Vampire Academy

Vampire Academy is a series of Young Adult Vampire Fiction novels written by Richelle Mead. The story follows Rose Hathaway, a 17 year old Dhampir who is training to be the guardian to her best friend, Lissa Dragomir, a Moroi princess, with whom she shares a Psychic Link. They train at the Academy of Adventure called Saint Vladimir's Academy for young vampire children and their bodyguards. After spending two years on the run, Lissa and Rose are brought back to the school and are forced to re-acquaint themselves with the student body. They are soon joined by a new bodyguard named Dimitri, who is assigned to Lissa in place of Rose.

Despite being Young Adult novels, the books are rather accurate in their portrayal of teenagers. They cuss, drink, make out, have sex or try to. There is very little whitewashing done of the teenaged experience and the book becomes a much more satisfying read due to the realism of the portrayal. While still kept within a PG-13 definition of edgy, the works have gained a substantial adult following in addition to their intended audience.

The books, in order of publication

• Vampire Academy (August 2007)
• Frostbite (April 2008)
• Shadow Kiss (November 2008)
• Blood Promise (August 2009)
• Spirit Bound (May 2010)
• Last Sacrifice (December 2010)

Tropes used in Vampire Academy include:

• Academy of Adventure: Saint Vladimir's Academy.
• Action Girl: Rose and her mother.
  • Any dhampir girl, really.
    • Or rather any female guardian.
    • Or any of the female Keepers
• Exclusively Evil - The Strigoi.
• Back from the Dead - One becomes shadow kissed when a spirit user revives them. Essentially what happened to Rose, who died along with Lissa's parents and brother.
  • Another variation of this is spirit can bring Strigoi back from the dead. This happens with two characters. Dimitri and Mrs. Karp.
• Back-to-Back Badasses - Rose and Dimitri do this regularly.
• Badass Longcoat - Dimitri, lampshaded in Last Sacrifice, when Rose gives Dimitri a hard time about leaving his duster behind after the Guardians invade the Mastrano house, trying to capture Rose and Dimitri
• The Beautiful Elite - The Moroi, who all share the characteristic of looking like supermodels.
• Better Than It Sounds - Most synopses of the book are written to appeal to the Twilight-reading crowd, and make it sound like a cross between Harry Potter and Twilight. It's not.
• Betty and Veronica - Later in the series, Adrian and Dimitri fill the roles of Betty and Veronica respectively. (Naturally, Rose is Archie)
• Bastard Boyfriend - Christian seems he will be this, but he softens.
• Battle Couple - Dimitri and Rose.
• Blessed with Suck - The shadow-kissed. They share a Psychic Link with their spirit users, which is very useful if the Shadow-kissed is a guardian, but because the nature of Spirit often drives the user crazy, the Shadow-kissed end up absorbing all of that negative energy. Oh, and being able to see ghosts isn't as wonderful as some people make it out to be.
• Came Back Wrong: After Dimitri’s recovery from being a Strigori, he is convinced this is the case.
  • He was wrong.
• Dead Ex Machina - Happens twice in Blood Promise. The first time was when Rose was overpowered by two Strigoi, and the second time was when she was fighting Dimitri.
• Deader Than Dead - All Strigoi. And the fact that even though they're dead, they can still be killed. Again.
  • Also, Dimitri, in Blood Promise.
• Deadpan Snarker - Christian.
• Death by Origin Story: The accident that Lissa’s family and Rose died in happens before the book starts, and causes just about everything else in every book to happen.
• Death by Sex - Dimitri becomes a Strigoi in Shadow Kiss after he and Rose do the deed.
• Defrosting Ice Queen - Mia. Tatiana, kind of.
• Dhampir - Ours Are Different Too. One is conceived when a Moroi has relations with a human or another dhampir. (They can't reproduce without Moroi for some reason.) They're tougher than both humans and Moroi, which is why the Moroi have fashioned them into their own personal bodyguards.
• Earn Your Happy Ending - did Rose ever.
• G-Rated Drug - Moroi and Strigoi release endorphins when they feed. This is treated as seriously as any other drug, however. There are three notable references to the drug-like qualities.
  • Those that are 'feeders' are perfect examples. They allow the Moroi to drink from them in return for the high. Those who have been a feeder for a long time are portrayed to be very out of it, almost constantly high.
  • Blood Whores are Dhampires that let Moroi feed on them. While feeders are treated with respect, Blood Whores, surprisingly, are not. Rose has to deal with something similar in the first book, as when she ran away with Lissa, she would allow Lissa to feed on her.
  • When Strigoi Dimitri captures Rose, he keeps her incapacitated by feeding off of her.
• Halfbreed: Dhampirs can be either thos if Moroi and human (rare) or Moroi and Dhampir.
• Hopeless Suitor: There are a lot of them. First there’s Mason, then Adrian, then a boy in a ‘primitive’ vampire village.
• Elemental Powers - All of the Moroi specialize in one of the four elements. Well, all except for those who specialize in spirit, which people used to think was not specializing at all.
• Everyone Looks Sexier If Russian - Most of the Moroi are of Eastern European origin.
  • Dimitri. Just Dimitri.
• Follow the Leader - This is one of the series that cashed in from the success of Twilight. To be fair, the idea of a YA vampire novel came from Richelle Mead's editor.
• Happiness in Slavery - The Dhampirs sacrifice their lives and livelihood for the sake of protecting moroi, and few give any of it a second thought. Non-angsty Dhampirs are refreshing, but this one's a bit on the other extreme.
• Hemo-Erotic
• Hot for Student - Dimitri, through Rose shares his feelings.
• Hot for Teacher - Rose, to Dimitri.
• Ice Queen: Queen Tatina. She starts to become a Defrosting Ice Queen but then is killed.
