Review: Marked by P.C. and Kristen Cast

“One minute, sixteen-year-old Zoey Redbird is a normal teenager dealing with everyday high school stress. The next, she’s Marked as a fledgling vampyre, forcing her to leave her ordinary life behind and join the House of Night, a boarding school where she will train to become an adult vampyre. 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 with Heath, who just doesn’t know how to take “no” for an answer. 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."

In the House of Night series book 1: Marked, people don’t become vampires by being bitten.  When one goes through puberty their body can either go on to become a normal human adult or it can go in a different direction. From there you either reject the change and die or grow up to be a full vampire.  The day Zoey Redbird was marked her entire world fell apart: She had to move to a new home, go to a new school, learn completely new things, and make new friends.  Her mother and Step loser made it clear that she was going to go straight to hell for whatever she had done to cause God to punish her (and them).  Her best friend Kayla was repelled from her like she was the pague and turned out to be a real slut face by trying to get with Zoey’s exboyfriend Heath.  On top of it all her mark was different from all the other fledglings and it has caused her to be singled out by the top fledgling bitch, Aphrodite.  Things weren’t all bad though, she had a great roommate, Stevie Rae, a countrified bumpkin but super sweet and good hearted who introduced her to some new friends.  Her grandma and Heath, although not so welcomed on the later, have stuck by her side despite everything that is happening.  She had the approval of the smartest, most powerful, and beautiful vamp at the school, Neferet.  On top of it all she caught the attention of the hottest guy at school, Eric Night.  

Marked is a new interesting take on vampires with a dash of Harry Potter.  The chapters are written in Zoey’s view only during the first book but you get more perspective throughout the series.  I love that the different characters still come completely to life even through just the main characters point of view.

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The House of Night Series is written by P.C. and Kristen Cast.  P.C. cast has written several series and she has receive several awards for them.  Kristin Cast is P.C.’s daughter and has wrote a few other series herself.  She currently goes to college in Oklahoma, where they both live.  To learn more visit www.pccast.net.