The Vampire Diaries (novel series)

The Vampire Diaries

The Vampire Diaries: Return: Midnight
The Awakening The Struggle The Fury Dark Reunion The Return: Nightfall The Return: Shadow Souls The Return: Midnight The Hunters: Phantom The Hunters: Moonsong The Hunters: Destiny Rising
Author	L. J. Smith
Language	English
Genre	Horror, Fantasy, Romance, Young-adult fiction
Publisher	Harper Paperbacks
Published	September 1991–1992 February 2009 – present
Media type	Print (hardcover and paperback)

The Vampire Diaries is a young adult vampire horror series of novels written by L. J. Smith. The story centers around Elena Gilbert, a high school girl torn between two vampire brothers. The series was originally a trilogy published in 1991, but pressure from readers led Smith to write a fourth volume, Dark Reunion, which was released the following year. The first four novels in the original series: The Awakening, The Struggle, The Fury and Dark Reunion all feature Stefan Salvatore and Elena Gilbert as the main protagonists. The first three novels in the original series are from both Stefan and Elena's points of view, but the last book in the original series, Dark Reunion, is from Bonnie McCullough's viewpoint.

After taking a hiatus from writing for several years, in 2007 Smith announced a new spin-off trilogy entitled The Vampire Diaries: The Return with Damon as the main protagonist. The first installment, Nightfall, was released on February 10, 2009. Shadow Souls was released on March 16, 2010. The final book of the trilogy, Midnight, was released on March 15, 2011.

The trilogy after The Return trilogy, The Hunters, will be written by a ghostwriter. L. J. signed a "work for hire" contract, which means Alloy owns the copyrights. Alloy fired Smith for unknown reasons and replaced her with a ghostwriter. Smith had originally intended to call the books in The Hunters trilogy Phantom, Evensong and Eternity, but she retained the name Eternity and will be writing a book unrelated to the series called Eternity: A Vampire Love Story. The title of the third book in The Hunters trilogy is Destiny Rising according to goodreads.com.

The new trilogy will feature Stefan and Elena as the main characters. It will focus on Stefan and Elena in college. Phantom was released on October 25, 2011. Moonsong will be released on March 13, 2012. Destiny Rising will be released on October 4, 2012.

Like The Hunters trilogy, the Vampire Diaries: Stefan's Diaries series is written by a ghost-writer.

The Vampire Diaries has been adapted into a loosely based television series that premiered on September 10, 2009, on The CW.

Plot summary

The Awakening

Elena Gilbert is, on the surface, a typical high school senior. She’s pretty, popular and has several close friends. She’s the “it” girl that boys want to date and girls want to emulate. But there’s more to Elena than meets the eye. Deep down, she’s lonely and struggles with feelings of abandonment due to a tragedy that occurred when she was younger. These feelings cause her to almost demand that others like her. Elena, self penned the “queen” of her high school, isn’t the most beautiful girl in school, but her outward self-confidence makes her appealing to most of the kids there. So she’s quite shocked when the new boy at school, the mysterious and darkly handsome Stefan Salvatore, goes out of his way to avoid her. Elena soon realizes that her usual schemes don’t work on him. He’s “so not into her.” So begins a cat-and-mouse game that’s interesting to watch. We learn why Stefan tries too hard to avoid Elena. We also see Elena realize that her pursuit of Stefan hearkens to something deeper than she could ever imagine.

The Struggle'

Picking up where The Awakening left off, Elena confronts Damon about Stefan's disappearance. When Elena rejects his romantic advances, he refuses to help her find Stefan. Bonnie, who is believed to have psychic powers, uses magic to track down Stefan. The girls and Matt discover Stefan trapped in a well, close to death. After Stefan's rescue, Elena offers him her blood to recover. Because of the belief that he perpetrated the 'animal' attacks,but he still takes the blood. Stefan still faces hostility in the town. As Founder's Day approaches, Elena reaches her breaking point. Her adversary, Caroline Forbes, has stolen Elena's diary, whose contents can be read as evidence that Stefan is a violent criminal. Bonnie, Meredith and Elena try to break into Caroline's house to find the diary but fail. Damon offers to help Elena's cause - if Elena gives him blood. Elena initially refuses, but she gives in when Damon threatens to feed off of her little sister, Margaret, instead. Damon and Elena do a blood exchange. Soon after, Elena tells Stefan about the diary. Stefan tells Elena that even if Caroline reveals the contents of Elena's diary to the whole town, because of his love for Elena, Stefan will stay. On Founder's Day, Elena and her friends try but fail to steal Elena's diary. However, when Caroline tries to read the diary, it is discovered that Damon has switched Elena's diary for Caroline's. Damon accepts Elena's thanks, but his satisfaction turns to anger when he hears about her engagement to Stefan. Aunt Judith is also displeased. Frustrated by their reactions, Elena storms off in her car and soon detects something malevolent about the weather. She tries to cross running water, as she thinks this will keep her safe. As she drives over a bridge, it breaks, and Elena drives into the water. She then drowns and becomes a vampire.

