Vampire Academy: The Ultimate Guide by Michelle Rowen } Quick Review

THE DETAILS:
Pages: 272
Published: 22/12/2011
by Razorbill
Bought in Store
Genre: Teenage Non-Fiction, Book Companion

THE BLURB:
Look out for Bloodlines, Richelle Mead’s new series set in the world of Vampire Academy, coming August 2011!

The official guide to the #1 international bestselling Vampire Academy series

Sink your teeth into the perfect holiday gift and must-have collector's item for every fan of Richelle Mead's totally addicting Vampire Academy series.

Discover the history of St. Vladimir's Academy, explore the dark psychology behind Rose and Lissa's spirit bond, and find out even more illicit secrets about Moroi society. This ultimate guide will feature everything readers want and need to go even deeper into the world of Vampire Academy, Frostbite, Shadow Kiss, Blood Promise, Spirit Bound, and Last Sacrifice . . . every heartache, every betrayal, every sacrifice, and so much more!

MY THOUGHTS:
Wow. I was Sooooo disappointed with this book. I guess you could say that with my huge love for the series came huge expectations for a decent guide. I guess this book didn't really even serve a purpose as a guide at all. The whole thing was just recaps and then there is a quiz at the back. There are character profiles that tell me the stuff I already know and the first 60% of the book is purely a retelling of each novel in the series. I just read the novels. I do not need to reread them in summarised form. Then later on in the guide there are promising chapters about other aspects of the story (magic, love interests, etc). Up close however these are also recaps.

I guess the best thing about the guide was that I could see what molinja marks and the promise mark were meant to look like. There were also little sections where Richelle Mead was asked questions by the author of the guide and she wrote a few paragraphs answering. That would have been cool if the interviewer hadn't asked suck obvious questions.

So what was I expecting from the book? I wanted to know more about the inspiration and the tales that Mead researched. i also wanted to know more about Mead's vampire world. What didn't the book tell us? Maybe some made up vampire history or some maps of the academy or something would have been cool. I guess for all that stuff to be included though we would actually have needed Richelle to write it 100%.

Other things I would have liked to have seen included would be maybe a discussions of themes/ issues/ subject matter. An outsiders perspective on the actual writing and story would have been nice. Instead I felt like some sort of lame school student reading a wikipedia summary before going into an exam.

Overall I give this 1 star out of 5. I felt pretty ripped of by this book. I paid $10 for a heap of recaps and to take place in a pretty easy quiz at the end. Honestly, I think the guide was just written to create hype for the series, rather than to inform. Actually to say I waisted my time reading this is a lie. I actually skimmed over most of it.

Hopefully someone else will get something more out of this book than I did.

Your Favourite Cynical Blogger,
Natalie