Fiction
332 pages
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.
Completion: A
Writing/Style: C-
Characters: C
Plot/Pacing: D-
World-building/Atmosphere: D-
Sub-genres (Romance, Humor, Mystery, etc.): D-
Final Grade: C- Library Rental
This seems to suffer from way too many of cliches and tropes of the YA paranormal romance genre despite it attempting to vary from the norm. While there were attempts make it stand out, the glaringly obvious attempts to reel in young girls was too much. Forbidden romance. Double check. Obvious villain. Check. Special snowflake. Double check. I was reluctant to finish it, but I was able to (I guess that counts for something?). It’s not necessarily hard to read, but the high school drama got really grating. The high school element was simply nonsensical. Why do they go to high school with all the cliched high school stereotypes? They are immortal, supernatural entities!!! Why do they have to take the equivalent of gen ed requirements like art? The world-building both inside and outside of the school was unclear and lazy. As well, the social hierarchy, politics, and history is so convoluted I stopped trying to understand it. There are 3 different types of vampires. One of them is just straight out and out “evil”, and one of my biggest pet peeves is stories that insist that there is black and white “good” and “evil”. Then, there is a type of subservient vampire that protects this type of elemental vampire that acts like royalty. Yet, the subservient vampires are more powerful than the royalty which leads me to constantly wonder why they stay servants. Plus, their world does not condone the subservient vampires continued existence even though their protection is the only thing keeping the royal vampires safe from the evil vampires. Yeah…I don’t get it either.
As far as characters go, I appreciate the attempt to make strong female characters, but the attempt failed. These girls revolve around boys and petty drama. The main character is supposed to be a ball of snark, but most of her quick lines just fell flat for me, and her personality quickly becomes consumed by her desire for the love interest.
Lastly, the writing alternated between manageable to sloppy. There were scenes I had to reread a couple of times to figure out what happened. Toward the end when the pace finally picked up there’s a transition —actually, scratch that— a complete lack of transition which left me completely confused. It took me a couple of pages to figure out what had happened. Otherwise, the writing is nothing special.
I know there are some big fans of this series (Sorry, Hannah! Sorry, Anjelica!), but I just don’t see the appeal. Perhaps, the main character was more refreshing from the onslaught of bland Bella-clones back in the day, but I just felt more could be done. I’ve heard that future books in the series have better writing and plot, but why would I want to slog through the first couple of books to get to them? I don’t know. If what you’ve heard already doesn’t sound like a big deal, go for it, I guess? If you are super patient, maybe you will find the rest of the series does improve? As for me, I think I’m done here. My to-read list is long enough without adding on some bad investments.
No comments:
Post a Comment