Book Review - Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead

Synopsis:  St. Vladimir’s Academy isn’t just any boarding school—it’s a hidden place where vampires are educated in the ways of magic and half-human teens train to protect them. Rose Hathaway is a Dhampir, a bodyguard for her best friend Lissa, a Moroi Vampire Princess. They’ve been on the run, but now they’re being dragged back to St. Vladimir’s—the very place where they’re most in danger. . . .

Rose and Lissa become enmeshed in forbidden romance, the Academy’s ruthless social scene, and unspeakable nighttime rituals. But they must be careful lest the Strigoi—the world’s fiercest and most dangerous vampires—make Lissa one of them forever.

First Line:  "I felt her fear before I heard her screams."

Random Quote:  "And then, suddenly he was there, charging down the hallway like Death in a cowboy duster."

Review:  I am hugely critical of the recent spate of young adult books with vampires who sparkle and go to freakin' high school. Voluntarily. Right. I guess I'm a vampire purist.

Nosferatu - Image via Wikipedia

I've said it before and I'll say it again: Vampires are predators - they don't want to hang out with, have sex with, or fraternize a whole lot with the prey. Yeah, some of them hang out with humans, but really - some of us hang out with cows, but not too many of us, right? I'm also guessing that the number of humans with cow girlfriends or boyfriends is probably pretty low - at least I hope so. Yeah, we might have cute cow cookie jars, but mostly we're eating steaks and burgers and wondering whether or not to have the grilled onions.

Richelle Mead gets credit for at least creating an interesting set of vampires based on actual legend (Romanian) - the Strigoi and Moiroi - throwing in her own creation - the Dhampir. The Strigoi are evil killing machines who have traded their souls for immortality; they prey on the Moroi, elemental magic-wielding vampire royalty who are fairly weak as vampires go and don't kill when they feed (because to do so would turn them into evil killing Strigoi). Moroi are protected by Dhampirs, half-human/half-vampire hybrids who, much like Blade, have some strengths and weaknesses from both sides of their genetics.

Vampire Academy tells the story of Princess Lissa (yes, Princess), Moroi royalty and all-around nice girl and her Dhampir guardian, Rose. At the beginning of the book they are being returned to high school after two years on the run following some unspecified set of events. This is where the weaknesses of the book come in - this pivotal event that sets up the story is mentioned in the first few pages and then abandoned until about 200 or so pages in at which point it's briefly explicated right before it becomes pivotal again. Ms. Read also has a bad habit of interrupting her story to provide you with page after page of exposition; in this way she reminds me of a D&D dungeonmaster who really needs to show off his lore - enough already. I much prefer writers who dump me into the middle of their world and trust me to figure it out.

I also really didn't like the two main characters - they're both the kind of cliquey mean rich girls I want to run away from as fast as I can. The minor characters aren't a lot better - a mix of various teenage cliches rattling around in a vampire boarding school in Montana. Lastly the whole high school thing is really annoying. It's hard for me to picture vampires in a Gossip Girl setting (much less one in Montana).

On a positive note these vampires are mean and predatory, they're just not more mean or predatory than your average adolescent. I was really hoping this would be the book to get me over my prejudice against these books, but it just wasn't. At least Rose and Lissa weren't sparkly.

Reading Challenges:  Take Another Chance Challenge (Break a Prejudice), 2010 100+ Reading Challenge, 2010 Support Your Local Library Reading Challenge