The Awakening & The Struggle (Vampire Diaries Books 1-2) - Teen Vampire Romance Novels for Young Adults | Perfect for Fantasy Lovers & Supernatural Fiction Readers

I've loved this series since i was a child, l.j. smith's were the first books i picked up as a kid when buffy came out and i got into my vampire phase. this series is like mental comfort food for me even now. for a YA book, the characters are all remarkably well developed, and the atmosphere is wonderfully dark for a teen's book.many people are complaining that they had trouble relating to elena when the series starts, but the point of the book series is that elena starts out as a shallow, selfish teenage girl much like katherine had been several hundred years before her. but elena makes different choices and grows into a person who realizes what's really important during the course of the novel. in a way, other characters wind up struggling with similar issues... bonnie with what her newfound powers mean, matt with losing someone he loved, etc. stefan and damon are both sterotypes at first but manage to become slightly less so once we've gotten to know them. both are also struggling with various issues... and versions of those issues are what confront teens every day."i really want to do something, even though i know it's wrong." or "what's really important in life? clothes, popularity, and status? or something else?" "what's the point of continuing to do the right things and be a good person if bad things still happen in the world?" those are some of the things the characters struggle with in this series, and their answers and experiences change them. that's one of the things i like best about this series. no character is black or white, and none of them stay 100% the same throughout the novels. it makes them much more interesting than the characters in a certain other vampire series i could name.damon is absolutely my favorite character, and one of the more well developed villains in a YA series. he doesn't come off quite as awesome in the tv. series, although i think somerholder's doing a decent job. this story is very different from the TV series... the appearance of the main characters, the origin of the salvatore brothers, and even the name of the town have been changed. if you're looking for something exactly like the show, you'll be disappointed, but if you keep an open mind, it's a good series, and the personalities of most of the characters are the same, except what i mentioned before, that elena starts out selfish and grows up.