn’t take it well.