Bella: "OOOH THIS IS SOO GOOD" O_O
She was referring the Vampire Academy series.
Ok, I won't bash it up as much as the Fallen series.
Vampire Academy, from memory, was one of the first vampire novels that came out after the success of twilight. I couldn't really be bothered taking note of it, because it looked like the same old stuff.
Firstly, upon reading the plot synopsis, I figured that, despite it's gothic themed cover and titles, it was merely an ordinary fantasy book in disguise. The only thing that made it fit in the circle of trash-gothic literature was the fact that the characters were vampires and it involved a typical "forbidden love" storyline.
Which might give it bonus points, but once being an avid fantasy reader, I wasn't gonna be easily impressed. However, I could see how it would be interesting to readers unfamiliar to this genre.
Audience? Well, it says young-adult. Take away the violence and near-sex and it's pretty tame.
Well, about characters. Anita would be shaking her head. A guardian-in-training( Rose), a princess of a dying Royal family and a super-hot Guardian teacher/mentor are the primary characters. (They're so basic that you could pluck them into another simple setting and they'd work) . Guardians (on research) can be described as vampire slayers. Ironically, they need to be half-vampire to do that. Mediocre,yes, but passable. At least they're not too overpowered and perfect. Seeing that I haven't read it, I don't know how well the characterization goes.
The summaries of the characters on the wikipedia page are pretty laugh-worthy. It sounds like a 12 year old's badly planned OC sheet:
"Dimitri Belikov - He is a well-respected twenty-four year-old Dhampir of Russian origin, from Siberia, assigned to be Lissa's Guardian along with Rose. Dimitri has a slight Russian accent, and likes old western novels. He is 6'7", has brown eyes, shoulder length hair a few shades lighter than Rose's dark brown hair, and tanned skin. He is sometimes described as a 'god', referring to his reputation as one of the most 'badass' guardians around. He is also Rose's mentor and love interest. He returns Rose's feelings but attempts to stay out of a relationship with her for most of the series, since it would interfere with his guardian duties."
So far, I give it a pass. But the major thing that really pulls my opinion of it down is the utter lack of development in setting and character. As a fantasy novel, even if it's set in a parallel world of our reality, there must be good design and detail. Since there's powers involved too, there must be explanation or theory as to how the powers work, if not context on their origins. Too much information is assumed since it's set in the US and their powers are simply elemental (that's terribly basic, even if the author chose to use the Wiccan version of the elements which involves "spirit" I mean come on, even Sailor moon had that before you).
The second thing that screws it is that the point of the books being in a series is rather useless. The climax is basically that Rose finally gets to be with her love interest and she finishes her Guardian training.
The one thing the author, Mead, did very well is appeal to the market and the typical teenager's love for drama, especially with the romantic tension (as cliche as it is)
Well, I guess it's a 5/10
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