Monday, September 28, 2009

Its 9:00. Why Aren’t You Reading Vampire Academy??


Vampire Academy is the first book in Richelle Mead’s Vampire Academy series. As of this writing, the fourth book (the amazing and heartbreaking Blood Promise) was just released in hardback.

If you aren’t reading Vampire Academy RIGHT NOW (and clearly you are NOT), you are doing something wrong. This omission will come back to haunt you eventually, like a hangover or food poisoning.

DISCLAIMER: I am a superfan of YA vampire books. From my beloved Twilight Saga, to P.C. Cast’s awful House of Night series (which I love to hate so much I own every book and am DYING for Tempted to come out in 27 days!!). So, even if they are silly and steeped in spiritual agendas and “teen slang”, I adore them. I’m embarrassed to head directly to the YA section of the bookstore. I address this by I keeping my head down, not making eye contact and pretending I’m shopping for a gift. (I also use this strategy when shopping for Twilight paraphernalia at Hot Topic.)

While the Vampire Academy books may reside in the YA section, I promise you they transcend that genre. Everything I think is missing from YA books is here, from hot premarital sex to underage drinking without moralizing.

The Vampire Academy in question is St. Vladimir’s Academy, a rural Montana boarding school for vampire royalty, the Moroi, and their half-vampire bodyguards-in-training, the Guardians.

Moroi are the vampires-lite that seem to overrun the YA vampire genre. Yes, they are vampires, and while they need human blood to survive, they take their blood from willing human donors and never ever kill anyone ever! Moroi are born vampires, can go out in the sunlight (even if they don’t much like it), eat and enjoy human food and they are painfully mortal.

However, constantly stalking the Moroi are their evil, undead counterparts, the Strigoi. The Strigoi are the vampires that you and I know and love. They hunt and kill humans for blood, can’t go out in the daylight, and can only be killed by a silver stake through the heart. Strigoi are born when Moroi choose the dark side by killing a human, or are turned by force, when attacked by Strigoi.

As you might imagine, the delicate, mortal Moroi require protecting from the nasty, evil Strigoi, who are determined to rid the world of the fakeass Moroi vampires. Enter the Dhampirs….

Dhampirs are the result of vampire-human coupling. They are born with super strength, but no need for pesky blood drinking or sun avoidance. Through some cruel prank of evolution, Dhampirs can only reproduce with Moroi, so they have a vested interest in staying close and accessible to them. It seems to work out great for everyone that Dhampirs are also badasses who train to become Guardians who are sworn protect the delicate and special Moroi from the evil Strigoi.

Vampire Academy is a mostly first-person narrative from the perspective of a 17 year old Dhampir Guardian-in-training and all around rebel with a cause, Rose Hathaway. Rose’s rebellious cause is mostly the safety of her BFF, the orphaned Moroi princess, Vasilisa “Lissa” Dragomir.

Rose and Lissa have just returned to St. Vladimir’s after two years on the run from a mysterious threat to Lissa’s safety, which appeared soon after the death of Lissa’s immediate family in a terrible car accident. Lissa and Rose’s time on the lam has brought them closer and deepened a bond that extends beyond their life-long friendship. Rose has developed a one-sided ability to feel Lissa’s emotions and more and more frequently to actually get inside her head and see, hear and feel events as Lissa does.

Lissa, for her part, has acquired mysterious powers which exceed what Moroi have traditionally believed possible. Those powers may be putting her jeopardy, even as she romances adorable, scandalous Christian.

Rose, when she isn’t reading Lissa’s mind is busy making up the two years of Guardian training she missed on the run with Lissa. Lucky for her, the training is administered by the beautiful, enigmatic Dimitri Belikov, smoking hot Guardian extraordinaire (and quite possibly the love of my life).

Lissa and Rose try to fade back into the trivial lives they left behind two years ago, but it soon becomes clear that the shadowy threat to Lissa that drove them away continues to pursue her, and Rose will sacrifice anything to protect her.

Vampire Academy is not just about teenage vampires with funny names, it’s about legacy, loyalty, sacrifice and deliciously forbidden love.

Seriously, what more do you want from a book????

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