Sign in with Facebook
Giulia's Reviews > Vampire Academy
Vampire Academy (Vampire Academy, #1)
by
by
Giulia's review
bookshelves: young-adult, vampires, hated-the-mc, annoying-characters, hell-to-the-no, i-didnt-like-it, the-hype-is-a-liar, perhaps-i-fell-asleep, fantasy
Nov 04, 2015
bookshelves: young-adult, vampires, hated-the-mc, annoying-characters, hell-to-the-no, i-didnt-like-it, the-hype-is-a-liar, perhaps-i-fell-asleep, fantasy
This is a negative review. If you enjoyed the book, that's great! Sadly, I didn't, so please respect my opinion as I will respect yours.
THE RANT BEGINS.
Chapter One. We're presented with a pretty confusing situation, without knowing who's who and what is going on (I almost thought I had by mistake picked up the sequel, because it felt like I was missing out on something.) But at least we have what seems like a kick-ass main character, Rose, and a strong female friendship between her and Lisa, so I was like:
Then a mildly interesting premise suddenly turns into high school drama and terrible writing, so I was like:
Things keep getting worse, because Rose is acting like the spoiled thirteen-year-old we've all been (despite her being what, seventeen?), thinking she's tough shit and that insulting authority figures, being rude and punching people in the face whenever they disagree with her is the best course of action. So, while trying really hard to be a badass, she ends up looking like an immature brat, and I was like:
By this point I had almost forgotten about the whole vampire thing, because the book was basically a cheaper version of Mean Girls, with a lot of slut-shaming, girl-on-girl hate and most characters just being juvenile and stupid, so I was like:
But then I thought, come on Jun, there must be a reason why so many people love this book... You can't give up just yet! because, apparently, I really hate myself. A lot of nonsensical things happened: dead animals started to turn up everywhere, Rose was more annoying than ever, some high school hierarchy bullshit, more girl-on-girl hate, a boring love interest that treated Rose like a misbehaving child (which she was, but I still wanted to slap him for it)... and by then I was about to fall asleep.
Enter a rushed and underwhelming ending, and boring characters being more boring than usual. On top of stupidity, internalized sexism and a plot that consisted solely on young girls hating on each other, and on boys calling them names and being generally awful, add some horrible writing and a fucking weird pacing that made me want to DNF the book at least every two pages. The hype is A LIAR. I will not be continuing this series.
(2016 read)
THE RANT BEGINS.
Chapter One. We're presented with a pretty confusing situation, without knowing who's who and what is going on (I almost thought I had by mistake picked up the sequel, because it felt like I was missing out on something.) But at least we have what seems like a kick-ass main character, Rose, and a strong female friendship between her and Lisa, so I was like:
Then a mildly interesting premise suddenly turns into high school drama and terrible writing, so I was like:
Things keep getting worse, because Rose is acting like the spoiled thirteen-year-old we've all been (despite her being what, seventeen?), thinking she's tough shit and that insulting authority figures, being rude and punching people in the face whenever they disagree with her is the best course of action. So, while trying really hard to be a badass, she ends up looking like an immature brat, and I was like:
By this point I had almost forgotten about the whole vampire thing, because the book was basically a cheaper version of Mean Girls, with a lot of slut-shaming, girl-on-girl hate and most characters just being juvenile and stupid, so I was like:
But then I thought, come on Jun, there must be a reason why so many people love this book... You can't give up just yet! because, apparently, I really hate myself. A lot of nonsensical things happened: dead animals started to turn up everywhere, Rose was more annoying than ever, some high school hierarchy bullshit, more girl-on-girl hate, a boring love interest that treated Rose like a misbehaving child (which she was, but I still wanted to slap him for it)... and by then I was about to fall asleep.
Enter a rushed and underwhelming ending, and boring characters being more boring than usual. On top of stupidity, internalized sexism and a plot that consisted solely on young girls hating on each other, and on boys calling them names and being generally awful, add some horrible writing and a fucking weird pacing that made me want to DNF the book at least every two pages. The hype is A LIAR. I will not be continuing this series.
(2016 read)
Sign into Goodreads to see if any of your friends have read
Vampire Academy.
