Book Review: The Awakening by L.J. Smith

This was the cover of the version I read. According to Goodreads, the eBook page count is 272. My version of the ebook claimed it was 149 and, if my memory serves me right, I'd scroll through pages twice before it'd switch. So for all I'd know, it could be 272 pages if you count doubles. Also, my version had 16 chapters opposed to 17... I may have missed something there but just about every other version I found had the same issue (with the exception of the Barnes and Noble eBook sample).

For those of you who haven't heard of the Vampire Diaries--which really who hasn't heard of it with the CW's rendition of the series?--the Awakening is the first book in the series. The Awakening is about a girl, Elena Gilbert, trying to woo a vampire-that-only-the-reader-knows, Stephan Salvatore. The first half of the novel is spent with Elena trying to get Stephan into a relationship and the second half is their subsequent trials as a couple. There's supposed to be a 'love triangle' in it between Elena, Stephan and Stephan's elder brother.

First off, I'd like to say that I really disliked this version of Elena: she's cold, cares little about the people around her and only about herself. Matt said something along the lines of 'you want everyone and everything to revolve around Elena.' I agree. I really couldn't get into Elena and because of that, my mantra was 'it'll get better.' It did but I felt like I was forcing myself to finish. Luckily, it felt like a quick read in comparison to all the other novels that I had to tell myself that.

When I first started reading the Awakening, I decided to read a few chapters then watch a few episodes of the CW show based off the series, The Vampire Diaries. I know the book series and the show only share characters and the basis of the novels. Everything else is different. I also vastly liked the show Elena more than the book Elena.

Aside from my issues with book Elena, I had a few others. For example, from the synopsis available on Goodreads, I really didn't see much of a romance between Elena and Damon. Yeah, he managed to distort her mind into forgetting her insta-love with Stephan but I felt no real 'romance' between them. Same with Stephan and any other boy Elena came into contact with. At first she's romantically involved with Matt but breaks it off after she lays eyes on dark brooding Stephan Salvatore. She ultimately breaks it off with Matt and tries going after Stephan, breaking Matt's heart in the process.

As for Elena's friends, I liked Meredith. Maybe it was her snarkiness or the fact that she was blunt and level headed that made me like her but I did. I though Bonnie was a very random character. Yes she moved the plot forward when it was getting slow but her visions and obsession with her druid ancestors was just random. Caroline--even though she wasn't necessarily a 'friend' in the books--just kinda dropped off the face of the Earth after Elena and Stephan became 'official.'

A few friends who I mentioned that I was about to start reading it mentioned that it was 'better than Twilight' and 'Twilight before Twilight.' I agree on both cases but the former won by a very slim chance. I do see a few similarities between the two (human girl has insta-love connection with vampire boy, human is hunted by evil vampire) and I did 'enjoy' reading the Awakening. In comparison to Twilight, I set the book down 13 chapters through because it was going nowhere then, after a year, I finished it and it started getting better after that 13th chapter. The Awakening was entertaining up until some of the last chapters and, the only reason why I finished it, was because it was 10 or so pages until the end.

What I did like about Smith's vampires was that they: a.) didn't sparkle and b.) burned in the sunlight. THAT is the vampire that I know--and love. I also liked that they wore 'amulets' to hinder the sun's adverse effects on them. I also liked the magic aspect in the story--though Bonnie's random visions and strange 'spells' were a little well... strange and random. Despite that, it was nice reading a vampire book with more than... well... vampires and werewolves.

Keeping to 'Goodreads standards' (seeing as I'll be posting this to Goodreads shortly), I'd rate it two stars out of five. It was okay. Not terrible and not amazing. I'm not sure if I want to continue the series after this though. Time to move on to a different series because this series is not for me.