The Vampire Diaries, Book 1 cover art

The Vampire Diaries, Book 1

The Awakening

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The Vampire Diaries, Book 1

By: L. J. Smith
Narrated by: Rebecca Mozo
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About this listen

The New York Times best-selling series!

The first book in L.J. Smith's New York Times best-selling Vampire Diaries series, the basis of the hit CW TV show starring Nina Dobrev, Paul Wesley, and Ian Somerhalder.

Elena Gilbert is a high school golden girl, used to getting what she wants. And who she wants. But when the boy she's set her sights on - the handsome and haunted Stefan - isn't interested, she's confused. She could never know the real reason Stefan is struggling to resist her:

Stefan is a vampire, and Elena's in danger just by being around him. What's more, Stefan's dark, dangerous vampire brother Damon has just arrived in town. And wherever Damon goes, trouble always follows.

Fans of The Vampire Diaries TV show will find this book packed with the same kind of heart-stopping suspense, fierce romances, and jaw-dropping surprises that they know and love, all brought to life by New York Times best-selling author L.J. Smith.

Listen to more Vampire Diaries.©1991 Daniel Weiss Associate, Inc., and Lisa Smith (P)2009 HarperCollins Publishers Horror Literature & Fiction Mystery, Thriller & Suspense Paranormal Romance Science Fiction & Fantasy Heartfelt
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I’m always reading autobiographies so thought I would switch to something a little lighter and having seen the TV series that seemed like a good option. Personally I felt the writing was a little clumsy and it gave me the impression the author was and inexperienced [I could be wrong]. But I have heard these books get better so I have just purchased the second book. The book is quite different to the TV series but still good, my only criticism would be the storyteller. I still haven’t warmed to her voice and tone and find the expense of the brothers a little irritating and far from Italian, they sound more like cheesy Eastern European vampire accents from a bad movie. Get past this and you all enjoy the book

All But the Narrator

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the book is a good lead up and setting the scene and and covering the backstories into what I hope will be a good series

the book is a good lead up to the series

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Mispronounced names and annoying accents that don’t make sense for the characters was very distracting

Mispronunciation and accents

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Good overall audiobook. Would be better if the narrator could tell the difference between Italian and Russian accents. Story isn’t bad and holds up reasonably well given it was written in the 90s to appeal to 90s teenagers.

Good overall

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Cringe-worthy writing. The cliches were palpable. As for the narrator... Accents shouldn't be done unless they can be done authentically! The result was a comical Count Dracula rendition of Stefan the vampire...

Cliches all around

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It's sad to say but I actually liked the TV show a LOT more. The story lacked romance and I didn't like Elana

Didn't really enjoy it

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Couldn't finish this book, it was just horrible to listen to.

I really enjoyed the TV series of The Vampire Diaries, and they pronounce Salvatore as "Sal-va-tor". The narrator of this book pronounces Salvatore as "Sal-va-tory". It had me cringing everytime she said it.

Stefans voice is so horrible, really couldn't tolerate listening to it.

It was hard to know what was happening at times - the book just seemed to jump between the present and past without any indication of where the timeline is at, and it would randomly jump between the perspectives of Elena and Stefan.

Perhaps reading the book would be a better experience than listening to it.

Terrible

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I don't know who decided to turn this book series into a TV show and change everything about it... but yay! The storyline is terrible, Elena is a cringy princess and every single character is empty of personality. They really worked miracles over there in TV-land.

Stefan is weak and the narrator is awful. The end.

This is... bad

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