Sign In »
Reading Progress
November 4, 2015
– Shelved
November 4, 2015
– Shelved as:
to-read
February 22, 2016
–
Started Reading
February 23, 2016
–
33.0%
"This book is just sooo average. I do like Christian though. I mean... he just set someone on fire, so he seems like my kind of guy."
February 24, 2016
–
39.0%
"This Dimitri guy is kind of a self-righteous dick. Who the hell does he think he is, calling Rose "cheap"???"
February 24, 2016
–
60.0%
"It's getting worse... This book screams "internalized sexism" from a thousand miles."
February 27, 2016
– Shelved as:
young-adult
February 27, 2016
– Shelved as:
vampires
February 27, 2016
–
Finished Reading
February 29, 2016
– Shelved as:
hated-the-mc
February 29, 2016
– Shelved as:
annoying-characters
February 29, 2016
– Shelved as:
hell-to-the-no
February 29, 2016
– Shelved as:
i-didnt-like-it
March 14, 2016
– Shelved as:
the-hype-is-a-liar
April 19, 2016
– Shelved as:
perhaps-i-fell-asleep
June 7, 2024
– Shelved as:
fantasy
Comments Showing 1-50 of 53 (53 new)
message 1:
by
Dorothy
(new)
-
rated it 5 stars
Feb 29, 2016 12:37PM
As someone who loves the series, I respect your opinion. :) I had a hard time getting into the first book the first time I read it. However, I love it now because of the character development down the road in the series. But! We can't all love everything, that would get boring :)
reply
|
flag
Dorothy wrote: "As someone who loves the series, I respect your opinion. :) I had a hard time getting into the first book the first time I read it. However, I love it now because of the character development down ..."Thank you, Dorothy! :) I've heard the books get better and better, but I disliked this one so strongly that I don't think I will continue reading the series. However, even people who didn't like VA seem to have enjoyed its spin-off series, Bloodlines. Have you read it? I'm not sure if I should give it a try...
Giulia (Jun) wrote: "Dorothy wrote: "As someone who loves the series, I respect your opinion. :) I had a hard time getting into the first book the first time I read it. However, I love it now because of the character d..."I think Bloodlines is the true genious! Maybe VA was just the preparation for that greatness. Read it, YOU WON`T BE DISAPPOINTED! It`s funny, it`s smart, it`s classy and sexy. I adore it! And Sydney is my bae. SHE IS SO DIFFERENT from Rose in so many wonderful ways, I just adore her.
Nessy wrote: "Giulia (Jun) wrote: "Dorothy wrote: "As someone who loves the series, I respect your opinion. :) I had a hard time getting into the first book the first time I read it. However, I love it now becau..."Oh, that makes me feel much better about the series! Thank you, Nessy :) So I don't need to read the whole VA series in order to understand what's going on in Bloodlines?
Giulia (Jun) wrote: "Nessy wrote: "Giulia (Jun) wrote: "Dorothy wrote: "As someone who loves the series, I respect your opinion. :) I had a hard time getting into the first book the first time I read it. However, I lov..."Oh, sweetie. You do. Trust me, I passionately hate Rose and her beloved Dimitri EVEN MORE, (I mean, most boring character ever) BUT VA does get a lot better. It`s just that I learned to ignore and cope with Rose as a main lead. You just have to choose to concentrate on her sense of humor and devotion to her friends than on the side that is too stupid to live.
VA sets up the world for Bloodlines perfectly. It IS, in fact, a very awesome series, which I love to talk about. Aside from Rose, the other members of the Squad are just FANTASTIC! Trust in Lissa and Christian! And in others that I do not want to spoil. They make it up for everything. There is lots of awesome humour, teamwork, action and just light mood. But there are some serious parts that are so intense that I was legitimately scared.
My advice is: Start reading VA Book 2 - Frostbite. Then you will definitely want to proceed with Book 3, for which EVERY SINGLE PERSON that I know agrees is the best book of the series.
Than, book 4, 5 and 6 are important. They set up the whole world and political situation for Bloodlines and introduce stories that you can`t otherwise know. That means, as much as book 4, 5 and 6 are not my favourite, you should read them in order to appreciate Bloodlines for all it`s wonders.
