to native within a few short weeks is used as an example of vampires’ impressive ability to blend in with their surroundings and evade detection.
The brothers’ relationship will seem very familiar for the most part, as there’s certainly a huge wedge between them 6882 Visitor's Guide to Mystic Falls[FIN].indd 178
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over the subject of their lost love, Katherine. Really, though, she was just the final straw between siblings who already had a strained relationship. Unlike in the TV series, the pre-Katherine period wasn’t all sunshine and football between the Salvatores. The brothers never got along—just for starters, Damon blames Stefan for their mother’s death—and Katherine merely provided yet another reason for them to hate each other.
In fact, you probably won’t recognize Katherine. When Stefan and Damon knew her, she wasn’t a wicked woman, and was actually kind and loving, if tremendously naïve. Katherine is still responsible for turning the boys into vampires, though the events leading up to their transformation are very different. She falls in love with the Salvatore boys when her father sends her to live in Italy so she can recover from her latest illness. What only her (non-witchy) handmaid, Gudren—and, later, Stefan and Damon—is aware of is that she didn’t survive the illness, and was instead turned into a vampire to save her life. A fan of the Stefan diet (she enjoys snacking on doves), Katherine retains her kind, childlike nature, and her dream is to live forever with both of the Salvatore brothers at her side. (See? It’s still pretty kinky.) In a misguided attempt to get them to overcome their animosity toward each other, Katherine inadvertently causes them to hate each other even more, setting into motion the tragic events that culminate in the modern-day circumstances of the books. Alas, in some cases, love really does not conquer all.
Another difference between the books and TV series is who exactly loved whom. The TV series portrays Damon as 6882 Visitor's Guide to Mystic Falls[FIN].indd 179
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the one who is truly in love with Katherine, and Stefan as compelled to accept her vampirism. In the books it is Stefan she confides in, and likely Stefan is the one she loves the most. Damon, on the other hand, initially goes after Katherine just to spite Stefan, and later continues his pursuit because of the power she can offer him. How deep and genuine his feelings are for Katherine, only Damon knows.
What about the other characters?
As in the TV series, Bonnie is one of Elena’s best friends.
She’s also a witch, though she leans more toward psychic visions and being used as a hotline for the dead to communicate through. She is short and bubbly with flaming red hair, a love of boys and the color pink, and a tendency to talk a little too much. Descended from Druids rather than the Salem witches, Bonnie has a Scottish heritage—her last name is McCullough, not Bennett—and a witchy grandmother she spends the summer with in Edinburgh prior to the beginning of the story. As in the TV series, it’s from her grandmother that Bonnie learns about her powers, and while she doesn’t take them seriously at first, it’s not long before everyone is relying on them to save each other and the town.
You may have a hard time recognizing Caroline Forbes (yes, same name), too. While she was friends with Elena prior to the beginning of the story, by the time we meet her in the books she is most definitely Elena’s enemy, and not 6882 Visitor's Guide to Mystic Falls[FIN].indd 180
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the bubbly Caroline we know and love from the TV series.
She is jealous of Elena’s popularity, and is both manipulative enough and selfish enough to start a campaign to knock Elena off her throne at school and ruin her social standing.
In fact, you’re likely to see more of the TV series version of Caroline in Bonnie McCullough than in her vain and calcu-lating book counterpart.
Tyler Lockwood