The Vampire Diaries is a series of seven Young Adult novels by L.J. Smith. The Original Series, first published in 1991-92 by HarperCollins, comprises four volumes: The Awakening, The Struggle, The Fury, and Dark Reunion. The Return Trilogy, which begins with Nightfall (HarperTeen, February 2009), continues the story one week after the events of Dark Reunion. The final two books in the trilogy are Shadow Souls (due March 16, 2010) and Midnight (due 2010-11).
The Vampire Diaries is about love, blood ties, friendship, desire, power, revenge, and sacrifice. It’s the story of Elena Gilbert, the “golden girl” – beautiful, popular, and feeling increasingly alone amongst her family and circle of friends. It’s about Stefan Salvatore, the dark, enigmatic new arrival at school, with a haunted past that stretches back five centuries. It’s about Elena’s friends – Bonnie, Meredith, and Matt – and their fierce loyalty to her and each other even as events begin to spiral out of control. And it’s about Damon, Stefan’s older brother, whose motivations are purely his own.
The story is set in the small Virginia town of Fell’s Church, founded in the early 19th century and nearly destroyed during a devastating Civil War battle. The town’s history hangs heavy throughout The Vampire Diaries – decayed churches and neglected graveyards dot the landscape, reclaimed by the surrounding woods and ghosts.
Two reprintings and one follow-up trilogy later, The Vampire Diaries claims a passionate fan following amongst those who first read the original books in the early ’90s and a whole new generation of readers discovering L.J. Smith’s series for the first time.
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The Awakening
The first volume of the series introduces the reader to Elena Gilbert, a beautiful,popular high school student in Fell's Church, Virginia, and her best friends Bonnie, Meredith, and Matt. A former friend, Caroline, is also introduced and revealed to be Elena's antagonist. As her senior year at Robert E. Lee High School begins, Elena meets and becomes involved with a mysterious new student, Stefan Salvatore. At the Homecoming Dance, Elena is upset to see that Caroline has shown up with Stefan, and later leaves with Dick, Tyler, and Vickie to go to the cemetery. After getting Elena alone with him in the graveyard, an intoxicated Tyler begins to assault her, but she is rescued and brought home by Stefan. As Elena and Stefan fall in love, strange attacks begin to happen in the town, and Elena encounters another mysterious man - Damon, who turns out to be Stefan's older brother. During a Halloween fundraiser at the high school, Bonnie finds their history teacher, Mr. Tanner, dead. When Elena leaves to go to the boarding house where Stefan is staying, she finds him on the roof, feeding on a dove. She starts to back away in fear and falls from the roof, but he catches her and then they both go back up to his room. Stefan reveals his past, and explains that he wasn't avoiding her, but protecting her. Stefan tells of his love for a young vampire named Katherine, and his fight against his brother to get her. He says that Elena reminds him of Katherine, and that Katherine was unable to choose between him and his brother. Katherine killed herself, claiming it was an attempt to bring the two brothers together. However, her death just fueled their feud, and Stefan and Damon fight, resulting in both of their deaths, and re-awakenings as Vampires. After Stefan takes Elena home, Damon shows up to taunt Stefan with his own desire for Elena. This leads to a vicious fight. In the morning, Elena becomes extremely upset with Stefan's disappearance.
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The Struggle
The second book picks up where The Awakening left off and delves further into Damon's attempts to win Elena's affections and Stefan's struggle to survive. Elena summons Damon and confronts him in the graveyard to discover Stefan's whereabouts. Damon claims he killed Stefan the previous night, but Bonnie, a witch, has a psychic vision that he is still alive. When they find him at the bottom of the empty well, Stefan is close to death, but Elena saves him by forcing him to drink her blood. Elena also strikes a secret deal by exchanging blood with Damon, and by doing so accidentally ties herself to both brothers as Katherine did purposely centuries ago. While waiting for Stefan one night, Elena feels as if something is coming for her, and she frantically tries to escape by crossing the bridge over a river. The car she is in veers off the road and into the river, and she drowns. She fights to get up from the water but stays submerged long enough to die. Meanwhile, Stefan, Meredith and Bonnie are all looking for Elena. They find her shortly after the car veers off the road and Stefan dives in to save her. He drags her body out of the water but it is too late, Elena is dead. He then tells Meredith and Bonnie to go to the police while he, angry and grieving, tries to find and kill his brother. The Struggle ends with the revelation that, because she took enough of the brothers’ blood, Elena becomes a Vampire upon her death.
