Reader's Choice Review #1: Vampire Academy

Reader's Choice is a weekly meme inspired by Christina at Reader of Fiction's Sadie Hawkins Sunday, where you, the readers of this blog, get to choose what I read and review on the blog each Saturday/Monday, depending on the circumstances. 

Vampire Academy
Richelle Mead
Series: Vampire Academy, #1
Release Date: August 16th, 2007
Publisher: Razorbill 
Rating: 2.5 stars
Word Rating: *sigh* 
Reviewed by: Blythe
Recommended by: Hayden and Steph of Cuddlebuggery

Add to Goodreads

St. Vladimir’s Academy isn’t just any boarding school—it’s a hidden place where vampires are educated in the ways of magic and half-human teens train to protect them. Rose Hathaway is a Dhampir, a bodyguard for her best friend Lissa, a Moroi Vampire Princess. They’ve been on the run, but now they’re being dragged back to St. Vladimir’s—the very place where they’re most in danger...

Rose and Lissa become enmeshed in forbidden romance, the Academy’s ruthless social scene, and unspeakable nighttime rituals. But they must be careful lest the Strigoi—the world’s fiercest and most dangerous vampires—make Lissa one of them forever.

This review is going to be very blunt, so I may as well start it off bluntly to set the tone: I did not like Vampire Academy nearly as much as I wanted to or expected to. With more than half of my blogger friends loving this series--including this first installment--I went into Vampire Academy with nothing but the highest of expectations, and I am extremely disappointed to say that very few of those expectations were actually met.

From the plot structure, to the world-building, to the mystery (and the eventual reveal of the motive for said mystery)--everything just fell flat for me. Richelle Mead has a concept somewhat ambitious with Vampire Academy, but I found everything to be either too simply laid out in terms of the world, or too convoluted, to the point where I had to reread a page or two to catch myself up. There is no doubting that Vampire Academy is a fun read, and I did enjoy myself while reading it (for the most part), but ultimately everything just felt too mediocre. 

I feel like the structure of its plot was probably the weakest part of Vampire Academy. When I look back at the novel as a whole, all I'm really able to pick out is a lot of details establishing the world in which Rose lives--the society, the bad guys, the good guys, the half-breeds, etc--which is to be expected in the first installment of a series, but to me it seems like a really weak and, honestly trivial plot was thrown in haphazardly to balance out the establishment of the world, which took over an overwhelming majority of the novel in scattered little portions. 

As well as that, it just doesn't feel all that original. I admit that this is really my fault, not really the book's, as I am six years late to the Vampire Academy party (which I will not be celebrating in based on my experience with the series so far), and the concepts brought up in Vampire Academy were probably very original and refreshing when the book was published in 2007. Now, after having read my fair share of YA vampire and paranormal reads? Not much of the novel was original, unfortunately. 

I can see why Vampire Academy has such a huge fanbase, and I understand why I am in such a minority having felt absolutely ambivalent towards this installment. It is a fun read, and the plot, although something I found to be weak, was enjoyable to unravel piece by piece. The characters are well-developed, albeit very predictably so, but Rose is a sassy, strong and witty heroine that I found to be definitely likable (while she wasn't "subtly" praising her own looks and attributes while putting down others' in the process), and I enjoyed seeing her relationship with Dimitri develop. 

Richelle Mead had some interesting twists in Vampire Academy, and that gives me hope that she will have some rather fascinating twists and plot points in the future novels to come. I've heard that the next book in this series are much better than Vampire Academy in terms of character development and plot, and that the third book is outstanding, so I will definitely keep an open mind and continue this series. I do think I will end up liking it, but I also think that, by the time I finish the last book of the series, I will look to the Vampire Academy series as an overall fun experience, but nothing more.
___________________________________________________________________________________

Next week: 


Next week on Reader's Choice I will be reviewing a title I am anxiously anticipating, and that is David Levithan's Two Boys Kissing. I'm all for YA novels featuring LGBT themes (which this book clearly does), and I was a huge fan of Levithan's Every Day (that book...), so I definitely have high hopes for this one. Thanks to Gillian of Writer of Wrongs and Scott of Scott Reads It for submitting it (regardless of the fact that I may or may not have forced you guys to)! 

Do you have a book in mind that you want me to read and review as part of Reader's Choice? Fill out the form below with that book (or even books--there's nothing wrong with wanting me to read more than one)!




