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A review by juushika
Midnight by L.J. Smith
2.0
Across two dimensions, Elena et al. make their final push to save Fell's Church. I picked up this series because of the Jenny Nicholson video about the show, but specifically because of the quote she pulls from the fanwiki about Bonnie and Damon's relationship. I'm delighted that the series lives up to the conflicted, garbled poetry of that synopsis. The relationships are, as ever, a bombastic mess; and there's canonical proto-polyamory in this book. Amazing. Not good, I mean, obviously; and subject always to revision as Smith chases her id-of-the book.
The mess and bombast don't translated well outside the romances, and this is poorly paced and full of unbelievable characterization, and I just don't care about the Dark Dimension or the antagonists of this arc (blame that on the awkward Japanophilia). So far, only the first three Vampire Diaries books have actually been worth reading. But the rest are worth hearing in summary. That renders the madness of the plot at least entertaining; and, excised from plot, there's so much potential and intrigue and intensity in the relationships. An "indescribable, electrifying, and magnetic connection." Bonnie is Damon's weak spot, his only tenderness, in an antihero forming one leg of an even messier love triangle-turned-complex-polygon! There's a lot of blood drinking and psychic bonding! Don't you want to read that? I mean, you really shouldn't; but don't you want to?
The mess and bombast don't translated well outside the romances, and this is poorly paced and full of unbelievable characterization, and I just don't care about the Dark Dimension or the antagonists of this arc (blame that on the awkward Japanophilia). So far, only the first three Vampire Diaries books have actually been worth reading. But the rest are worth hearing in summary. That renders the madness of the plot at least entertaining; and, excised from plot, there's so much potential and intrigue and intensity in the relationships. An "indescribable, electrifying, and magnetic connection." Bonnie is Damon's weak spot, his only tenderness, in an antihero forming one leg of an even messier love triangle-turned-complex-polygon! There's a lot of blood drinking and psychic bonding! Don't you want to read that? I mean, you really shouldn't; but don't you want to?