Nightfall marks the start of a new chapter in The Vampire Diaries series. The Return is a sort of sub-series. This is the start of a new trilogy with the same characters, but a new focus in the story: Elena, the light beauty and the charming and her relationship with the powerful vampire of darkness, Damon. Stefan, the caring and more morally conscious vampire actually isn’t even in majority of the book. Nightfall was written over 15 years after the first book and there are obvious differences in both Smith’s growth as well as her characters. The style is similar, but more adult, dark, and everything is far more layered and complex.

Elena Gilbert was once human, but when she died, she came back as a vampire from sharing the blood of both vampire brothers, Stefan and Damon. She gave her life to save theirs and was an angel that watched over her friends, helping warn them about the trouble to come despite interferences from her after death tormentor. Now she has miraculously come back as a human. However, she seems to still have hung on to some of her supernatural instincts and is a spirit child now. Elena can’t talk and doesn’t remember how to do anything she did as a human, she has truly been born again. Stefan works with her to remember anything she can. They do communicate through telepathy although Elena’s thoughts are somewhat jumbled. She often floats in the air and kisses those she sees to put the memory of them in her mind. Read the rest of this entry »