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The Fury
This book begins with the newly "turned" Elena watching Damon and Stefan engaged in a fight to the death. Initially she does not recognize the brothers due to her confused state, having recently died and risen as a Vampire, but soon a flicker of memory causes her to realize the one she loves is hurt and needs her help. The reader is led to believe she is referring to Stefan, whom she has had a passionate relationship with throughout the first two volumes, but instead Elena attacks him, and fully intends to kill him for hurting Damon. Stefan, upon recognizing Elena, doesn't fight back and allows her to clumsily and savagely bite him. Damon eventually commands her to stop and takes her in search of human blood. Stefan intervenes, worried about the attention more dead bodies may bring. Stefan explains to Matt what has happened to Elena and convinces him to let her feed from him so she will survive her first few days as a vampire. Afterwards Damon hides her in Alaric's attic and once she has rested, her disorientation begins to lift. Elena is deeply upset about the way she attacked Stefan and sneaks out of Alaric's house, overhearing a conversation on her way which indicates the new history teacher is more than he appears. While wandering, trying to process all the new information, Elena stumbles upon her own memorial service. The great distress she feels watching this draws both Stefan and Damon to her. Stefan is relieved when Elena remembers their love and Damon is enraged, but the three are distracted by the strange behaviour of a large pack of the towns pet dogs. The dogs are all sitting, as if waiting for a command, until the owner of one of the dogs tries to approach her, the pack suddenly turns on him and he is only saved by Stefan's intervention. More strange events lead the three vampires, with the help of Bonnie, Meredith, Matt and Alaric, to conclude that the same Power which forced Elena off of the bridge is still stalking the town and is targeting specifically Elena's loved ones. It transpires that Katherine, the vampire who turned Damon and Stefan, faked her own death some 500 years before in a vain attempt to bring the brothers closer so they could be her eternal companions. Her plan failed, and the brothers, hating one another more than ever, killed each other and, as they had both ingested Katherine's blood, they rose as Vampires. Katherine was infuriated by the brother's continuing feud, so she fled to Klaus, the one who had turned her into a vampire on her death bed. Under his teaching, Katherine became more powerful and quite unstable. When she learns that Stefan has fallen for Elena she plots an elaborate revenge, beginning with the systematic torture of Stefan. She eventually has the three vampires tied up in an underground, crypt where she plans to torture and dispose of them all. As Katherine debates the most preferable order and method of their deaths, Elena manages to free herself, forcing Katherine into a shaft of sunlight and tearing off her protective lapiz lazuli necklace. Elena holds Katherine there until the older vampire disintegrates and is badly burned herself as Katherine had already removed the protective ring from Elena's hand. Stefan pulls Elena back into the shadows but it is too late, Elena dies in Stefan's arms after making him promise to take care of Damon. The book ends with a diary entry from Bonnie, who admits that although Elena was not perfect nor a saint, she made the ultimate sacrifice to save the town.
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Dark Reunion
As a psychic, Bonnie has dreams of Elena in the Other World. But the dreams quickly turn frightening. There is a terrible new enemy stalking Fell’s Church, killing young girls. Meredith, Matt, and Bonnie use a summoning spell to call for Stefan and Damon — but whose side is Damon on? This novel greatly expands Bonnie and Meredith as characters. Bonnie takes the leading role as she writes in the diary. She also finds a possible romance with Matt Honeycutt. After some research in the library Stefan realizes Tyler Smallwood is a werewolf. They concoct a plan and lure Tyler into the graveyard. After threatening him, Tyler reveals startling information about the killer. They find out Klaus, the vampire who made Katherine a vampire is the killer, and has captured Caroline. There is a fight at the old Francher place deep in the Old Wood. They are losing the fight and Stefan is on the brink of death. Damon appears out of nowhere and proves his loyalty as he stakes Klaus. However, Klaus isn't hurt badly, and he attacks Damon. Bonnie screams for Elena. She appears as a glowing mist along with the spirits of civil war soldiers that had fought and died in Fell's Church. They charge Klaus and carry him away. The ending is the most surprising yet for Elena's friends as she comes back to life.
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The Return: Nightfall
When Elena sacrificed herself to save the two vampire brothers who love her — the handsome, brooding Stefan and the sleek and dangerous Damon, she was consigned to a fate beyond death. Until a powerful supernatural force pulled her back. Now Elena is not just human. She has powers and gifts that were bestowed on her in the afterlife. What's more, her blood pulses with an overwhelming and unique force that makes her irresistible to any vampire. Stefan wants to find a way to keep Elena safe so that they can make a life together. Damon, however, is possessed by a "malach", and unwittingly makes a deadly bargain to Stefan with two twin demons. Stefan is tricked when Damon leaves a note saying he knows someone who can turn him human. Stefan finds the deal irresistible because it will finally mean him and Elena can live in peace. In exchange for Elena, the life of his brother is now in the hands of the Japanese demons. To imply that Stefan left, he writes a forged note and leaves it in Elena's diary. It is now Elena embarks on a dangerous journey to find her beloved, with her friends and Damon by her side.
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The Return: Shadow Souls
A penitent Damon, along with Elena, and Matt follow Stefan into the darkest dimension in an attempt to set him free from the prison he has been tricked into instead of the salvation he was seeking. Bonnie and Meredith join Elena as all three are forced to enter as slaves, the chained and leashed property of a vampire – Damon. Elena Gilbert is once again at the centre of magic and danger beyond her imagining. And once more, Stefan isn't there to help. Elena is forced to entrust her life to Damon, the handsome but deadly vampire who wants Elena, both her body and soul. They must journey to the slums of the Dark Dimension, a world where vampires and demons roam free, but humans must live as slaves of their supernatural masters. Damon's brother, the brooding vampire Stefan whom Elena loves, is imprisoned here, and Elena can only free him by finding the two hidden halves of the kitsune key to his cell. Damon, Elena, Bonnie and Meredith must all fit into the world of the Dark Dimension and venture into it's deadly high society. Only by these means may they be able to find Stefan's keys to release and Elena then will be able to reunite with her soulmate. Elena later then finds out the gift she got from the kitsune is a flower that can turn a vampire into human.
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The Return: Midnight
The vampire love triangle concludes in this powerful final volume of The Vampire Diaries. In Midnight, golden girl Elena Gilbert is back from the Dark Dimension, finding success as lapis lazuli fully freed her vampire boyfriend Stefan Salvatore from imprisonment. While the trio reels from this latest twist, they must still deal with the demons that have taken over Elena’s hometown, Fell’s Church. Elena is faced with the question that has most readers on the edge of their seats. Which of the Salvatore brothers is she going to be with?
