Rebecca's Reviews > The Awakening / The Struggle

Don't let the 4 out of 5 stars fool you into thinking this is good, inventive writing. I picked these books up for nostalgic purposes. Back in the early '90s, when I was an adolescent (oh how I date myself), I read and reread these books. They were so romantic and exciting. I remember even then being annoyed by the hack writing, but overlooking it because of the fantastic nature of the stories. I mean come on, who wouldn't fall for a tall, dark handsome vampire with an Italian accent. I'm only human.

Reading them again as an adult was part experiment but mostly fluff fun. For whatever reason, I'm seemingly incapable of getting through "beach reads" or other books with no real substance and sub par writing...with the exception of Young Adult books. There is a soft spot in my heart for those angst-ridden horror-lite, forbidden romance themes that weave their way through the pages and into the minds of pre-teen girls that are waiting to have their braces taken off and dream of such huge life events like homecoming and (take a deep breath) prom. I am not criticizing girls for this. As I've already implied, I was one of them.

My peeve with this particular series is really more of a concern. The greatest attributes of the primary characters are their beauty, elegance and grace. Love is always a reaction to someone's beauty or passion. The protagonist is "queen of the school". In short, each book is like reading a 250 super model photo shoot. There's just no way you'll ever be these fictional characters. Perhaps that is part of the allure for many kids who read these, but I distinctly remember talking with my friends about which character in the book we'd want to be...and frankly, all are either shallow or wracked with glamorized self-loathing.

The remaining question is why on earth after all this criticism did I give the books 4 stars. Well, they were a welcome regression back to days of summer reading, of staying up too late to find out if the heroine would get the guy and save the town against forces of evil. As simple, mindless entertainment goes, they work just fine. I don't know how a reader first approaching them now would feel about them, but with my childhood link to them, I was rather forgiving of the many glaring problems.

Apparently a new book will be coming out in this series early next year. I must confess, I will most certainly be reading it.