Spoilery Book Reviews

Vampire Academy Series by Richelle Mead

Back of the (first) book

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. Her best friend Rose Hathaway is a Dhampir: a guardian whose blood is a powerful blend of vampire and human. Rose's life is dedicated to protecting Lissa from the dangerous Strigoi – the fiercest vampires, who will stop at nothing to make 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. But inside the iron gates, life is even more fraught with danger...and Strigoi are always close by.

My thoughts

This book series took me through so many emotions.

I began by not loving the writing style and being confused at the target age for the story. I now know it's young adult, and I continue to be shocked by what kids are allowed to read. Then I recall at what age I began reading explicit Larry Stylinson smut on Wattpad and decided that Vampire Academy is tame. The writing style meant I wasn't completely in love with the characters until book three. Perhaps the writing improved across the novels. By book three I was also very familiar with Moroi, Dhampir and Strigoi and became deeply invested in understanding the implications of the shadow-kissed bond.

The first three books felt very short to me, compared to my usual reads, which mean they felt fast paced. Book four dragged, as if it suffered from the expectation that each successive novel must be longer than the last one. I really enjoyed the main plot points, searching for Dimitri, being captured and held hostage, but they dragged on slowly. Books five and six were again, successively longer but action packed and worth every word.

Rose and Dimitri. In book one, I wanted to dislike them, because of the age gap. In book two, with more moments between them, I set my morals aside to decide I shipped them. I'm a sucker for pain, so in book three when Dimitri was worse than dead (Strigoi) I loved it. I loved the turmoil I knew this would cause, and similarly enjoyed Rose killing Dimitri (book 4). I wasn't mad when that shock was 'cheapened' by Dimitri not being dead, because he was still Strigoi so plenty more turmoil was destined. Book five I forgot about the ickiness I was supposed to feel with the Rose and Dimitri relationship. Dimitri's response to being saved was completely expected, and I enjoyed the back and forth that with Dimitri given up, Rose fought for him. Then when Rose gave up, Dimitri fought for her. Lissa might pretend to be a main character of the series, but really I felt Dimitri was the shining star, who kept me reading.

For all the back and forth between Rose and Dimitri, Adrian got a raw deal. I'm not sure why he needed to be involved with Rose in that way. Was it to make Rose a morally grey character? That her love for Dimitri makes her a bitch to everyone else? Adrian could have been involved because of his interest in spirit without having to tangle with Rose. I feel bad for him, once we learn he's not a bad guy, just makes poor choices of the available options to him. Adrian deserved better.

A few more comments... the focus on the Moroi being skinny was icky, probably bothered me more than the age gap romance. It is consistently mentioned again and again how enviously thin the Moroi women are, and by contrast the Dhampir that have some semblance of boobs are an illicit outlet for sex for Moroi men. Considering the first book was published in 2008, it feels very of that time, but that doesn't make the concept any less gross. All bodies are beautiful dear readers <3

Seeing scenes from Lissa's POV slowly became more and more convenient, the more space on the page it took up. How Rose happened to tune in during important conversations or events, and had the availability to be presently looking on during the whole event and not interrupted by her own life. I'm not sure how I feel about their bond being severed (cured?) at the end. I really liked the deep but platonic connection between them, a series with a strong focus on the strength of friendship love. The bond being severed isn't the end of their friendship, but I liked the bond and everything it represented for them.

Overall, I loved this book series and definitely recommend a read if you're in the mood for some high school vampire drama. I didn't begin the series firmly in love with it, but each book grew on me a little more, until I was near crying when Dimitri cried. There are a few cringe things I like to brush over, and just acknowledge it as a sign of the times (focus on skinny people, age-gap and student/teacher relationship). After all, this is a work of fiction where anything is possible, even if it definitely should not happen in real life.

TL:DR

Loved the series a little more with every book I read. Vampires, age gap relationship that (spoiler) triumphs at the end. Simplistic YA writing for zippy reading.