Vampire Academy Book Review (Well, kind of)

Hey! Remember me? Yeah, that's right, it's your favorite neglectful blog writer, Eve. My excuse this time is, um- gimme a second to think of one- it's summer! Give me a break, people! Just kidding. I have a real treat for you *says sarcastically* a book review! I hope you guys like them, because I like writing them so, well, I guess it doesn't matter ;). Well, anyway, I'm going to the mall and *hopefully* getting my second ear piercing tomorrow, and I'm excited about that, so I thought you guys should know. And I am heading to FL on the 24th of July and coming back on the 7th of August, and then band camp starts after that, I'm not sure what day. But I'm going to be pretty busy, especially as I'm transferring to a public high school, which is kinda scary but also exciting! Enough about me, let's talk vampires!

Vampire Academy, by Richelle Mead.

"ONLY A TRUE BEST FRIEND CAN PROTECT YOU FROM YOUR IMMORTAL ENEMIES...

Lissa Dragomir is a Moroi princess: a mortal vampire with a rare gift for harnessing the earth's magic. She must be protected at all times from Strigoi; the fiercest vampires - the ones who never die. The powerful blend of human and vampire blood that flows through Rose Hathaway, Lissa's best friend, makes her a dhampir. Rose is dedicated to a dangerous life of protecting Lissa from the Strigoi, who are hell-bent on making Lissa one of them.

After two years of freedom, Rose and Lissa are caught and dragged back to St. Vladimir's Academy, a school for vampire royalty and their guardians-to-be, hidden in the deep forests of Montana. But inside the iron gates, life is even more fraught with danger... and the Strigoi are always close by.

Rose and Lissa must navigate their dangerous world, confront the temptations of forbidden love, and never once let their guard down, lest the evil undead make Lissa one of them forever..." - goodreads.com summary


So- I read this a while ago, and then read the second book yesterday (darn that stupid caps lock button! Does anyone actually use it?!), so I'm a little rusty on the plot of the first book.

I, admittedly, have read Twilight. Yes, *cringes* I read Twilight and I didn't totally hate it. If you have read Twilight and you hate it, I understand. But if you haven't actually read it and you hate it because everyone else does, give it a chance.

Having said that, this differs from that Twilight-y vampire stereotype. The characters in this book are so well written, it's hard to hate them, from a writer's point of view. From a reader's POV, eh. Rose herself is a total badass. Lissa is so different, so opposite, it's hilarious.

The "summary" above doesn't really do the book justice. The Strigoi (bad vampires, sort of) aren't really trying to make Lissa one of them. They're trying to use her magic, spirit, which makes Lissa depressed. Not the Strigoi, the spirit magic itself. And Lissa cuts herself. Mead sort of "skirts" around that issue, which is a good and a bad thing. If she didn't skirt around it, and put more depth into those scenes, the book could turn into a much darker story. So, I feel like it was a good thing. But because she didn't, Lissa has character depth, but she's sort of, well, perfect. And not saying she is, because I know she has her intense problems *cough Christian cough.* And one more reason that it doesn't do the book justice, relating to Rose this time, because Lissa has plenty of forbidden romance, is that Rose does not have a forbidden romance with her teacher/personal trainer, Dimitri. It was very similar to Tris/Tobias (pronounced Tō-bye-as, no Tō-bee-as) in Divergent. I feel like books make the age of two people in a relationship matter more than it does in real life. Because as long as long as it isn't a 15 year old dating a 30 year old, or something along those lines, it's not a big leap (in books that is, not in real life. I've never had a boyfriend, I don't know, okay?! *curls up in a ball and dies*). NEVER TAKE MY DATING ADVICE!! Stupid caps lock button. I'm a little stressed out and all over the place, can you tell? This isn't gonna be a very good book review. Okay? Okay.

Speaking of John Green and his book-to-movie adaptations, Paper Towns the movie is coming out soon, and I'm gonna see it the day it comes out, because, haha, I fly to FL the day it comes out, so I actually get to see it with my dad! I promise you I will have a kick-butt movie review in the works for you.

Writing update- I got to 40K words on my NANOWRIMO (that is meant to be capitalized!) fantasy novel, and that is the size of a real life novel, so I wrote a novel! AH!

And- in other exciting news about me/my life- I got my second ear piercing! My first ones weren't closed up or anything- they're still open and I wear earrings in them and everything- I just wanted another piercing and I think it looks great! I got to my "goal weight," which is still extremely overweight but whatever. I also joined marching band at my new school! Yay! Okay, bye.

xoxo,

Eve