15 comments :

  1. Aw, I'm sorry you didn't love it. I, a fan of Richelle and a big fan of VA, have read the series abot 5 times already. I didn't enjoy the first book either. At least, not how much I expected to love it. As you pointed out, most of us find the next books to be stronger and the third one is my favorite. It's really, really good. The second one wasn't to my liking that much either, but after that the books (and plot) really get going. I hope you'll have fun with this series and I wish you the best of luck in reading them. I hope you'll like the next book in this reader's choice reads (such a fun way to read books! I didn't even know of it before lol). Happy reading! :-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh, glad to hear that you love this series but didn't enjoy the first book very much. That definitely gives me hope concerning how I will fare with the rest of the series. And I've heard the third book is absolutely fantastic, so I'm really looking forward to getting to it. I just bought Frostbite and plan to read it sometime during July. Maybe even this week for plane reading? Who knows.

      Delete
  2. I'm so glad that I'm not the only one!! I have tried to read this book twice and both times didn't even get 100 pages in before I gave up. I wanted to love it, but it just wasn't pulling me in. I was bored and I just in general wasn't liking it. Maybe I will try again someday, but most likely not.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh, I'm glad I'm not alone on this one, Amy! Yeah, the beginning is pretty rough when the story jumps ship for typical high school drama and whatnot. It's not very engaging, unfortunately.

      Delete
  3. I was also late for the Vampire Academy thing that happened years ago, and it fell flat for me, too. I felt a little left out when all of my friends were raving it. The series got a little better with each book, but it's was just a "meh". I actually loved the spin-off series more. I hope you enjoy the next book more than this one!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. These comments are making me feel better knowing that I'm not alone in feeling ambivalent towards this one! And I've heard it gets better with each book from quite a few other people as well. And have read disappointed reviews about the spin-off series, so that's interesting that you love it more! Will probably read that one too whenever I'm done with the Vampire Academy series.

      Delete
  4. :) Vampire Academy was my least favorite of the series, I found it enjoyable and it was interesting to have the flawed, self-confident Rose as the main character though I never really loved her. and I already knew what would happen since I started the series with Frostbite (the second book) and loved it. It has an amazing ending that completely astounded me and left me sad for days and Adrian Ivashkov!

    Fantastic review Blythe! I hope you continue this series!!!!!!! This book was mostly just setting up.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh, reading the second book in a series first sucks! I hate when I spoil myself for books. And I've heard amazing things about Adrian; I can't wait to meet him! And I definitely plan on continuing the series--I actually just bought Frostbite. :)

      Delete
  5. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I was super late to this series as well! I wasn't a fan of this first installment either. Perhaps it's because we've been so exposed to the variety of novels in this same genre? Maybe now, we're just used to seeing recycled ideas that were probably fresh when this first came out!

    I guess I kind of have opposite feelings when it comes to what I liked/disliked. I really disliked Rose. As you slyly mentioned, she did really seem to hold herself to a high esteem, like she was better than everyone else. That really bothered me! And I didn't care all that much for her relationship with Dimitri. One the other hand, the plot and structure were pretty good.

    I only read the first two in this series, though I did enjoy the sequel much more than this one. Hopefully, you'll feel the same! I'm still uncertain whether I want to continue this series, but if I do, I hope I can call myself a devoted fan!

    Lovely and candid review, Blythe! :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh, these comments are making me feel so much better! I'm really glad I'm not alone in not being a fan of this first installment. And yeah, there were portions of the novel I liked Rose, and portions I really didn't. She thought far too highly of herself at times for me to look to her as a tolerable character. It definitely bothered me as well.

      I'm glad you liked the sequel much more! I hope I feel the same. :)

      Delete
  7. I enjoyed this series but VA & the final book were my least favorite, I'm glad you have the next book - the character development and plot does get a lot better as the series progresses :-)

    Happy reading! I look forward to seeing what you think of Frostbite.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah, I've heard the final few books aren't the greatest. And yay for the character development and plot getting a lot better as the series progresses! That's awesome.

      Delete
  8. I really enjoyed Mead's adult Gameboard of the Gods so am interested in checking out this VA series. I don't tend to be the biggest fan of paranormal, especially not vampire paranormal, but I still want to see if I find her writing as engaging here. I like that you laid out very clearly why this book didn't work for you. Hope the second is more interesting since you're willing to give it a try.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Basically everything you've mentioned in your review are the reasons why I'm super hesitant to read this series. With the ever-changing YA literary marketplace and current boom in paranormal/vampire books, it does mean that even older stories that were written before this boom still have a strong potential of being seen as derivative and not as unique now, which is unfortunate. I'm glad you at least thought this story was fun, if not much else. I do hope that you enjoy the next books more!

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for taking the time to leave a comment on my blog!