Vampire Academy ~ Richelle Mead (Vampire Academy #1)

★★★★☆

I'm gonna start by saying that the movie is one of my favorite guilty pleasures, that I watch it almost regularly and have a blast every single time. Part of that is the sheer stupidity of much of the plot, as well as the actually sort of interesting and cool lore. Having now read the book, I can say that the movie was surprisingly accurate. Shame we didn't get the rest of the series.

Now, the book itself was great in the way reading Twilight was great: I already found the movie silly and enjoyable, so the book wasn't that much of a stretch, but there were some things that bothered me upon reflection.

First, we meet Professor Severus Snape—I mean Guardian Stan Alto—who publically ridicules Harry Potter—I mean Rose Hathaway—on her lack of Dhampir knowledge in a classroom setting. Then we hear tell of Professor Sybill Trelawney—I mean Sonya Karp—who was an eccentric teacher who said vaguely threatening and ominous things but was generally regarded as a bit of a joke to the students.

Second, Rose is an unlikable jerk. I've heard that this book has a great anti-slut-shaming message, but uh, where tho? Because all I see is that line when Mia is outed as a "slut":

Mason: "You could start telling people if you wanted to. We could make a banner."

Rose: With as many times as Mia had called me a slut and a whore? Not a bad idea. "You got any markers and paper?"

So basically because Mia actually has sex and Rose doesn't, Rose is allowed to judge? Because Mia was born into a low position in life and had to work the system to get to where she was, even if it makes her a hypocrite, Rose has the right to throw it all in her face and push her down? Wtf? Whatever happened to "be the better man" or "common decency"?

Third, Vasilisa is the Avatar.

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