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icequeen37's review against another edition
5.0
This review may contain spoilers to the book and television series, so if you haven't read the first four book series installments and haven't seen the 5 seasons of TVD and season 1 of The Originals, you should maybe skip it :)
I started reading this series because a) I love all things vampire (continually re-watching Buffy since elementary school), b) I absolutely adore the TV series, and c) my baby bro gave me "The Awakening" for my birthday. I believe L.J. Smith is a fine author and I really look forward to reading her other series, especially "The Secret Circle". Before I started reading "The Vampire Diaries", I had decided to distance myself from the TV show, but who was I kidding, that would have been impossible, since I'd seen all the seasons at least three times and I pretty much remembered everything that had ever happened there :)))
Review of "Dark Reunion":
I'll start with what I didn't like about this book. First, Bonnie's POV. I freaking hate Bonnie, both McCullough and Bennett! She is a well written character, but I strongly dislike her personality and the whole story could have maybe had more depth to it if it wasn't for Bonnie's immature thoughts and observations. The whole journal writing aspect only accentuated this for me. I kinda like my vampire diaries to belong to Elena or Stefan. This addition of Bonnie's felt a bit unnecessary.
Second, the storyline is sometimes incomplete and inconsistent, and this is true for all four books. Elena goes from being crazy about Stefan in "The Awakening", then at the end of "The Struggle" and the beginning of "The Fury" to suddenly loving Damon (when did that happen? is there a switch inside Elena, or are those only reserved for vampires' humanity?), to finally adoring Stefan again in this book. This kind of stuff happens in the show as well, but there we get to see the development of these emotions for Elena. Also, where does Klaus come from, if Katherine said in "The Fury" how she had killed him in, like, the 16th or 17th century?! There isn't any notion of how he had maybe survived a possible attack by Katherine or anything. What bothered me the most though, was the way Elena came back to life at the end of this book. HOW DID THAT HAPPEN?? It felt like they all wanted it very badly, and so she just appeared alive again. That was a little disappointing.
Now on to what I did like about "Dark Reunion". My absolute favorite thing is the descriptions, whether of people, places or things. The author used such beautiful language in depicting, for example, the woods and rivers of Fell's Church, that I felt like I was actually there! Hats off to L.J.! Descriptions of people are very detailed and precise, which I liked oh so much, since imagination is the key when reading. If you don't have a lot to go on, well then, what's the point?
Also, I liked all these powers vampires possess. We saw Damon kind of "controlling" that crow in season 1 of the show, but they never explained how he did what he did. Here, we have vampires transforming into different animals, controlling the weather and imprinting thoughts into humans' heads (or rather, "compelling" them, if you wish).
I reeeeeally loved that we got to see Klaus a bit more in this book, since I find him the most complex character on the show, as well as my absolute favorite one ;) The scene where all those soldiers rose from their graves to defeat him kinda reminded me of the scene in The Originals, where the vampires lead by Marcel unsuccessfully tried to "contain" Klaus in the Mikaelsons' compound. Me like :)
All in all, I gave a five-star review to each of these first four books, because I did actually love them, even if there were certain aspects I disliked. For me, that's a standard occurrence in reading. Again, L.J. Smith is definitely a gifted author and I would recommend reading this series, whether you've seen the TV show or not.
I started reading this series because a) I love all things vampire (continually re-watching Buffy since elementary school), b) I absolutely adore the TV series, and c) my baby bro gave me "The Awakening" for my birthday. I believe L.J. Smith is a fine author and I really look forward to reading her other series, especially "The Secret Circle". Before I started reading "The Vampire Diaries", I had decided to distance myself from the TV show, but who was I kidding, that would have been impossible, since I'd seen all the seasons at least three times and I pretty much remembered everything that had ever happened there :)))
Review of "Dark Reunion":
I'll start with what I didn't like about this book. First, Bonnie's POV. I freaking hate Bonnie, both McCullough and Bennett! She is a well written character, but I strongly dislike her personality and the whole story could have maybe had more depth to it if it wasn't for Bonnie's immature thoughts and observations. The whole journal writing aspect only accentuated this for me. I kinda like my vampire diaries to belong to Elena or Stefan. This addition of Bonnie's felt a bit unnecessary.
