Customer Reviews

The Vampire Diaries: The Return: Midnight

5 star:		(34)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(11)
1 star:		(20)

 

 

Having just finished The Vampire Diaries: The Return: Midnight. I found that it was lackluster in comparison to the previous "The Return" books, especially Shadows Souls. Without creating too much of a spoiler, the plot twists did not seem developed enough and resolved the issues in way too simple and easy a way. The whole side storyline with Meredith seemed ill-constructed and nonsensical, and was not fleshed out nearly enough to seem like more than a poorly constructed anime. As far as the plot line with Damon becoming human from the prior book, L.J. Smith could have done a LOT more with it, instead of resolving it quickly and progressing what seemed like "business as usual" a quarter of the way into the book. The whole ordeal with him speaking to the "Princess" was cheesy at best.

As a whole, I was disappointed with this book, having such high expectations from Shadow Souls. Will I be reading the next one when it comes out? Yes, but only because it seems like a shame to leave it on a cliffhanger after so much of a time investment reading all the other books.

I received it through my kindle and I have yet to finish it. It seems like it's not even the same writer from the first original books. None of the characters are the same, and no one can say "they matured". I am going to finish it just beacause I purchased it anwant to see how OFF the chart she is going to take this story. I have loved L.J. Smith since I was a kid and its disappointing the way the story of Elena & the crew are going. Sorry! L.J.!

I have read all of the Vampire Diaries books, as well as many of LJ Smith's other books. I have been disappointed with The Return trilogy as a whole, but this particular book was just infuriating. The ending was so irritating I almost threw the book.

The whole Meredith side plot was not needed and seemed to be there only to add length to the book. The same thing with Elena and Bonnie's out of body experience.

As the story wrapped up, everything came too easy. If they needed something, they found it in Mrs. Flowers's house without even having to search for it (a kiln in the backyard?). Elena's wings "happened" to work at just the right time.

Whoever edited this book should be fired. It read like a first draft from an inexperienced writer. There were several grammatical errors that any good editor would have caught. Yes, there are always a few in a book, but there were more than a few in Midnight. The overuse of exclamation points made the already unbelievable story seem melodramatic.

Like all of the Return trilogy, this book continued to undermine the vampire lore that LJ Smith spent so much time creating in the first few books. How can Damon (as a human) be able to tell by Elena's tears she was still a maiden? Plus, in the first several books, it said that sharing blood was as far as a vampire could go, so if Elena was loyal to Stefan, she still had to be a maiden.

The characters transformed from wonderful, well-written, believable characters, into flat, boring, one-dimensional stereotypes. Elena came off as flighty, selfish, and stupid, a far cry from the original Elena Gilbert. She seemed more like Katherine than Elena.

I have read and read and read the previous books in the series, but I doubt I'll ever pick up Midnight again.

I have read and loved LJ's books for years, long before the television series was conceived, and I have to say, she's lost touch with her characters. Elena has become even more flighty and fickle and, sadly, stupid. At times, Bonnie and Elena are written exactly the same way. I don't know if it's the amount of time that passes between the writings of each book, but you'd swear she forgot where she was going with the last one when she picked up writing this one. She had finally made Elena and Damon seem as if they were going to reach that point of deciding whether to become a real couple and then leaving him a human with all of a human's vulnerabilities, but she picks this one up, drops off Damon, a suddenly one-dimensional Damon, though he has always been by far the most interesting character in the series, and makes Elena and Stefan all lovey-dovey and boring again. I knew with enough certainty and dread what was going to happen to poor Damon as they made their journey to the Nether World. She brought in just similar enough descriptions from her past series with tragic love triangles to make me want to weep for Damon.
The action throughout the story is jumpy, for lack of a better word to describe it. You read it because a plotline is necessary but the kitsune seem just silly in this book and the things with Meredith are almost like pleas to the readers, "C'mon, guys, I have to have something to include in the next book, though I obviously hadn't intended to drag things out this far." Hopefully in the next one she will have come to the conclusion that Damon wins the brother competition by simply being interesting. Stefan has always been good, gentle Stefan, and maybe ideally good guys win in the end, but I'm going to place my bets on the one the writer took the time getting to know and giving a personality to. Hopefully she will too and give Elena and Damon the fit ending they've been waiting for so she can pick up her next project that, god-willing, won't include angels or their wings.