The Fury

This book begins with the newly "turned" Elena watching Damon and Stefan engaged in a fight to the death. Initially, she does not recognize the brothers due to her confused state, having recently died and risen as a vampire, but a flicker of memory causes her to realize the one she loves is hurt and needs her help. The reader is led to believe she is referring to Stefan. But instead Elena attacks him. Stefan doesn't fight back and allows her to bite him. Damon eventually commands her to stop and takes her in search of human blood. Stefan intervenes, not wanting Elena to kill someone, and instead makes her drink Matt's blood. Afterwards, Damon hides her in Alaric Saltzman's attic and once she has rested, her disorientation begins to lift. Elena is deeply bothered about the way she attacked Stefan. She hears Alaric speaking about vampires and a memorial service. Elena goes to the service and is found by Stefan and Damon, who agree that they should work together. Stefan is relieved when Elena remembers their love, and Damon is enraged. The three are soon distracted by the strange behavior of the - town's pet dogs, which are attacking their owners. More strange events lead the three vampires, with the help of Bonnie, Meredith, Matt and Alaric, to conclude that the Power that forced Elena off of the bridge is stalking the town. It transpires that Katherine, the vampire who turned Damon and Stefan, faked her own death 500 years before in a vain attempt to bring the brothers closer. Her plan failed, and the brothers killed each other and rose as vampires. Katherine was infuriated by the brothers' continuing feud, so she fled to Klaus, who had turned her into a vampire on her death bed. Under his teaching, Katherine became powerful and unstable. She ties Damon, Stefan and Elena in a crypt where she plans toffedswzherself, forcing Katherine into a shaft of sunlight and tearing off her protective lapis lazuli necklace. Elena is badly burned, since Katherine had removed the protective ring from Elena's hand. She dies in Stefan's arms after she makes him promise to take care of Damon.

Dark Reunion

As a psychic, Bonnie has dreams of Elena in the Other world. But the dreams turn frightening, which causes the death of one of their friends. A source of power has infiltrated Fell's Church, putting its inhabitants in danger. Meredith, Matt, and Bonnie use a summoning spell to call for Stefan and Damon. Bonnie takes the leading role as she writes in the diary. She also finds a possible romance with Matt Honeycutt. After performing research, Stefan realizes Tyler Smallwood is a werewolf. They lure Tyler into the graveyard, and Tyler reveals startling information. They find out that Klaus, the vampire who turned Katherine, is the killer. The four find out from Meredith's mad grandfather that the only thing that can weaken Klaus is White Ash wood. Klaus makes a deal with Stefan to come with him. Although Stefan warns Bonnie, Meredith, and Matt not to follow, they do. They see Stefan with a branch of White Ash wood, and Bonnie realizes it's a trap. There is a fight at the old Francher place deep in the Old Wood. They are losing the fight, and Stefan is on the brink of death. Damon appears and stakes Klaus. However, Klaus isn't hurt badly, and he attacks Damon. Bonnie screams for Elena, who appears as a glowing mist along with the spirits of Civil War soldiers that had fought and died in Fell's Church. They charge Klaus and carry him away. Elena almost leaves forever and then is granted another chance to come back to life.

The Return: Nightfall

Picking up one week after Elena was brought back to life, she is in a child-like state and cannot read, write or speak, except with mental pictures. Caroline awakes early every morning to talk with a reflection of herself in the mirror, as Damon observes. He feels a sting at his neck, but asks Caroline to invite him in. He is about to drain her of blood but realizes something is influencing him. Stefan allows Bonnie, Meredith, and Caroline to visit Elena, who kisses Caroline on the lips to identify her. This upsets Caroline, who is ordered to leave. It is revealed that Mrs. Flowers is a witch and her mother died at the turn of the twentieth century. Meredith, Bonnie, and Matt crash into a tree, which grows larger and larger, trapping them inside their car. Bonnie calls Damon for help, and he saves her. Stefan saves Matt and Meredith, while Damon heals Bonnie. Elena wakes up one morning back to normal. She and Stefan invite everyone for a picnic, where they agree that malach, evil parasitic creatures, have infested the Old Wood and are under someone's control. A kitsune, a fox-spirit from Japan who calls himself the "Hell Shinichi," appears. He and his sister Misao want the town of Fell's Church. Damon makes a deal with Shinichi to let them destroy the town, but let him and "his girls" get out safely. Shinichi makes the malach inside Damon (that entered him though the sting he felt earlier) grow. More malach also enter. The young girls of the town are acting strangely. Meredith and Bonnie find Caroline scuttling like a lizard. Elena uses "Wings of Purification" to heal Damon from the malach. She also uses the "Wings of Redemption" and "Wings of Remembrance" to help Damon regain the memories when he was possessed.

The Return: Shadow Souls

Damon, with Elena and Matt, follows Stefan into the Dark Dimension to set him free from the prison he has been tricked into. When Matt sees Elena and Damon getting too close, he turns back and sends Bonnie and Meredith to inform Elena about what's happening back home. Bonnie and Meredith join Elena as all three are forced to enter as the property of Damon. Elena and Damon exchange blood many times throughout this book and grow closer. Stefan is imprisoned, and only Elena can free him by finding the hidden halves of the kitsune key to his cell. Back home, Matt is hiding from the law and trying to fight the evil kitsune who are destroying their community. He enlists the help of the local doctor and her nephew, the boarding house owner, and Isobel's grandmother, who was once a priestess, to keep their home together. Elena and Damon go to Stefan's prison and free him. Elena then feeds him her blood. As they leave, a good kitsune gives Elena a bouquet for Stefan. Damon's curiosity gets the better of him, and the flower turns him human with one smell. Stefan and Damon wish that they could switch places with each other: Stefan as a human, and Damon as a vampire.

