What do you mean the main character isn't a vampire?!

After I finished the Twilight series in the autumn of 2008, I thought I would never find another vampire related YA book quite like it, or another YA vamp book I would as much. So, for a while, I swore off YA vamp books completely. A few months later I had seen the Vampire Academy book by Richelle Mead while looking around Borders, I asked some friends about it and they told me "Don't read that crappy book!", so I trusted them and kept going with other YA stuff. Not long afterwards I had nothing to read and thought "what the hell, I can always return it if I hate it". So off I went and bought Vampire Academy. I devoured the book in 3 days and went frantically back to Borders to search for book 2, Frostbite, just to learn it was sold out and I had to wait a week for another shipment to arrive. I almost died. I wish I hadn't payed attention to my friends back then, because Vampire Academy is the only YA vampire book I've read after Twilight that is genuinely amazing, and I've read a lot of YA vampire books after Twilight.

Like my quirky title says, the main character of this book isn't a vampire. In fact, not even her main love interest is one. Actually, half the characters aren't vampires at all! Not what you would think when you read the title Vampire Academy is it? That's exactly what I thought when I first saw the book, that this would be a silly high school drama in a school for vampires (kind of like the manga Vampire Knight, which I love by the way). So you can imagine how shocking it was to me when I started reading and realised our heroine wasn't a vampire. In fact, this surprise was one of the main factors to me enjoying the book immensely. It was a look at the world of vampires through an outsider's eye.

Our main non-vampire character is Rose Hathaway, a lovely dhampir young lady. What are dhampirs you ask? Well, they're the children of vampires and normal humans. The dhampirs are pretty much servants to the vampires, or as they are called in the book the moroi, who in this case are more like nobles in an aristocracy than anything else. The dhampir race also protect they're specially assigned moroi, think of them as something of a secret service for the noble vampires.This is where Rose falls in. She is the child of a dhampir and a moroi and she attends St. Vladimir's Academy where she is trained to protect her best friend Lisa, a moroi. Rose is quite literally and action girl. She can fight, she speaks her mind and she has quite a teenage attitude. All this make Rose a very different heroine from the ones I've seen before, who were usually love struck bookworms or just simple girls. She could be comparable to The Hunger Games' Katniss Everdeen, which is why these will probably be the only two character I refer to as heroines in reviews. Rose doesn't always make the right decisions, she's starts the book off like this having run away with Lissa and being found just to realized in how much danger she has put Lissa in. Still, Lissa and Rose have a deep connection that goes far beyond just friendship and sisterhood, a dark secret I won't spoil and leave the readers to figure out. Rose is a very likable character, even though she often makes very human mistakes. That's not a bad thing though, it may be infuriating at times but it keeps her from being a Mary Sue which, in my opinion, is great.

The real gem in this books, however, is a sexy young Russian man (for lack of a more accurate description) named Dimitri. Like any other YA book, Vampire Academy has it's share of forbidden love but in this case it has nothing to do with the supernatural or even social class it's actually forbidden because, in many places around the world, it would be illegal. We're talking of course of the very forbidden relationship between Rose and her Dhampir sensei (Japanese for teacher) Dimitri. Why is this illegal you ask? Well, Rose is 17 while Dimitri is 24. Dimitri is pretty much the sexy teacher we all wished we had in high school but for Rose it becomes a reality. Their relationship in this first book of the series is very sexual, there is a lot of sexual tension and desire going on but nothing actually happens. It's delicious to read, I hadn't been this excited and on edge since I Edward and Bella's relationship. The fact that Dimitri is not your conventional young YA guy is even more intriguing. Dimitri is a man, scruffy, tall, long hair and very serious. He is by no means a teenager and perhaps that is why Rose is so attracted to him from the beginning, because she needs an actual adult in her life.

Other characters include Lissa, Rose's best friend and Moroi Princess. She is sweet and very loyal to Rose, but she also hides a dark and disturbing power. Though she seems sweet on the outside, sometimes Lissa can be downright frightening. I'm not really sure if I like her character or I don't. There is also Christian, a beautiful bad-boy moroi who plays with fire, literally. Christian is one of the more likeable non-protagonist characters in the novel. I love his playful banter and his relationship with Lissa is adorable.

