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Book Review of The Vampire Diaries, Vol 1: The Awakening / The Struggle

The Vampire Diaries, Vol 1: The Awakening / The Struggle
yisel avatar reviewed on + 6 more book reviews


I bought this book when I heard about the CW series because I was planning to watch it and books are usually better than movies, tv series, etc....so far, for me, this is one of the exceptions of the rule because I'm liking the TV series better.

***Spoilers Ahead***

The story is dark, but that is not what I don't like about it...the main characters are the ones I have problem with. This is the story about a love triangle between a very popular high school girl and two very old vampire brothers. Elena is extremely beautiful, an Ice Princess, she is selfish, vain and think the world revolves around her...ok, she gets more mature as the story progresses but even after that I don't like her. Stefan and Damon are brothers, both very old vampires who lived as humans during the Italian Renaissance...both made vampires by Katherine a beautiful young lady that falls in love with both of them and provokes a war between the brothers...she ends up committing suicide in an attempt to bring peace between the brothers and that only make things worse. They have hated each other since then and are mortal enemies.

Stefan refuses his nature and hunts animals what makes him weak...Damon on the other hand is ok with his life and kills and use humans without mercy. Stefan comes to this little town of Fells Church in an attempt to have a normal life and finds out that Elena looks a lot like Katherine and tries to avoid her, and Elena wants to have the new guy for her at any cost. Damon finds out about Elena and installs himself in town trying to have her too and reviving his rivalry with his brother.

My problem with Stefan is that even though he knows what his brother is capable of and being himself and old an experience vampire, acts like the high school boy he's representing. He doesn't do what is necessary to protect Elena, he says that he would leave if he knew that Damon would leave her in peace, but since that is not going to happen he stays to protects her, only that he fails big doing that and in a way is Elena the one who is protecting him. Damon is the one that is consistent with his personality and apparently the only one who knows what he's doing even though he's the bad guy is the one I like the most.

In general I think that there are many flaws in the story. For example, they wear rings that Katherine gave them so they can walk during the day. The stones of the rings work the magic but it is never explained why those stones are special, who made those rings...and if every vampire uses that kind of jewel to be protected from the sunlight. They also have Powers that are stronger when they drink human blood...some of them are mentioned but it is kind of a vague thing because you never know the real extent of those powers and sometime they work and sometime they don't. The story is told from a third person point of view in a way that you always feel like an spectator and not really connected to it...at a point I felt like I didn't really care about what happened to the characters.

So in conclusion, I can tell the story is good...that overall I enjoyed it but it is not that great book that makes you forget the world and you can't get enough of it.