I mean, technically, you can understand what`s going on without reading the VA, BUT it`s only through 3 sentences of very very brief recap in Chapter 1. Which is deffinitely not the same as the real experience. Despite it`s flaws, I`m very glad I`ve read the whole VA and I treasure this exprerience.
Quanto prurito mi ha messo addosso, questo libro!!
"The hype is A LIAR." Ogni volta si cercano di utilizzare lunghe perifrasi per non dirlo ma ti stimo per questo! :'D
Hi Giulia :) I'm a huge fan of the series, but I totally understand your opinion on this book. In book 1, Rose is immature, a total brat and often childish. I liked it because I was reading to relax myself at the time but I'm pretty sure that if I would have read it for the first time today, I would have written the same review as you. I'm glad I didn't though, because I wouldn't have picked up the second book and I would have miss something. This is what I liked about the series, we truly see Rose growing up and realizing how stupid she was in book one. She changes gradually somewhere between book 2 and 3 (best book of the series (and one of my best book ever), I agree with Nessy on that). We get to meet more interesting characters that get important in the book, and also some characters that we already know grow interestingI'm not saying that you will definitely love the rest, perhaps you won't, but maybe you should give it a try (or not, I don't want to put you through another misery lol)
Nessy wrote: "Giulia (Jun) wrote: "Nessy wrote: "Giulia (Jun) wrote: "Dorothy wrote: "As someone who loves the series, I respect your opinion. :) I had a hard time getting into the first book the first time I re..."I don't know, maybe I could give Frostbite a try? I'm really not sure about this... I'll probably give a chance to Bloodlines first, even if it means missing out on a few references. I just didn't enjoy the characters, plot and writing of this one, so I highly doubt I would feel different about the sequel. But maybe you're right and it does get better... I don't know. I'll think about it x) Thank you for sharing your opinion tho! :)
P.Z. wrote: "Thank you to save me from this book."You're welcome! X'D I know a lot of people love this series, but unfortunately I'm not one of them.
Serena.. Sery-ously? wrote: "Quanto prurito mi ha messo addosso, questo libro!!"Ti capisco, mi ha innervosita da morire ;_; Tu hai continuato col secondo libro? A quanto pare dovrebbe essere meglio del primo, ma non sono convinta...
Annamaria wrote: ""The hype is A LIAR." Ogni volta si cercano di utilizzare lunghe perifrasi per non dirlo ma ti stimo per questo! :'D"Ahah, grazie! XD Mi capita così tante volte di sentirmi in questo modo che comincio a pensare che dovrei creare un tag apposito per questo genere di situazioni...
Laurie wrote: "Hi Giulia :) I'm a huge fan of the series, but I totally understand your opinion on this book. In book 1, Rose is immature, a total brat and often childish. I liked it because I was reading to rela..."You know I trust your opinion, Laurie (and if you didn't know... well, you do now. XD), so I'm actually considering reading Frostbite sometime in the future. After all, if after the first half of the book I still hate everything about it, I can just DNF it and be done with it. As I was saying to Nessy, I'm probably going to read the first book in the Bloodlines series to see if it's any better than VA, hoping that I can still understand what's going on even if I didn't finish the first series.
Oh my! Rose's character just gets worse and worse So, I strongly recommend you to read the Bloodlines series! Of course, the beginning of Bloodlines will spoil you the end of VA series. But if you dislike Rose just as much as me, argh you better stay away of these books and I personally hated the ending!
Also, Sidney is SO SO SO different from Rose, tbh!! Ahh it's refreshing! haha
Giulia (Jun) wrote: "Serena.. Sery-ously? wrote: "Quanto prurito mi ha messo addosso, questo libro!!"Ti capisco, mi ha innervosita da morire ;_; Tu hai continuato col secondo libro? A quanto pare dovrebbe essere megl..."
Giammai. Piuttosto la morte :D
Sento che ha cosí poco da offrirmi.. E soprattutto per me l'unico finale degno sarebbe vedere Rose, Lissa e gli ritardati che si ammazzano a vicenda, senza sopravvissuti..
message 17:
by
Laurie –Read Between The Skylines–
(last edited Mar 01, 2016 06:52AM)
(new)
-
rated it 4 stars
Giulia (Jun) wrote: "Laurie wrote: "Hi Giulia :) I'm a huge fan of the series, but I totally understand your opinion on this book. In book 1, Rose is immature, a total brat and often childish. I liked it because I was ..."Oww thank you sweety! I'll follow your feed if to know what you think about either VA or Bloodlines
Jaz wrote: "Oh my! Rose's character just gets worse and worse I wanted to slap her in the last three books, I just can't deal with all her selfishness. The reason of those books getting better and better after..."