The Return: Midnight

Damon is now human. He uses Misao's star ball to reopen the gate to the Dark Dimension and takes Bonnie with him by accident. Damon is then turned back into a vampire by Princess Jessalyn. Bonnie is arrested as a runaway slave and taken to an auction house to be sold. Shinichi buys Bonnie to extract information about Misao's star ball. Since the group has drained Power out of it, Misao is dying. Shinichi throws Bonnie out of a window, but Damon saves her. Meanwhile, in Fell's Church, Matt is arrested for assaulting Caroline, and Stefan, Elena, and Mrs. Flowers go to court to get him out. They bring in Saber, a hell hound Sage left to protect them. Caroline changes into a werewolf at the sight of him. The officials at the court turn into werewolves as well. When Matt is free, Stefan and Elena go into the Dark Dimension and find their friends. The four then travel to the Nether World in search of the largest star ball ever made in hopes that it will save their town. Sage is the guardian of the Gate where the treasures are, including the star ball. He lets the group visit one of the seven gateways. During the journey, Shinichi and Misao die, and Mrs. Flowers changes into a younger version of herself. Meredith discovers that she has a twin brother named Cristian, and Klaus took him when they were three years old. She also tells the group that she is a hunter-slayer and a new type of vampire with small fangs. The kitsune are working for Inari, Isobel's grandmother. She is the most powerful Kitsune in the world, and the star ball is hers. In the Nether World, on the smallest moon, the group finds the star ball in a tree. Damon is killed when the tree stakes him in the heart while he saves Bonnie from falling to her death. Elena uses her "Wings Of Destruction" to destroy the tree and star ball, killing Inari. Sage tells them that maybe the Celestial Court can reverse the damage done in Fell's Church. There the leader of the blonde Guardians reveals that Elena was originally destined to become a guardian. The Celestial Court agrees to reverse what was done in Fell's Church and erase the memories of what happened there. Elena can go home as if she never died, and Stefan will be accepted as her boyfriend. Vicki Bennett, Sue Carson, and Mr. Tanner get their lives back, but nothing can be done for Damon. Angered, Elena begins to unleash her wings of destruction, but a soldier named Lenea stops her. The Three Guardians of the Celestial Court decide that Elena is unfit to wield the wings, so they clip them. Elena's wings and telepathy (with everyone but Stefan) are lost, and she is practically fully human again. The book ends on the Nether World's smallest moon. It is raining from the tree Elena destroyed, and liquid drips onto a body that thinks of two girls: Elena and Bonnie. It says if he can remember who he is, he can live again, and a name comes: Damon.

The Hunters: Phantom

The group explores the restored Fell's Church, but they are still sad that Damon has died. Elena is reunited with her family, which has hired Caleb Smallwood to work on their yard. He says that he's Tyler's cousin and that he's been staying with Tyler's parents since Tyler "ran away." As the friends leave to pick up Alaric and his friend, Dr. Celia Connor, at the train station, a rose that had appeared at Elena's doorstep cuts Bonnie. The blood pouring out of it spells "Celia" on her arm. At the train station, Celia is almost killed when her scarf gets caught in the train door, but Stefan saves her by ripping the scarf. The shreds spell "Meredith." Meanwhile, on the Dark Moon, Damon crawls out of the mountains of liquified ash. Sage finds him, helps Damon remember who he is, and lets him use the Mystical Elevator to return to Fell's Church. Up to this point, Damon has appeared to Elena in dreams. Elena sees him in her room one night, and he tells her that the energy from Inari's Star Ball gave him life. Elena goes to the cemetery to visit her parents and sees Caleb, who has also lost his parents. Stefan shows up and throws Caleb against a tombstone out of jealousy that he might like Elena. He says that he discovered evidence that Caleb is evil. Later, Bonnie knocks down Mrs. Flowers' knitting, which spells "Bonnie" on the ground. She tries to do a spell to contact Damon, but ends up in a coma after being overcome by darkness. When Elena tells Damon, he investigates by letting the darkness take him. His consciousness ends up on the Dark Moon. Stefan takes Elena to the Smallwoods' shed, and they see that Caleb had collected many photos and newspapers about them. They detail both realities - of the events that actually happened and everyone's fabricated memories. Stefan and Elena conclude that the Guardians just changed these, but Caleb can see some of them for what they really are because he is supernatural. He is descended from werewolves and possesses some witchcraft abilities. Stefan and Elena go shopping, but Elena sees people from high school and becomes jealous that they have normal lives. Darkness overtakes her, and she passes out after Stefan notices a shopkeeper's hair flowing in the shape of the name "Matt." Stefan takes Meredith and Matt to the Smallwoods' house to confront Caleb. Matt passes out after he thinks about Tyler's popularity. Caleb says that he deduced that the group of friends was behind his contradicting memories and gave Elena the rose, hoping to get closer to her so that he could find out where Tyler went. At the boarding house, Mrs. Flowers says she believes that a phantom that is feeding off of jealousy may be the culprit. They perform a spell to summon the phantom. Meanwhile, Elena meets Bonnie in the land of the flowers that can hold special spells. Matt also arrives, and Elena tells them to look for the way out, which they find. They see Sage in the nexus room and run to the Dark Moon, where Damon is battling a misty blue figure. They all start fighting it, and suddenly they end up in the garage of the boarding house. Damon says that the creature is one of the original phantoms, which is much more powerful than an ordinary phantom. The original phantoms were trapped on the Dark Moon by the guardians, but Elena destroyed their prison, and the phantom of jealousy followed them to Fell's Church. The phantom tells everyone why they should be jealous of others, pitting Stefan and Damon against each other in a brutal fight. As the rest of the group admits their jealousies and casts them away, weakening the phantom, Elena makes the brothers reconcile. Damon throws a candle at the phantom, setting it on fire, and Elena reaches into the creature's core and pulls out the rose inside, destroying the phantom. Damon gives Elena his blood to heal her burns as the fire department arrives to put out the fire. Everyone then looks forward to the future.

