Review: House of Night: Marked by P.C. Cast and Kristen Cast

I finally gave in and read House of Night: Marked, and I have a very mixed opinion about it. The House of Night is, of course, one of the top-selling YA vampire series right now. The sixth book, Hunted, came out today. The Casts have a very clear writing style and an interesting take on vampires (in this series, spelled "vampyres"). Unfortunately, I had some issues with the viewpoint character, as I'll mention in a moment.

In the House of Night series, vampyres are a known presence in the world, and the House of Night exists as a finishing school for them. Vampyres are created by a genetic mutation that surfaces during the latent vampire's teenage years. Some of these teenagers mature into full-fledged vampyres, whereas with others, the change doesn't take and they die. The series has plenty of built-in drama and suspense - who will successfully make the change? Who won't? Will becoming a vampyre be worth it? Taking into account the target audience, which I admittedly am not a part of, the set-up is pretty neat, and has plenty of cool ideas that I assume are fleshed out over the course of the next several books.

The main problem that I had was with the viewpoint character, Zoey Redbird. I knew that I was in for a rough read as early as page 5. Zoey has just learned that she is going to become a vampyre, and she worries about the possibility of becoming like a goth. The reason she doesn't want to be like a goth? Because in the world of the House of Night series, goths are "kids who didn't like to bathe much." I know that this is a YA fantasy novel, but as far as misconceptions about the goth scene go, I don't know where that one comes from. It makes me wonder if the Casts have ever seen a photo of a goth, much less met one.

I also found it a bit funny that Zoey frequently mentions a friend's rural accent in a mocking way. With friends like these, you know? The end result was that I wound up rooting for the villains. No question they would also look down on goths, "Okies," and other kids not a part of "the in-crowd," but at least they are more honest about it.

On the upside, Zoey loves cats.

As a final note, P.C. Cast lauds Chelsea Quinn Yarbro in the introduction to the anthology Immortal: Love Stories With Bite. What can I say? I have to give points for that.