As the title said, this is open spoiler for the Sookie Stackhouse series, and for anything that’s aired on the TV show. If you think there’s a good chance that the show is going to go back and revisit something it skipped from the books so far, that should go in a box, but I know I’m risking getting spoiled on the show asking for book information, but I’m wondering how closely the show is following the stories laid out in the series.
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I know that Lafayette died at some point in an early book, so his subplots are new material, and just saw a post where someone mentioned that Terry and Arlene aren’t involved in the books. What are some other things that have been changed for the series?
Things completely different from the books:
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Sam’s family this season is created whole-cloth. In the books he gets along with his birth mother, has two non-special younger siblings, and a step-dad who turns out to be intolerant of shapeshifters when he learns his wife and oldest stepson are shifters.
- in the books only the oldest child of a shifter or were becomes on themselves, which makes Tommy’s ablity to shift and Crystal’s declaration that she’s suppposed to breed werebabies with her half-brother clash with the books.
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There are no meth dealers in Hotshot. Calvin, who isn’t Crystal’s dad in the books (I think he’s her uncle) is 10x more civil and likeable in the books. Bill, on the other hand, is more likeable on the show than in the books, and Eric a little less brutal in the books.
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Hotshot isn’t mentioned at all, nor are Crystal or Calvin characters, until the next book.
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Jason does not at any time try to join the police force. Nor did he get involved with the Fellowship of The Sun people. Basically, Jason has a much smaller role until the middle of the book series than he does on the show.
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The whole Marianne storyline was completely different. In the books it was the more minor of the two subplots, and involved a sex club that ended up being the ones responsible for killing Lafayette when he threatened to reveal what kinky crap people in town were involved with. Tara’s involvement with said club took no more than 4 or 5 pages of the book, and she wasn’t courted by Marianne, nor did anything happen at Sookie’s house. Eggs lived, but disappeared from the books after that anyway.
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Jessica doesn’t exist, and Hoyt takes up with another character in the books. Summer isn’t in the books either.
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Sam’s relationship with Tara is not in the book. After book 3 and the Franklin mess, Tara becomes involved with a friend she and Sookie grew up with named JB (oh, and Tara is white in the books and not Lafayette’s cousin). Sam never really catches a break on the romantic front until late in the book series. Like books 9 or 10.
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Besides JB another reoccuring character left out of the show is Bubba, a vampire who was an important to the plot of book this season is based upon, and in many others as a more minor character.
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Grandpa Stackhouse wasn’t a mind-reader, and from the perspective of the books having him be one doesn’t make sense. Gram being one, though, would have.
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And in regards to the Sookie-Bill relationship…besides nearly draining Sookie toward the last third of book 3, Bill forces himself on her as well (he was out of it in the book too, though, and didn’t realize he was doing that either). Given that, things are worse between them than on the show.
Things pulled from the books out of order: -
Holly is a very minor character through most of the series, and not only is she described as pretty, she’s Sookie’s age
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Fairies aren’t introduced until later, and Sookie doesn’t know she’s part fairy herself until the last handful of books, nor do any of the vampires. In the books Claudine has a brother, who is her surviving triplet. Sookie knows both of them though she and Claude take a long time to get along.
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Hadley doesn’t get more than a line or two of mention, never mind make an appearance, until a short story called “One Word Answer” set between books 4 and 5. This is when queen Sophie Anne makes her first actual appearance, though she’s mentioned earlier because of a rather silly job Bill is doing for her…creating a vampire database.
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Hunter’s existence isn’t revealed until book 8.
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Sookie lives alone, sans roommate, until someone introduced in book 5 needs a place to stay after Hurricane Katrina. She and Tara are never roomies.
I know there are other things, but that’s what I can come up with off the top of my head right now.
Thanks, elfkin477. There’s quite a bit that was changed.
So, if Sophie Ann doesn’t arrive until later, is there no V selling subplot, or is that all introduced when she arrives?
- Sookie has big boobs. She’s a size 10 in the books, a size 8 on a good day.
- Eric kills Longshadow.
- Sookie kills Lorena without any help from Bill.
- The vampires aren’t quite as powerful.
- vampire blood has less impressive healing effects
- vampire blood is never called V
- In the books, Elvis is a vampire
- Tara’s white
- Pam and Sookie are on friendlier terms
- Book Eric is more thoughtful towards Sookie
- Sookie’s only power is reading people’s thoughts. No magical glowing light.
- Sookie can sometimes read vampire thoughts, usually Eric’s
- Bill has a job working for Eric as an “area 5 investigator”
- There’s no magister in the books
- Sophie-Anne is 100 years older than Eric
- Godric is never the sheriff of Texas
- Eric’s maker is NOT Godric
- There’s no Jessica in the books
- The dog version of Sam doesn’t look away when Sookie changes clothes. Somehow she doesn’t mind.
Right, the V subplot is a show-only thing. The couple that attack Bill in the pilot are the only v-dealers or takers you ever see in any of the books.