I recently started reading the Vampire Diaries series a few years ago, and was immediately hooked after the first few books. It appears, since then, the series has been following a slow nosedive, inevitably crash landing with the release of this last book.

I am not sure what the situation is with the author (whether or not she was pressured by her publisher to continue), but she appears to have lost all creativity and care for the continuance of her characters, which seemed so real and likable when the story first started. I am finding Elena to be insufferable, Bonnie to be useless, and Meredith's entire storyline to be pointless; three characters I used to enjoy reading about. I will not even get into the sloppy transitions throughout the story, the pointless sub-plots (i.e. Caroline's pregnancy, Damon's stint as a human), or the horrible grammar and spelling, especially during one of the last crucial lines in the book!

Read the book if you would like a little bit of amusement and have followed the others in the series, but I would no longer recommend this to anyone looking to start a new vampire series from the beginning. I wish I would have stopped reading the series after the originals came out; the memories of the characters would have been more pleasant.

For the love that all that is holy, I have never understood why LJ Smith decided to introduce kitsune as the "villains" in "The Return" series. Compiled with all of the other nonsense Japanese lessons (the whole "Sa.." debate in the previous book, and a lengthy argument about Japanese honorifics in this one) and Elena's absolutely ridiculous Wing's of whatever Powers, each with their own unique pose and phrase to say along with the "attack," are far more Sailor Moon than the Vampire Diaries, it seems like LJ Smith abandoned her own series for a re-write of a magical girl anime. I don't know how anyone can NOT laugh while picturing Elena striking different poses and saying a little incantation to release her Wings; it's completely absurd.

As for the characters, the beloved, unique characters of the original series are further smashed into one-dimensional transparency. Elena is now about as selfish and shallow as a character can come and really lives up to Katherine's name. Her romantic advances with Stefan and Damon are no moral qualm for Elena; to her, it's just a shame that the rest of the world can't have as much love as she does (darn). Stefan's character is reduced to do little more than whine and act like a clingy girlfriend, even willing to stay with Elena if she keeps cheating with *cough* make that "undestanding" Damon, than the vampire/man who fell on his knees and screamed when Elena died. The side-story about Meredith is completely unnecessary and makes her actions from all the previous books seem unbelievable. Bonnie remains the same, but her charm is lost when it's not combined with the scheming of the three girls together. The most unfortunate thing of all is that the chance to see Damon as a human is completely wasted. In fact, having him become human is entirely pointless in the grand scheme of the story.

The plot-line is all over the place as well. Readers jump back and forth between characters and dimensions, action to non-action, so frequently that it's just like a pot-luck dinner... who knows what you will get next. The "great battle" is so un-great that it is won by accident.

If only Elena's last wish of this book affected the readers as well and let us forget this horrible trilogy added on to the original series. Heck, maybe that was LJ Smith telling us, in her own way, that "The Return" series is a disaster that is best forgotten.

I have read all of the Vampire Diaries books and was anxiously awaiting this one as well. I am a huge Damon fan. I feel that he has a lot more charisma than Stephan. To me, Stephan is boring. That being said, I obviously want Damon and Elena together. Unfortunately, I do not understand why the author finds it ok to make Elena find it acceptable to have both Damon and Stephan. She needs to choose. The fact that she doesn't and seems to think she can have them both makes her seem so selfish and unlikeable to me. Many good stories involve heartbreak, and I know many of you are Stephan fans, but sometimes the good guy doesn't get the girl. I feel like this book was just "ok." It held my attention enough to get me to the end, where I must admit, I cried like a little girl. I won't reveal what happens to those who haven't read it. However, I will say I am very unhappy with the ending. It gives this HUGE cliffhanger. I know LJ Smith will no longer be writing any Vampire Diaries books, but I do hope that someone continues to tie up the loose ends. The ending of this book gave no clarification as to what is going to happen next and it leaves all of the characters in limbo. If you think there will be a solid ending, guess again.