One thing I really enjoy about Vampire Academy is the wonderful use of Russian folklore. I've been fascinated by Russia for many years: from the beautiful architecture, to long lost princesses and beautiful ballets. So to find a book that emphasizes on this was wonderful for me. I was intrigued by everything, specifically the use of the Russian language throughout the novel. I applaud Richelle Mead for the great amount of research it must have taken to get everything right in this first book and the following also. It also brings us back to the origins of the vampire itself in countries surrounding Russia which I found very interesting.

Vampire Academy is not a book to be fooled by. Don't fall for the "academy" part of the title like I did and think that this is a book about goth vampires going to school. There is so much to discover in this series and Vampire Academy is the starting point of a wonderful journey. Richelle Mead uses a rich and beautiful yet simple language that easily engages the reader and makes the reading experience incredibly entertaining. You will be waiting for the twists and turns and enjoying every minute of it. Mead brings a new twist to the vampire YA novel, one in which the main relationship isn't really supernatural. We have a wonderful heroine surrounded by the world of vampires, so we're seeing them from the inside in; something I've yet to find in another book.

For Mead's different and intriguing look at vampires and for her wonderful writing: I give Vampire Academy (Book 1) 4 out of 5 stars!

A Magical Trip Into Victorian England

I usually don't enjoy prequels so much, especially ones set in another century. So, my first reaction to prequels is to cringe away. When Clockwork Angel was first announced that was my reaction. I thought the feeling of the book would be completely from the original Mortal Instruments series. Boy was I wrong. I think Clockwork Angel may have forced me to not judge a book by its classification, something I should know by now.

I love me some good period drama, so it was only normal that I was hooked into this book the moment Tessa was introduced. A typical Victorian young lady, brave-smart-bookwork that wears pretty dresses? It's like projecting myself into what I would like to believe was my past life. Tessa is in every way a perfect heroine, not a Mary-Sue and not really an Action girl even though she bravely faces danger. In many ways she reminds me of Gemma Doyle from Libba Bray's Gemma Doyle Trilogy. Both girls are fairly normal Victorian ladies that are suddenly thrust upon a magical world. I think this is the perfect type of main character to have in this sort of book since it allows the reader to project himself or herself onto the character more easily. Why? Well, because the reader can relate to the protagonist in that they're both from another country/place and suddenly find themselves thrust into an entirely different place with mysterious things and beings around every corner.  It helps for the atmosphere of the book to remain constantly mysterious with both the protagonist and the reader.

Now, lets move on to what the ladies really want to talk about: the boys gentlemen, Will and Jem. Yes, that's right, there are two of them which makes for an immediate love triangle.Will is very much like Jace from the Mortal Instruments books and that would be obvious since they're related. But, unlike Jace, Will seems to have something very very wrong with him, he is troubled by this at every moment during the book. Sadly, we do not know what this thing is, but I do know I've been wrecking my brain since I finished the book trying to figure out what's wrong. Will also makes the reader very bipolar towards him, in the sense that he can be adorable and sweet one moment and then the next you want to slap him, punch him or maybe even murder him. On the other side, we have James AKA Jem. As much as Will is the bad boy, Jem is the mysterious gentleman. He has silver hair, is sickly and plays violin alone in his room at night. What about that isn't attractive or at the very least fascinating? Jem reminds me of another character, this time from a manga, called Zero from Vampire Knight. Though this mainly has to do with his silver hair and the fact that I suspected he was a vampire at the start. That theory turned out to be wrong, as he is actually sick due to a poison he is addicted to and is slowly killing him. The book therefore also deals with a common problem among teenagers, drug addiction; except this time it's happening in another century. So, Tessa is faced with two very different boys to whom she is immediately attracted to for very different reasons. Jem would be the safe guy while Will is the bad boy. This first book deals more with her and Will's volatile relationship and I'm sure the next book will focus more on her relationship with Jem.

Some of the other character were delightful also. My favorite was Jessamine because, unlike the other Shadowhunters, she doesn't want to be part of the magical world in the slightest and was forced into it. She might come off very strong to some, but I feel she's actually very vulnerable and loving and we will see this side of her more in later books. Plus, she has a love of Victorian fashion that we both share and an exquisite taste in dresses. I also love Charlotte, because she's trying so hard to be a mother figure to all these teenager when she's hardly older than them herself. It was also great to see Magnus, a lovable character from the Mortal Instruments series, in a different light even though he remained very much himself. Camille, the beautiful and elegant vampire, was also wonderful to read, though she was hardly in the book. I would love to see more of her in the following books.

