L.J. Smith: The Secret Circle

L.J. Smith is the author who brought me solidly into the supernatural loving community. There are currently two television series based on her books: The Vampire Diaries and The Secret Circle. Many have compared her to Stephanie Meyer and said that her books are like the much acclaimed Twilight series. They just have one major thing wrong:

L.J. Smith was first.

Long before Meyer's vegetarian vampires and imprinting werewolves,  Smith had vampires who refused to drink human blood and the soul-mate principle. Smith did it first, and in my opinion, she did it better. Smith had heroines with agency whose lives did not revolve around whether or not their vampire boyfriend loved them, and all of her series were engaging and interesting.

The Secret Circle is actually my second favorite series of hers.

 

The Secret Circle, as those of you familiar with the CW series know, is a young adult fantasy trilogy about witches. In this trilogy, the protagonist, Cassie Blake, moves with her mother to New Salem to be with her grandmother and family secrets come to call. After initially being bullied, Cassie is saved by Diana Meade, a popular girl who brings Cassie into the in-crowd. Here Cassie discovers that she is part of a coven of witches that has lived in New Salem for generations, a coven that is currently split. Cassie then has to deal with changing loyalties, love, how to control her magic, the truth of what happened to her parents, and an old evil that has been waiting for a chance to strike again.

“Now let me see, what shall we do to start this year off?  I feel like something really wicked.”  - Faye (The Initiation)

This trilogy made me appreciate the 'bad' girls. Faye Chamberlain is the 'bad' girl counterpart to Diana; amusing and snarky, with a 'I-take-what-I-want' attitude. At one point, I always root for her to win.

“The silver cord can never be broken.  Your lives are linked.  You can’t escape each other any more than you can escape destiny.”

(The Initiation)

The soul-mate principle was also an interesting concept, especially since the soul-mates in question tried their best to stay away from each other. To all familiar with imprinting, this was superior in that it was mutual and no babies were included. But it still annoyed me because I wanted the female soul-mate to end up with someone else.

This trilogy has always been one of my old favorites because it made me take another look at witches. I'd appreciated them, but this was BHP (Before Harry Potter) and vampires were my supernatural creature of choice. Then I read the first book, The Initiation, where Cassie was thrust into the madness.The magic of witches was not to be underestimated, I decided. The different ways of casting spells and the elemental magic gave an author another area to play around with. That earned this series a spot on my always crowded bookshelf.

 “Sky and sea, keep harm from me.  Earth and fire, bring my desire.” 

 (The Power)