The Hunters: Moonsong

In stores March 13, 2012. L. J. Smith said she wanted this book to be about the group going to Dalcrest College. Damon would help Meredith to control her bloodlust, although that seems to have been resolved in the ghostwritten books. In an email, L. J. Smith wrote:

"I wanted to write Moonsong, and give Bonnie an admirer who is just as sweet and even more naïve than she is—a pure white wolf with radiant blue eyes, who happens to be a werewolf with moonlight colored hair and the same blue eyes when he’s human. I wanted to show Damon’s surprising reaction to Xander the good werewolf (not at all happy about it—so much that he “accidentally” almost kills the poor innocent wolf).

I also wanted to show how Damon rescues Bonnie from a vicious wolf-pack attack, and then let her fly away with him. And I wanted to show how Bonnie, who knows a little medicine from her sister Mary, helps Damon deliver Caroline’s twin babies when she goes into labor deep in the woods. But that’s one scene that I would have had to fight tooth and nail for, because even the glow that Damon and Bonnie share at seeing new life come into the world wouldn’t be enough for them to call it decent. They would undoubtedly have tried to make me cut it. But I still want to write it, so badly.

I even had the last book in that trilogy plotted out, where Stefan’s worst nightmare comes true and he takes so much blood from Elena that she has to be taken to the hospital for a massive transfusion. He then decides to Influence Elena so that she will forget his existence, and he does so, to Damon and Bonnie and Meredith’s consternation. I wanted to show how this affected each one of the characters, and how Bonnie once again begins to write in her diary, since Elena’s diary is also forgotten, along with Stefan. I like to write things from Bonnie’s point of view, as I did in Dark Reunion. But none of these things will happen, because I won’t be around to write it."

Story Arcs

1. ''The Vampire Diaries arc"
   • "The Awakening" (Vol 1, Book 1)
   • "The Struggle" (Vol 2, Book 2)
   • "The Fury" (Vol 3, Book 3)
   • "Dark Reunion" (Vol 4, Book 4)
2. ''The Return arc"
   • "The Return: Nightfall" (Vol 5, Book 5)
   • "The Return: Shadow Souls" (Vol 6, Book 6)
   • "The Return: Midnight" (Vol 7, Book 7)
3. ''The Hunters arc"
   • "The Hunters: Phantom" (Vol 8, Book 8)
   • "The Hunters: Moonsong" (Vol 9, Book 9)
   • "The Hunters: Destiny Rising" (Vol 10, Book 10)

Characters

Main characters

• Elena Marie Gilbert: (born July 4, 1992). Is the main character of the books. Elena is 17 and the popular girl at Robert E. Lee High School. Elena is every boys dream; pale golden hair, so fair it almost seemed to shimmer. Creamy skin that reminded Stefan ( about Katherine ) aboust swans, or alabaster, flushing faintly pink over the cheekbone. Her eyes are an odd color. darker than sky blue, as rich as the lapis lazuli. Elena even sees herself as a beauty, and is a little shocked and hurt Stefan did not look her way in the beginning. She also comes across vain as well, and sees boys as prizes, and Stefan is her toughest prize. Elena's best friends are Bonnie and Meredith. Her enemy is Caroline. Elena does have a boyfriend, Matt, but breaks up with him to be with Stefan, even though they are not together. Elena has a little sister, Margaret, and lives with her Aunt Judith. When Elena and Stefan start to date, she realizes that their love may not last. She later also falls in love with Damon, Stefan's older handsome brother.

• Stefan Antonio Salvatore: (born November 5, 1492). Stefan is the mysterous new boy at Elena's high school. Every girl wants him, and Elena even said she'd have them if it killed them both ( pg. 30, The Awakening&The Struggle ). Stefan isn't tall, just average height and has wavy dark hair. He is desribed as having leaf green eyes. One girl even called him "Short-Dark-and-Handsome". Stefan doesn't give anyone the time of day, and in the beginning heavily avoids Elena because she reminds him too much of Katherine which hurts him deeply. He even goes so far as to "date" Caroline in the hopes it'll push Elena away. Stefan also holds a secret: He's a vampire. Stefan isn't like most of his kind. Stefan prefers to drink from animals instead of humans.

