(Book and After-read Movie Review) Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead

Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead

Series: Vampire Academy #1

Release date: December 13th 2013

Publisher: Razorbill

Page: 352

Source: Bought (paperback)

The story that kicked off the international #1 bestselling Vampire Academyseries is NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE. The official movie tie-in edition includes exclusive movie cover art and the official movie poster inside. Read it before it hits theaters on Valentine's Day, 2014!

Lissa Dragomir is a Moroi princess: a mortal vampire with a rare gift for harnessing the earth's magic. She must be protected at all times from Strigoi; the fiercest vampires--the ones who never die. The powerful blend of human and vampire blood that flows through Rose Hathaway, Lissa's best friend, makes her a Dhampir. Rose is dedicated to a dangerous life of protecting Lissa from Strigoi, who are hell-bent on making Lissa one of them.

After two years of freedom, Rose and Lissa are caught and dragged back to St. Vladimir’s Academy, where vampire royalty and their guardians-to-be prepare for a life fraught with danger. Rose and Lissa must navigate their treacherous world and never once let their guard down, lest the evil undead make Lissa one of them forever. But soon Rose finds herself gripped by temptation of forbidden love, leaving Lissa exposed to Strigoi attack.... Now she must choose between the best friend she lives for, and the man she can't live without.

BOOK REVIEW
I don't even know why I never had the urge to start reading this before, because this book is effing awesome. I never hated vampires, even when Twilight appeared and practically ruined it for me. Not that interesting, don't love it, but I still love vampires nevertheless. And this book is a whole new world of vampires!

In the world of Vampire Academy, there are three kinds of vampires; Moroi, the good vampires who (still feed on blood) could use magic and walk below the sun light, the Strigoi, the bad vampires who are immortal, love to kill, and not that attractive, and there are Dhampir, the bad-ass Moroi guardian, half Moroi. Lissa Dragomir and Rose Hathaway had always been best friends, but that's not all. They had a bond, Rose could literally feel and see what's happening with Lissa. And that's quite convenient since Rose is Lissa's (not yet officially) assigned guardian, and Lissa is also the Moroi princess and the last of the Dragomirs. After two years of freedom, the academy (where Moroi and Dhampir resides) finally found them and dragged them back home. Unfortunately, their so called home was not as safe as they thought it would be.

Rose Hathaway is what I am looking for in a YA heroine. Love her. It was because of Rose (and Zoey Deutch perhaps) that, after I finished watching the movie, I finally started reading this book. Rose is not that experienced in fighting, but she's still bad-ass. And also sexy at the same time (I'm straight btw). I definitely love her relationship with Dimitri, her strong, hot, and sweet mentor. But perhaps this book could use more sightings of Dimitri (Or maybe it's just me with my daily-fictional-guy-character crush). Oh! and I love Lissa and Christian too, they are so meant to be together.

I could actually picture how this book would be if the main character and pov is Lissa. You know, the most important person in the story. Most main characters on a paranormal novel usually end up being in the middle, either being on a prophecy (and change the world) or in the middle of a love triangles between a vampire and werewolf (I didn't mean to drag Twilight, because the two books is not similar at all) or anything. And how Richelle Mead chose Rose as the narrator is one of the reasons why I love this book. It was different and exciting! The writing style? two thumbs up! "first person pov all the way" is my motto, enough said.

Overall, I AM IN LOVE. In caps. I am so reading the next book asap.

Rating:
5 EYES OPEN (5/5)

AFTER-READ MOVIE REVIEW

So I watched the movie a while ago (a few days ago actually) andfell in love. I never thought that Vampire Academy is such an exciting story. I knew then that I really need to read the book. 

I watched this movie without knowing anything about the world of  Vampire Academy. I knew nothing of Moroi, Dhampir, or Strigoi. But now that I knew, I thought the movie explained it all well. There are lots of changes happening from the book to the movie, but I understand that you couldn't make it exactly like the book, or it would be too long and boring. But there's no exaggeration when I said that the movie is at least 70 % different than the book. More jokes, more kisses... I'm not complaining. The book and the movie was like an un-identical twins. That's what. At least the important points of the story are there, and the outcome is the same.

I thought the casts was perfect. Well, now that I've read the book, I couldn't picture Kirova as this stunning woman, but that doesn't really effect the story. I had seen Danila Kozlovsky as Dimitri, and I can't picture anyone else. I thought he's a bit too bulky at first but then, he's so cute and sweet that I just could not resist him, damn. Same with Zoey Deutch, Lucy Fry, and Dominic Sherwood (argh perfect male specimen). They are all such amazing actors.

I'm not going to rate it, since I'm not use to rating movies (what kind of reason is that?) but all I'm going to say is that, I totally enjoyed this movie, almost as much as I enjoyed the book. You people who never read the book would understand (and most likely fell in love with the series) the story, and that is big for a book-adapted movie. Love it. And I am definitely buying the illustrated movie companion asap. Yes, I love it that much.