Vampire+diaries

The Awakening is the first of four novels in L.J. Smith’s popular Vampire Diaries series. Written for the Young Adult market and originally published in the early 1990’s, The Vampire Diaries were re-released by HarperTeen in 2007 then revised in in 2009. The Awakening gets the series off to a great start. The opening pages of the book see Elena, the protagonist of this story, returning home from her European vacation at the start of a new school year. Even from the first chapter there is a feeling of hidden menace running through the narrative although Elena shakes off any dark feelings as she returns to school and resumes her rightful place at the top of the school’s social hierarchy. This year the school has a new student, the mysterious Stefan, transferred from Italy and looking good in his designer Italian threads. Driving a Porsche and having a whole man of mystery vibe going on he proves to be irresistible to Elena, although he is aloof and standoffish and he repeatedly spurns her attentions. Determined to have him at any cost, Elena plots and plans with her girlfriend clique ways to obtain the elusive Stefan. While she is busy plotting a number of mysterious attacks occur in Fell’s Church increasing the sense of menace in the story. Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight and The Awakening are very simliar with a girl meeting a vampire boy is instantly attracted and can’t work out why he doesn't seem to like her even the tiniest bit. I think The Awakening lacks the romance thatTwilight has. In fact Elena’s character is probably the greatest barrier to enjoyment of The Awakening because she is just so hard to connect with. A privileged and popular girl, the beautiful Homecoming Queen and centre of everyone’s attention, she is vain and self-centred. She’s more of a Scarlett O’Hara than a Bella Swan any day of the week. Upon seeing Stefan, who appeared not to be interested in her, she decided that she had to have him - even on the pain of death. It is her sense of entitlement, that he should be lucky to have the opportunity to worship her, which sounds really selfish to me. Still this is the first of four novels exploring the deadly love triangle that occurs between Elena, Stefan and Damon, Stefan’s black sheep vampire brother. The Awakening ends on a cliff hanger and events leading up to the end of the story suggest that Elena may find that she doesn’t always gets everything she wants even if she thinks she is thinks she should get. For me the character I like the most is Damon in both the book and in the brand new television series, because he is more mysterious and exciting than Stefen is. Stefen is more the broody kind and reminds me too much of Angel off Buffy the Vampire Slayer (I never liked him!) so that is probably why I dont like Stefen much. The book is so completely different to the T.v series, but I still enjoyed it. I give it a rating of 4/5