Thanks, guys. I didn’t realize the show added so many major things.
It stands to reason though. These are 300-400 page books, so they’d have to add things to add up to 12 hours of show a season.
I thought of some more differences, and I bet there will be more to talk about after next Sunday…
Tara is very different in the books. Besides being a white chick who isn’t involved with Sam, she doesn’t work at Merlots. Instead she owns her own clothing store. And her childhood story is more of neglect than abuse, though her older siblings got out as soon as they could. And her involvement with Franklin isn’t fun in the books, either, but she never ends up at Russell’s house.
And the whole Russell thing. He’s not ever a big threat in the books. Basically the worst thing he does in the books is to allow Lorena to hold Bill captive at his house. Virtually everything about him past greeting Bill in the first couple of episodes has been changed.
Oh, though he’s never been heard from again (yet?), Sookie only badly injured Rene at the end of book one, not killed him like on the show. In fact, she makes Bill promise not to kill him, either. Since he’s never been back it doesn’t really make a difference, though.
Bumping for the new season.
I was thinking about bumping this, actually… 
I’ll continue do my best to only bring up things from books after the beginning of book 4 that have been drawn in earlier.
So, so far…
Deaths:
- Calvin isn’t dead at all in the books
- Sophie Anne doesn’t die until book 8 (!!)
- Claudine doesn’t die until book 9 (!!!)
Other things:
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Sookie doesn’t find out about the bad fairies until book 9, and Claudine isn’t one of the bad ones. The bad fairies are water beings, which we haven’t seen on the show at all, while the good ones are terrestrial. Queen Mab isn’t one of the players, good or bad, but male faires are.
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Fairies don’t read minds. I’d tell you why Sookie and Hunter do, but that’s a book 11 thing…
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Sookie didn’t spend a year with the fairies. I don’t think she ever went to fairyland herself at all.
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Bill is not freakin’ king of anything, instead he’s gone a lot gathering info for a vampire database at Sophie Anne’s behest. After book 3 Bill’s role is extremely limited (as it should be). For example, in the latest book Bill wasn’t mentioned until after page 150, and was only involved in 10 or so pages after that.
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Arlene and Terry are not a couple. He’s a nice, but much more messed up guy in the books, and she becomes a complete bigot instead
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A bigot who only ever has two kids, so no weird baby plot
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Holly is not part of the coven we’ve seen on the show, but aligned with a second group of non-necromancing witches. She’s got a kid (around age 5 then) we haven’t seen on the show as well.
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Luna, Sam’s new squeeze on the show, was actually a minor character from book 2, and only book 2. She wasn’t a shapeshifter, though. Instead she’s a werebat, and only changes into that one form.
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Jason was not charged with keeping an eye on the people of Hotshot
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Crystal has 0% to do with Jason being kidnapped, and is unaware of it for a long while.
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Andy isn’t sheriff
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Andy doesn’t take V
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book Andy doesn’t know that Sam’s a shifter yet by this time on the show: later on he sees Sam change during one of the werewolf subplots (late in book 4 or 5)
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Portia is Andy’s older sister, and built like a linebacker. She was only ever professionally involved with Bill, though he did act as her platonic escort for a couple of events during their working relationship which made a couple of local busybodies talk. Eventually she forces Sookie to be one of her bridesmaids in a short story.
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After Bill and Sookie broke up at the end of book 3, Bill takes up with a human woman for a while but I don’t know if it’s supposed to be the woman on his security team on the show. If it is, the show gave her a different job, because, you know, Bill doesn’t have a security team in the books
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Eric didn’t buy Sookie’s house since she didn’t spend a year away. He does have her driveway regraveled though. And the hidyhole in the house was there, in a bedroom closet’s floor, due to Bill originally not Eric being presumptuous
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Book Eric, and Sookie herself, still don’t know about her being part fairy, so he’s a lot more interested in screwing her while under her protection than biting her.
Thanks, elfkin.
So, is the Jason subplot playing out the same otherwise? In other words, did the Hotshot crew grab him for breeding purposes in the book as well?
Did book Eric kill Claudine? What about book Bill and Sophie Ann?
Not exactly. In the books the kidnapping happens just because Fenton is crazy, and as far as I recall no one else in Hotshot knows that he’s holding Jason captive. Crystal does get pregnant with Jason’s baby not long afterwards, but not intentionally. However, the people of Hotshot are happy about her pregnancy for the same basic reasons as on the show.
Nope. She was killed by another fairy.
Book Bill is a good little lackey and never raised a hand against his queen. Instead there’s a teritory war (between state sovereigns) that she falls victim to.
Of all the changes they’ve made to the show, I think the evil baby addition is the lamest. At this point, the show seems only very loosely based on the books. The coven of witches that takes away Eric’s memory in the books is a powerful and evil group of witch-weres in another town (Shreveport?) who I think also take V. Anyway they very intentionally curse Eric, not this weird “I’ve been taken over by a spirit and don’t know what I’ve done” thing they’ve got happening on the show.