Vampire Academy

Vampire Academy (Vampire Academy, Bk 1)
By Richelle Mead
Razorbill, 2007. 332 pages. Young Adult

Rose and Lissa are best friends and have been on the run from St. Vladimir’s Academy for several years. Lissa is a Moroi vampire princess and orphan. Rose is a dhampir guardian (half-human, half-vampire), and is psychically linked to Lissa. When Rose and Lissa are forced to return to their school they must contend with regular class work in addition to vampire politics and death threats. Rose is assigned a dhampir mentor named Dimitri who helps her learn to fight the Strigoi. Dimitri, a stoic Russian, happens to be handsome, a brutal fighter, and only a handful of years older than Rose. Rose finds herself attracted and fascinated by her teacher. Rose help Lissa temper her mercurial moods while Lissa deals with her emerging vampire gifts.

As I started this novel I felt I had missed something because Mead doesn’t give any back information as to why Rose and Lissa are not at St. Vladimir’s Academy. Also, Mead starts writing the novel without much explanation about Morois, Dhampirs, and Strigois, the different types of mortal and immortal vampires and half-vampires in her world. The explanations eventually do come. Nevertheless, the setting blends contemporary and fantasy worlds seamlessly. Mead’s writing is strong and the reader is compelled to make a judgment about Rose, the primary character. She leaps off the page as a loyal friend but flawed and impulsive teenager. She is an anti-Bella, intensely aggressive and proactive in her actions. This is an edgier vampire teen read, with both vulgar language and sexual situations.

ALC