Vampire Diaries - A Book Review

Over the summer I purchased Vampires Diaries. Being a book reviewer there was never time to get to it. This weekend I picked it up and finished The Awakening and The Struggle.

This is the first time I have read a book after seeing the movie (or in this case TV show on CW). The book of course is better but I like the show too.

There are many differences between the book and the show.

In the Awakening, the first volumn of the series we meet Elena Gilbert (in the book she is blonde). Elena is the popular girl at school. We meet Matt, Bonnie and Caroline who is someone we wouldn't be friends with now but we know her since we were children.

When new student Stefan comes to school, Elena is very interested. He is attractive and doesn't react to her looks the way the rest of the boys in school always have.

She soon discovers that he is tortured vampire with a historic past. He and his brother Damon both loved the same women "Katherine" and when asked to choose between the two of them she turned them both into vampires so that they could all be together forever. The brothers fought over her which promoted her to kill herself by exposing herself to the sun. Stefan and his brother kill each other in a sword fight. Because of Katherine's blood they wake in the family crypt and spend the rest of their lives hating and avoiding each other.

Stefan is a self hating vampire who tries to fight his urge to feed on humans and feeds on animals instead while Damon loves his new self and relishes in the kill, his strength and skills.


Elena and Stefan are in love but when the town accuses him of murder he leaves.

Elena heads out in search of Damon who she feels is behind the murder.

In The Struggle, Damon wants Elena for himself and will stop at nothing to have including murdering his brother. AGAIN!

Damon tells Elena that he killed Stefan. Bonnie, who has psychic abilities has a vision and says she sees Stefan in water. They believe he must be under the bridge but upon checking he is not there. Matt tells them it sounds like he is in a well. When they find Stefan is is dying. Elena forces him to feed from her for strength.

Damon enters Elenas house and though protected by Bovein she lets him feed from her to protect her sister Margaret (yes in the book she has a sister not a brother named Jeremy). They exchange blood!

Like Katherine so many years ago, Elena is now tied to the Salvatore brothers by blood.

One night during a storm Elena feels something evil is coming for her. She gets into her car and tries to outrun it. As she is crossing the bridge her car goes off into the river and she drowns.

With Salvatore blood running through her veins she too become a vampire.

The books are funny and I can hear the characters from the show talking. They have picked the perfect cast to play the characters in the book. I can totally see the Damon character from the book and the one on TV as the same.

I can't wait to get the other books to see how it ends.

Anyone who loves Twilight will appreciate Vampire Diaries. BTW...I wish the show talked more about the Diaries, sometimes I forget the reason for the name.