I loved all the Vampire Diaries books. To be honest I could not even get through this one, which is a first to me with the fantasy genre. The last Return book was enjoyable with the Dark Dimension, but did we really need to see that again? Why not go to another level of hell or something more creative? I expected for Damon to embrace his humanity. Afterall, don't vampires miss being human? And what's with the telepathy? Humans can't read minds. Why not lay him naked and bare in all his human glory, and let him connect with Elena on a level Stefan can't? Their relationship developed enough in the last book, so why ruin it?

I will admit, I ignored the idiotic addition of Elena's Wings of Whatever (after her ridiculous second resurrection) in the last book, because the plot was interesting, and I couldn't get enough of Damon and Elena. The characters have just gotten more ridiculous though. When Bonnie rushes through the door after hearing Elena call Damon "darling" Meredith and Matt rush to all these "well maybe..blah blah happened," The dialogue here is contrived. When someone bursts through the door upset, they are not likely to make you play a guessing game as to what is wrong. They would most likely just come out with it. And if Stefan really heard all that was going on, why didn't he hear Damon and Elena kiss? DUH!?

I wish I could get my money back. Honestly, this was the worst waste of time and money in my life-- and if I knew it would turn out this bad I never would have started reading the other books.

This review will have SPOILERS for ALL the Vampire Diaries books.
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I finally chugged to the end of Midnight yesterday, and I'm just appalled. The biggest pet peeve I have in fantasy/sci fi stories is when something happens at the end to undo everything that was done up to that point...and that's exactly what happens here. Not only is the entire Return series pretty much wiped out (although not from my memory, more's the pity), but also most of everything after "The Awakening," so the original series is undone as well. Unbelievable. HOW MUCH DAMAGE CAN SOMEONE DO TO HER OWN WORK????

As an aside, there's a stupid new plotline for Meredith which reeks of setting up for more squeezing of the cash cow. Yes, I know L.J. has been fired, but someone's going to continue making money off these books...even if they had to make over a beloved old character to do it. We're supposed to believe, NOW, that Meredith is really a "hunter/slayer?" That she has a vampire twin? That she herself is part vampire who must eat a teaspoon of blood with every meal??? I call SHENANIGANS!!!!

Then, finally, there's the whole Damon aspect to this book. Damon starts off as human, but instead of doing something, ANYTHING, with this plot thread, he quickly arranges to become a vampire again. Then, he's killed, but not killed, at the end. Who cares? If he's not dead, why did we have to read his extended death scene? UGH.

And after all this aggravation, I have to say that I will check out the first Hunters book from the library, just to see if the ghostwriter will try to mimic the old books (in which case, kudos) or this new trash...at which point I'll check out permanently.

And WHERE IS STRANGE FATE??? Oh yeah, I forgot, they don't have a Night World TV series so it isn't necessary. I guarantee we will see some new Secret Circle book, riding the wave when THAT series comes out, before we ever see the book we old-time fans have been waiting for 11 years (and counting).

I am so sorry I ever picked up Nightfall to support L.J.'s return.

ADDENDUM: I also just saw on L.J.'s website under "booklist" this message on the cover image: "The face on the front is Audrey, who finally gets her just desserts..." Um, there IS no Audrey in this book or series. Audrey is a character in the Forbidden Game series, and NOT one who should get "just desserts." Did she mean Caroline? Way to know your own characters!

I wish LJ Smith had been content to leave the Vampire Diaries characters in the real/earthly world, and that she had not turned interesting and complex people into terrible shadows (ha ha) of their former selves. I would give this book a half star, if possible, because it's just so bad! The weirdness began in the first "Return" book, and each novel has been worse. The only positive thing I can say: the cover art has been great.

The characters and plot lines in Midnight are nothing like they began. The Dark Dimension and steady stream of oddball secondary characters were just too much to stomach. I know the original books were no great world literature, but they had coherent plots and well-written relationships and chemistry. Damon had been one of my all-time favorite vampire characters, and I've been reading fang fiction for a couple of decades. I now feel sorry for a fictional character who deserved better from his creator.

This whole second series has just been distasteful. It might have been better if LJ never continued the Vampire Diaries world. The publisher and editors deserve some of the blame for not streamlining what became tome-like books and a big hot mess. Midnight seems to end with a potential foreshadowing of yet more books. Really? Really?? I won't even bother looking for them. I'm going to try to purge the existence of these sequels from my memory.