Elevrecension: Vampire Academy

Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead
American author Richelle Mead is the creator behind the international #1 bestselling Vampire Academy series. She was born in Michigan, but now lives in Seattle,Washington, where she is working on her next novel. Growing up Richelle always read and had a particular fascination with mythology and folklore. Which is probably where the idea of vampire academy came from.

The book is about Lissa and Rose, two girls enrolled in an academy for moroi vampires and dhampirs. Moroi are royal vampires that can harness the earth's elements and are protected by their guardians (dhampirs). Dhampirs have a powerful mix of human and vampire blood and therefore are much stronger and faster than the moroi. This makes them suitable guardians for moroi.

Lissa is a moroi princess and Rose is her guardian-to-be/best friend. The two girls have totally different personalities, Lissa is the polite one and has a likeable personality while Rose is the more reckless one and has an attitude. You could say that the headmistress and the teachers of the school are not a fan of hers. They usually don’t hide what they think of her like how she’s a bad influence on Lissa. Their displeasure has increased ever since she fled the academy with Lissa and it wasn’t fun for either of the girls to return after two years of freedom. After their return they notice that things aren’t as they were when they left. There’s been a change of power at the academy. Ms. Karp (a teacher Rose knew) no longer works there and someone starts to terrorize Lissa. With Ms.Karp mysteriously gone, Rose questions everything and wonders if she can trust anyone with the secrets she shares with Lissa. Headmistress Kirova, Victor(Lissa’s uncle) and Dimitri(a guardian) only know of the bond Lissa shares with Rose - Rose can read and sense Lissa's feelings and sometimes even sees through Lissas eyes- which was why Rose is not expelled. With Strigoi -blood-sucking, evil vampires who drink to kill- running around the academy, Lissa needs Roses protection more than ever. Rose takes matters into her own hands and tries to figure out what the bond between them means and at the same time continues her education as a guardian.

The books cover is a picture of the actors playing Rose and Lissa in the live-action version of the book. Rose has dark brown hair, dark eyes and is 5’7 with an athletic curvy figure. Lissa has platinum blonde hair with jade green eyes and has a slender build, like every other moroi princess. Both Lissa and Rose are 17 years old and seniors at St. Vladimir’s Academy.

Because of the authors interest in mythology and folklore the books genre is young adult paranormal romance. Paranormal romance focuses on romance and supernatural beings like vampires, ghost and shapeshifters, in this case it's vampires. There is romance in the book, the two girls have someone they want to be with but can’t because others might not find that appropriate.To make it even more like the mythologies the book is set in an old big castle surrounded by trees in Montana far away from the humans. Moroi peacefully coexist among humans but they can’t survive without human blood, so they only use donors.

I chose this book because of the movie, I had the seen it after it came out in 2014 and thought it wasn’t good and wondered if the book was the same. Ever since then I’ve wanted to read the book but haven’t had the time to do it. Because of this book review I had the chance to read the book.

The book and the movie isn't alike. There were great scenes in the book that didn’t make in to the movie, that I think should have. And it felt like things were rushed in the movie. But we’re not here to talk about the movie.

I think the book was good and it's the same as I expected it would be. I liked a lot of the things that happened and most of those things actually send a good message, but they sometimes take it too far. For example when Lissa stood up for herself when Mia terrorized her, it sends a good message, but Lissa took it too far when she decided to do the same things Mia did to her. Except for those actions the book was great. If you look behind all of the vampire stuff the book has a great message, like standing up for your friends when they can’t do it themselves and also standing up for yourself and protect the people around you.

I would recommend this book to teens 14+, because of the language they use and because of other things that are mentioned in the book. They use words such as “ass”, “bitch”, “dick” and “whore” and sex is thought of and discussed frequently in the book. This is the main reason why its not appropriate for younger readers. Except for that I think it’s a great book and I would recommend you read this book. I would rate this book 4⁄5 stars.

By: Hafsa Nur 9H2