The Vampire Diaries is a young adult vampire fiction series of novels created by American author L. J. Smith. The story centers on Stefan Salvatore, a vampire, and his life.

I either read an interview or saw one with Stephenie Meyer who remarked that she got her plot to Twilight from a dream that she once had. After having read this, I can say in all certainty that if she got the idea from a dream, it was at some point after reading this series. Look no further for her source material, here it is. LMAO I COMPLETELY FORGOT I HAD READ THIS BEFORE, look I read it so long ago that my review differentiates between "Netflix Instant" and my "Netflix discs"!!! an adorable time capsule. Damon, on the other hand, is actually interesting. He's unpredictable. He may do some good things, but he's still definitely evil. There's a lot of potential there for a sexy doomed attraction between him and Elena, but so far I don't think it has been well executed, unfortunately. Once again, Elena's feelings are just explicitly stated rather than shown through scene. It's weird because I thought that the mutual attraction in Smith's The Forbidden Game series was actually shown well, so I don't know what's going on here...I thought the ending was really...dramatic, I'm not quite sure if that's the right word, but I'll get to that later. Elena is your typical beautiful popular girl. Everyone kept referring to her as the "ice princess" but I never really saw it. She's mostly selfish, childish, and only is interested in Stefan because he's new, hot and she gets whatever she wants. (She even has a boyfriend in the beginning of the book, but dumps him because "it doesn't feel right" and Stefan is hot) We're supposed to feel sorry for her because her parents died a few years earlier, but that never really seems important, except to give Elena a reason to say "you're not my mother" to her aunt towards the end of book two. She also for some reason spent the summer in Paris, but that's really never explained-I guess it's there to make her seem rich and snotty?? Maybe she gets better by the second book, but she's pretty annoying throughout. She also never tells her friends anything so half the time they have no true reason for being there, other than to prove Elena is popular. I had posted this as a two but am changing it to a one .....muahaha... because I am not as nice as I used to be! These teen vampire books have been out for more than a decade, but have only recently been merged into two single volumes, rather than the original four.

But the story did get better - once the author stopped concentrating on the Homecoming Queen's dating plan and remembered that she wasn't writing an after-school special but a romantic horror story. Because the horror part was really well written. It was even rather scary in some places. I suspect that the next two books in the tetralogy will be better. There was supposed to be action/suspense, but I didn't think it ever got that exciting. The author isn't that great of a writer (I've heard from those who have read her stuff that in the later books her writing improves) but I found Elena's diary entries too angsty "I can't bear the thought of losing him","we didn't touch each other much-we didn't-but we talked and looked at each other a lot. I want to touch him. More than any boy I've ever known." There's also a point where the bad brother vampire Damon refers to Elena as a "beauteous damsel"-beauteous?? Ooh-you really seem scary now!!

Maybe if I had read these as a young teen, I would have enjoyed them. I just don't think Vampire Diaries has adult appeal. One good thing about reading this series is that I have even more appreciation for today's young adult literature. These books are the perfect example of why I didn't read YA when I was a teen! The Fury ( ISBN 978-0-06-199077-9) reveals that the Salvatore's former lover Katherine von Swartzchild was the evil force in Fell's Church and that she ran Elena off the bridge where Elena turned into a vampire. The Fury introduces Katherine as a villain with the plot revolving around a newly turned Elena trying to cope with the stresses of becoming a vampire. Stefan and Damon work together to try to stop Katherine, who has been possessing animals and killing people all around Fell's Church. Discovering Katherine's secret lair beneath the graveyard, Stefan, Damon and Elena fight her resulting in both Elena and Katherine's deaths. Elena is our spoiled, popular, idiotic MC.... and I hate her, she gets everything she ever wants! She has no compassion and is completely self absorbed - how is this different than any other teenage girl you ask? She is the embodiment of all that times ten!! I HATE her!!