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A review by nedjemet
Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead
3.0
If you’re gonna give this one a chance, then you better be prepared for teenagers at their absolute worst.
Vampire Academy is a story set at a boarding school for vampiric teenagers (Moroi) and their slightly-more-than-human bodyguards (Dhampirs). Don’t let the supernatural elements fool you, though. These aren’t the terrifying immortal creatures that inhabit Stoker’s Dracula. No, the Moroi are strikingly human in the physiology. They age like us and are born through natural means, not supernatural blood-draws. The only thing that really sets them apart is an aptitude for elemental magic which sounds neat, but is largely unaddressed in this book.
That’s my whole problem, actually. This book is brimming to the gills with neat ideas, but they’re all largely unaddressed outside of the occasional semi-awkward info-dump. Instead of explaining how the vampire world works, we’re thrown into teenage drama after teenage drama that wouldn’t feel out of place in movies like Mean Girls or Easy A. You know, the type of drama that makes you roll your eyes for how silly it is, but that’s interesting enough to keep you reading as long as you like – or hate – the characters.
Personally, I enjoyed Rose, our leading lady. She’s quick to anger and often thinks with her heart instead of her head, but she’s a true friend with impressive loyalty to her Moroi bff, Lissa. A loyalty that sometime leads her to make horrific choices, but their ones that you can understand given that she’s 17. The only thing that I could have done without was her crushing on a man seven years her senior. I know, I know, it’s fiction and it’s not exactly uncommon for teenagers to get crushes on their teachers, but I just can’t ship a 17-year-old with a 24-year-old.
Character drama aside, it’s worth mentioning that there’s also a mystery of sorts going on and that it is, technically, the main plot. However, it’s treated as more of a sub-plot when it comes to what the story focus on and nothing major happen with it until you’re well into the book which is another issue for me. I like my plots well-developed and this one sort-of comes out of nowhere. That’s not to say that I didn’t buy it, I do to a large extent, but a better set-up would have done wonders to remove the questions I still have.
To wrap us, Vampire Academy was an okay introduction to the world and I’m interested enough to keep going, but I wouldn’t recommend it just yet. Book one was a little too plot-light and didn’t do enough world building for me to fall in love and the characters where fine, but nothing extra-special, so we’ll see how I feel after book two. If it manages to make a fan of me, I’ll be sure to update this review and let you know.
Vampire Academy is a story set at a boarding school for vampiric teenagers (Moroi) and their slightly-more-than-human bodyguards (Dhampirs). Don’t let the supernatural elements fool you, though. These aren’t the terrifying immortal creatures that inhabit Stoker’s Dracula. No, the Moroi are strikingly human in the physiology. They age like us and are born through natural means, not supernatural blood-draws. The only thing that really sets them apart is an aptitude for elemental magic which sounds neat, but is largely unaddressed in this book.
That’s my whole problem, actually. This book is brimming to the gills with neat ideas, but they’re all largely unaddressed outside of the occasional semi-awkward info-dump. Instead of explaining how the vampire world works, we’re thrown into teenage drama after teenage drama that wouldn’t feel out of place in movies like Mean Girls or Easy A. You know, the type of drama that makes you roll your eyes for how silly it is, but that’s interesting enough to keep you reading as long as you like – or hate – the characters.
Personally, I enjoyed Rose, our leading lady. She’s quick to anger and often thinks with her heart instead of her head, but she’s a true friend with impressive loyalty to her Moroi bff, Lissa. A loyalty that sometime leads her to make horrific choices, but their ones that you can understand given that she’s 17. The only thing that I could have done without was her crushing on a man seven years her senior. I know, I know, it’s fiction and it’s not exactly uncommon for teenagers to get crushes on their teachers, but I just can’t ship a 17-year-old with a 24-year-old.
Character drama aside, it’s worth mentioning that there’s also a mystery of sorts going on and that it is, technically, the main plot. However, it’s treated as more of a sub-plot when it comes to what the story focus on and nothing major happen with it until you’re well into the book which is another issue for me. I like my plots well-developed and this one sort-of comes out of nowhere. That’s not to say that I didn’t buy it, I do to a large extent, but a better set-up would have done wonders to remove the questions I still have.
To wrap us, Vampire Academy was an okay introduction to the world and I’m interested enough to keep going, but I wouldn’t recommend it just yet. Book one was a little too plot-light and didn’t do enough world building for me to fall in love and the characters where fine, but nothing extra-special, so we’ll see how I feel after book two. If it manages to make a fan of me, I’ll be sure to update this review and let you know.