• Damon Francesco Salvatore: (born October 31, 1487). Damon is Stefan's older brother, and hates humans. Damon is cold hearted and resents his brother. Damon has dark beauty and grace and the sensuality that draws women to him. Damon is shorter than Stefan, but more powerful since he feeds off of humans. Damon enjoys toying with Stefan and making him feel weak. He instantly wants Elena the moment he sees her, just like Katherine. Damon hates Stefan for many reasons, but he blames him for killing their mother, and taking away Katherine. Damon takes the form of a crow to spy on Elena. Damon has black hair, pale skin, disturbingly good looks, and black eyes. He later dies in the series but comes back to life.

• Bonnie Isabelle McCullough: (born September 4, 1992). Is Elena's closest friend and a witch. Bonnie doesn't speak up for herself until later chapters, and her and Damon feel a pull. They both ignore it, and Bonnie doesn't want to get hurt by Damon, nor hurt Elena, for liking Damon, even though Elena is with Stefan. Bonnie's short and had red curly hair, and tan skin. Her eyes are a dark brown. She feels closer to Damon after he repeatedly saved her life.

• Meredith Rosario Sulez: (born June 6, 1992). Meredith is one of Elena's closest friends. She is tall, with an olive complexion, dark eyes, heavy black lashes, and loose black hair. According to Elena, she never wears make-up because she doesn't need any. She is described as very elegant and beautiful. She is best friends with Elena and Bonnie but she is also friends with Stefan. She has a very wry personality, often making keen observations or comments in a dry tone. She is normally very cool and unflappable, calm under pressure, and extremely competent. Meredith is extremely cynical when it comes to vampires. She falls in love with Alaric Saltzman, the school's history teacher, and has a long-distance relationship with him as he studies abroad in Russia. She is the only human female in the novel who seems to be unfazed by Damon Salvatore and is the only person Damon admits to being afraid of. In The Vampire Diaries: The Return Vol. 3: Midnight, it is revealed that Meredith has a twin brother named Cristian. On Meredith and Cristian's third birthday, Klaus Influenced Meredith to drink Cristian's blood. Then he kidnapped Cristian and fed him blood, slowly turning him into a vampire. Although it is not explained how, Cristian grew into an 18-year-old even though he is a vampire. Since Cristian was four, Klaus has sent Meredith's parents pictures of Cristian. Before Klaus kidnapped Cristian, he instructed Meredith's parents to feed Meredith a tablespoon of animal blood every week or she would die. This has resulted in Meredith's canines being like "kitten teeth" although she is not a vampire. Both her parents and at least one grandmother are alive. Meredith's mother used to be friends with Caroline's mother a long time before the start of the series. Meredith's grandfather currently resides in a mental institution in West Virginia. After the attack, Meredith's grandfather became a source of deep shame for the family. In Dark Reunion, Bonnie says that Meredith's parents "considered her grandfather's condition such a blot that they never allowed him to be mentioned to outsiders." In The Return: Midnight, she is revealed to be a vampire hunter and has been keeping it a secret all her life.

• Matthew Jeffery Honeycutt: (born March 14, 1992). Matt is Elena's childhood best friend and long-term ex-boyfriend and first love. He's the typical 18-year-old All-American boy-next-door high-school star quarterback. Matt is very tall and athletic, with blond hair and blue eyes. He and Elena were best friends since childhood, and they know everything about each other. Due to his family being poor, he tends to wear older clothes. While Matt is heartbroken at losing Elena to Stefan, he accepts it. Matt is extremely jealous of Stefan and still pines for Elena, but he shows some feelings for Bonnie. Matt helps Stefan escape the Haunted House on the night of the attack, but afterward begins to think that Stefan might have killed Mr. Tanner. Later in the series, the relationship between Stefan and Matt is closer to that of best friends. He's fiercely loyal and likes to see the best in people. After the events of The Fury, Matt's faith in humanity and the world has been severely shaken, and he spends much of Dark Reunion in a pessimistic and defeated state. It takes a renewal of friendship and a heart-to-heart with Stefan for him to regain some of his earlier determination and good humor.

• Caroline Beula Forbes: Caroline is tall, curvaceous, and bronzed. She has thick wavy, auburn hair and catlike, slanted, bright green eyes. She frequently wears skimpy clothing that emphasizes her assets and shows off her bronzed complexion. Caroline's personality is difficult to ascertain, as readers mostly see her being adversarial to Elena. Caroline has a younger brother named Daniel. Her father joins a lynching party to stake Stefan and/or shoot him with wooden bullets. Elena notes that she and Caroline used to be the best of friends, though they developed a rivalry for social status. Caroline also used to be friends with Bonnie McCullough and Meredith Sulez. Over the summer, while Elena was in France, Caroline turned on her, and when Elena returns on the first day of school, she is met with a cold reception. Originally, Caroline wanted Stefan for herself but Elena also had a significant interest in him. This caused the rivalry between them to heat up. From what is displayed of Caroline's personality in the books, she is extremely competitive, manipulative, cunning, selfish, shallow, and self-centered. She takes social slights very personally and seems to value status above most other things. After Elena's second and then-final death, Caroline seems to have a change of heart; she rejoins her old friends, Bonnie and Meredith, and stops speaking ill of Elena. Caroline eventually gets involved in a relationship with Tyler Smallwood. In The Return: Nightfall, it is revealed that Caroline is pregnant with Tyler's unborn twins but Tyler does not know about this. At first, it was suspected that Matt Honeycutt was the father of Caroline's unborn children, but it is confirmed that Tyler is the real father. Because Tyler is a werewolf, the babies are hybrids, being half human, half werewolf. Therefore, both unborn children are carrying the werewolf gene and could possibly change into werewolves in the future.

