Marked by P.C. Cast + Kristin Cast
Goodreads | Amazon
Rating: ★ ★ ★
Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin (May 1, 2007)
Age Group: Young Adult
Pages (Paperback): 306
Series: House of Night (Book 1)
Source: Library
ISBN-13: 978-0-312-36026-9
Genre: Paranormal (Vampire)
Enter the dark, magical world of The House of Night, a world very much like our own, except here vampyres have always existed. Sixteen-year-old Zoey Redbird has just been Marked as a fledgling vampyre and joins the House of Night, a school where she will train to become an adult vampire. That is, if she makes it through the Change—and not all of those who are Marked do. It sucks to begin a new life, especially away from her friends, and on top of that, Zoey is no average fledgling. She has been chosen as special by the vampyre Goddess Nyx. Zoey discovers she has amazing powers, but along with her powers come bloodlust and an unfortunate ability to Imprint her human ex-boyfriend. To add to her stress, she is not the only fledgling at the House of Night with special powers: When she discovers that the leader of the Dark Daughters, the school’s most elite group, is misusing her Goddess-given gifts, Zoey must look deep within herself for the courage to embrace her destiny—with a little help from her new vampyre friends.
The first person point of view in this book is considerably easy to read; it wasn’t hard getting into the mind of Zoey as the parenthetical inserts allow her to interject on her thoughts, she really does have some humorous side comments.
The Casts also did a great job in conveying the spiritual aspect of being a “vampyre” in this series; spirituality is a constant theme throughout this book and the aspects of it were beautifully written. They also do a very good job and suspending information that leaves you turning the pages.
However, I feel that it left me turning the pages for all the wrong reasons at some points.. Being 306 pages long, for the most part I felt like I was just reading the mundane life of your average teenage girl who just happens to be a vampire. For roughly 80% of this book, I felt like there was no direction that this book was going to take; it was overwhelmingly plotless. Even at towards the end, you get the spark of a climax and then the book ends. There is a great setup for the next book and/or rest of the series but in turn, this book left with a certain level of disappointment with its lack of action and rushed ending.
