Before I waded into the book, I did a quick wiki-tutorial on Moroi, Strigoi and Dhampirs.
As per the crib-notes,
MOROI = Good (and goodlooking) mortal vampires.
STRIGOI = Bad (also goodlooking but with a red ring of evil in their eyes that dampens down the hormones) immortal vampires.
DAMPHIRS = offspring of Moroi fathers and human mothers (quite a sight for sore-eyes too). They serve as Guardians for the Moroi who are under constant threat from the seemingly infallible Strigoi.
Book One in the Vampire Academy Series introduces us to two teenage girls:Vasilisa (Lissa) Dragomir, a royal Moroi and her best friend, Rosemarie (Rose) Hathaway who is a dhampir and a soon-to-be-Guardian. Certain bizarre and unexplainable incidents had forced the two girls to flee St. Vladimir's Academy. But now, after two years of running free, the two girls have been forcibly escorted back to the Academy. It’s time to get back their lost social standing....break a few more hearts....indulge in a tad more dangerous activities and generally try to keep themselves sane and alive as they go about their daily supernatural classes. Amidst the doses of bitchiness and downright nastiness that the duo face at regular intervals, they also have to deal with certain darker secrets. Secrets that should best remain hidden....secrets, that if revealed, would at the very least make Lissa a social pariah and at the most, be the cause of her untimely death.
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Vampire Academy adopts the middle ground between being:
a) Light Years ahead of *Twilight*
b) Miles to reach the supreme sheer unadulterated awesomeness of the wholly perfect offering that was *Buffy The Vampire Slayer*.
I liked the fact that the story was told from Rose’s POV. A smart-talking, forever-flirting, talking-with-her-fists-first kind of narrator is preferable to the waif-like, milksop voice of Lissa. Rose is the quintessential lean, mean, fighting-machine. She’s all tough-girl clichés rolled into a promising package. The fact that she’s blessed with a curvy body and a healthy helping of rampant hormones never makes her retract from her main aim in life : To protect Lissa and eventual become her official Guardian. Tall, long-haired and super-ripped Guardian Dimitri Belikov makes a believable love-interest for Rose. Despite the fact that the author made the sappy error of calling him “Death in a Cowboy Duster”, he still came across as your everyday, likeable, superamped bodyguard with-a-past. He did mouth a couple of syrupy lines that made me do an *eye-roll* but also, I’m ashamed to admit, made me go 'aww' inside my head.
Another aspect that I enjoyed was the effortless incorporation of vampire myths into the ever-churning teen drama. The tale of St.Vladimir and his shadow-kissed Anna was worked in nicely into the chaos that surrounds Rose and Lissa.
My only grouse is that the fighting-fit Rose should have been given more Buffy-style-punch-and-stake action time. But then again, with five more books in the series, I guess there will be enough opportunities to put ye oldesilver stake to noble use.
Vampire Academy wasn’t a book that I loved but neither was it a book that made me cringe. The story flows at an even pace. The fledgling romances are interesting enough to light a flicker of interest. And the promise of impending action is sufficient to make me head out and grab the sequel.
“Aren’t fairy godmothers supposed to be nice and make you feel better about yourself?”
“No, you’re confusing fairy godmothers with sales clerks.”
And that’s Fairy Fair Godmother Chrysanthemum (Chrissy) Everstarfor you. A self-absorbed, mall-scouring, gum-chewing teen Godmother who doesn’t believe in sugar coating the pill. It would have helped if Chrissy had the intelligence and the maturity to back the tough-love. Sadly, it isn't so. There’s a reason why she’s called a “fair” godmother. It has nothing to do with her undoubtedly alabaster complexion and everything to do with the fact that she’s an average student at Fairy Godmother School who botches up her assignments on a regular basis.
So what happens when a slightly ditzy godmother gets assigned an equally ditzy charge?
Say hello to said ditzy charge: Savannah Delano. Despite being one of the prettiest, most popular and obviously not-so-smartest girls in high school, Savannah has to go through the unexpected heartbreak of having her buff boyfriend ditch her in favour of her elder, plainer and quite-a-good-deal sharper sister, Jane. In a fit of despair and in the aftermath of snarfing down too many complex-carbs, she wonders whether she will meet a “Prince of a Guy” who will escort her to the upcoming prom. (Un)luckily enough for Savannah, she is Chrissy’s next assignment. The “I’m –getting-late-to-plunder- the-mall-and-bat-my-lashes-at-hunky-elves” godmother grants the broken-hearted girl three wishes. Whether it’s an inability on Savannah’s part to articulate her deepest desires or it’s sheer negligence on Chrissy’s part, but the three precious wishes go awry. Big Time.
Soon, Savannah finds herself zapped into the middle-ages as she searches for her Prince Charming. She does a bit of unwilling time-travel as she finds herself first as Cinderella, second as Snow White and third, in a dangerous situation of having to rescue a fellow student, Tristan who got transported to medieval times, courtesy Chrissy’s godmotherly shenanigans.
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*Reasons why I loved this book*
1)The protagonist : Kudos to the author for making readers root for the much-loathed cliché of high-school literature – *The Popular Girl*. The perfectly coiffed, super-hot girl who leaves her rather uptight sister in the shadows more often than not gets her comeuppance as the plot proceeds. That’s the way the world rights it’s axis. After years of ardently supporting the wise-cracking underdog, I never thought that I would appreciate a supposedly vacuous bimbo so much. Savannah is a refreshing YA-lit heroine who is the perfect example of superficiality shielding a kind heart.
2)The (is he/isn't he) love-interest : Tristan is the stuff of teen dreams. He is the kind of hero that makes Tumblr. loyalists go into a creative frenzy as they whip up gooey animated gifs devoted to his awesomeness. Shaggy blonde hair, light blue eyes,wicked sense of humour and a willingness to slay the odd ogre/dragon/unwelcome suitor. What more could a relatively heart-whole teenager ask for?
3)Dialogue : My Fairy Fair Godmother has some of the freshest lines to be churned out by a YA-Lit author in a long time . The repartee is crisp, funny and flows with an ease borne of familiarity with teen banter. The author, blessed with five children has used all the dinner-table quips and retorts to effective use.
4)Putting the GRIMm back in Fairy Tales : Rallison’s analyses of the medieval lasses and their seemingly perfect love stories is hilarious. Why didn’t the storytellers of yore ever mention that a Prince had to be more than just handsome, sinewy-armed and broad-shouldered? Why didn’t the old tales ever remember that the middle-ages came unequipped with basic hygiene and creature comforts? The author knocks off the rose-colored glasses with a sassy twitch of her wand and has you chuckling at the real-truth behind doe-eyed (and sadly, dim-witted) maids from the Middle-Ages.
To reiterate, I was truly enchanted by this fairy tale. It tackled stereotypes, employed witticisms effectively, had a sweet love-story waiting to happen and had all the trappings of a first-class adventure.
Read the book and come away with a huge smile etched across your face.
Before I waded into the book, I did a quick wiki-tutorial on Moroi, Strigoi and Dhampirs.
