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.
drey's thoughts:
A while back, someone recommended the House of Night series to me, because I do like me some vampyre stories... =) And so when I remembered--which is a whole 'nother topic in itself, lol--I added the book to my library list. And they all came up at the same time. Yay me!
In this world, vampires are Marked, or tagged, if you will. You toddle along human, then "bam!" you're now going to have the chance to become a vampire. And we're talking chance, here--nothing's granted, and you'll have to hope that you'll make it through the change. Or die.
Marked starts off with Zoey getting tagged. And continues with her dealing with (a) getting marked, (b) her loser step-dad's attitude about her in general and her getting marked in particular, (c) her boyfriend's reaction to her getting marked, (d) her dreams with the goddess Nyx in 'em, and finally, (e) going to a new school and trying to fit in. Whew! And if all that was not enough, she's also marked differently from the other fledglings. So she's dealing with (a) through (e), and special, to boot. Poor Zoey.
Then she finds out that not everything's hunky-dory at the House of Night, gets involved in a hissing-match with the current leader of the school's Daughters of the Dark, and ends up replacing her. And figures out that not everything is as it seems, indeed. Just what she's supposed to do about it, though, is the question.
I enjoyed Marked, but don't think it's up to something like say, the Morganville series. Zoey is a more-than-slightly insecure, lip-gnawing, pretty naive, teenager. And while she's not even close to being as whiny as Bella (and if you don't know who Bella is, where on earth have you been? lol!), she's still a tad too much on that side of the fence for me to really like her. But hey, there's lots of books in the series yet, for Zoey to grow up a little. =)
Title: Marked
Author: P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast
ISBN-10: 0312360266
ISBN-13: 9780312360269
Paperback: 306 pages
Publisher: St. Martin's Press, 2007
Challenges: 100+, 1st in Series, Support Your Local Library, Vampire
Disclosure: My copy of Marked paid a short visit from the library, along with a boatload of other books.
3 comments:
I like all the new concepts the authors bring to the table about vampires and the myth itself. I think that's the best part about the series and one of the biggest reasons why I stick with it.
Zoey is an interesting character, I found her at her best in the first book. I hope you like the other books if you continue.
I am a bit like you when it comes to this series. I like it, but I am not blown away by it. There are interesting twists, but then there are other things that just annoy me too much to love them. I keep on hoping with each book that that will change but it hasn't so far.
This is my favorite YA vamp series. Zoey stops being whiny soon so I hope you stick with it. At least until you get to meet Stark! He's the best!
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