Marked (House of Night #1)

Zoey is a normal teenage girl dealing with family issues, school, and her (almost) ex-boyfriend. That is, until she is Marked to become a vampyre, and moves into the House of Night, a school and home for Fledgling vampyres. There, she quickly makes friends, but also makes enemies.

With her unique Mark and an invitation to join the Dark Daughters, Zoey looks to her grandmother and the goddess, Nyx, for guidance. In order to take down Aphrodite, the shallow, selfish leader of the Dark Daughters, she'll need to use her goddess-given gifts.

I recently found this book at a thrift store and decided to pick it up and give it a re-read. I read it a few years ago, and I had enjoyed it quite a bit during my first reading, but this time I saw things a bit differently.

Zoey, the main character, is surprisingly shallow and judgemental, in my opinion. You'd think that after dealing with her own issues, including her unique mark, she might take a step back when it comes to making generalizations or assumptions about others. This wasn't really the case, and her friends at the House of Night were also shallow, judgemental, and even immature at times. These characters reminded me more of preteens than of actual teenagers.

I did like how the characters came from different backgrounds and had diverse identities. Unfortunately, I felt like sometimes stereotypes were overused concerning these characters, or that the characters shamed people who did fit the stereotypes. For example, we have Zoey kind of throwing feminine gay guys under the bus, so to speak, making sure to explain that the gay male character was cute, but certainly not in an "overly girly" way, or a "swishy girly-guy" (pg 82 in my edition). Things like this were present throughout the book, in many different contexts, and contributed to Zoey's shallow side. However while things like this were annoying, they didn't take away from the overall plot.

I really enjoyed the unique way that the authors approached the idea of vampyres. Instead of being bitten, one is Marked, and even then there is no guarantee that one would survive long enough to become a full-fledged vampyre. Adding the question of whether or not Zoey, or those close to her, would die from the Change made the book suspenseful and created an extra layer of problems for Zoey to deal with. Mixing real life problems such as relationship issues along with paranormal worries made this book all the more interesting.

I am planning to continue reading this series as I hope to see the characters mature, and to read more of this unique take on vampyres! I recommend this book to fans of YA and of vampire stories.

This review can also be found at http://fortheloveofbooksreviews.blogspot.ca/2016/07/marked-by-pc-and-kristin-cast.html

How is this series still going on?

This is my first vampire or should I say vampyre series I've ever read. I am not a big fan when it comes to vampires, but this book is actually good and it is something I'd highly reccommend anyday.

Vampires have always been popular. The mythology and folklore has been adapted in different ways, by different cultures and people. However, no one had seen vampires done the way they were done in Marked.
The vampires were more cultish. The fledglings have to live in special Vampyre schools so they don’t reject the “change.” If their body rejects the change into an adult vampyre, they die. Zoey Redbird is new at the House of Night. The Priestess Neferet guides her and promises to be there for her. Zoey is no average fledgeling though. She’s been marked by the goddess Nyx, with a tattoo of a moon on her forehead. She is seen as a freak by the other fledglings in the school and has to adapt while finding out why the goddess has marked her. She makes new friends and learns that she has a special affinity unheard of in any vampyre. Zoey also goes through the change differently than her freshmen classmates.
My favorite character was Zoey’s grandmother. She was a sweet woman, descended from the Cherokee tribe, who loves her granddaughter more than even Zoey’s parents. Zoey is more comfortable with her grandmother, than with anyone else in the book, and it helps us learn more about Zoey, and who she is on the inside.
A great scene of the book was when Nyx gave Zoey a special mark. It came to her in a dream and in her dream she met the goddess. Zoey, at this point, did not realize how important Nyx was to her future, because if she had, she would have asked many more questions than she did. Nyx told her that “darkness does not always equate evil and light does not always equate goof.” That quote becomes important as the book goes on, and Zoey makes enemies.
If I could change any part of the book, I don’t know what I would do. If any part of that book was removed, it would affect the ending, which would ruin the book, so I probably wouldn’t change anything.
The book was meant as a young adult book, but it doesn’t have the vocabulary I would’ve hoped it would have. However, there are some hard words, and some Cherokee words as well.
I would recommend the book to teen readers looking for drama, romance, and fantasy. It combines it all and creates a really awesome story.
Ellie B

I hope you like bad love triangles!

An overall good story

I really loved the idea behind this book, but was disappointed overall in the story. The world building is fine, although the premise is about vampires and the vampires all act like pagan witches, which was confusing. I enjoyed many of the characters, I felt the drama and tension was strong, but I didn't care for the strong language and strong sexual content. I definitely think this is a book for either older readers of YA or readers who are not easily offended by that sort of content. In the end, I just didn't fall in love with the story, though there was enough sizzle to keep me turning pages to find out what happened.

I loved the idea of females being the powerful sex in this world, goddesses and such it was fun to see. Zoey and Stevie Rae really grow and change embracing there gifts given to them (lots of girl power).
Aphrodite I have to say was one of my favorite characters in the first book she definitely is a hag from hell (trust fund baby) but she has a total transformation with out loosing her personality later in the series! What had me a little confused was I thought these Vampyres acted more like witches with the elements, rituals, circles etc not necessarily a bad thing just totally different from what I expected. Also kids who are marked its down to DNA, that took a while to get used to...

PC Casts characters are strong I liked them alot especially the friends zoey makes they bring a lot of humor and are loyal.. Damien is a firm favorite.

The use of language and sexual content also had me questioning who these books were aimed at... not a 13yr old that's for sure.

I did like the use of pop culture although at times it was a little like over kill...

If you see these books give them a go I liked them, just don't expect Cassandra Clare standard of writing because its not but in my opinion still worth the read.