Vampire Academy By Richelle Mead

I have just finished reading Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead and if I do say so myself, this book was a very interesting read. I have to praise Miss. Mead for keeping the suspense alive throughout the novel and toying with the idea of what a vampire is, which I created in my gothic novel, Dracula. I also admire her addition of “Dhamphirs” to the vampire genre and the names that she endowed these mystical creatures, like “Moroi” and “Strigoi”. I commend her various additions to the history of vampires that Van Helsing touched on when he was explaining the powers of a vampire to Jonathan and Mina Harker, Quincey Morris, Dr. Seward, and Lord Godalming. By adding the idea of a school for young vampires and their guardians, Miss. Mead opens the
genre to young adult readers that can relate more to the teenage characters than they could to my more mature and married characters. One thing that I found very interesting was the addition of “Dhamphirs,” which are guardians of Moroi vampires.
They are stronger and faster than the vampires they protect, and their strengths are made evident to the reader through similes used by Miss. Mead. This includes when she says, “.... they could move and strike like cobras. He knocked me off as though brushing away a fly, and his hands slammed into me and sent me backwards.” (Mead 10) By saying that the guardian could move like a cobra, it exhibits to the reader how strong and quick they are, like snakes, and creates a threatening image. The comparison to the protagonist, Rose, being swatted away at like, “a fly,” gives the reader the image of a very powerful hand that would be able to exhibit such force. Another enticing fact is that the Moroi vampires in this novel are mortal, which is extremely different to my novel because Dracula is supposed to be the most powerful “undead” creature walking the earth. Thus, this creates a large plot difference in our two novels, being that in Dracula, humans are attempting to stop the “undead” from causing havoc. In Vampire Academy, mortal vampires are the prey of the immortal “Strigoi” vampires. Miss.Mead is also able to successfully create a suspenseful atmosphere throughout the entirety of the book, similar to what I did by keeping the suspense alive using imagery and figurative language. One example of a suspenseful atmosphere is magnified through her use of the
repetition of the word, “they”:
“Rose….
what are we going to do if they catch us?” she whispered. “They won’t,” I said fiercely. “I won’t let them.” “But if they’ve found us--” “They found us before. They didn’t catch us then. We’ll just drive over to the train station and go to L.A. They’ll lose the trail.” (7)
In this way, Miss. Mead is able to successfully create a suspenseful atmosphere in this passage because the reader is unaware of who the “they” is that the characters are speaking of. This then builds tension for the reader and creates a sense of mystery. This is similar to the suspense I created when Jonathan Harker was trying to figure out what type of creature Dracula was and when also the reader did not know what was happening to
Lucy.
Another thing that was similar to my original idea of a vampire is the power of hypnotizing. This power is used in the novel by a female vampire, just like in Dracula, when Harker is hypnotized by the three women and when Arthur begins to be hypnotized by the vampire version of Lucy. “She smiled broadly and gazed directly into his eyes. For a moment, Jerry just stared, still confused, and then I saw the thrall seize him. His eyes glazed over, and he regarded her adoringly.” (6) The “smiled broadly”, “gazed directly into his eyes” can be connected to how the three female vampires used their wicked beauty to seduce Jonathan Harker so that they could feed from his blood. This has a similar effect on the innocent boy that is hypnotized, shown by the imagery of his, “eyes glazing over”, and how he, “regarded her adoringly.” But, instead of the second protagonist, Lissa, using this power for an evil act, she instead uses it to control her victim in order to escape from a threatening force, the Dhamphirs that are trying to take the two young women back to the Vampire Academy.
I think that this novel is very important to the vampire genre because it opens doors to the different traits and qualities that vampires can have, other than their thirst for blood. Vampire Academy gives vampires a more human feel and through this, Miss. Mead is better able to connect the characters to the young adults of today, creating relatable scenarios through the romantic relationships and the personal troubles of the characters. All in all, I thought that it was a very pleasurable read and I look forward to reading the next book in this series.