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A review by blowp0p
Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead
4.0
Content warnings: mentions of sex, mentions of drugs, alcohol use, coersion, kidnapping, torture, forcing someone to do something against their will, slut shaming, girl on girl hate
So after seeing numerous people saying to read this instead of Jennifer Armentrout's Covenant series (which I did actually read in full) I 100% see where people say that the two series are the same. Because they are. And they aren't. There's enough differences that you can't make a case against plagiarism (like another popular series I could name but won't) but there's enough similarities that you can definitely say she was either trying to re-write this or write fan fiction that she published on this and/or try and improve on things that she found lacking for herself in this and this was just REALLY STRONG inspiration for her series. Whatever it was, I don't really care (but since I made the disclaimer in the other series about not reading this one yet I felt I needed to make a comment about this series).
I liked this. Not a whole lot of sex going on. In fact none happened other than mentioning that one character had sex with her boyfriend and that two people were under a compulsion spell to have sex with each other but they didn't get farther than one character getting more or less naked and a lot of kissing before the other character realised what was going on. And then there was the other time where kissing was happening but the guy told the story that sex happened (as a result of aforementioned girl on girl hate).
I get the girl on girl hate reason. I think it's kind of stupid. But it's at least a better reason than other books have given. The slut shaming bothers me. But it doesn't bother me quite as much as the kidnapping and subsequent torture that happened. The reasoning behind it is selfish and inconsiderate and assholeish.
Apart from all that, this was more enjoyable to read than the Covenant series. A LOT MORE enjoyable. I also like the fact that the author worked religion into the story very nicely without it feeling like she was trying to convert or shove beliefs down the readers throats. Due to my own upbringing I'm very sensitive to both of those things and both of them will take away any prior enjoyment of a book/movie. I appreciate it when it's a "hey these are my beliefs and this is how I worship/etc" type thing which is how this was presented. I also like how she made the vampires able to set foot in churches and on holy ground but not the ones who have turned on themselves. And made the "good" vampires more mortal as opposed to immortal. It feeds in with my own theories about vampires.
All in all, good book and will definitely be looking for the rest of the series at my library to read.
So after seeing numerous people saying to read this instead of Jennifer Armentrout's Covenant series (which I did actually read in full) I 100% see where people say that the two series are the same. Because they are. And they aren't. There's enough differences that you can't make a case against plagiarism (like another popular series I could name but won't) but there's enough similarities that you can definitely say she was either trying to re-write this or write fan fiction that she published on this and/or try and improve on things that she found lacking for herself in this and this was just REALLY STRONG inspiration for her series. Whatever it was, I don't really care (but since I made the disclaimer in the other series about not reading this one yet I felt I needed to make a comment about this series).
I liked this. Not a whole lot of sex going on. In fact none happened other than mentioning that one character had sex with her boyfriend and that two people were under a compulsion spell to have sex with each other but they didn't get farther than one character getting more or less naked and a lot of kissing before the other character realised what was going on. And then there was the other time where kissing was happening but the guy told the story that sex happened (as a result of aforementioned girl on girl hate).
I get the girl on girl hate reason. I think it's kind of stupid. But it's at least a better reason than other books have given. The slut shaming bothers me. But it doesn't bother me quite as much as the kidnapping and subsequent torture that happened. The reasoning behind it is selfish and inconsiderate and assholeish.
Apart from all that, this was more enjoyable to read than the Covenant series. A LOT MORE enjoyable. I also like the fact that the author worked religion into the story very nicely without it feeling like she was trying to convert or shove beliefs down the readers throats. Due to my own upbringing I'm very sensitive to both of those things and both of them will take away any prior enjoyment of a book/movie. I appreciate it when it's a "hey these are my beliefs and this is how I worship/etc" type thing which is how this was presented. I also like how she made the vampires able to set foot in churches and on holy ground but not the ones who have turned on themselves. And made the "good" vampires more mortal as opposed to immortal. It feeds in with my own theories about vampires.
All in all, good book and will definitely be looking for the rest of the series at my library to read.