Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead

Vampire academy is set in a modern society, however there are vampires. There are schools that vampires and damphirs (half vampire half human) can attend. They run on a night schedule because vampires are weak in the sun. They keep this world of theirs secret from humans. The novel follows the story of Rose Hathaway and her best friend Lisa Dragomir. The two run off from the schools they feared that Lisa was in danger. The story begins when the people at the school find rose and Lisa and bring them back. The first book is mainly about adjusting to being back at vampire academy and dealing with the pressures of high school. They are typical teenagers with all the problems that most teenagers face such as fitting in, bullies. The book shows how the girls deal with their return as most of the school are very unwelcoming. It also starts to show you the secrets behind why Lisa Dragomir is so important and about rose and her destiny.

The book is fun; rose is a very bold witty girl who is very tough and doesn’t mind telling people what she thinks and loves to get into fights. She is the drama of the book which keeps you interested. Richelle Mead made the book entertaining through character rose. Lisa is quiet and shy. Through the books you get to see both characters grow and develop it is great how Mead has worked her characters.

There are many fights in this series, personal ones that the girls fight at school, fights against the striogi who are bad vampires, and fights in court for Lisa drogamirs rights as one of the heirs to the throne.

Mead is a good writer it seems that she writes for a younger audience. It is an easy read, there isn’t a very high vocabulary used through the book.  However it is structured well and it all flows, there isn’t many awkward phrases. The writing style could be worked on a bit more as it is a bit weak compared to other authors. However I still enjoyed reading it, it was a light and fun read.

It is full of teenage drama and forbidden love along with dangerous threats trying to kill them and scheming royals. It has everything a teenage drama fantasy book needs.

The series is fairly long, but Mead manages to keep the story alive the whole time and keeps it interesting she doesn’t lose the story. Reading through the whole series I never lost interest. I liked the lightness of the book it was enjoyable to read, it was quite amusing and I do suggest it to people.

They have also made the first book into a movie; however it is a pretty poor movie. Think of twilight same situation they had a good book and did not put enough in the movie, the acting was okay, they made it too much teenage drama and I do not believe the transfer from book to movie worked with this book. However if you read the book I do suggest watching it, it does make you laugh to watch the attempt.  I defiantly recommend reading the book first as they left parts out in the movie and the book tells the better story and you can understand it now.