RATING GUIDE:
5 – A keeper!
4 – Very good
3 – Passable
2 – I’d rather read a telephone book
1 – An absolute bomb.
Read at your own risk!
L.J. Smith’s The Awakening
is the first installment in her book series called The Vampire Diaries. Although her book series originally came out
in the early 1990’s, it has remained highly popular through the years and has
even been the take-off point for the supernatural teen drama series starring
Nina Dobrev, Paul Wesley and Ian Somerhalder.
The Awakening is told
primarily from the point of view of Elena, the campus beauty, whose only
problems initially appear to be fending off the attention of all her male
admirers and defending her status as the “it” girl from her
once-friend-now-frenemy Caroline. But
soon, she faces the biggest problem EVER.
Stefan, the new boy in school with the drop-dead dark, gorgeous looks,
appears to be immune to her feminine charms.
It’s the first time she’s been rejected by any man … GASP! What must she do to reverse that situation?
Elena decides she wants Stefan,
so she cooks up a scheme to have him.
She enlists the help of her minions, er, friends, which includes her best
friend, Matt, the financially-strapped jock with the heart of gold, to get
Stefan to notice her. Incidentally,
Matt is also one of the many, many boys Elena has dumped, even though Elena
considers him her first love.
To her horror, Elena’s schemes don’t
appear to work on Stefan. But when
strange events begin placing Elena’s life in danger, Stefan shows up to save
her. To her relief, Elena eventually
realizes that Stefan actually has the hots for her, too. He has only been reigning in his feelings for
her, because of his angst-ridden past.
However, the happiness is short-lived, for Elena soon finds herself in a
dangerous love triangle with Stefan and his evil brother, Damon … who, as it
turns out, are both vampires.
Considering the decade in which it
was written and published, it is actually surprising (and scary) that the book
appears like it was written this decade, instead of the 1990’s. The girls on campus are so accustomed to the
Mean Girl/Queen Bee culture that they could be characters in a (bad) TV reality
show about bitchy women. The book also
touches upon the worldlier, darker issues of teen sex and (attempted) date
rape. This book is definitely nothing
like the sweet, innocent teen romances of old, like the Sweet Dreams romances
of the 1980’s.
If you’re looking for a book that
could positively influence the younger reader, then this book might not be
it. With the exception of Matt, the
teenagers in this installment are either dimwitted, horny or shallow. Elena, the main character in the story, is
supposedly so beautiful she’s admired by all women and desired by all men; but
her narcissism, shallowness and selfishness just make her so difficult to
like. The way she treats the people
around her, even her friends, is just so despicable that you end up not caring
about her supposedly angst-ridden past (she lost both of her parents at an
early age). What’s worse is her take on
love. She takes one look at Stefan and
BAM, she’s in love! That’s not love,
girl, that’s lust!
But if you’re looking for a book
with yummy-looking, gorgeous men, then this book might be the one for you. Stefan has the dark, brooding looks, the
designer duds, the fancy car and the angst-ridden background, all the
requisites for a fantasy hottie. His
brother Damon might be evil as hell, but based on Smith’s description, is
equally gorgeous to make you want him sink his fangs into your neck. Meanwhile, Matt might not have the money to
afford the designer clothes and fancy car, but hey, he’s a jock with a heart of
gold.
Compared to
Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series, The Vampire Diaries appears to
be less meandering and innocent. It’s
fast-paced, darker, worldlier. This
probably explains why it has survived the nineties and made it to the present
time. The world inhabited by the
characters in The Vampire Diaries is something today’s youth are more
used to. It’s a world that isn’t as
safe as it used to be, inhabited by people who are more of a threat or a
disappointment than a source of safety and security.
If you’re
looking for a literary masterpiece, then this might not be the one for
you. The material is sadly lacking in
substance, the characters appear to be shallow and one-dimensional and there’s
hardly anyone in this book to latch on to emotionally. Even the best of translator Vanessa’s
translation skills couldn’t save this book from being a huge literary
disappointment for me. In fact, I was
so annoyed by this book that I wished I had a stake to put right through the
author’s heart! It was torture to read
this book.
But since I am
the eternal optimist, I’m willing to give the next installments a try. Hopefully, Elena would be less irritating
and more sympathetic by then, and I would understand the reason behind the
vampire brothers’ feud. I’d like to think
that there’s probably a good reason why this book series has survived the test
of time. I’m curious to find out what
that reason is.
RATING: 1 ½
