By Leah Stone
After the big mistake of reading the Twilight Series (my apologies to any fans out there, I just didn’t really like them very much, but that’s just my opinion) I was wary for a while afterwards when it came to choosing a book with a supernatural theme, namely vampires.
It came down to one summer holiday, we were at the airport waiting for our flight to Spain when I realised I didn’t have enough to read whilst we were away, a very regular dilemma for me. So I headed into WHSmiths, picked up the first book I saw in the young adult section. It just so happened to be the first book in the Vampire Academy series, and it would be the book that would re-kindle my love for all things fantasy and supernatural. Then it was a few months later when I started reading the House of Night series.
After the big mistake of reading the Twilight Series (my apologies to any fans out there, I just didn’t really like them very much, but that’s just my opinion) I was wary for a while afterwards when it came to choosing a book with a supernatural theme, namely vampires.
It came down to one summer holiday, we were at the airport waiting for our flight to Spain when I realised I didn’t have enough to read whilst we were away, a very regular dilemma for me. So I headed into WHSmiths, picked up the first book I saw in the young adult section. It just so happened to be the first book in the Vampire Academy series, and it would be the book that would re-kindle my love for all things fantasy and supernatural. Then it was a few months later when I started reading the House of Night series.
Now the only things similar about the plots are that 1. They both have vampires and 2. Elements are involved in both. Now I put the elements thing down to pure luck because combine anything with “magic” and I am fully engrossed.
Vampire Academy follows the escapades of Rose Hathaway, a Dhampir, and Vasilisa (Lissa) Dragomir, a Moroi vampire with the element of spirit.
Dhampirs are half human half vampire beings originating from relationships between Morois and humans but are more commonly now born by a Moroi and a Dhampir. It is the Dhampir’s “job to protect their assigned Moroi from the Strigoi, the shall we say “bad vampires.”
Strigoi kill the humans they drink from but Moroi do not. It all sounds rather complicated and hard to get your head round but it gets easier the more you read. Basically Lissa is the only relative left of one of the royal families and so she has to have special protection and there’s a guy called Dimitri involved but we will get to the romance side later.there’s a guy called Dimitri involved but we will get to the romance side later.
House of Night, compared to Vampire Academy, takes place in a society that knows about vampires. Humans are “marked” as vampyres during puberty and it takes 4 years at a special academy for them to become fully fledged vampyres, though some do not make it through the change.
The series follows Zoey Redbird, her troubles at the House of Night in Tulsa against Neferet and Kalona in order to defeat the darkness and to live under the goddess Nyx. Zoey, like Lissa, is a spirit user, a rarity in both books, and this comes as both a help and a hindrance to both the girls.
Now, which one do I prefer? Vampire Academy, for a few reasons.
Now don’t get me wrong, I like House of Night. However my biggest problem is that it has gone on for far too long. It’s one of those book series that have been dragged out until you just want it to end. Up until the end of Hunted, the fifth book, I was fully enjoying the series. You knew who the bad guys were, lots of things had happened, and it seemed that perhaps the end was nearing, but how wrong I was. Little was I to know that I was not even half way through the book series. To make it harder to get through the rest of the books, they were from then on to be split between different points of view. In two of the books over five points of views were used and it does get rather confusing. Plus there seemed to be many times the series could have come to a nice and natural ending.
Vampire Academy follows the escapades of Rose Hathaway, a Dhampir, and Vasilisa (Lissa) Dragomir, a Moroi vampire with the element of spirit.
Dhampirs are half human half vampire beings originating from relationships between Morois and humans but are more commonly now born by a Moroi and a Dhampir. It is the Dhampir’s “job to protect their assigned Moroi from the Strigoi, the shall we say “bad vampires.”
Strigoi kill the humans they drink from but Moroi do not. It all sounds rather complicated and hard to get your head round but it gets easier the more you read. Basically Lissa is the only relative left of one of the royal families and so she has to have special protection and there’s a guy called Dimitri involved but we will get to the romance side later.there’s a guy called Dimitri involved but we will get to the romance side later.
House of Night, compared to Vampire Academy, takes place in a society that knows about vampires. Humans are “marked” as vampyres during puberty and it takes 4 years at a special academy for them to become fully fledged vampyres, though some do not make it through the change.
The series follows Zoey Redbird, her troubles at the House of Night in Tulsa against Neferet and Kalona in order to defeat the darkness and to live under the goddess Nyx. Zoey, like Lissa, is a spirit user, a rarity in both books, and this comes as both a help and a hindrance to both the girls.