• Alaric K. Saltzman: Alaric is the new, young, attractive and extremely annoying history teacher at Robert E. Lee High School who was suspected of being a vampire hunter when he was in fact studying vampires. He's an experimental psychologist from Duke University, specialising in the research of psychic powers. His research took a sideways step when he discovered the victim of a vampire. He focused his research on vampire victims. Alaric is good-looking with an athletic build, hazel eyes, and sandy brown hair. He has a boyish smile, and he is not much older than the students in his class. In The Fury, Elena assesses him to be around two or three years older than she is, which is 22 years old at the most. In Dark Reunion, Bonnie believes that Alaric is approximately 22. Despite trying to appear as a fearsome vampire hunter and killer, he's not a violent, hateful person and can't stand to see innocents hurt. He denies being a vampire hunter when Damon accuses him of being one. Once it is established that Stefan is not the killer plaguing Fell's Church, Alaric is concerned for Stefan's safety upon learning he has gone to meet with Caroline Forbes, where he will be ambushed. He is highly sociable and is able to function very well as a host. Alaric falls in love with Meredith Sulez and has a long-distance relationship with her while he goes abroad to further his studies. Alaric is good at power-seeking and has high material goals. He develops a romantic relationship with Meredith on the sly. While they don't have any romantic scenes together in the books, nor are they as outwardly affectionate as Stefan and Elena, there are implications that the relationship is serious. The reason for their secrecy may be the inappropriate nature of a student/teacher relationship, even though Alaric only went to Fell's Church to research vampires and used teaching as a cover. Alaric is an Aquarius, and he comes from Charlottesville, Virginia.

Vampire characters

• Katherine von Swarzschild: Katherine is the young, beautiful vampire Stefan and Damon fell in love with during the Italian Renaissance 500 years ago. She resembles Elena with golden blond hair and eyes the color of lapis lazuli. Born in Germany to the Baron Von Swartzschild, she was very frail as a child and her last illness was terminal. Her maid Gudren sought a vampire named Klaus to turn Katherine into a vampire. As a vampire, Katherine is much stronger than she was as a human, but the sun still weakens her. She wears a lapis lazuli ring to protect herself from burning in the sun. Katherine turns both brothers into vampires so all three can be together forever. When Stefan and Damon tell Katherine she must choose between them, Katherine attempts to get the brothers to reconcile by fooling them into believing she had committed suicide. Stefan and Damon fight to the death afterwards, thus completing their transformations into vampires. Stefan and Damon feel immense guilt over having caused Katherine's "death." In the The Fury, it is revealed that Katherine is the Other Power who attacked some of the people of Fell's Church. After Stefan and Damon killed one another, Katherine fled to Germany, where Klaus found her. Katherine grew powerful and sadistic over the centuries. She can shape shift into a white tiger, kitten, and owl, and she can manipulate the weather. She boasts about being the strongest of all due to killing many humans and vampires. She lured Stefan and Damon to Fell's Church to punish them for not reconciling after she faked her death. She wants to kill Stefan, whom she loved best, and Elena, but later decides to kill Damon as well when he tells her to "go to hell." Katherine dies when Elena shoves her into a shaft of light and removes her protective necklace.

• Klaus: Klaus is a pureblood vampire, one of the 'Old Ones' who has never been a human, and he existed long ago before the pyramids were built. According to him, he fought in the Trojan war and helped cause the downfall of the Roman Empire. In the late 15 century, he lived in a village in Germany, where the people thought that he was the devil himself. Klaus is Nordic in appearance, with electric blue eyes and short, close-cropped, platinum blond hair. He is described as being handsome despite the fact that his features are often contorted in madness. He wears a dusty long tan coat. Personality-wise, Klaus is extremely deranged, and the line between his evil and his madness is very blurry. When pressed, he is deadly serious and reminds everyone about his unfathomable old age, but most of the time he seems unnaturally chipper, and his evil deeds during Dark Reunion are tinged with irony. He refers to everyone as "sport." He writes "Goodnight, sweetheart" on Vickie's mirror after brutally murdering her and leaving the same song playing in her room. He nearly kills Stefan with the white ash wood spear that was intended for him. His mood changes from cheerful and amused to enraged in seconds. Despite his seemingly erratic and scattered personality, he seems to be a patient and methodical killer capable of elaborate plans. One day, a maid begged for his help to save her dying mistress, Katherine von Swartzschild. Klaus turned her into a vampire and instructed her on how to be malevolent and despotic. Centuries later, Katherine thought that she killed him, but Klaus arrives in Fell's Church, where he helps Tyler become a werewolf. After that, he uses Tyler and his own enhanced vampire powers to play with the Salvatore brothers and their human friends. He murders Sue Carson, a friend of Bonnie and Meredith, and Vickie Bennett in an extremely violent manner. He offers Damon a truce if he'll keep out of his way while he kills Stefan. Klaus also kidnaps Caroline Forbes and holds her hostage as bait to get Stefan to fight him. In the final showdown, all of the weapons used against him fail. Klaus more or less kills Stefan and nearly kills Damon until there is an intervention from Elena's spirit, leading an army of Civil War ghosts. The ghosts carry a screaming Klaus away, and his current whereabouts (and state of being) are unknown.

