To me the only thing the boeken and the toon have in common are the names of the characters and that there are vampires and werewolves. I like the boeken but like the toon so much better.
I think the toon keeps a lot of the basic bones in the boeken - but the toon fleshes out the story lines to make things juicier, in addition to adding new plots and twists which are necessary to keep things interesting. Each book represents an entire season in the show, so it is necessary to add things in order to have the required 12 of 13 episodes. But if u read the books, u will see that the toon does keep the vital stories alive, whilst making some much bigger, for example, the story with Sam and his family.
There is a lot that has been changed from the books. However if u look at the main plot in each book they are there. A.) the killer in season one. B.) going to dallas to save the missing sheriff and the maenad. However, there are new characters and characters that died int he books, but survived on the show. I think a lot of this has to do with the fact that the boeken are told in first person perspective. A toon that just followed Sookie would get a little boring after a while, also i think they are really trying to build a fan base of the enire cast instead of just Sookie. Also, they are taking liberties with the importance of plots, like the decreased the importance of the trip to Dallas and increased the importace of the Maenad (who was a minor plot in the books). globaal, algemene they are doing a good job.
They have only changed a couple of things like: lafayette was ment to die in the 2nd season but they kept him going.They have tryed to keep to the boeken so its all good :) xx
I have found with the boeken they are somewhat different from the toon to keep it interesting enough to enjoy both. Though some story lines and names will be the same some people that are in the boeken will not be in the toon and vice versa. I say I enjoy both!