Book Review: Vampire Academy

Vampire Academy

Author: Richelle Mead

Publish Date: August 2007

Publisher: Penguin Group

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. (Goodreads)

Vampires are the hot new raving sensation. With that being said reading one of the “mainstream” paranormal books was apprehensive at best. Upon picking up this book the expectations were low simply because of what it was about.

The locale is rather generic. A boarding school that’s protected in the middle of nowhere is the standard for most paranormal boarding schools. With the exception of a few there was nothing really original about the location. It was overall, pretty boring in its regularity. 

If the locale is bland Rose is hot sauce. There’s nothing bland about her. She’s devout and fiercely protective of what should be her charge. She’s also sarcastic to a fault and a fuddy duddy at heart if one can manage to reach it behind the wall of steel and the poison of her viperous tongue. 

The story moves along at a decent speed. It’s not rushed but at the same time it does feel a little laggy in places. There are areas where the information doesn’t make any amount of sense until later in the book. About halfway through the book I just from the occurrences I potentially guessed the pathway of the series. It’s not particularily canny about where it’s going but there’s enough twist that the road is interestingly enough to keep reading. 

Overall it’s an average book. It doesn’t have anything that would stand out and scream flamboyant. It’s a comfortable book. There’s no real rush yet, nor any super huge threat, yet. As the first in a pretty long series, I imagine this book is just for laying the groundwork and it picks up shortly. 

My Rating: