Stefan is missing and Elena thinks Damon is responsible –
for both the missing Damon and the bodies that are starting to pile up messily
around town, making the place untidy. Unfortunately, much of the rest of the
town is focused on Stefan as the culprit and he has too many secrets to be put
under such close scrutiny
And Elena’s own rising star is dimming with her association with a suspected
murderer. Once Queen of the school, Elena is rapidly becoming a pariah and even
her own family are doubtful of her ongoing relationship and wish she would end
it. This newfound unpopularity just hands mean girl Caroline more ammunition
with which to attack Elena.
Behind it all, there’s Damon – who is disturbingly
interested in Elena and keeps appearing at random moments with a declared goal
of having her – even if he has to hurt her loved ones to achieve it.
In the last book I found Elena annoying.
In
fact, I found her intolerable to an unbelievable degree. She was incredibly
selfish, utterly self-absorbed and the way she treated the people around her
was beyond contempt. I wanted very much to give Bonnie and Meredith large wet
fish and encourage them to take it in turns slapping Elena around the face with
them.
In this book it’s not quite as much. Now, don’t get me
wrong, it’s still bad. Elena is self-absorbed, incredibly selfish, treats her
friends like servants, has incredible, disproportionate tantrums and epic
woe-is-me sessions; but it’s not longer to an UNBELIEVABLE degree. It is to an
epic degree – but it’s no longer at a level that is inconceivable for a
teenager to adopt. Her behaviour is potentially real and human
Of course, not all teenagers are like this, not even
close. And, if I didn’t know better, I’d put Elena down as a teenager of 14-15
by her behaviour and viewpoint rather than 17. But Elena is now a realistically
possible, albeit immature, 17 year old character who we have probably all met
before or something close to it, she’s not the mutant hellbeast of raging
selfishness. So that’s a step up.
But I’m left with 4 issues on this.
Firstly, if she is a, rather immature, 17 year old then
why, in the name of all that is sensible, are Robert and Judith encouraging her
to date the college student who was polite to her at dinner one time? I get
that this is the convoluted foreshadowing of the love triangle and an attempt
to create conflict for Elena’s tantrums by having her guardians be so against Stefan
– but they can be against the guy they suspect of murder without deciding their
17 year old niece needs to be dating college students.
