Living the Fictional Dream

I must admit that I avoided Richelle Mead’s Y/A series for a while. I think it was the name — Vampire Academy. It sounded so… silly. Not the concept. The Casts pull of the concept of a high school for vampires in their House of Night series for a very intriguing series. But the name Vampire Academy just sounded so lame that I didn’t even want to pick the book off the shelf for the longest time. But, earlier this week, I finally did and bought the first two books in the series — Vampire Academy and Frostbite — and I can say with all honesty that they were very good.

It’s getting hard to walk through the Y/A section of any bookstore these days without running into a new series of what I lovingly call Y/A vampire crack. Vampires have always been popular characters, but these days they are springing off the shelves in a million new incarnations. A sign of the popularity of the Twilight series, perhaps?

Either way, now you can read about vampires at the House of Night; St. Vladimir’s Vampire Academy; in Forks, Washington; in NYC in Melissa de la Cruz’s Blue Bloods series; in Scott Westerfield’s parasitic Peeps series, and more. They’ve even released L.J. Smith’s Vampire Diaries series in a posh new cover — that series was all the rage when I was actually a teen — it was one of the few good alternatives to Christopher Pike. I’ve even seen a Y/A vampire book with a beach and a setting sun on the cover, of all things — haven’t checked that one out yet.

As far as this type of series goes, despite the silly title, Vampire Academy is one of the better ones. It has an interesting interpretation of vampire life. In this ‘verse, there are living vampires, Moroi, who need a small amount of blood and regular food, who are mortal, and who have enhanced sense and magic powers; there are vampire/human hybrids, the dhampir, who have the best of both human and Moroi powers — strength, stamina, ability to be in the sunlight, no need for blood, fighting skills. but no magic; and there are the Strigoi — dead/immortal vampires that kill humans, Moroi, and humans alike, drink only blood, and are super strong and fast.

The main character is Rose, a dhampir, who is bound by a mental link (rare among Moroi and their dhampir guardians) to her best friend, Lissa, a Moroi. They left the school and lived on their own for two years when Lissa was in trouble, but book one of the series begins when the school’s guardians finally find them and bring them home.

These books are an interesting mix of high school life — snobby girls, clique politics, mean teachers, and crushes — and the adult side of vampire life — political struggles, ostracism, and family — and Rose and Lissa’s attempts to navigate both. And, there is plenty of eye-candy (a.k.a., love interests) for both Rose and Lissa — a staple of any high school Y/A series.

One thing I really appreciate about this series is how each installment ends with closure. A lot of Y/A series these days don’t do that — each novel merely the next chapter of the larger plot, so to speak, instead of having its own plot (in addition to the larger plot of the series) with its own closure.

The first Vampire Academy novel deals with Rose and Lissa’s return to school, what they find there, and resolution of why they had to leave in the first place. The second novel, Frostbite, concerns a new level of attacks by a band of Strigoi, and most of it takes place at a posh ski resort frequented by the wealthy Moroi. The Moroi are definitely the Gossip Girl class of vampires in this ‘verse — especially those in the 12 royal families, of which Lissa is one.

Finally, Rose is a great narrator/main character. So much Y/A and chick lit these days is written in the first person that I’m gaining a better appreciation for it. It’s stil not my favorite POV, but I like it more than I used to. And Rose’s POV is an interesting perspective of her world. She’d has enough time on her own and with Lissa to have a view on that life, but at her heart she is a dhampir guardian, with the strength and loyalty that entails.

Rose is strong and resourceful, and her mental bond with Lissa is both unusual and powerful; however, at least thus far, Rose has not strayed down the Anita Blake/Bella (in Breaking Dawn) Mary Sue/unbelievable powers kind of way. Rose is even more down to earth and natural than super priestess-in-training Zoey Redbird of the House of Night series.

So, overall, I would say if you enjoy some of the proliferation of Y/A vampire novels, this series would be a great one to check out. In my opinion, it surpasses the others I’ve read, except, perhaps, for the first two or three installments of the Twilight series. My personal ranking of the ones I’ve read is:

1. Twilight, Eclipse, and New Moon
2. Vampire Academy
3. House of Night
4. Blue Bloods
5. Breaking Dawn
6. Peeps (this one is last because of the gross parasite angle… the plotting and characters were actually pretty good)

I don’t really feel qualified to add the Vampire Diaries to the list, because I barely remember them. I remember liking the first three pretty well, but that the fourth book was a bit of a let down. But, it’s probably been 15 years since I read them.

I’m definitely looking forward to the next installment the Vampire Academy series, which comes out in November.