Second, the storyline is sometimes incomplete and inconsistent, and this is true for all four books. Elena goes from being crazy about Stefan in "The Awakening", then at the end of "The Struggle" and the beginning of "The Fury" to suddenly loving Damon (when did that happen? is there a switch inside Elena, or are those only reserved for vampires' humanity?), to finally adoring Stefan again in this book. This kind of stuff happens in the show as well, but there we get to see the development of these emotions for Elena. Also, where does Klaus come from, if Katherine said in "The Fury" how she had killed him in, like, the 16th or 17th century?! There isn't any notion of how he had maybe survived a possible attack by Katherine or anything. What bothered me the most though, was the way Elena came back to life at the end of this book. HOW DID THAT HAPPEN?? It felt like they all wanted it very badly, and so she just appeared alive again. That was a little disappointing.
Now on to what I did like about "Dark Reunion". My absolute favorite thing is the descriptions, whether of people, places or things. The author used such beautiful language in depicting, for example, the woods and rivers of Fell's Church, that I felt like I was actually there! Hats off to L.J.! Descriptions of people are very detailed and precise, which I liked oh so much, since imagination is the key when reading. If you don't have a lot to go on, well then, what's the point?
Also, I liked all these powers vampires possess. We saw Damon kind of "controlling" that crow in season 1 of the show, but they never explained how he did what he did. Here, we have vampires transforming into different animals, controlling the weather and imprinting thoughts into humans' heads (or rather, "compelling" them, if you wish).
I reeeeeally loved that we got to see Klaus a bit more in this book, since I find him the most complex character on the show, as well as my absolute favorite one ;) The scene where all those soldiers rose from their graves to defeat him kinda reminded me of the scene in The Originals, where the vampires lead by Marcel unsuccessfully tried to "contain" Klaus in the Mikaelsons' compound. Me like :)
All in all, I gave a five-star review to each of these first four books, because I did actually love them, even if there were certain aspects I disliked. For me, that's a standard occurrence in reading. Again, L.J. Smith is definitely a gifted author and I would recommend reading this series, whether you've seen the TV show or not.
chrystalo's review against another edition
1.0
Hahahahaha, finally I've finished! I have gotten through the horrible change in main female protagonist that I was even less interested in that I was the original main female protagonist (which is saying a lot). And then I finish the book only to get the sense that it's really just setting up another series. Which is was. Very obviously. And how it did so is just such a cop out that I can't even believe it was allowed. I simply cannot get over the fact that I actually love this TV show, because I have hated every single second of this book series. I'm glad I finished this round, but I'm going to need some time and some alcohol if I ever decide to get to the remaining Vampire Diaries spin-off novels that exist (which is a shame in and of itself). Well, I'm four books closer to my goodreads goal, and that's about all I can celebrate for this.
hneite's review against another edition
dark
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.25
isabella1018's review
5.0
This is more of a 4.75 but still amazing. I really enjoyed this finale. I loved how it all played out and how all the characters came together. Even Damon. I love these characters and these relationships.
alexschmidt34's review
3.0
This book is shockingly readable… like I read the first three and was like this series is just kind of a joke of dramatic emotions, but then Elena dies and suddenly the whole premise of the books works. Maybe Bonnie is just a much better main character. But yeah without Elena in the center this was a fun paranormal mystery with a gang of teenagers and vampires solving crime. I dare say it was fun and enjoyable. And I am just surprised by that because it doesn’t match the other three books at all. But I guess it’s nice the series can actually end well.
brunettegeekgirl's review against another edition
5.0
What I loved:
- Can the plot get any better? It’s perfect.
- The writing is really cool.
- The characters are awesome.
- The end!!! Finally!! T_T <3.
What I hated:
Nothing.
- Can the plot get any better? It’s perfect.
- The writing is really cool.
- The characters are awesome.
- The end!!! Finally!! T_T <3.
What I hated:
Nothing.