Anna Paquin starring as Sookie in True Blood, the TV series based on The Southern Vampire Mysteries.
First appearance Novel
Dead Until Dark
Television
"Strange Love"
Created by Charlaine Harris
Portrayed by Anna Paquin
Nickname(s) Sook, Stackhouse
Age 25 (books 1–2)
26 (books 3–7)
27 (books 8–9)
Date of birth July 1, 1982
Occupation Waitress/barmaid
Family Jason Stackhouse (older brother)
Adele Hale Stackhouse (grandmother)
Niall Brigant (great-grandfather)
Claudine and Claude (distant cousins)
Hadley (cousin)
Hunter Savoy (cousin—Hadley's son)
Eric Northman ( huband / vampire , only in the novels )
[edit] Family life
According to the novels, Sookie's telepathic powers manifested as a child and her parents initially considered her to be mentally ill, going so far as taking her to a psychologist and "having her brain scanned every other month". However, Sookie (who is the narrator of the books and stories) mentions one incident when her father asked her to "listen" in on a business meeting to discern the true intentions of a potential client. She told her father the man intended to take his money and her father took her advice, indicating his unspoken belief in her telepathic ability. Her parents died in a flood when she was seven, leaving Sookie and her older brother, Jason, to be raised by their grandmother. As the series begins, Sookie describes herself as someone with very little living family. One of her few relatives is a great-uncle, but she hasn't seen him since she was a child. The reason for this was that Sookie's great-uncle had molested both Sookie and her aunt, Linda, when the girls were very young. Not long after her parents' deaths, Sookie's grandmother bans him from contacting Sookie, thus saving her from further molestation. It is later revealed that he has also molested Sookie's female cousin Hadley.
Sookie lives with her grandmother well into her twenties and they maintain a close relationship until the grandmother is murdered by a serial killer, sinking Sookie into a deep depression. Sookie's great-uncle, Bartlett Hale, is killed soon after. Sookie later learns that her cousin Hadley has been murdered. With the death of Sookie's cousin Hadley, Sookie and Jason are the only remaining Stackhouses.
Eventually, it is revealed that fairy blood runs in her family through her father's lineage. This might be part of what makes her attractive to supernatural creatures ("supes") and vampires in particular.
In the eighth novel, From Dead to Worse, Sookie meets her great-grandfather, Niall Brigant, who is a powerful fairy prince, and the grandfather of her friends, the fairy twins Claudine and Claude. It is also revealed that Hadley left a young son, Hunter, who is now four. He also possesses telepathic abilities. The origins of the telepathic ability are not clear, although an unrelated character states that it is not a fairy trait.
Telepathy
Sookie's telepathic abilities manifested when she was quite young. In her hometown of Bon Temps, many people believe Sookie to be mentally unstable, while others deny the fact that she is able to read people's minds. Sookie says that people's thoughts are not formed in complete sentences, but rather in minimal words and images. She describes some people as "broadcasters", meaning that their minds are fairly easy to read.
Besides using telepathy to read minds, she can also communicate with other telepaths, and use her power to perplex other people. She used her power to confuse a killer (Drew Marshall/Rene Lenier) when he was chasing her, creating a vibrant noise that gave him disorientation and pain. Sookie also used her ability to communicate with a telepath (Barry), asking him to save her from the Fellowship of the Sun.
According to Sookie, both physical and eye contact make an individual's mind easier to read. The minds of humans are also easier to read, though this also varies depending on the individual. Supernatural beings are much more difficult, as Sookie usually only gets impressions and emotions unless the individual is intentionally broadcasting. Vampires are believed to be impossible for Sookie to read—which is partially why she begins dating vampire Bill Compton--though she eventually does have occasional glimpses. She keeps these glimpses a secret from everyone, however, as she is convinced the vampires would kill her if they knew.
The TV adaptation of the novels suggests telepaths to be of such extreme rarity, that more than one immortal being has reacted with surprise and bewilderment upon encountering either Sookie or Barry, and discovering them to be "different" from other humans.
Living situation
Sookie lives in the house left to her by her grandmother. While accidents and a fire leave the house in frequent need of repair, Sookie takes great pride in her home. Not long before Hurricane Katrina Sookie takes in a boarder, a witch named Amelia Broadway, who used to be her cousin Hadley's landlady. Amelia's witch mentor, Octavia Fant, later joins the household as well.
She supports herself by working as a barmaid at a local bar, Merlotte's, which is owned by local shape-shifter Sam Merlotte, as well as occasionally utilizing her telepathic talents for the local group of vampires headed by Eric Northman. Recently, she's worked with vampires even higher up in the hierarchy, including the kings and queens of several states. Despite her hard work, she's not particularly wealthy and often feels strained by the need to support herself, even while her pride leaves her incapable of accepting gifts from her wealthier friends.
In her free time, Sookie reads, suntans, watches television, and occasionally attends local football games. While Sookie's telepathy leaves her feeling incapable of getting a post-secondary education, she is shown to be a bright and resourceful young woman. She also considers herself to be a great dancer and loves to expand her vocabulary with her word-of-the-day-calendar.
Romantic relationships
Harris describes Sookie as a tanned, blue-eyed, and (formerly a size 8, now a size 10) buxom blonde. But although she is young, fit, and good-looking, Sookie did not have many suitors until she met Bill Compton. Being able to read her date's minds was usually a big turn-off for Sookie. And her reputation as a weirdo didn't make her very attractive to ordinary men either, even though she has often been the subject of bar patrons' lewd thoughts.
Sookie finds herself attracted to dominant men with supernatural abilities. Vampires and other "supes" are harder to read than humans, muffling the effects of her telepathy and giving Sookie a refreshing break from the constant noise of other people's thoughts. Vampires seem especially immune to her ability. Their brains appear to be blank spaces when compared to the busy tangle of ideas that come from a human's mind.
Because of this relaxing blankness, Sookie is able to experience her first physical and emotional romantic relationship with Bill, who was turned into a vampire following the American Civil War. He introduces her to the complexities of vampire society in the United States. This leads to many difficulties for Sookie, but their relationship lasts several months before his infidelity with a former lover (and his maker), vampire Lorena, leads Sookie to break things off. Eric Northman, his boss, later forces Bill to reveal to a shocked Sookie that he was ordered by the Queen of Louisiana to court her in order for the Queen to gain her loyalty. Though Bill swears that he really did fall in love with her over time and still does feel for her, a devastated and depressed Sookie tells Bill he is banished from her life.
As the series progresses, Sookie finds herself attracted to other "supes", such as her boss and long-time friend Sam Merlotte, a true shape-shifter who can turn into almost any animal he wishes. Sookie and Sam kiss more than once, but Sookie is worried about the effect it would have on their business relationship — which is important to her because he's the only boss she hasn't had to quit on after reading his mind — so she hasn't pursued him further. She also goes out on Eric assigned business outings with the werewolf Alcide Herveaux and has some interest but doesn't act on it. In that case, his violent ex-girlfriend Debbie Pelt proves to be an obstacle to a relationship, and their friendship has since deteriorated.
Some time after her break-up with Bill, Sookie comes to care for his boss, the vampire sheriff of Area 5, Eric Northman. Under a witch's curse, Eric's memory is altered and leaves him vulnerable and more attractive to Sookie than his ordinarily cunning self. At one point the amnesiac Eric offers to leave his position of power to be with her. When he regains his memory, however, he also regains his deep entanglement with vampire politics, and their relationship appears to end. Eric has only recently recalled all of the events that occurred while he was under the curse, and both he and Sookie are uneasy about what his restored memory might mean to how they relate to each other. Due to multiple blood exchanges, Sookie discovers that she and Eric have a blood bond that allows them to feel each other's emotions. This bond makes Sookie uncomfortable with the access that Eric has to her mind, and seeks to find a way to weaken the bond. She has strong feelings for Eric, but seems to believe that he would be incapable of a serious and committed relationship with her.
Sookie also briefly dates the famous weretiger Quinn. However, that relationship becomes strained after Quinn and his sister disappear at the beginning of From Dead to Worse. Sookie ends the relationship when she realizes Quinn will always put his half-sister Frannie, and his traumatized and deranged mother ahead of her. She realizes this after his involvement in a takeover of the Louisiana and Arkansas vampire territories results in the deaths of a number of Louisiana vampires she knows, including the Queen of Louisiana, Sophie-Anne LeClerq.
In the last published novel, Dead and Gone, Sookie's great-grandfather, Niall, tells her that “The vampire is not a bad man, and he loves you”, but leaves before specifying which vampire he meant, leaving Sookie filled with doubt. She married Eric under vampire law for her own protection.
Sookie's mind-reading ability seemed more like a curse to her when she was growing up, and made it difficult to make and retain friends. Despite this, she has been friends with the elegant and daring Tara Thornton and the handsome but dim JB du Rone since high school.
As an adult Sookie makes other friendships once she is better able to shield herself from the thoughts of others. She considers Sam Merlotte a friend and has maintained her friendship with Tara Thornton. She also strikes up an unlikely friendship of sorts with Eric's second-in-command, Pam. She also is pretty close to Amelia Broadway, a witch, who becomes her lodger and housemate in the later novels. And though she has never called them friends, she worries about Bubba the vampire and fellow mind-reader Barry the bellboy as well.
Sookie considers fellow barmaid Arlene Fowler to be a friend for their first few years working together. However, Arlene joins an anti-vampire organization and their relationship becomes tense. Arlene eventually betrays Sookie to this organization.
[edit] Television portrayal
Main article: True Blood
In the HBO series True Blood, based on the The Southern Vampire Mysteries, Sookie is portrayed by Academy Award-winning actress Anna Paquin.[1] The third season of True Blood is scheduled to start airing in the summer of 2010. See also List of True Blood episodes.
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