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!
