Adventures in Life and Writing

There are five total Vampire Diaries novels with two more yet to be published.  This omnibus contains the first two in the series.  They were originally published in 1991 and have since been republished many times and most recently in 2007 in the omnibus edition.

Since these were originally published as two separate stories, I am treating them in that manner as best I can.

The Awakening
Synopsis: Elena is the queen of her high school. All the girls want to be her and all the guys want to be with her. When school starts, it turns out there is a new boy in school. Not only is Stefan new, but he’s an Italian wearing designer clothes and is very mysterious. Elena wants him and with the help of her friends she is determined that he will be hers. Once Elena and Stefan are together, she tries to unravel the mystery that surrounds him and she soon meets Stefan’s brother, Damon. All the while strange things are happening around town and people are getting attacked.

Review: It is pretty clear that L.J. Smith is a good writer. She uses great descriptions and her characters are definitely well developed and you learn a lot about who they are through her writing. The main downfall of this first novel is that within the last few chapters, you jump from a steady jog to a sprint to the finish. So much happens in those last few chapters that you have a hard time reconciling the actions and words of the characters with who you’ve come to know them to be. And the saving grace of the massive cliffhanger ending is that this novel is now published as part of an omnibus so you can quickly move to the next part of the story.

The Struggle

Synopsis: Stefan and Damon fight over Elena. It is a fight continued from when they were still normal humans during the renaissance. Elena not only looks just like Katherine, the girl who killed herself because she could not choose between them, but she is also attracted to both Stefan and Damon. This is a battle to see who will be triumphant.

Review: The pacing in this novel is much, much better. It reminds me a lot of the pace of Stephanie Meyer but with better quality writing. That isn’t to say that L.J. Smith doesn’t have lines that make me groan or roll my eyes, because she does, but I find that she uses the vampire cliche lines a lot less. But I still can’t help but laugh over these two sentences: “Then he moved from one to another, drinking deep and throwing them away. It was like popping tops on a six-pack.” It also appears that Smith has a deep love for cliffhangers, so if you aren’t much for cliffhangers, you might want to make sure you grab the next omnibus set in the series.

Similar Reads: There is an obvious correlation between Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight Saga and The Vampire Diaries. If you like Stephanie Meyer’s books, you’ll probably like L.J. Smith’s, though you may not necessarily like Meyer if you like Smith. And, it is always good to keep in mind that Smith wrote her books over a decade before Meyer if you are reading Smith after reading Meyer.

Parting Thoughts: These two novels are overall well written and definitely worth reading, especially if you dig the Vampire Genre.

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This entry was posted by Bria_Teragram on Sunday, April 5th, 2009 at 1:02 am and is filed under Book Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.