Thank you. Adrian is the one true love of my life! I have many book boyfriends, but if one day I have to choose one, it would be Adrian Ivashkov, no doubt. However, I liked VA a tiny bit better than Bloodlines
@Laurie: Ahhh YES YES YES! Adrian is just... Perfectly imperfect haha. He made mistakes but his sense of humour and the way he feels things I did not like Dimitri and I did not care about her love story with Rose, either so... When Adrian appeared, I was so happy that I did not care about anything else XD
Jaz wrote: "Oh my! Rose's character just gets worse and worse I wanted to slap her in the last three books, I just can't deal with all her selfishness. The reason of those books getting better and better after..."Wait... what do you mean she gets worse? Is that even possible? And who is this Adrian guy you people keep gushing over? *crosses arms* Okay, I think I'll try to read Bloodlines first, and if I somehow end up enjoying it, I may give Frostbite a chance. Thank you!
Serena.. Sery-ously? wrote: "Giulia (Jun) wrote: "Serena.. Sery-ously? wrote: "Quanto prurito mi ha messo addosso, questo libro!!"Ti capisco, mi ha innervosita da morire ;_; Tu hai continuato col secondo libro? A quanto pare..."
Ahahahah, quest'immagine mi conferisce un gran senso di pace... XD
Giulia (Jun) wrote: "Jaz wrote: "Oh my! Rose's character just gets worse and worse I wanted to slap her in the last three books, I just can't deal with all her selfishness. The reason of those books getting better and ..."You have to read it to comprehend this character! Adrian is perfection. I can't help myself I picture Max Irons every time <3
Giulia (Jun) wrote: "Dorothy wrote: "As someone who loves the series, I respect your opinion. :) I had a hard time getting into the first book the first time I read it. However, I love it now because of the character d..."I actually just got Bloodlines about a week ago, it's on the pile! I want to read it because I enjoyed this series so much, and I've heard a lot of the hype that I also see posted here. Hopefully it doesn't disappoint!! :D
Giulia (Jun) wrote: "Jaz wrote: "Oh my! Rose's character just gets worse and worse I wanted to slap her in the last three books, I just can't deal with all her selfishness. The reason of those books getting better and ..."OKAY. OKAY. OKAY,
What just happened? Seriously, people? Why did you spoil Adrian for her? He`s such a great character and I wanted @Giulia to read about him without knowing he`ll appear beforehand. That way she could appreciate him more.
*sigh* I can`t dictate you what to do and I`m not trying to. Then, I will just recommend you to read Frostbite before Bloodlines. Just for the sole purpose of meeting Adrian. I just want you so so so SO much to see his character development, because it`s HUUUUUGE! And then you will see just how adorable he is.
Also, to @Laurie, I always imagine Max Irons too! loveeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
Nessy wrote: "Giulia (Jun) wrote: "Jaz wrote: "Oh my! Rose's character just gets worse and worse I wanted to slap her in the last three books, I just can't deal with all her selfishness. The reason of those book..."You know, all these gifs and pictures are really convincing... FINE, Y'ALL. I'm shelving Frostbite as "want to read"! If end up hating it, I will hold you personally accountable (and I'm only half kidding. XD)
Omg!!! YAY YAY YAY! I'm so happy I convinced you! I would personally buy you Frostbite if it was possible :D :DAnd if you end up hating it, just PM me that you won't continue VA and I will tell you grand spoilers about every single thing which happens later in the series and which you need to know about Bloodlines before starting it.
(But I secretly hope you'll like it.)
Nessy wrote: "Omg!!! YAY YAY YAY! I'm so happy I convinced you! I would personally buy you Frostbite if it was possible :D :DAnd if you end up hating it, just PM me that you won't continue VA and I will tell y..."
