The Vampire Diaries, as we know it, is a hit television series on The CW The story centers on Elena Gilbert, a young, beautiful high school girl who finds herself eventually torn between two Italian brothers, Stefan and Damon Salvatore, who are centuries old vampires.
There’s no greater feeling than knowing that a beloved book is going to become a movie or a TV show, as it means more time spent with beloved characters. Of course, it doesn’t always work out well, but in the case of The Vampire Diaries, the show is very popular. There are many well-done TV adaptations of novels and TVD is based on novels created and written by L. J. Smith developed by Kevin Williamson & Julie Plec. The book 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 in 1992. 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 narrators and protagonists of the series. The first three novels in the original series are from both Stefan and Elena’s point of view.
Here are 10 Differences between the Series and Books:
1. Beginning of Elena’s Story
The book series starts out with Elena Gilbert beginning her senior year of high school. In the series the main characters attend junior year in season one and two.
2. Katherine was half Angel
Katherine von Swartzschild (book Katherine) was half angel and half vampire. However she was corrupted by Klaus, the most dangerous of the Old Ones, which caused her to never use her benevolent power. While the books have many more supernatural creatures, the series keeps it limited.
3. There was no doppelganger storyline in the books
In the books it is not revealed why Katherine and Elena look alike. Writers struggled with finding a passage that could guide them the right way, but they found none. In the series they look alike because they are doppelgängers.
4. Caroline and Damon’s character
Between the books and the TV series. Caroline remains the same shallow popular girl until Caroline gets vampirized Although she and Elena eventually become friends on the show. they stay straight up enemies in the books On the plus side. Book Damon seems to have more earnest feelings for her than TV Damon did.
5. Katherine and Klaus’ history
In the books. Katherine was Klaus’ student, then he turned her and controlled her’s mind, drove her insane, cruel, sadistic, cold, unstable, and murderous. In the series, Katherine was turned by Rose, but she was damaged by the abandonment of her daughter, the slaughter of her entire family and the terror of The Originals.
6. The Books proved that Tvd is not a twilight Rip Off
The Vampire Diaries pilot almost didn’t get picked up because firstly the writer-producer thought it was a cheap Twilight rip-off, shortly after Plec changed his mind and convinced him to check out Smith’s novels before giving it a hard pass. “I began to realize that it was a story about a small town, about that town’s underbelly and about what lurks under the surface.”
7. Elena and Katherine’s Characters are reversed in the books.
aKevin Williamson and Julie Plec, the executive producers of TVD, said that Elena wasn’t a sweetheart in the book series like she is on the TV show. Elena was a mean girl who only cared about herself and who was a very popular person. That’s definitely not the way that this character acts on the show.
8. Seline’s character
The siren, Seline has a similar name and physical appearance to the vampire, Celine, in The Vampire Diaries novel series. In the novels she was related to Klaus, a part of the vampire species and a part of the Old Ones.
9. Elena is blonde in the books
Elena is blond in the book series, and she also has blue eyes. Of course, in the TV adaptation, Elena Gilbert is played by Nina Dobrev and she’s a brunette with brown eyes.This definitely one of the biggest changes that were made, as readers often have a vision of the way that certain characters look or they see a certain scene in their mind, and then it can be jarring to watch the film or TV show and see that things aren’t that way at all.
10. Elena has a sister in the Books
Elena’s younger sibling is a four-year-old named Margaret, not a teenager named Jeremy. The little girl had a critical role in helping Elena the brothers realize Katherine was back. She does not exist in the series.
