Who WROTE the Vampire Diaries books? Don’t believe the name on the cover…

Nov 30

The Vampire Diaries is a supernatural teen drama series written by a number of people. Just don’t ask how many.

The Vampire Diaries is a bestselling series of novels full of “heart-stopping suspense, fierce romances, and jaw-dropping surprises that captured millions of fans and inspired the hit TV show.” The books feature a high school girl who finds her heart torn between two vampire brothers.

The novels, it turns out, were written by more than one person—we don’t even know all the author names. But we’ll get to that in a bit…

The Vampire Diaries TV show created a world with more than one spin-off and—it seems—might still continue in some other format. More on that below.

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Who wrote the Vampire Diaries books?

The first seven books in the series were written by L.J. Smith. These included The Awakening (1991), The Struggle (1991), The Fury (1991), Dark Reunion (1992), The Return: Nightfall (2009), The Return: Shadow Souls (2010), and The Return: Midnight (2011). As an author, Smith has written more than two dozen books for young adults. In addition to the Vampire Diaries, she has is also credited with the Night World series, the Forbidden Game series, as well as the Dark Visions trilogy. Although Smith created the Vampire Diaries, the series is actually owned by Alloy Entertainment—so at some point Alloy replaced her with other writers.
The next three books in the series are The Hunters trilogy. They were written by an unnamed ghostwriter (or ghostwriters). These books include The Hunters: Phantom, The Hunters: Moonsong and The Hunters: Destiny Rising.
The next three books were in the Salvation trilogy. These were written by Aubrey Clark. The three books are The Salvation: Unseen, The Salvation: Unspoken and The Salvation: Unmasked. Clark also reportedly wrote The Secret Circle series, even though they’re credited to L.J. Smith.
During this run came the side series of novels called Stefan’s Diaries, which includes six books based on the TV series. (And therefore follows the TV show’s continuity more closely.) Although the cover names Smith (and also the TV show’s producers), these books were ghostwritten by one or more authors who haven’t been named. The books in this series include Origins, Bloodlust, The Craving, The Ripper, The Asylum and The Compelled.

When did the Vampire Diaries books come out?

The first four Vampire Diaries volumes were published in 1991 and 1992. There was a long break, and then the next three books came out 2009-2011. The Stefan’s Diaries series was published 2010-2012. The Vampire Diaries series continued with the Hunters trilogy, which came out 2011-2012. The final books, in the Salvation trilogy, were published 2013-2014.

What does Smith think of Vampire Diaries?

L.J. Smith shares some of her thoughts in the article Vampire Diaries: Why creator L.J. Smith writes strong female characters. In this Monster Complex spotlight, Smith also explains why she creates role models for young girls, and why she writes urban fantasy.

About the Vampire Diaries TV series

The Vampire Diaries was a 2009-2017 supernatural teen drama TV show developed by Kevin Williamson and Julie Plec, based on the book series of the same name created by L. J. Smith. The series premiered on the CW, airing 171 episodes over the course of eight seasons.

The pilot episode of The Vampire Diaries attracted the largest audience for the CW of any series premiere since the network began in 2006—the first season averaged 3.60 million viewers. It became the most-watched series on the network before being supplanted by Arrow.

The popularity of the series provided a base to launch other TV shows, web series, novels and comic books. One spinoff was the TV show The Originals, which ran 2013-2018 on the CW. That led Legacies (2018-2022), which also aired on the CW.

According to TV Fanatic, Plec is even now working on the next phase of the Vampire Diaries universe. After three different series and 17 seasons, people thought the Vampire Diaries world was closing down with the exit of Legacies. However, she told Entertainment Weekly that the franchise is far from finished. “There will be another one. We’re going to take a beat, but yeah, there’s more ideas. There’s more to do.”

The Vampire Diaries TV seasons and episodes

Buy the complete series

Season 1 episodes or whole season

Season 2 episodes or whole season

Season 3 episodes or whole season

Season 4 episodes or whole season

Season 5 episodes or whole season

Season 6 episodes or whole season

Season 7 episodes or whole season

Season 8 buy DVD or Blu-ray or get streaming episodes from Prime

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Chris Well

Chris Well been a writer pretty much his entire life. (Well, since his childhood.) Over the years, he has worked in newspapers, magazines, radio, and books. He now is the chief of the website Monster Complex, celebrating monster stories in lit and pop culture. He also writes horror comedy fiction that embraces Universal Monsters, 1960s sitcoms, 1980s action movies, and the X-Files.

https://chriswell.substack.com/