• Sage: Sage is a vampire, presumed to be an Old One by Elena, although it is never proven.

Human characters

• Judith Maxwell (née Gilbert): Judith is Elena's aunt and legal guardian. She is the sister of Elena and Margaret's father. She moved in with Elena and her baby sister Margaret right after the death of the girls' parents. She always looks vaguely flustered. She has a thin, mild face and flyaway red hair pushed back untidily. She is engaged to and later marries Robert Maxwell, though she briefly broke the engagement after Elena's death, thinking it was best for Margaret. She is deeply caring and one of the last people Elena talks to before dying the first time.

• Margaret Gilbert: Elena's much younger sister, who is 4 years old. Elena considers her to be very innocent and secretly talks to her as a vampire after her death, saying that it is not yet her time to rejoin her deceased parents. She has platinum white-blond hair, fair, pink skin with peachy cheeks, and very light blue eyes. Margaret is generally cheerful, upbeat and optimistic, and she is empathetic enough to offer Elena Halloween candy when her older sister seems distressed. She likes animals well enough to adopt a kitten, though it turns out to be Katherine von Swartzschild in animal form. Due to her age, she gives little to no evidence of understanding the activities and concerns of her older sister or the other characters. She perceives Elena’s death as her older sister’s having gone to be with their parents. Her parents died when she was around one year old, so she has little memory of them. It is unknown how she spends her time or if she has any friends, as the reader only sees her with Elena or Aunt Judith.

• Vickie Bennett: Vickie was an acquaintance of Elena, Matt, Meredith and Bonnie, but she was never particularly a part of their inner circle. Physically, she was small with light brown hair and dark brown eyes. She was at the cemetery with Elena when they left the homecoming dance. She had stayed there in the church with Dick Carter, Tyler Smallwood's best friend. She was attacked, and that caused her to go insane and she accused Elena of being part of it. Then she is accused of killing Sue because she relapsed after her death and she was the only one present. After her transition away from the "fast crowd," her involvement is considered unlikely. When Bonnie and Meredith go to her house, she catatonically says that the murderer said she is next. She is left under the protection of Damon but is later murdered by Klaus.

Werewolf characters

• Tyler Smallwood: Tyler Smallwood is an 18-year-old direct descendant of the Smallwoods that were present at the founding of Fell's Church. Tyler is the stereotypical "jock" type; he is very tall, broad, husky and muscular with jet black hair, pale skin and very dark eyes. He is described as handsome and attractive, although he is rather fleshy. Tyler has fleshy hands and significantly large teeth. Tyler is much taller than Stefan and at least twice as broad. Tyler's family, the Smallwoods, is one of the founding families of Fell's Church; there appears to be some deep-seated resentment on the part of the Smallwoods over the history of the town's creation. Tyler seems to feel that his family is more responsible for the founding than the Fell family, after which the town is named. In the first book, Tyler takes Elena to the graveyard, where she sees his grandfather's grave. Tyler tries to force himself on Elena, but Stefan saves her. Tyler has been antagonistic towards Stefan and Elena ever since. He is later revealed to be a werewolf; it was dormant until he knew how to activate the werewolf gene. Tyler eventually develops a relationship with Caroline Forbes. He is the father of Caroline's unborn babies at the end of The Return: Nightfall. Tyler has a cousin named Caleb Smallwood, who appears in Phantom.

Witch characters

• Theophilia Flowers: Mrs. Flowers is the owner of the boarding house where Stefan lives. They once thought she was just a crazy old woman. During The Return: Nightfall, she is revealed to be a witch like Bonnie and helps the friends search for Elena in the woods. Mrs. Flowers is said to be over 100 years old. She has grey hair and a smiling face with bright black eyes. She seems to suspect what Stefan is and makes knowing references about things lurking in the woods and jokes about Stefan flying off the roof. It is possible that she has psychic premonitions. In The Return: Nightfall, Mrs. Flowers reveals to Elena that she became a nurse when she was younger. She then states that she is a witch and has known about Stefan all along. She tells Elena that she has a "soft spot" for him and has decided to help Elena find Stefan, who has gone missing. She helps to cure Matt. Mrs. Flowers is educated in the usage of herbs. She tells Bonnie and Meredith that she used to be a medium or vaudeville and her mother died in 1901.

Kitsune characters

• Shinichi: Shinichi is a magical fox spirit called a "Kitsune" from Japan. At first, he appeared as a dark and mysterious person, who offered a partnership to Damon in order to destroy Fell's Church. With the help of Damon, Stefan is lured away from the town with the promise of becoming a human again. Shinichi and his twin sister, Misao, used terrible tentacled creatures called Malach to make Damon one of his pawns. The malach entered his body and took him over from the inside, corrupting his body and his soul, bringing him under Shinichi's will. Shinichi made Damon torture Elena and kidnap her, making her believe that Stefan wanted her to be under Damon's care, while he and Misao spread the malach like a virus among the citizens of Fall's Church. In his human form, Shinichi looks like a young and beautiful Asian boy with pitch black hair, red all around the tips and golden eyes. In his real fox form, he has more than six tails and black and red fur. His personality is twisted and evil.

