Review: Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead

Title: Vampire Academy

Series: Vampire Academy #1

Prequel story: Sunshine

Author: Richelle Mead

Genre: YA, paranormal romance

Publication date: August 2007

Published by: Razorbill

Source: Borrowed from library

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Synopsis:

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.

My rating: ★★★★☆
I’m not a big fan of vampire books, so I usually tend to stay away from them. And I know I sound like a hypocrite ‘cause I used to be a huge Twilight freak (don’t worry, that phase of my life has passed :P lol). But the fact that vampires drink human blood is what bothers me the most. And since the Cullen’s in Twilight were “vegetarians” and only drank animal blood, I was okay with that. Now let’s get one thing straight, it’s not that blood grosses me out or bothers me; I’m going into the medical field, so I obviously have to be okay around blood. In fact, I have seen a real life open heart surgery and a C-section (and by the way, both were totally awesome and an amazing experience), so no, blood is not a problem for me. I just don’t like that vampires need human blood to survive. *shivers* But that’s just my opinion :)

However, I was recommended this book and was told that it was a great series…so I agreed to read it. And much to my surprise, I actually liked it!!! :D

Let’s start off with some vampire terminology:

1. Moroi: born vampires, alive, mortal, and can do elemental magic (air, water, earth, fire). There are 12 Moroi families who are royalty.

2. Strigoi: undead, immortal, can do elemental magic no longer (which is why they cannot go into sunlight anymore), and they are made into vampires (2 different ways):
a. Strigoi can forcefully turn humans, dhampirs, or Moroi with a single bite.
b. A Moroi can be turned by choice if they purposely kill another person while feeding.

3. Dhampirs: half human, half vampire. Originally were born from Moroi mixing with humans. But dhampirs can’t reproduce with each other or humans…only with Moroi, resulting in dhampirs. Dhampirs are trained as guardians to protect Moroi from Strigoi.

Rose is a dhampir and best friend of Lissa, a Moroi. They ran away from St. Vladimir’s Academy (the boarding school for vampires they attended) because they felt like Lissa was in trouble. However, they were eventually found and returned to school. Bummer. Rose got in major trouble when she returned for running away from school with Lissa, who is also royalty :O Not only that, but Lissa might still be in trouble…uh-oh!

A few specific things I liked about the book:

1. Rose. She is one badass character! I really liked her. In a way she kinda reminded me of Faythe from the Shifters series by Rachel Vincent… they are both kind of reckless, they can take care of themselves as well as others, they are strong, and they can both kick serious butt. To sum it up, they are badass!

2. I really like surprising twists in a book, and this one didn’t disappoint. I was seriously confused throughout most of the book until the very end, that is :)

[I seriously never would have suspected Natalie to be the one who left all those dead animals for Lissa. You know what they say: they never suspect the quiet ones. And why she did that, because she knew that Lissa had the ability to heal. And her father Victor needed healing. It all makes perfect sense now! And omg! I didn’t even know there was a fifth element!! That’s how Lissa is able to heal and persuade people to do things. Wow.]

3. And believe it or not, all that school gossip. I truthfully cannot remember what it’s like being a high school student. And it’s not because I’m super old or anything, ‘cause I graduated from high school June 2010…so almost a year ago. My last two years of high school I was in this program called Running Start; I went took college classes at the college while still in high school. For both years I only had 2 classes at the high school and the rest were at the college. And I really missed having that normal high school experience. That’s why I like living it through books :) Don’t get me wrong, I don’t regret going to college at young age (if I remember correctly, I was 16), it was actually very helpful. Plus, sometimes I’m glad I didn’t have to deal with all that high school drama. But other times I think otherwise.

4. All the hot guys in the book ;) there were sooo many, oh boy, I don’t even know where to start, lol

5. The fact that Lissa has the ability to heal. If I were to have a super power, it would be that :)

But there were also some things I didn’t like:

1. The fact that Rose liked the vampire bite. Again, this is another thing that bothers me about vampire books. Vampire saliva is like a drug; it gets you all loopy and makes you feel insanely good. Don’t like that. Even Rose said that she didn’t like that, and that it was almost a dirty thing. See! lol

2. Because I really, really liked Christian…a lot, I hated how Rose treated him. Sure she wanted to protect Lissa, but she didn’t have to be so rude to Christian! WTF! I’m glad she changed her mind in the end though :)

3. I have heard about vampires who can manipulate people’s minds, you know, persuasion. But I didn’t like how in this book they called it ‘compulsion.’ Idk, it just sounds weird! I like persuasion better :P

Overall, it was a good book :) I will definitely be reading the rest of the series.

Have you read this book? If so, what did you think about it? If not, what do you think? Does it sound like something you might want to read? Leave me a comment! :)