Sookie Stackhouse

Sookie Stackhouse
The Southern Vampire Mysteries and True Blood character
Anna Paquin as Sookie Stackhouse
First appearance	Novel: Dead Until Dark Television: "Strange Love"
Last appearance	Television: "Thank You" 7x10
Created by	Charlaine Harris
Portrayed by	Anna Paquin
Information
Species	Human (fairy ancestry)
Occupation	Barmaid/Waitress
Family	Jason Stackhouse (brother) Adele Hale Stackhouse (grandmother) Niall Brigant (great-grandfather) Fintan Brigant (grandfather) Eric Northman (husband, in the novels)
Relatives	Dermot Brigant (great-uncle) Claudine, Claude & Claudette Crane (half cousins once removed) Hadley Hale (cousin) Hunter Savoy (cousin once removed)
Nationality	American

Sookie Stackhouse is a fictional character and protagonist of The Southern Vampire Mysteries book series, written by Charlaine Harris. In HBO's television adaptation, True Blood, Sookie is portrayed by Anna Paquin.

Sookie was created by Charlaine Harris. Harris stated that she decided to "shake up [her] writing style by trying something new". The author said that to do this she would include "all the elements I loved: mystery, the supernatural, bloody adventure, and a dash of romance. And since people had told me for years that I had a great sense of humor, I thought it would be interesting to try to include that in the book, too". Harris went on to establish the protagonist of the series. When naming the character Harris decided to use her grandmother's best friend's name because "it was a fine old Southern nickname, I thought it would do well for my heroine. And "Stackhouse" just flowed right after it". Sookie, Sooky, Sukie, Sukey, Sook etc. are historical Southern U.S. regional nicknames for Susannah or Susan (Hebrew, "Lily"). In subsequent stories involving his characters, Truman Capote identifies the initially unnamed female "best friend" and cousin of Buddy, the narrator of his well-known 1956 short work A Christmas Memory as "Sook". Harris wanted to "write from the point of view of a human". To make Sookie more interesting as Harris would have "to live with Sookie" while writing, she decided to have the character partake on a relationship with a vampire as an introduction to a foreign world. Harris then decided she would have to establish a reason "sensible Sookie" would "do such a crazy thing" which led to her giving Sookie the power of telepathy. In an interview Harris stated that making Sookie telepathic is "the worst thing I could think of to do to anybody". She explained this further saying "it would just be absolutely horrible to know what people really thought about you". Harris felt that there are "definitely elements of Sookie in me—or, more correctly, there are elements of me in her. [...] I wish I were as brave as she is!" Harris said that when writing for Sookie it is "second nature to me to step into Sookie's skin".

Anna Paquin was cast in the HBO television adaptation True Blood, with her casting being announced on 26 February 2007. In September 2011, Harris said that although some characters in the series were portrayed in the television adaptation as she intended, Sookie is not, saying: "Anna [Paquin] has never been the way I think of as Sookie. I think she does a great job, but she's just not my Sookie".