Rating: 3
I had actually never heard of this book, but was given a copy by a friend recently, and on my long train journey home, I found it a very easy read. The Vampire Diaries is a quartet of books about a high school girl named Elena, who falls for the mysterious new boy at school, who turns out to be something far from human. The Awakening and The Struggle are the first two volumes in this series, and it is good that they were combined, as separately, they would have felt far too short.
As you can probably imagine, The Vampire Diaries is very reminiscent of Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series. Superficially that is. L.J. Smith does not have the quality of writing or storytelling that Meyer does, and thus these books are not as gripping and are far more predictable. Instead of a family of vampires, we have two brothers, who have a desperate hatred for each other over the death of their beloved centuries ago. I did not find myself becoming very involoved in the story, and found it difficult to empathise with Elena or her friends, as I didn't really like them enough. Perhaps more interesting though is that even the "good" vampire feeds on humans when he is desperate, which added another depth to the story.
Although not as enjoyable as the Twilight series, this was still an entertaining read, though perhaps more for teenagers! I doubt I'll be buying the next one, but may pick it up at the library if I fancy a quick read.
Friday, October 24, 2008
The Vampire Diaries: The Awakening and The Struggle - L.J.Smith
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4 comments:
Ah, I wondered when I'd be seeing these. I loved these books when I was in high school. In fact, I felt fairly certain as I was reading the Twilight series that Meyer had been a Smith fan in her teen years. No, they're not especially deep and yes, the characters are all very superficial, but I loved those vampire brothers (way more than I ever liked Edward). And though I loved The Vampire Diaries, I thought Smith's stories got better as she practiced (The Forbidden Game trilogy was my favorite). That said, I know they are something that belong to my teen years--trying to reread them now would drive me nuts. (And I know, 'cause a few years ago, I tried.)
I LOVED these books when I was young! :)
In fact, I owe my love of vampires to them. I am going to try to reread them, even though I probably won't enjoy them as much...
Like Jena, I also loved The Forbidden Game. Julien and his eyes. ;)
Oh yeah! These originally came out in the 90s and I was CRAZY about them as a pre-teen/teen. I've re-read them countless times, so I was really glad to see them re-released. And to echo Jena and Amy, I loooved Forbidden Game!
I had no idea how popular these books were in the States, I had never even heard of them! I feel the same way about books that I read when I was younger. Perhaps thats why these books have not really drawn me in.
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