The Vampire Diaries

The Vampire Diaries is a YA horror series of novels written by the NYT Bestselling author
of the Night World series, L.J. Smith. The story centers around Elena Gilbert, a high school
girl torn between two vampire brothers. The series was originally a trilogy published in 1991.However, pressure from readers led the author to write a fourth volume, Dark Reunion, released in 1992.

After taking a hiatus from writing for several years, L.J. Smith announced in 2008 a new spin-off
trilogy entitled The Vampire Diaries: The Return, continuing the series, with Damon being the
main protagonist. The first installment, The Return: Nightfall, was released on February 10, 2009. The Return: Shadow Souls and The Return: Midnight are tentatively slated for release in April, 2010 and 2011 respectively.

The Vampire Diaries is currently being adapted into a TV series and is set to premiere on
September 10, 2009 on The CW and CTV.







The novels
The original trilogy:

1. The Awakening (1991)
2. The Struggle (1991)
3. The Fury (1991)


The fourth volume in the original series:

4. Dark Reunion (1992)


The new trilogy, The Vampire Diaries: The Return:

5. Nightfall (February 2009)
6. Shadow Souls (not yet released)
7. Midnight (not yet released)








Plot summary

The Awakening

The first book introduces the reader to Elena Gilbert, a beautiful and popular high school student
in the small town of Fell's Church in Virginia, her friends: Bonnie, Meredith, Matt, and Caroline;
Elena's old friend who now is her competition. As their senior year begins, Elena pursues the mysterious new guy in town, Stefan Salvatore. Stefan's resistance is met with Elena's determination,
and she eventually discovers his secret: that Stefan is a centuries-old vampire. As Elena and Stefan
fall in love, strange attacks begin to happen in the town while a dark and seductive stranger appears to Elena. Elena eventually learns that the stranger is Stefan's older brother Damon. In Renaissance Italy, the brothers both fell in love with a young vampire named Katherine, who later committed
suicide after the two brothers turned against each other when she decided to choose them both as lovers and exchanged blood with them. Fueled with rage, the brothers killed each other but woke
up as vampires. The Awakening ends with Elena seeking out Damon whom she believes to be the prime suspect for Stefan's disappearance after the townspeople begin to suspect the latter to be behind a recent murder and the strange attacks. It then continues in the second book, The Struggle.



The Struggle

The second book picks up where The Awakening left, and delves further into Damon's ongoing
attempts to win Elena's affections and Stefan's struggle to survive. When Stefan went missing,
Elena seeks out Damon and confronts him in the graveyard. Elena and her friends find Stefan
in a well, near death, and Elena saves him by giving him some of her blood. Elena also exchanges blood with Damon, albeit unwillingly, tying herself to both brothers as Katherine did centuries ago.
While waiting for Stefan one night, Elena feels as if a presence inside a storm is coming for her,
and she frantically tries to escape by crossing the bridge over a river. Matt's-whom she borrowed
the-car veers off the road and into the river, and she drowns. The Struggle ends with the revelation that, because she took enough of the brothers' blood, Elena becomes a vampire upon her death.



The Fury

The third book deals with Elena's adjustment to her vampirism, as well as her confusion at loving
both brothers. While having to stay out of the way of the town's new vampire hunter, Stefan,
Damon, Elena and her friends search for the source of the dark presence that has overtaken the
town and which they also suspect to be behind Elena's death. Finally, they discover that the power
is coming from Katherine, who faked her suicide centuries ago. She is now determined to get
revenge because the two brothers forgot about her and fell in love with Elena. She plans on
killing Elena and the Salvatore brothers, while also tearing apart Fell's Church and everyone in it.
Elena saves everyone by pushing Katherine into the sunlight and removing her protective ring.
Both Elena and Katherine are killed from the exposure.



Dark Reunion

The fourth book begins six months after Elena's death. This book is told primarily from Bonnie's point of view. At a surprise birthday party for Meredith, Bonnie and Meredith (along with three other girlfriends from high school) contact Elena using a Ouija board. Elena warns them there is evil in town with them, and that they are all in danger. She tells them they need to summon someone but gets interrupted, presumably by an evil spirit, before telling the girls to run. Before all of the girls can get out of the house, one girl is thrown from the second floor balcony and dies. Another girl goes insane after the ordeal. With Matt's help, Bonnie and Meredith perform a spell to summon Stefan, who arrives back in town with Damon. The five work to find the source of evil in the town, which they eventually realize is Klaus, the vampire who created Katherine. In the end, after a battle that has brought Stefan to the brink of death, Bonnie calls Elena for help. The spirit of Elena arrives with an army of undead Civil War soldiers, who carry Klaus into the spirit world. Elena's spirit heals Stefan and the rest of her injured friends before disappearing. After a great flash of light, Elena appears, resurrected in her previous human form.