• If I Can't Have You: Strigoi Dimitri seems to settle upon this conclusion.
• Incredibly Lame Pun - Frostbite is about a bunch of vampires going to a ski resort.
• I Uh You Too: Dimitri’s inability to say I love you made Rose realize that he just thought of her as a conquest now that he was a Strigoi. It was the main reason she finally decided to get off her drug-addled butt and try to kill him.
• Jail Bait: Jill. She even becomes known a this within the group, much to Adrian's mother's horror.
• Killed Off for Real - Mason in Frostbite.
• Kissing Under the Influence - Victor Dashkov gave Rose a necklace enchanted with earth, causing Rose and Dimitri to become overwhelmed by passion, which distracts them while he kidnaps Lissa. In book 4, Lissa was drunk when she made out with Aaron, her ex-boyfriend.
  • When Strigoi-Dimitri has Rose, he keeps her drugged up with his bites
• Last of Her Kind - Lissa is last remaining Dragomir.
  • Or not
• Luke, I Am Your Father - In Blood Promise, it is revealed that Rose's father is Abe Mazur.
• Magnificent Bastard - Victor.
• May–December Romance - Rose is 17 and Dimitri's 24.
• Mentor Ship - Rose and Dimitri.
• Mercy Kill: When discussing what one would want if turned into a Strigoi, killing them could be interpreted as this, because if there was a shred of that person left, they would most likely want to be killed. Becomes a foreshadowing when Rose has to do this to Dimitri.
• Nobody Thinks It Will Work: Rose and Dimitri do eventually get together, but their concerns set out in the first book are never resolved, and are probably more pressing by the last book.
• Not Quite Dead - Rose receives a letter from Dimitri at the end of Blood Promise.
• Our Vampires Are Different - For one thing, there are three species of them. The Moroi are living vampires (meaning they are born, not made) who can subsist on human food, drink blood about once or twice a day, are susceptible to sunlight, and have Elemental Powers. The Dhampir are half-Moroi, half-Dhampir (or half-Moroi, half-human), can go out in the sunlight, do not need to drink blood at all, can't have children with their own kind, and the majority of them are BadAsses. The Strigoi are pretty much your traditional vampires, with pale skin, red eyes, no reflections, and are Exclusively Evil.
  • Both Moroi and Strigoi have chemicals in their saliva that release endorphins in their victim's brain.
• Parental Abandonment - It's common for Dhampir's to have a Disappeared Dad, but Rose's mother dumped her at St. Vladimir's when she was 2 in order to continue her guardian duties. Lissa's parents and brother died in a car crash.
  • Eventually averted. Both Rose's mother and father begin to take a decent part in her life by the last book. Her father more than her mother.
• Poisonous Friend - Avery, who encouraged Lissa to drink, party, and do other sorts of reckless behavior so she could get her killed, then revive her with spirit so they could be bonded.
• Psychic Link - The shadow-kissed can enter the mind of their bond mate, but not the other way around.
• Romantic False Lead: Adrian was developed as a romantic lead just about as long as Dimitri was. Rose even convincingly seems like she’ll choose him.
• Royal Blood - The Moroi
• Second Love - Christian is Lissa's.
• Sexy Mentor - Dimitri
• Sins of Our Fathers - Because his parents decided to turn Strigoi, people are extremely wary that Christian will do the same thing.
• So Happy Together - Rose and Dimitri before the climax of Shadow Kiss, where Strigoi promptly launch a massive attack on the school and Dimitri is turned.
• Son of a Whore: Dimitri
  • Not really. It's said that, mostly, the dhampir women who end up single mothers (bloodwhores, as they're called) genuinely thought that the Moroi guys loved them.
  • Space Amish: The Keepers live in secluded, old-fashioned areas and consider the rest of Moroi and dhampirs to be "Tainted" for accepting the modern world.
• Staking the Loved One - Rose has to do this to Dimitri in Blood Promise.
• The Stoic: Dimitri.
• The Call Put Me on Hold - Before everyone realized that Lissa specialized in spirit, she spent years thinking that she hadn't specialized at all when all the other kids did.
• Their First Time - Rose got a dose of Squick when she happened to wander into Lissa's mind as she and Christian were about to have theirs. Then in Shadow Kiss, Rose and Dimitri do it in a cabin. The afterglow is promptly overshadowed by a Strigoi attack on the school in which they lose Dimitri.
• These Hands Have Killed: Rose has one of these in the last book, for killing Victor.
  • Even before that, Dimitri Angsts quite a bit about all the innocents he had killed while a Strigoi. He even helps Rose when she has a similar experience.
• Things Get Real: This happens a lot, but most notably in Frostbite.
• Tragic Monster: Dimitri
• Unlucky Childhood Friend - Mason to Rose. Emphasis on the unlucky.
• The Unfavorite - A major source of angst for Lissa is how she was always walking in her brother's shadow.
• Unspoken Plan Guarantee: In Last Sacrifice no one tells Rose about their plans on the prison break. So that Rose wouldn't have tipped the guards off by acting suspicious.
• Unwanted Harem: Rose. By the last book, she has more guys casually, or not so casually, interested in her than the rest of the characters combined.
• Wacky Wayside Tribe - The Keepers in Last sacrifice
• We Can Rule Together: Considering Dimitri’s high status among Strigoi he has this to offer to Rose. It wouldn’t hurt that she would definetly be a decent Strigoi on her own, and the two of them together as Strigoi…
• With Great Power Comes Great Insanity - Spirit users. Some, like Adrian, turn to drugs and alcohol to numb its effects. Others, like Ms. Karp, turn Strigoi. Those with bond mates have it considerably better, since the other absorbs all of their negative energy.
• Your Cheating Heart: Rose has done this multiple times, but only properly gets called out on it in the last book.