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Dark Reunion:
The Vampire Diaries 4

L. J. Smith

First Published 1991 (this edition 2007)          245 pages

Reviewed by Ania Tyburska

Summary (from the book jacket)

Love can kill.
Elena: transformed, the golden girl became what she once feared and desired.

Stefan: tormented by losing Elena, he’s determined to end his feud with Demon once and for all- whatever the cost. But slowly he begins to realize that his brother is not his only enemy.

Demon: at last he possesses Elena. But will his thirst for revenge against Stefan poison his triumph? Or can they come together to face one final battle?

The Review

Though in the Harper Teen re-released edition of The Vampire Diaries the second two books in the series, The Fury and Dark Reunion, are published in one volume I still have the copy from early nineties with the God awful cover art (it looks like Elena is sporting additional two sets of eyes somewhere on her cheek) so I invoke the right to review the books separately. Mostly because I really wanted a chance to snarl at this book as opposed to the second season of the TV series which has just started.

The Fury ended with a nice twist. Elena is dead. Like actually in the better place, gone to the light, dead. Bonnie is now the narrator and I cannot really say that it affected the tone of the novel that much. The plot involves some messages from the other side from Elena (sadly L. J. Smith could not let go of this character for long) and the fight with the mysterious, and old as dirt, villain. And then comes the ending.

Luckily I read Dark Reunion some time ago and cannot remember vividly what it actually involved. I know there was some moonlight, fire and lying naked on the grass, while reciting big truths of the universe. All-in-all it was horrible. Sappy and pompous to make things worse. And everyone lived happily ever after, including Elena, though not to spoil the “fun” I will not tell you how L.J Smith pulled that one off.

Now the big mystery. How did the series writers manage to compose a pretty decent script based on that worthless piece of literature? Do not get me wrong. It still has some merits. The characters, excluding Elena and Stefan who are painfully one- dimensional, showcase nicely different types of teenagers. Damon is still quite hot, mostly because he never ceases to ride the line between black and white. But the ending? It automatically pushes this book, and the whole series, to the realm of Teletubbies.

The TV series is not perfect either. True to the novel, Elena is a paragon of teenage perfection, Stefan is insipid at the best of times and Bonny is channeling Thelma and Louise in the same time. Still the story unfolds much more swiftly than in the book, the villains are ambivalent and Damon is hot. OK, so that part stays the same, but at least he got some good lines. There are no decent dialogues in this book. I am thinking of picking up the recent additions to the Vampire Diaries series, mostly to see if they became more upbeat. Maybe even shock of shocks, Elena and Stefan passed the first base? But for now I am content with the TV show.

LoveVampires Review Rating:

Note: In the 2007 HarperTeen re-released edition of The Vampire Diaries the second two books in the series, The Fury and Dark Reunion, are published in one volume.