The Return: Nightfall

The fifth book starts with Elena's return from the dead. She returns from the afterlife with super
human powers which makes her blood pulse with an overwhelming and unique force that is
irresistible to every vampire. Stefan is convinced to keep Elena safe and wants to leave Fell's
Church. Damon, being the power hungry person that he is wants Elena to stay with him and rule
as his princess. When Stefan is ruled away from Fell's Church, Damon tries to convince Elena that
he is the brother that she should be with . . . . but a darkness is infiltrating the town, and now Damon, always the hunter is now the hunted. He becomes the prey to a malevolent creature that
can possess him at will who desires not just Elena's blood, but her death.



The Return: Shadow Souls (not yet released)

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 found instead of salvation. Bonnie and Meredith join Elena as
all three are forced to enter as slaves, the chained and leashed property of a vampire--Damon.



The Return: Midnight (not yet released)

The surviving group of Fell's Church friends return to find their town in a shambles. Meredith makes
a horrifying discovery in her research and Bonnie has an out of body experience which might
explain all the mayhem that is going on. Matt faces down Caroline, while, Elena must face the most important question of her life: who does she really belong with? Stefan or Damon?





Characters

Main characters

Elena Gilbert is a beautiful, popular 17-year-old girl with blond hair and blue eyes.
Over the course of the series, Elena transforms from a shallow, self-centered "ice queen" to a
more loving, open-minded person. In The Fury she was turned into a vampire and died saving
Stefan and Damon. She appeared as an apparition in Dark Reunion and becomes a super human
in The Return: Nightfall.
Stefan Salvatore is the younger of the two vampire brothers. He is classically handsome,
with dark, wavy hair and green eyes. Stefan is tortured by his vampirism and by Katherine's death.
Until falling in love with Elena, Stefan does not believe that he can be redeemed.
Damon Salvatore is Stefan's older brother, brash and arrogant, with dark hair and black eyes.
He's dark and sadistic, but also charming and seductive. Events in The Fury and Dark Reunion show
that Damon is also capable of fierce loyalty and affection. When he shows the affection, it is to Bonnie and Elena. In The Awakening he called himself Damon Smith.
Bonnie McCullough is one of Elena's best friends, a bubbly, short redhead with brown eyes
and a heart shaped face, who is a psychic. She has an odd fascination with Druids. Also might have an interest in both Damon and Matt.
Meredith Sulez is another of Elena's best friends; she is tall with olive skin and dark hair.
Meredith is level-headed and thoughtful, and she is often the voice of reason throughout the series.
Matt Honeycutt is Elena's ex-boyfriend, a typical All-American high school quarterback with blond hair
and blue eyes. While Matt is heartbroken at losing Elena to Stefan, he remains friends with both of them.
Caroline Forbes is a former friend and current rival of Elena's, she is beautiful with green
eyes and auburn hair. Caroline is manipulative and vengeful during much of the series, before redeeming herself in Dark Reunion.
Katherine is the young vampire with whom Damon and Stefan both fell in love when they
were humans during the Italian Renaissance. Katherine turned the two brothers into vampires before
faking her suicide. She physically resembles Elena, which caused Stefan's initial attraction to Elena.
She is killed by Elena in The Fury.



Supporting characters

Margaret Gilbert is Elena's little sister and pretty much the only family she has left. Margaret
is one of the first people Elena talks to in her new life as a vampire in "The Fury" other than Bonnie,
Merideth, and Matt, Margaret is the only person Elena talks to in her family during her very short life as a vampire.
Judith Gilbert is Elena's aunt. She moved in with Elena and Margaret right after the death of their parents. She is young and is the sort of woman who always looked vaguely flustered; she had a thin, mild face and light flyaway hair pushed back untidily. She is engaged to, and by the end of the fourth book is married to, Robert. She is caring and one of the last people Elena talks to before dying, the first time.
Tyler Smallwood is a direct descendent of the Smallwoods that were present at the founding of Fells Church. He is also a were-wolf after Klaus tells him how to become one, drinking fresh blood.
That blood is taken from Sue Carson. They kill her during the fourth book. He helped to kidnap Caroline, who is his ex- girlfriend. The girls describe him as having a toothy grin and wolfy features.
Vickie Bennett was at the cemetery with Elena when they left the dance. She had stayed there in the
church with Dick. She was attacked and that caused her to go insane. The attacker was Katherine. Then she is accused of killing Sue because she relapsed after her death and she was the only one present. When Bonnie and Meredith go to her house, she says that the murderer said she is next. She is indeed next. Under Damon's watch, Klaus comes in and kills her, smearing her blood all over
her walls and everything in her room. Damon couldn't do anything because he was never invited in.