Well, since The Vampire Diaries is a rerun tonight, why not post something related?
In the grand winter hiatus (ok, well, the last two weeks), I decided that I needed a Vampire Diaries fix. So I decided to do something outright crazy.
I decided to read.
So I got my hands on the Vampire Diaries book series. Now, I had read L.J. Smith before. Way back in middle school, I actually had read her series about witches: The Secret Circle. So not only was I looking into something TV-related, I was going back to someone I had read in the past.
The books (so far, as I still have two to go) are good. I will say one thing: If you’re a fan of Vampire Diaries, you will not be rereading episodes in these books. They’re very different. Some things I like, others I don’t.
The biggest point is that I really like Elena of the series more than in the book. I can’t quite pinpoint why. There’s a physical discrepancy: Elena of the book is stark blonde, and while I have heard that was a reason one of my friends wouldn’t watch the series, it didn’t bother me. It was more in the character herself.
In the series, we have a moderately broken Elena. She still suffers from her mother’s death, and she has an aunt that can’t quite handle all the parenting, so she has to care for her brother. Not so in the book. Elena’s parents died quite a while ago, and her aunt is quite responsible. And her brother? Well, Jeremy is actually a four-year-old sister named Margaret–aka, not in the book. That aside, I think not having this softer backstory makes Elena’s hard-headedness in the book a little less appealing than we see in the show. I empathize with her less, even if I’m still rooting for her ultimately.
In fact, I’d have to admit that many of the characters are different. Tyler is much darker. Bonnie is actually a Celtic rehead. Caroline is just a horrible b*tch. Meredith isn’t even on the show, but she’s pretty one-dimensional anyway.
Damon and Stefan are actually from the Italian Renaissance, not Civil War Virginia. It gives them a more mysterious and unaccessible look, but beyond that, Damon and Stefan are the same. Well, Stefan is a little more Edward Cullen than I’d like. He lacks the depth of Damon, but the book two cliffhanger sure makes you rethink where he’s headed.
The books are definitely keeping my attention but plotline by plotline, I prefer the show. However, if the show is slowly ganging up to reveal what the end of book two is really telling us, we’ve got a fantastic build for the series (and I can’t wait to see where it’s going).
One thing that the book does have over the series is the undeniable force between Elena and Stefan. Compared to the book, what you’re seeing on the show is puppy love. It’s pretty heavy stuff (as much as it can be, considering that it’s a young adult book), and it surprises me to see that Elena and Stefan are actually sharing blood between the two of them–to show their devotion for each other. Perhaps that’s something that we’ll be seeing in the series…
Damon’s power is also much more threatening, and I’d love to see that become something more.
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