These are the second and third books in the Vampire Diaries series. They are actually the last lot that were published in the 90’s. Everything that came after was published after 2009. I guess it would be fair to say that these two are the end of the original plot/arc. The ending is pretty solid too. I reckon that if no more books had been published it wouldn’t have been that bad. I also misspoke in my previous review, this first quartet were in fact written by L.J. Smith, it is the next few books after that have been ghost written. The last four I believe or something like that were written by a named author who wasn’t L.J. Smith. Now that I have clarified my mis-step, we can moveo n with the review.
These two were longer than the previous two and I honestly can’t remember if Elena is even alive/part of the first book? I’ve just done a quick read of the Vampire Diaries Wiki and have been informed that The Fury is the book where Elena becomes a vampire and then is killed by Katherine. Sorry for the spoilers, but this book did come out almost 30 years ago. I feel like you’ve had a chance to catch up by now. So yeah, the Fury focusses on the vampire Elena and the trio’s battle with Katherine, of course accompanied by their human pals and Bonnie, who isn’t quite human? At least that’s what the TV show suggests. I’m not sure which to follow or if I should combine the two and use the books as the main source of lore with the series to fill in the gaps?
The second book brought Klaus to the forefront and whilst he wasn’t the Klaus of the show, he was still a great big bad. Obviously I am slightly in love with The Originals Klaus, but this Klaus was good too. I will admit that I am pretty sure I thought Katherine had said that she killed Klaus in the previous book, but oh well I guess? That must have been a red herring.
These books worked well together. It was nice to see the mc shift to Bonnie with Elena out of the picture. Although Bonnie’s character is really bad in the books, it was nice to see her be treated better than she is in the show. And Matt. I really like that he is part of it now. He is the new third member to Bonnie and Meredith. As he should be. I have decided that I adore both book Matt and TV show Matt. He deserves better and I am glad that so far he has managed to stay human in the books and that he stays human in the show.
I honestly think that this book series is the epitome of teenage girl vampire novels. They came out a few years before the Twilight Saga and honestly the only comparison points for the two are the fact that there are vampires and werewolves etc, but that’s more of a genre issue. I honestly don’t know what point I’m trying to make here, maybe that this series is actually better? Or healthier? For young girls? I don’t know. I mean, when comparing the two main characters, Bella is a wet wipe when compared to Elena. Elena is actually in charge of her own destiny and speaks up for what she wants. Bella just kind of goes along with what she thinks is best for everyone else. This is definitely not the main issue with Twilight, but it has made me think, that if I had a young daughter I would definitely encourage her to read the Vampire Diaries over Twilight. Hmmm. Maybe something to explore more in depth at a later date.
Obviously I’m going to give this duet 4 stars. It’s not groundbreaking and I didn’t wizz through it, but that’s mostly because as I write this I should really be packing to go back to uni… I am currently reading the next book and I can’t wait to finish it. It’s about 300 pages longer than the previous 4, so I anticipate it’s going to take me a while. But once that review has come out, keep an eye out for my revie of Beautiful World, Where Are You by Sally Rooney, because that is my next read and my god I am so excited to get to it!!
Chloe
paper_living 