One of the things I liked the most about Clockwork Angel were all the mechanical aspects and I don't mean that in the sense of the writing. I'm talking about actual mechanics, robots, clocks, inventions, etc. Yes, I said robots, though in the book they are referred to as automatons. It was very interesting that Cassandra Clare chose this theme for this series and I'm very curious as to why she did so. It was very different from any other period drama I've read before, except perhaps for Frankenstein. I enjoy scientific details a great deal, so I was overjoyed to find robots in a Victorian era novel. The genre would be that of Steampunk and it really was occurring during the era the book is set in, with inventions based on steam like steamboats, locomotives, etc.

This leads me to another point and that is that I want to congratulate Cassandra Clare for her wonderful research. Not only did she research into the steam era, but she also researched the London of the time and it could be seen throughout the book in beautiful detail. As I read the book I actually felt as though I was walking through the London of the time; from the detail of the streets, to the smells coming from the river Thames, to the wonderful London weather, I felt like I was actually there. That's always and accomplishment for writers as not many of them pull it off very well. Also, the wonderful detail in clothes is always appreciated. Especially by a reader obsessed with period clothing such as myself, just imagining some of the dresses Tessa and Jessamine were wearing made me happy. Another point that deserves mentioning is that every chapter opens with a piece of a poem from the era (with the exception of a few) which delighted my inner English student at seeing some Lord Byron and a piece of my favorite poem Goblin Market.

I the end, I adored Clockwork Angel. It was very different than anything I'm used to reading with all the Steampunk elements and I must thank Cassandra Clare for awakening an interest in Steampunk in me. I can't wait to read more book like this one and most of all I can't wait for the next two installments of the Infernal Devices. If there's one thing Cassandra Claire is good as is leaving readers with a heck of a cliffhanger and Clockwork Angel is no exception.

I give Clockwork Angel 5 out 5 stars simply for the great amount of research the author did on the era, the great style of the writing and the stellar plot.

Mockingjay: Maybe This Book Isn't Really YA

On September 14, 2008 I was reading Stephenie Meyer's (author of Twilight) blog and she posted a book recommendation of something called Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. As I read the book description I realized the plot sounded a lot like one of my favorite Japanese films and manga, Battle Royale. Needless to say I headed out and bought the book the same day, and now 3 years later we have the third and final installment: Mockingjay.

I have to say that when I say that when I started reading Mockingjay I really had no expectations or any idea about what could possibly happen. After re-reading the second book Catching Fire a few days before the release of Mockingjay, I could honestly say I had no idea what was coming next. So when I opened the book and sat myself down to read I was surprised by literally everything. I didn't know how Suzanne Collins was going to give this unhappy storyline a happy ending or a semi-happy ending. If there was one thing I expected it was a lot of deaths and boy was I right.

Katniss is in every definition a heroine. Not only is she smart and powerful, but she's also vulnerable and weak. I believe Mockingjay showed us the real Katniss, she is no longer the young fearless child, she understands who she is now and she is frightened of her future. Katniss's psychological analysis is one of the hidden gems in this book that will be overseen by many, especially younger readers. It would be wonderful to analyze this book side by side with a psychology text book, because more than plot this book focuses on that aspect of each character. I can finally say Katniss has become an empowering and likable character (where maybe she came off selfish in the first two books), she has discovered who she is and has continued on with her life even after the horrible events at the end of the book where she loses her sister and is literally burned. She has also realized that Gale is not the man for her, she left him behind long ago when she stepped in for her sister at the reaping and the moment she met Peeta that was the start of her new life, beside him.

