Vampires are the new black.

In the main lobby of my dorm room there were all these bins to recycle and donate things at the end of the school year. One small bin was full of books. I looked through it in hopes of finding a freebie of something that looked interesting. They were all crap. I, of course, still managed to walk away with something: The Vampire Diaries: The Awakening by L.J. Smith. I didn't really have any expectations for it. All I knew about it was that it had been turned into a somewhat popular television show. This was published in 1991 and I can guarantee that Stephanie Meyer has read this book. The vampire hottie is the frigid Stefan who lives off of animals and avoids the beautiful Elena like the plague because of how attracted to her he secretly is. Not that I'm saying this formula (without the vampires) hasn't been used many times before Smith, but these specifics certainly do bear a resemblance to the beginning of Twilight. The main character, Elena, is about as likable as Bella, but for different reasons. While Bella has absolutely no self worth or personality, Elena is a typically shallow, pretty, popular girl. Initially her main goal in dating Stefan is just that she thinks she is entitled to any attractive boy that she sees because of her good looks and charm. I don't need to put any kind of plot summary for this book, because I promise that you know what happens. I guess that this kind of book could be appealing to someone young and new to the genre, but I get tired of reading books that I've pretty much already read. It's hard to create anything that is completely original, but no matter how typical the basic plot of a story is, it can always be turned into something great if it's told in a unique way or has characters that are fully developed and interesting.

I ask too much of the world.