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Marked by PC Cast & Kristin Cast

Marked: A House of Night Novel (House of Night Novels)Against her wishes, Zoey Redbird has been Marked a fledgling vampyre. Now she must leave behind the human world she knows in order to just survive and join the House of Night. There she will stay until she becomes a mature adult vampyre, if her body survives the change. But Zoey has greater things to worry about than living to see the next night—her unusual Mark makes her an outcast and shows her great potential when all Zoey wants is to fit in and be normal. These possibilities, like the Change, will make or break her—her unique powers gain her entry into the elite Dark Daughters but their conniving leader is determined to take down this threat to her dubious authority. Zoey must learn to trust the gifts of the vampyre Goddess Nyx, her own strength, and the loyalty of her new vampyre friends if she’s to stop the vampyre disaster waiting to happen.

Marked is a unique and intriguing combination of traditional vampyre lore with the modern boarding school. But while I love the concept, setting, and background to this tale, I am not quite as thrilled with the actual story. The Casts set this story up so nicely down to the littlest detail; everything is taken care of from vampyre curriculum to public (human) opinions and stereotypes of vampyres to the interesting vampyre rituals. This take is obviously well researched and well referenced, and thus was a delight to read as the Casts make this vampyre world so realistic. Unfortunately, the story that results was not quite up to my expectations. It is still well written and I can appreciate the interconnectedness of some of the smallest plot details, but, overall, it is a slight mess. The main plotline is easy to follow but then there are these little offshoots that keep the reader second guessing and wondering what the significance is; most of these distractions I felt just take up space as they don’t really contribute to the story in any meaningful way unless that has yet to be revealed in later books. Despite the scatterbrained effect, I liked Marked because it was an original and interesting new vampyre read for me.

The Marked series may also be enjoyed by fans of Peeps by Scott Westerfeld and the Blue Bloods series by Melissa de la Cruz, although I didn’t enjoy Marked as much as I did those other vampire novels. I’ll probably continue this series, but only if I have the time.

Rating: 4.0

Review copy from personal collection

7 munch(es) :

Laura @ A Jane of All Reads said...

I have a love-hate relationship with the House of Night series right now. Some of them are good and some of them are inexcusably bad but I keep reading despite the mixed feelings because they are so very entertaining.

Cat said...

I felt this way about Marked... and then I read the rest of the books. I have to agree with the comment above mine, I totally have a love-hate relationship with the series! But I loved the first book!

Briana said...

I liked Marked and now I'm reading Betrayed. I feel like I have to read them really fastg because everyone keeps reading them, and I don't want to see any spoilers haha.

Unknown said...

I enjoyed Marked, but having trouble getting into Betrayed, but I'll finish the series. I liked Blue Bloods better.

Anonymous said...

I agree this series isn't as good as other vampire series. I found Marked to be just ok, Chosen was horrible and the others were a little better. I much prefer Vampire Academy and Blue Bloods.

Bookgeek said...

I'm a vampire fiction fan but just didn't get into this series - and I read two. I didn't really like Zoey, the twins really annoyed me, the story was flat. I did like Zoey's grandma, however, and the native american mythology included in the story. Much prefer Peeps, Vampire Academy, Blude Bloods, etc

Kate Coombs said...

I was just reviewing some paranormal YA, but I feel like I'm not up on any of the vampire series except the obvious, Twilight and sequels. So thanks for this review!

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