Vampire Knight by Matsuri Hino

Rated OT for Older Teens 16+ from VIZ Media

The North Branch Library has books volumes 1-5.

Volume 1: The Cross Academy is a unique boarding school attended by two groups of students: the Day Class, which seems to be made up mostly of giggly girls; and the Night Class, made up of absolutely gorgeous guys. Yuki Cross and Zero Kiryu are the school guardians, there to make sure that the Day Class and the Night Class never mix and that the Day Class never finds out the Night Class secret--that they are all vampires!

This is definitely a melodrama, highly emotional with many exclamation points. Ten years ago, Yuki was saved from a vampire's attack by Kaname, a member of the Night Class. Left with no memory of her previous life, she was adopted by the headmaster of Cross Academy. The headmaster believes that vampires and humans can learn to co-exist peaceably together, and this school is part of an experiment to prove it. The members of the Night Class all take a blood tablet, which is supposed to quench their thirst for blood, though the scent of it is still enough to send them all into a state of excitement.

Of course, this being the first volume of the series, a lot of time is spent on setting up the situation and a bit of the backstory. It's too early to know where it's going to go yet, but there are definite hints of a love triangle between Yuki, Zero, and Kaname.

Volume 2: When Yuki and Zero are in town on errands, Yuki is attacked by an unknown vampire. Zero hesitates, and the vampire is killed by two of the Night Class students. Yuki doesn't understand why vampires would kill another vampire, so she and Zero are invited to Kaname's birthday party at the Moon Dorm at midnight. There they explain that there are different kinds of vampires--the purebloods, the aristocrats, the common vampires, and the former humans. The lowest of the low are the former humans who have become mindless beasts and who must be eliminated. Zero, as a human who is turning into a vampire will one day become one of these mindless beasts. We also learn that the blood tablets do not work for him. Unable to see him in such pain and distress, Yuki urges him to drink her own blood even though that is a forbidden act.

Volume 3: We get a lot of back-story in this volume. I was surprised to learn that the Night Class has been included at Cross Academy for only about 2 or 3 years--I had assumed that it was a long-standing tradition. Kaname was the one who brought Yuki to the Headmaster when he saved her from the vampire that night in the snow 10 years ago. After that, he visited her every year. Since she could not remember anything about her life before that night, the anniversary became the day when they would celebrate her birthday.

A new student arrives to join the Night Class. Yuki is assigned to show her around and she seems very friendly, but there is something very off about her. Could she be somehow connected to the woman who destroyed Zero's family?

I'm still not feeling the love for this series, though I can see why it would appeal to some. The melodrama is just too heavy-handed for my tastes, and I'm not sure I will continue to read it.