Review: Vampire Academy and Frostbite (The Graphic Novels) by Richelle Mead

 

Title: Vampire Academy & Frostbite

Author: Richelle Mead, Emma Vieceli (Illustrator), Leigh Dragoon (Adapter)

Series: Vampire Academy

Book #: 1 & 2

Pages: 144 - 144

Reading Level: YA

Book Rating: 

Goodreads Rating: 4.10 - 4.42

Published: August 23rd, 2011 - May 24th, 2012

Vampire Academy: 

After two years on the run, best friends Rose and Lissa are caught and returned to St. Vladimir’s Academy, a private high school for vampires and half-bloods. It’s filled with intrigue, danger—and even romance. 

Enter their dark, fascinating world through a new series of 144-page full-color graphic novels. The entire first Vampire Academy novel has been adapted for book one by Leigh Dragoon and overseen by Richelle Mead, while the beautiful art of acclaimed British illustrator Emma Vieceli brings the story to life. 

 Frostbite:

The drama and romance continue in this 144-page full-color graphic novel adaptation of the second Vampire Academy novel, Frostbite, which was overseen by Richelle Mead and features beautiful art by acclaimed British illustrator Emma Vieceli.

Taschima's POV:

Rating (and review) for both Vampire Academy and Frostbite:

I am rating these comics based on the art, and the way the story is being depicted. It has nothing to do with the story itself (the Vampire Academy books are amazing). Let's just say, the comic was disappointing when it came to these things. I was expecting more.

Some of the problems I have with this comic are:

1. The art: It hurt my eyes. It bothered me at times. My main problem really is with how the characters are drawn (mainly, all the girls; most of the guys looked great). Why do all of them have such long faces? Like, seriously long faces. All of them are the same length, and it gets sort of creepy and annoying. Not to mention that some of these characters don't like at all how I pictured them (basically most of them, but I've managed to make peace with it... sort of), but that was bound to happen I get that, I just want them to at the very least be drawn well so they are aesthetically pleasing.

The characters that I sort of liked how they were drawn: Christian, Adrian, Mia, Dimitri, Rose and Guardian Hathaway. Again, I didn't like them all of the time, but I liked them more than others.

The characters that I hated how they were drawn: Lissa (she is the worst), Mason, Eddie, Victor, The Queen.

My Dimitri looks more like this:

 This is Amon from Witch Hunter Robin (aka my dreamy anime boyfriend).

2. The story: It's all... screwed up. You would miss some major things if you didn't read the books before hand (it skips scenes and story details). Like for example, in book two you are never told Rose and Mason are going out till like the very end were Rose by chance calls him "her boyfriend", the same with Lissa's pill in-taking, another detail that goes down the drain. The books also lack description. At other times it goes through scenes too quickly and without warning, one minute we are trying to grasp what the hell just happened in this scene and why the dialogue looks so choppy the next we are sent into a completely new scene (where the dialogue is even worse). This also doesn't help you develop some sort of connection with the characters, it's just not enough pages for it. It's just the bones of the story, but none of the meat.

Oh yeah, and the dialogue? It's like its trying to resemble the dialogue in the book but it falls short every single time. Lines that would give me a thrill in the real book fell flat in the comic. Like for example in VA when Dimitri finds Rose sort of hooking up with the boy Moroi and she is all like "Like what you see?", that line is awesome in the book, in the comic? Not so much. Then again, in the comic it doesn't give you enough time to get into the scene before it is ripped apart from you.

On the other hand, if you are a big VA fan like myself, then why the hell not try it out and add it to the collection? I'm keeping mine, I just wouldn't pay an obscene amount of money for them.

This goes to show that there will never be a good enough replacement for your own imagination. Not even colorful story books.