Now, which one do I prefer? Vampire Academy, for a few reasons.
Now don’t get me wrong, I like House of Night. However my biggest problem is that it has gone on for far too long. It’s one of those book series that have been dragged out until you just want it to end. Up until the end of Hunted, the fifth book, I was fully enjoying the series. You knew who the bad guys were, lots of things had happened, and it seemed that perhaps the end was nearing, but how wrong I was. Little was I to know that I was not even half way through the book series. To make it harder to get through the rest of the books, they were from then on to be split between different points of view. In two of the books over five points of views were used and it does get rather confusing. Plus there seemed to be many times the series could have come to a nice and natural ending.
Vampire Academy on the other hand has six books in total, and is told from the point of view of Rose and only Rose. Her character is sassy, hot headed and at times extremely funny, whereas I could sometimes find Zoey Redbird a bit whiny and annoying.
In each of the books there is something obvious to overcome, and the series reaches a good and stable finish that left many readers satisfied. However for those that wanted more from the series, a spin off series, starting with ‘Bloodlines’ was released.
The other main thing that annoys me about House of Night is the whole romance situation. In Vampire Academy, sure Rose has Dimitri and she sometimes flits to Adrian, but it was always Dimitri. But in House of Night, Zoey seems to not be able to choose between Heath, the guy she was with as a human, Eric, an older vampyre that becomes a teacher, Stark, who transfers from another school and becomes her warrior/guardian, and Kalona, whom we think is the bad guy but may actually not be the bad guy but he is rather confusing. In House of Night everything is so much more complicated than it needs to be.
The final thing that sways me towards Vampire Academy is that I find its characters a lot more likeable. Rose is hilarious, smart, hot- headed and never gives up. Lissa is the thoughtful one, much gentler compared to her best friend and easy to love. Dimitri is the hot badass that beats the hell out of anyone who threatens what he loves and he breaks your heart on several occasions. Adrian, like Rose, is hilarious. He is a spirit user like Lissa and drinks a lot in order to get through the negative effects of being a shadow user.
On the other hand, as I’ve said, Zoe is whiny and somewhat annoying. I tend to like bad guys if they are really good bad guys but Neferet is the sort I would love to punch in the face, and she does grind on me a lot. My favourite character is Aphrodite. She can be a total bitch but that makes her extremely entertaining.
So yes, my preference lies with Vampire Academy. I prefer its plot, its setting, its uncomplicated-ness, its characters. That’s not to say I don’t enjoy reading House of Night, though it does infuriate me regularly and I could happily see Zoey Redbird die to save humanity and it wouldn’t affect me that much.
In each of the books there is something obvious to overcome, and the series reaches a good and stable finish that left many readers satisfied. However for those that wanted more from the series, a spin off series, starting with ‘Bloodlines’ was released.
The other main thing that annoys me about House of Night is the whole romance situation. In Vampire Academy, sure Rose has Dimitri and she sometimes flits to Adrian, but it was always Dimitri. But in House of Night, Zoey seems to not be able to choose between Heath, the guy she was with as a human, Eric, an older vampyre that becomes a teacher, Stark, who transfers from another school and becomes her warrior/guardian, and Kalona, whom we think is the bad guy but may actually not be the bad guy but he is rather confusing. In House of Night everything is so much more complicated than it needs to be.
The final thing that sways me towards Vampire Academy is that I find its characters a lot more likeable. Rose is hilarious, smart, hot- headed and never gives up. Lissa is the thoughtful one, much gentler compared to her best friend and easy to love. Dimitri is the hot badass that beats the hell out of anyone who threatens what he loves and he breaks your heart on several occasions. Adrian, like Rose, is hilarious. He is a spirit user like Lissa and drinks a lot in order to get through the negative effects of being a shadow user.
On the other hand, as I’ve said, Zoe is whiny and somewhat annoying. I tend to like bad guys if they are really good bad guys but Neferet is the sort I would love to punch in the face, and she does grind on me a lot. My favourite character is Aphrodite. She can be a total bitch but that makes her extremely entertaining.
So yes, my preference lies with Vampire Academy. I prefer its plot, its setting, its uncomplicated-ness, its characters. That’s not to say I don’t enjoy reading House of Night, though it does infuriate me regularly and I could happily see Zoey Redbird die to save humanity and it wouldn’t affect me that much.
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