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In the book, which is the basis for the first season of HBO's True Blood, Harris developed an interesting idea and firmly wrapped it inside a tightly written narrative, helping to move the plot along at a rapid pace. Harris' language is simple, yet engaging enough to maintain a reader's attention throughout the course of the story. There are no dead spots here. Actions lead to successive actions. A person winds up dead, and then another. The story relentlessly keeps moving.

Discerning readers will pick up that The Southern Vampire Series sounds a bit like Twilight, at least in its central love affair between a female human and male vampire. But if any copied premises are at work, Twilight's Stephenie Meyer is actually at fault here, given that Charlaine Harris' Dead Until Dark debuted in bookstores four years prior to the first Twilight novel.

The TV Show

Alan Ball remains rather faithful to Harris' first book by translating nearly all of the story's main actions to his HBO series. At the same time, however, the creator smartly opens up the Bon Temps world a bit, eliminating Sookie as series narrator and breathing life into the novel's secondary characters (and some of his own, too, like Sookie's new childhood friend, Tara).

Given that Dead Until Dark clocks in at just under 300 pages, Ball also was forced to create original storylines to help fill in his episodes. Some of them, like Tara's struggle to eliminate a demon harboring within her wicked mother's stomach, were just as ridiculous as they sound. But others, like Jason's relationship with the not-who-she-seems Amy (including their bizarre sex scenes under the influence of vampire blood) or cook Lafayette's business outside of the restaurant where Sookie works, were some of my favorites of the season. Admittedly I was shocked to find out they never appeared in the debut novel.

Whether intended or not, perhaps what I appreciate most about Ball's adaptation is how his series can be used as a stand-in for an underlying message about gay rights (Harris merely hints at this detail when her vampires are said to "come out of the coffin" at the top of Dead Until Dark). Ball has refuted any such message. But given that he is openly gay and a strong voice within the LGBT community, I find his denial hard to believe given positive evidence from the series.

It's there every week in the opening title sequence – a sign proclaiming, "God hates fangs." And all season long, the most vocal of vampires are trying to pass the Vampire Rights Act (similar to a Human Rights Act). Yet they face strong opposition from conservative humans, especially those who attend church.

Again, whether it's intended or not, the supposed parable merely adds to the depth of the TV show, which for me is about a lot more than a waitress's strange attraction to a being that typically kills her kind. One on level, True Blood is entertaining popcorn television. But given that the series comes from Six Feet Under alum Alan Ball, something tells me that the exterior storyline of girl meets vampire only scrapes the surface.

The Verdict

True Blood is the better product, though I'd have no problem recommending the book, too, considering most of its main actions are found in the adaptation as well. In the end, I found more to like in the TV show, which admittedly takes a few episodes to find its footing. But once this happens, the series hits the ground running and develops into something more entertaining (and deeper) than its predecessor.

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