I'm with Nessy on this one, for the spoilers at least! I'm usually anti-spoilers, but there may be some things you need to know!
And Giulia, based on your updated review, I will say that several of your issues with the book get resolved throughout the series, and that's all I have to say about that. Give Frostbite a shot, but give yourself some time in-between so you don't go into it hating the idea of it, you know?
Nessy wrote: "Omg!!! YAY YAY YAY! I'm so happy I convinced you! I would personally buy you Frostbite if it was possible :D :DAnd if you end up hating it, just PM me that you won't continue VA and I will tell y..."
Hahah, that's not necessary, but thanks! XD I'll make sure to message you if I end up not liking Frostbite, but I hope you're right and I'll enjoy it more than VA. Thank you for all your precious advice btw! :)
Dorothy wrote: "And Giulia, based on your updated review, I will say that several of your issues with the book get resolved throughout the series, and that's all I have to say about that. Give Frostbite a shot, bu..."Yeah, that's actually what I'm planning to do. I'm not ready to go into it just yet, but I will give it a chance sometime soon.
Giulia (Jun) wrote: "Nessy wrote: "Omg!!! YAY YAY YAY! I'm so happy I convinced you! I would personally buy you Frostbite if it was possible :D :DAnd if you end up hating it, just PM me that you won't continue VA and..."
No problem! I`m so glad I helped! :P
Kainat Ijaz wrote: ":("I know ;_; This is probably my most unpopular bookish opinion.
I love this series but i have no love for first two books. I completely agree with your review. My favorite character is Adrian, he isn't around in the first book. :)
Kainat Ijaz wrote: "I love this series but i have no love for first two books. I completely agree with your review. My favorite character is Adrian, he isn't around in the first book. :)"Everyone keeps talking about this Adrian guy! It makes me kind of curious about him >.<
HE IS THE BEST!!! He is super sarcastic. Girl, if you read the next book and didn't like him . . well, i don't think we could be friends, just kidding,
Kainat Ijaz wrote: "HE IS THE BEST!!! He is super sarcastic. Girl, if you read the next book and didn't like him . . well, i don't think we could be friends, just kidding, not really. He got his own spin off series; ..."I shelved both the next book and Bloodlines solely because of him haha! I guess there's a reason why so many people gush over this guy :D
Lmao, i didn't realize you were already taking to an Adrian fan already! I don't want to hype him up, it's more fun when they sneak up on you. :)
Very funny and entertaining review! It is strange though, I liked this series but I like your review as well! :D
♛ Garima ♛ wrote: "Very funny and entertaining review! It is strange though, I liked this series but I like your review as well! :D"Haha, thanks! I know what you mean, sometimes I read someone's negative review of a book I enjoyed, and like it nonetheless :)
Somehow, I have absolutely NO interest in reading this series :/
I completely agree with your review but I decided (before I read the reviews and got others opinions of the series) to continue with the series. I agree the first book is horrible!! I have also read many series where the first books are god awful but the series ends up being amazing...I can only hope first impressions are wrong and these books turn around!
Even though I really enjoyed this series a couple of years ago, I found this review super entertaining "dead animals turning up everywhere" xD
Thank you. I love you.
I read this book (and he whole series) ages ago and loooved it, but now that I read your review I'm starting to think if I liked because I was really young myself or because the rest of the series made it up for the first book idk but thanks for a constructive criticism
This review had me rolling in laughter, dangerously close to tears. I love the clips you used to describe your emotions. :p
Nessy wrote: "Giulia (Jun) wrote: "Dorothy wrote: "As someone who loves the series, I respect your opinion. :) I had a hard time getting into the first book the first time I read it. However, I love it now becau..."True just she likes Adrian but she doesnt want to admit it to herself.
Lia wrote: "Nessy wrote: "Giulia (Jun) wrote: "Nessy wrote: "Giulia (Jun) wrote: "Dorothy wrote: "As someone who loves the series, I respect your opinion. :) I had a hard time getting into the first book the f..."You should definitely try bloodlines best series ever.
Medini wrote: "Somehow, I have absolutely NO interest in reading this series :/"why? :(
Thanks for your review and comments from others here. I am also in a similar situation, to continue to read or not at 20% of the story in this book. Just can't stand Rose.