• Misao: Misao is Shinichi's twin sister. In the beginning of Nightfall, she appeared in Caroline's mirror in the form of the girl's reflection, and used her bad feelings for Elena to making them sign a contract, which enabled Caroline to get her revenge on Elena and Stefan. Misao possessed Caroline with malach and used her to spread the virus-like creatures in the town, mostly among the young girls. Under their influence, the girls did terrible things to themselves, like home-made piercings and offering sex to the older boys. Despite the fact that they are brother and sister, Misao has a passionate and sexual attachment to Shinichi, and they share a kiss in the scene where they lure Bonnie, Meredith, Matt, Alaric and Mrs. Flowers into the woods. In her human form, Misao looks like a pretty young Asian girl with long black hair, scarlet all around the tips, and black eyes, while in her fox form she has more than six tails and black and scarlet fur. Her personality is spoiled and arrogant.

Adaptations

Television series

On February 6, 2009, Variety announced that The CW Television Network greenlit the pilot for a television series entitled The Vampire Diaries with Kevin Williamson and Julie Plec set as the writers and executive producers. On May 19, 2009, the pilot was officially ordered to series for the 2009-2010 season.

Filming for the series began in July 2009 in Vancouver, British Columbia, and then shooting moved to Covington, Georgia, after wrapping the pilot episode. The high school and football scenes were shot at Walton Career Academy in Monroe, Georgia. Many changes were made when adapting the novel series to a television show, the most obvious one probably being the change in Elena's appearance. In the books, Elena is portrayed to have pale, almost translucent skin, long blonde hair reaching almost to her waist and dark blue eyes, the colour of lapis lazuli. However, in the television series, Elena is played by Nina Dobrev, who has olive skin, long and straight dark brown hair and brown eyes.

The character of Bonnie also has both a physical appearance and name change (from Bonnie McCullough in the books to Bonnie Bennett in the TV series), trading her red curls and pale skin for those of Katerina Graham, (who is half Liberian and half Russian), and she is not timid and damsel-in-distress like Bonnie is in the books, but instead is rather courageous and strong willed. Also, in the novels, Bonnie is a psychic with strong psychic abilities and powers due to her ancestors being druids. On the TV show, Bonnie is a witch because her ancestors were Salem witches. In the TV series, Bonnie's ancestor, Emily Bennett, was a servant of Katherine and helped to protect her.

Caroline Forbes has a big personality change. In the books, she is mainly nasty and manipulative, always plotting ways to bring Elena down, but in the television series, she is Elena's self-involved, oblivious friend who is really much deeper than she seems. She also has an appearance change, from a bronzed, green-eyed girl with auburn hair to the blonde, blue-eyed pale description given to Elena in the book series. In the second season of the television series, Caroline is changed into a vampire by Katherine. Caroline is played by Candice Accola.

One of Elena's best friends in the novels is Meredith Sulez, but she doesn't appear in the TV series until Season 3 as new character Meredith Fell, played by Torrey DeVitto. TV Meredith, while having some personality traits of book Meredith, is rewritten as a young doctor and possible love interest for Alaric with some supernatural secrets of her own.

In the books, Elena has a four-year-old sister named Margaret, but in the TV series, she has a slightly younger brother named Jeremy. Matt Honeycutt becomes Matt Donovan in the TV series and Vicki Donovan becomes Matt's sister. In the books, Matt has no siblings. Tyler Smallwood also gets a name change, to Tyler Lockwood.

In the books, Klaus is not a hybrid and does not carry a hybrid gene, but is one of the "Old Ones", an original vampire. On the TV series, he is the most powerful original and a hybrid (mixture of werewolf and vampire). Katherine is German in the novels, but is from Bulgaria like Nina Dobrev on the TV series, who used her skills with the language to shoot flashback scenes.

In the books, after Elena's parents died, her Aunt Judith came to look after her and Margaret, but in the TV series, Elena and Jeremy's Aunt Jenna (who is the younger sister of Elena's adoptive and Jeremy's biological mother) looks after them. Aunt Judith has a fiance named Robert in the novels, but Aunt Jenna is single until she begins dating Alaric Saltzman.

Also in the books, Alaric Saltzman is 22 years old and Meredith's boyfriend and later fiance; but in the TV series, he is older (about in his early to mid 30s), he was married to Elena's biological mother, Isobel, and he had a romantic relationship with Jenna. Isobel, in the book The Return: Nightfall, is an Asian girl who lives with her grandmother and her younger sister. In the TV series, Isobel left Alaric to seek out Damon to seduce him into turning her.

In the novels, the Salvatore brothers are born in Florence, Italy, while on the TV show, they are born in Mystic Falls, Virginia. Stefan was renting a room at a boarding house in the book, while in the TV series, the Salvatores own the boarding home since the brothers are originally from Mystic Falls, Virginia. They are also both significantly younger than the brothers in the books, since they were turned during the time of the Civil War. Damon and Stefan in the novels were both born in the 1500s, while Damon and Stefan on the TV show were born during the 1800s. Stefan is 17 years old when he dies and turns into a vampire and Damon is 22 (later retconned to be 24) when he dies and becomes a vampire. In the book, it is said that the brothers fought to the death, but in the TV series they were shot by their father because he discovered them trying to save Katherine from being imprisoned inside the church.