Alissa lent me The Vampire Diaries series by LJ Smith, of which I finished book 1, The Awakening. There were so, so many similarities to Twilight that I started getting suspicious. And because Diaries was published in 1991, way before the Twilight books were, all I can say is at some point either before or after writing Twilight, Stephenie Meyer must have read Diaries. Maybe that dream she had of the meadow scene between Edward and Bella that she claims started it all was a direct result of reading Diaries right before she went to bed. Because seriously? Suspiciously similar.- High school setting, with protagonist Elena also 17 years old
- Extremely hot (vampire) boy who drives expensive car
- Love at first sight
- Stefan, the vampire protagonist, tries very hard to drink only animal blood
- Stefan holds Elena at arms' length because he doesn't want to be tempted to drink her blood and thus put her in danger
- Love triangle (granted, this one is between two vampires and not a vampire and a werewolf, but still...)
- A scene where Stefan runs around showing Elena how fast and powerful he is, and another scene where Stefan's brother Damon runs around demonstrating to Stefan how fast and powerful he is. Sound familiar?
- Stefan, like Edward, has a certain amount of self-loathing about being a vampire because he doesn't want to be a monster
- Special vampire powers, like mind-reading
- Stefan is from Italy...which made me wonder at the coincidence of Meyer picking Italy as the Volturi home
- At least two, if not more, instances of the word "twilight" used in Diaires. Did Meyer get the idea to name her book from this? Because the title "Twilight" has really nothing to do with the story in Twilight, and Edward's explanation that twilight is the safest time for them has never made sense to me. Wouldn't midnight be the safest time for them? Or any point in the day that's full-on darkness?
There were differences between the books, mainly that Stefan is close to 600 years old and not 90 like Edward was. And sunlight actually kills these vampires, instead of merely making them all sparkly. Unlike Bella who was an outcast, Elena is an alpha girl and the Queen Bee of the school. But unlike Twilight, I hated the characters in Diaries. Stefan was devoid of all personality and was a total and complete wimp at the end of the book. He didn't hold a candle to the Edward that Meyer created. But I reserve all my hate towards Elena, who was an amazingly heinous character. She was vain, arrogant, incredibly self-absorbed, manipulative, and so, so full of herself. Urgh.
They are shooting the TV pilot right now in Vancouver for CW (the coincidences are just remarkable, as New Moon is filming there right now as well), but I'm torn on whether I'll watch it or not. I do want to make a point that my Twilight love remains firmly unshaken, but I am wondering...