Mockingjay is by no means a pretty book, it's gritty, savage and exceedingly violent. Even though I, an avid YA literature reader, don't consider half the YA books I've read to be for teens, Mockingjay was by far the most violent. It is carnage from start to finish. If you're expecting some action/adventure book with some romance in it, this isn't for you. It would be more in the horror/psychological genre to me. I believe Suzanne Collins accomplished what she set out to do and this can be see in the hundreds of negative reviews from fans. Why is that an accomplishment, you ask? Well, because those bad reviews have no merit since this a wonderful and beautifully written book. I believe those bad reviews stem from the fans who's expectations were shattered when Suzanne decided to take this plot to a whole other level and completely different direction. I also think that half those bad reviews come from readers who are not yet of age to understand such complex psychological books. But yes Miss Collins, you did achieve to send a message through your books because I had nightmares the night after finishing Mockingjay and it took me a while to process it all.

Some things I didn't like or rather missed were probably all relevant to the plot, but the still made me sad, which I really didn't need in such a depressing book. I missed the old sweet Peeta. I understand this change was needed, but I really did miss him. This harsh and evil Peeta was horrifying and yet I'm sure this version of him didn't just pop up, it must be a side of his personality that was hidden deep inside. Still, at least his old self broke through at times and made me smile. Finnick's death was by far the most saddening after Prim, it was completely unexpected to me and painful because he was finally getting a chance to be happy with Annie. I would've like to know what happen to the prep team by the end; though they're minor characters and part of the evil side of this story, they were some of my favorite characters and their outcomes are unknown. Gale made me very angry. Though I've been Team Peeta all along, I always had a soft spot for Gale, but then in this book he was a completely different person. I would call him downright evil at times. And then at the end he just disappears with no parting worlds to Katniss, no "I'm Sorry", nothing. I still haven't gotten over that fact. And finally, the rushed feeling I got toward the end of the book.

In the end, it took me a whole night of nightmare and a whole day of thinking to make my decision as to whether I loved Mockingjay or not, because there really can't be middle ground with a book like this. I realized it was the shock of the whole experience of reading such a violent book that didn't let me make up my mind, but once I got everything settled and came to terms with everything I realized this was a wonderful book and I loved it, though for VERY different reasons than other YA books. I loved it for being entirely different from its predecessors and other YA books. So I applaud Suzanne Collins for her magnificent writing and for having the balls to write something different. A series finally has a fitting ending rather than an obligatory happy ending.

Final Thoughts:

I give Mockingjay 5 out of 5 stars for superb writing and wonderful psychological analysis of the characters in their evironment. It is a perfectly fitting ending for this series.

By the way, the Hanging Tree Song is the creepiest thing ever and this fan version is great.

A big Hello to everyone out there!

Hello everyone! I would like to give you all a cordial welcome to From EBA to YA! This is my introductory post to welcome all you readers and let you know just what From EBA to YA actually is. Now, I've always wanted to have a review blog where I could express my feelings, good or bad, about books. Why? Well, because I read A LOT. I probably read more than do any other things. But lets get this started!

A Little About Me

My name is Laura. I'm 21 years old and I'm a Senior at the University of Puerto Rico - Rio Piedras. I study English Literature, mainly because of my love for reading; especially in the English language. I love reading, all kinds of music, theater, movies, Japan, anything Japan related, travelling, Disney World and much, much more.

What Is From EBA to YA?

I've had a lot of failed blogs. Why? Because I can't keep up with them, I'm lazy. However, I've decided to give written blogging another time and I plan to really stick with it this time around. Now, you probably wonder what the hell From EBA to YA means. Well, I love me some YA literature. For those of you that don't know what YA stands for, well it's Young Adult literature. 90% of the books I read every year are classified as YA. So the name of this blog is me making fun of myself, because people make fun of me, an Senior English Lit BA student, for reading and loving YA. I don't care though, I truly believe YA literature is at it's peak at the moment and it's the next generation of literature genres out there. Plus, there are some wonderfully written YA books out there and amazing authors that can quickly become the next best thing.

What Will I Find Here?

Here you will find well written (it's my pet peeve), interesting and fun reviews of many YA titles, many popular some not so much. My goal is to express my thoughts on YA books, have discussions with fellow readers and do what I like best: read and write.

So, that's my introduction to the blog. Up next I leave you with a list of the first 3 YA titles I will be reviewing in the next few days. 2 of them are new releases. Please fell free to comment, join and e-mail if you have any questions or recommendations for me.

Welcome and have fun!

1- Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
2- Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare (to be released August 31, 2010)
3- Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead