Review of The Vampire Diaries by Greek 4 Cheerful

I decided to post this review, because I feel it's insightful and honest. I met Greek4Cheerful on Twitter and as you can tell by her post it wasn't on the most friendliest terms. Now we have a great tweetship that I really adore. She's not to keen on Nina Dobrev playing Elena, because according to her there's a lack of emotion. I beg to differ, with any new series it may take a cast member a minute to settle. I wasn't sure about Nina until episode 2 when she was able to show some emotional range. I was willing to give her a chance, because I like her other works including "Too Young to Marry", "The Poet", and "Fugitive Pieces", so I wasn't giving up that easily. Also, the chemistry between her and Paul (Stefan) only solidified that opinion. Hopefully, as the season progresses I can nudge her in favor of Team Nina! Review below and feel free to leave comments. BTW..her blog is highly entertaining so make sure you stop by.

The Vampire Diaries
December 18, 2009

Well it was only a matter of time before I checked out The Vampire Diaries…being the vamp obsessed freak that I am. And while my first opinion was not very good of the show, it was also not very fair. I had made up my mind not to like it before watching it. I thought for sure it was a Twilight rip off- until someone pointed out to me that it was actually written first. After learning that, I decided I had definitely rushed to judgment and should watch the show a few more times.

A few more times??? Yeah right! One more episode and I was hooked like a crack fiend. My new addiction couldn’t have come at a better or worse time. Better because of the marathon that’s been airing this week, worse because the show is on hiatus until Jan 21rst- when it will return with new episodes.

The marathon has been great, being a new fan of the show I’ve been able to see it from the beginning so I’m up to speed on what’s going on. I have watched every night and at the end of every hour I just want more. The cast is amazing, I don’t think the characters could be portrayed any better. Casting Paul Wesley and Ian Somerhalder as Stefan and Damon Salvatore was pure genius. The only cast member I’m not completely in love with is Nina Dobrev. I’m not sure she was the best pick to play the lead role of Elena Gilbert. Nina is beautiful, sexy and fun… but when it comes to drama I just want to smack her so I can see some real emotion. However, I’m reserving judgment for now because even the cast of FRIENDS had a rough first season so I’m hopeful she will improve. The shows writers are also great, there’s a good mix of drama and humor with even a few jabs at Twilight- (simmer down Twihards I’m one of you and I still found it funny!)

Crack addict looking for a fix….

After only a few episodes I decided I had to get the book by L.J. Smith. I bought a book containing the first 2 books in The Vampire Diaries series, The Awakening and The Struggle. I couldn’t put it down, I read it in about 2 days and have been going stir crazy to get the other one! (Which I’m getting tomorrow) I am a huge fiction dork and have to admit to loving teen and young adult books even though I’m 29 years old. I thought Twilight was amazing, I loved the entire series and The Vampire Diaries is just as good and in some ways better. Better because the story has just as much substance packed into a shorter book and better because as much as I love- and I do mean LOVE- Edward Cullen we didn’t need the constant reminder of how great he was- to remember how great he was- and those reminders took up a majority of all four books. Don’t get me wrong I still love Twilight- Hey there’s room for both. I was just surprised at how much I loved The Vampire Diaries.

I’m going to cut this off before I start debating which is better The Vampire Diaries or Twilight and I can tell that’s where this is heading. And no one wants to read a debate I would be having with myself!

To sum it all up- It’s official…. I love The Vampire Diaries.

*Update*

So I got the next 2 books in the series and I take it all back! The series is not as good as Twilight. LJ Smith took a wrong turn somewhere and I think the story fell apart. It’s amazing how much better the story is on the show, I usually prefer the book but not in this case.