Sunday, December 4, 2011

Two Vampires for the Price of One


Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead

Mead, R. (2007). Vampire academy. New York: Penguin Young Readers Group.




On the recommendation of a teenage girl, I read Richelle Mead’s Vampire Academy, the first in the Vampire Academy series.  In the book’s defense, I’m not sure I was as objective as I should have been, because I’m feeling overwhelmed with all the vampire books, movies and television shows that have been riding on the coattails of Twilight.

Given the abundance of imitators, each one has had to come up with a different twist to sell itself.  So, Vampire Academy gives you not one, but two, species of vampires for your book-buying dollar.  The Strigoi are the traditional bad-guy vampires in the black hats who never die and feed on innocent victims, while the Moroi are the good-guy vampires in the white hats who have magical powers and an almost Native American - style mystical bond with the earth.  A Moroi princess and her BFF vampire bodyguard go to St. Vladimir’s Vampire Academy, which is like Hogwarts for the Children of the Night.  There, they are just two crazy teenagers with fangs who have all same kinds of problems as any other adolescent girls, like finding love, growing up, and not going to the prom with a bad-guy Strigoi vampire.

I know a writer wants to stake their reputation on a book that will be such a best seller so they can laugh all the way to the blood bank; but I thought Vampire Academy really sucks.  Bela Lugosi would be turning over in his grave if he didn’t have a stake in his heart.

Google Image: grippedintobooks.blogspot.com
 
 

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