Book review: Marked by PC Cast & Kristin Cast

book cover from Wikipedia

(I don't think there are spoilers, but just in case, be warned!) 

I went to the library to pick up Catching Fire when I decided to go up and see if there are other books I can borrow.. Since the children & teen's section is on the 2nd floor, I started there.. My eyes were immediately drawn to this book.. I have never heard of the series and the authors (a mother and daughter team) so I was actually just going to borrow the first book and leave the other 2 I saw beside it.. I thought about reading the first book first and if I liked it, to just come back and borrow the rest.. But then, as I was moving towards the check out counter, I just picked up the other books as well..

When I got home, I realized I had books 1, 2 & 4..

After reading the first few chapters of the first book, I had to stop because I was scared that because I was rolling my eyes to much that it'll get stuck that way.. I love it when characters narrate books, I love the perspective it gives me.. But after reading the first few pages of the book, I just couldn't stand Zoey Montgomery.. I kept rolling my eyes at how the authors tried soooo hard to make her witty it annoyed me so much..

And then Zoey Montgomery became Zoey Redbird and then my eyes stopped rolling and I continued reading.. And then, I was hooked.. Boy, am I glad I didn't stop..





Summary (of sorts): In Zoey's world, vampyres and humans live together.. There is fear & discrimination, yes, but certain rules were established for peaceful coexistence.. A human becomes a vampyre not by getting bitten by one but by being Marked (scientists have not yet figured out what it is about a human that gets him/her Marked) by a vampyre called a Tracker.

Zoey is a 16-yr old girl living a normal high school life when it all turned upside down the day she was Marked. Getting Marked means moving to live in the House of Night, a school for fledgings (Marked students) where they will be trained in becoming adult vampyres by their vampyre teachers. A fledging has to move in the House asap, otherwise he or she will die because fledgings need to be surrounded by adult vamps.. Zoey immediately went home to ask her mom to take her to the school but her mom and her super-conservative and religious stepdad wants to keep her at their home so they could banish the "evil spirit" out of her (they know they can't and they know that Zoey will die if she doesn't get to to the school, but it was a "risk" they were willing to take)..

Zoey then runs to her only ally - her grandmother. Before she sees her grandma, she stumbles and has a vision of seeing the vampyre goddess Nyx who told her she's special and will be the goddess' eyes and ears in the school. She wakes up in the House of Night where her grandmother has brought her and discovers that her Mark, which was only an outline at first, was now filled,which was a big thing because now she's the only fledging in school with a filled-in Mark (only adult vamps have filled-in Marks). She also meets the High Priestess (someone like the principal in a normal school) Neferet who has agreed to become her mentor.

She makes new friends, new enemies and meets a new love interest (she has a human ex-almost-boyfriend named Heath who's Imprinted with her. An Imprint happens when a fledging drinks the blood of a human thus binding him/her to the fledging).

The first book ends with Zoey replacing Aphrodite (the "it" girl before Zoey came along and ex-girlfriend of Zoey's love interest, Erik) as the leader of the Dark Daughters because Aphrodite almost got Heath & Erik killed when she made a mistake in her ritual and called viscious, ancient vamps in her circle during Samhain (Halloween)..

Unsolved mystery: A fledging living in the House of Night doesn't necessarily "grow up" into an adult vampyre. A fledging could still reject the Change between the first four years of getting Marked. Two of Zoey's "batchmates" died because they rejected the Change. Zoey saw one of them and thought she saw a ghost. However, her next encounter with the other dead fledging was not as uneventful. The supposedly dead fledging attacked her so she started wondering how it was possible.. Also, Zoey seems to be favored by the goddess, why?

My thoughts: I am not blown away by the book, to be honest. But I am hooked.. The plot is more than just the usual new girl vs bossy leader of popular clique.. Cleverly written between the lines is the mounting tension, a feeling that something wrong is happening, something is not right and it's more than just Zoey vs Aphrodite over the Dark Daughters' leadership and Erik.. No, as the book progresses you get the distinct feeling that something's happening in the background and the Zoey vs Aphrodite thing is just a prelude to the dark times ahead. And that's what got me.

Also, I am a big fan of books where the main character has a solid, wacky and loyal set of friends and this book does not disappoint.. Zoey's circle of friends are the type of friends that you wish you have for your own.. 

As for Zoey, like I said, I really was irritated by her at first, and then she started having substance. A change in name has brought out a more mature side of her and it's a startling contrast to the old Zoey.. (Update: Now that I'm really thinking about it, I think the reason of my irritation was misdirected.. I don't think I was that irritated with Zoey, it was more because I thought that I was going to be stuck with her then-bestfriend Kayla for the rest of the book.. Kayla got on my nerves, I just didn't like her.. When Zoey moved to the House of Night and Kayla was left in the "normal" world, I still found myself rolling my eyes at Zoey, but not so much as at the start of the book..) 

The book is not a teenage romance novel, but there is, of course, a love angle.. Nothing's definite yet, but we do know that there's Heath and there's Erik.. Human vs vampyre.. I hope it won't turn into something so sappy and cheesy.. That would be disappointing..

All in all, I think the first book is gearing up for a smashing series.. I read earlier that the 9th book was published just last October so it is indeed going strong..

"Merry meet and merry part and merry meet again!