I picked this up at some random point because it was really cheap. I've actually read very little by Charlaine Harris, I avoided all of the Sookie Stackhouse excitement completely - never read the books, never saw the HBO adaptation. In retrospect, that might have been a mistake because I'm not sure that this would qualify as her best work.

Midnight, Texas is a small town where things are not quite what they seem, including most of the inhabitants. The basic story relates to Bobo, the pawn shop owner (and frankly, I could never get over that STUPID name), whose girlfriend, Aubrey, has disappeared without a trace. Aubrey is also not what she seems. There is the local witch, Fiji (why, Charlaine, why?), the local psychic, Manfred (OMG, these names. Kill me) and the local nubile high school graduate, Creek, (OK, that name is actually quite good). And a vampire, Lemuel (we're back to stupid names, again).

In honor of Lemuel, I'm slotting this one in the Deadlands category. Vampires are not a favorite of mine, so I figure I'd better fill that category now or it may not happen later.

Anyway, I actually liked the town, and I even liked most of the characters, their stupid names notwithstanding. The problem with this book is that it went nowhere. And on the road to nowhere, it traveled sloooooooow. The ending was out of the blue, and left me thinking what the actual fuck just happened?

I may be willing to give Midnight, Texas another go, but I'm thinking that I should probably dip my toe into one of her other series first. The Lily Bard series is the most appealing to me, starting with Shakespeare's Landlord, but I think I will check it out of the library in case it is also a miss for me.

What’s the first thing that comes to mind when I think about this book?

S.L.O.W.

It moved with glacial speed and the supernatural events were too far and few to make up for it.

The pacing wouldn’t have mattered, if the book didn’t also have the following problems:

The fact that one of the characters is a vampire is just sprung upon us and not in a good way.

Anybody who lives in the town of Midnight knows not to ask questions. To me, it seemed like a good way of not having to make up character backstories until absolutely needed.

I didn’t relate to or like any of the characters from the story either, with the exception of the cat who could talk. It caught my attention for a second and then lost it when its voice was described as snide (or was it nasal?).

The writing style didn’t do anything for me. An example from the book:

As she washed her hands, she thought of having corn bread with the soup tonight. As she was drying them, she told herself how much better the soup would be without the corn bread, and failed to convince herself that could be so.

Why Did I Read the Book Then?

All these complaints bring me to why I read this book in the first place. I wasn’t a fan of the Sookie series written by the same author either. While the show, True Blood, might have held my interest for a season or two, I didn’t follow it religiously either. What made me pick up this book was this trailer and the fact that there was a buddy read going on over at Booklikes.  I wanted to be a part of both. However, if you are expecting the book and show to be alike, they aren’t at least as far as the pacing is concerned.

I might try the next book in the series.

Then again, I might not!

Midnight, Texas is a small town the attracts the paranormal, the unusual, and those that have something to hide. Every resident has at least one secret. The inhabitants are both open-minded and understand the need for secrets.
While I was interested from page 1, this is a slower paced book. It was at times a bit too descriptive. It's similar to the Sookie books in that regard. What made it interesting (and not boring for me), was the switching narratives. Bobo, Fiji, and Manfred were the 3 main characters. I liked the mystery. The residents do take care of their own. 
By the end of the book, I mostly knew who was a supernatural and who was completely "normal." And I have suspicions for the rest.
I loved Mr Snuggly!

This was ok. I liked it well enough, but I didn't love it.

It's been awhile since I've read a Charlaine Harris book (I never finished the Southern Vampires/Sookie Stackhouse books), and I'd forgotten how sometimes her writing gets bogged down in describing--in detail--the minutiae of everyday life. 

The book overall is very slow paced. I'm not sure if it's due to it being the first book in the series and the author needs time to set up the world and introduce the characters, or if that's just the way these books are. Things happen, but it takes awhile to really get going.

I was assuming the story would be told from Manfred's POV, but it wasn't. Instead, it had multiple POV's, and I actually quite liked that.

I also liked the characters and the world enough to want to continue on with the series. I just hope the pace picks up some...

Review to come tomorrow...*looks at clock*...or later today.