Vampire Diaries

I know that this series was made into a show and not a movie, but I still think it is relevant for a book adaptation to an on-screen element. Anyways, the book is about Elena Gilbert, played by Nina Dobrev, who lives in a small town called Fell's Church, where all sorts of supernatural things are going on. For one, she finds out that the new guy who she starts dating, Stefan, is a vampire, and so is his brother Daemon. She also finds out that one of her best friends, Bonnie, is descended from ancient Druid witches. The book follows Elena as she deals with the loss of her parents, finding out what Stefan is and loving him anyway, and having to overcome Katherine, Daemon and Stefans' ex-lover who is bent on killing Elena, while also trying to not be killed by Daemon on his bad days. So far I have watched the first season of the show, and let me tell you that they only kept about the most basic premise of the book, including names and basic foundation of the book. Almost everything else was left out or changed in some way.



To start off, I have to point out one of the biggest fundamental differences in my opinion: the fact that Meredith doesn't exist. Meredith is Elena's other best friend in the book, but in the show they cut her character all together. She is Elena's best friend and confidante, as well as the strong one of the Bonnie Meredith duo, but instead they made Bonnie's character very headstrong and confident in the show. Meredith also ends up dating Alaric Saltzman, the new history teacher at the school after Mr. Tanner died. Leading to the next difference, Mr. Tanner was not the football coach and did not die at the football game in the book. He died at the Halloween party and was found on the witch sacrificing table in the high school gym.

Another huge change was that in the book Jeremy doesn't exist, and neither does Pearl, Anna, or even Emily. The show changes Elena's sibling from a four-year-old younger sister to a teenage brother. Her sister Margaret does not understand things that are happening yet, but Jeremy being older does, and keeping the truth from him is an added problem for Elena to handle in the show. Pearl, a friend of Katherine's from the show, and her daughter Anna whom Jeremy has a crush on, are nonexistent in the book. Emily, who is Bonnie's ancestor, possesses Bonnie to help destroy a crystal. This never happens in the book and Emily does not exist either.



Speaking of the crystal, the whole part where the crystal that Emily charmed in the 1800's is the key to opening the tomb under the church does not happen in the book. There is no crystal, and Katherine torments Elena and the Salvatore brothers using the tomb as a hiding place. Also, in the show there are 20-some other vampires in the tomb under the church, and that's why Emily does not want the tomb opened, and so destroys the crystal. They find out that Katherine was never under there and escaped a long time ago, but never cared enough for Daemon to come see him. This breaks his heart in the show because he has spent 142 years looking for a way to save her. There is only Katherine under the church in the book, and she is not trapped at all, but comes and goes as she pleases.

There is a difference in the reasoning for Elena's similar appearance to Katherine as well. In the book, it is never really explained why Elena looks so much like Katherine, just that she does. In the show, they make a whole adoption story up that Elena's mother gave her up when she was 16 and that her mother was actually Isobel, which was Alaric Saltzman's wife. In the book, Alaric's wife's history was never explored in depth, and Elena wasn't adopted.


Some other changes they made include Aunt Judith from the book was changed to Aunt Jenna, and she in the book she was engaged to Robert, where in the show she is dating a few people. Daemon is much more evil in the book, constantly trying to win Elena over and he often gets in fights with Stefan that end in one or both of them almost dying. Caroline, a side character and ex-friend of Elena's, teams up with Tyler in the book and hates Elena. In the show they are all still best friends and Caroline and Bonnie become even better friends as the show goes on. Vicki is never a vampire in the book and is not related to Matt. Stefan does stay in the old boarding house like in the book, but he lives in an upstairs room and stays with Mrs. Flowers, not Daemon and Zack. Lastly, there was not secret City Counsel that was out to kill vampires. The town is very ignorant of the vampire war that is feuding around them.



There were a few changes that were very small, but had many people upset over them. Elena was supposed to be blonde and very fair-skinned. Bonnie is supposed to be red-headed. The town name is changed to Mystic Falls in the show. Daemon and Stefan were born in the 1500's in Renaissance Italy in the book, not in the 1800's in Mystic Falls like the show says. There is no problem for vampires to travel over water in the show like there is in the book. Elena's living room and bedroom in the book are from an originally older house than the rest of her home, making it a safe area for her from Daemon because he wasn't invited in to the oder home. In the show, this stipulation doesn't exist, but then again, Daemon is much kinder in the show.

There are probably hundreds of other changes that could be listed, and this is all only from the first season of the show. Overall, I would give the book to show adaptation 2 stars, and again, I think I'm being generous. The show is not bad, I actually enjoy watching it a lot. However, the changes that they made are too many and too drastic for me to say that the adaptation is a good one.