Book review: Vampire Diaries: The Awakening by L.J. Smith

Vampire Diaries: The Awakening had a hard time clicking for me. I wouldn’t say it’s atrocious, but it’s got a problem getting started or building sympathy for the main characters until well past the two-thirds mark of the book. I felt zero emotional impact from the romance, but unlike previous YA couples like the Hush, Hush series, the problem here isn’t with the male lead. No, it’s all on Elena. She’s introduced as the most popular girl in her school, a pretty pretty princess who instantly dumps her boyfriend Matt the instant she sees the new guy Stefan, and who compares boys to puppies. When he turns her down, she hatches a plot to make him jealous by inventing a fake older lover. This is really all you need to know about her because she’s lacking a personality to go along with her looks. She’s as shallow as a driveway puddle and only half as reflective.

Stefan makes a favorable comparison to Louis from Interview with a Vampire, a reluctant creature of the night looking for somewhere to get away from his past. There’s comparisons to Twilight for the high school setting (although in my opinion Bella comes out looking much better for lacking Elena’s ego), and more comparisons to Interview when Damon shows up acting very much like Lestat. But as the story nears the end, Damon really comes across as the stereotypical Hollywood vampire, the creature hundreds of years old who never matures, killing indiscriminately and leaving a trail of bodies, and always obsessed with fang-banging the hot chicks. Like a four hundred year old teenager, Damon’s entire purpose in life is to pursue his brother, like, “Looook, I’m bigger than you! I’m meaner than you! Looooook, bro! I’m so strong!”

Actually, I take back that comparison to teens, since that’s kind of insulting to the teenagers I’ve known. Damon comes across as an eternal eight-year-old brat, and his antics are probably the least interesting part of the story. Even the chapters with Elena’s hysterics over not being able to have her man candy are less grating.

The story finally seems to be making some emotional investment in Elena and Stefan, and then it just ends. Not in a cliffhanger. No, it goes one chapter past a proper cliffhanger, and then it just ends. Call me crazy, but I think they could have tacked on another four or five chapters if they were just going to end it arbitrarily anywhere.

I can’t say I hated the book, and I can’t say it really sucked me in, pun intended. I could see trying the next book in the series, but if I compare this to Twilight, Anne Rice’s vampires, or Rachel Caine’s The Morganville Vampires series, The Awakening falls flat in most every way by comparison. The descriptions are weak, the characters are hard to relate to until very late in the book, and the antagonist isn’t scary so much as annoying like my little brother. But there was no point where I dropped the book or yelled “give me a break!” and that puts it way ahead of some other stories I’ve read recently.

So, I give Vampire Diaries: The Awakening 3 stars. It’s okay vampire fiction, serviceable, but not exactly sweeping me off my feet. I will give the series at least one more try, and I guess I might recommend it to fans of YA vampire stories.