Marked

Title: Marked (House of Night #1) by P.C. Cast & Kristin Cast
Published: May 2007
Pages: 306
# of Times Read: 1
Categorization: Young Adult Fiction, Horror/Suspense, Thriller, Vampire
First Line: "Just when I thought my day couldn't get any worse I saw the dead guy standing next to my locker."
Quick Synopsis: Honestly, the only reason I read this book was because it fell into my hands for free by a fellow bookworm (my Auntie), who likened it to Twilight. One of my best friends Ven (hey girl!) had started it a while back and had nothing but terrible things to say (though I never did get her final opinion). Still, I'm not going to turn down a free book. I knew it would never be a favorite of mine even before the first chapter was finished. I read it till the end in hopes that it would redeem itself, but it never happened. The book is shallow in it's plot development, and the major portion of the plot seems to happen in 20 pages. The last 20 pages. Cast seemed like she was in such a rush to finish it, so she could make money off the vampire popularity market. Can't blame her. For sure. But her writing is atrocious, and I give her kudos for getting help from her younger daughter for trying to get in touch with the generation she's writing for but the end result is pretty terrible. Too many pop culture references, for one. The book will be quickly outdated. If for some reason my future kid wants to read this as a teenager, she will likely not understand the Ashton Kutcher and Demi reference, or the Paris Hilton one. The books characters are built solely on stereotypes. Don't expect deep character development here, if we're lucky maybe the main character Zoey develops in the series, but that I have yet to learn about. P.C. Cast also has a lot of agenda, of which she doesn't even attempt at smoothing into her story, it's there and it's ugly. Agenda has never been a problem for me in books I've read, the agenda filled Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver didn't bother me in the least for example. The main one was the fact that she bashes Christians. I'm not Christian, but I in no way see that theres any reason to bash them so openly, especially in a YA novel. It's inappropriate. Also, Cast won't mention this in the book but the book is very neo-Pagan in it's thought and concepts. Having studied Paganism and Wicca very extensively in my life, there is no denying it. She hides this by saying it's all based on Cherokee Indian ritual, which admittedly, I know very little of, I doubt they are identical to most Wiccan rituals I've read about, and participated in. I assume she covered it up because she knew she'd catch hell if she said otherwise, like Christian bashing is going to help. Cast tries to make her main character Zoey into a role model for young kids (again, not a bad thing), but instead she just comes off very judgmental. I don't want our youth taking notes from her. Cast tries to make it look like zoey is so open-minded by referencing her tolerance for nerds, "Okies", and gays. Kudos, but then in turn she says all people who makeout, smoke, have had alcohol, or aren't blessed with the tolerance of people they don't like are losers. I don't condone a lot of what she judges against, but I don't think it's her place to judge, especially when young minds are easily impressed upon. I really hope people who read her book, young and old can recognize these flaws and take the book for what it is: a story. A fictional story. And take nothing more from it. That being said, the only thing I liked was the story concept of chemical change being related to becoming a vampire, and going to a school just for vampire teens. Aside from that, I liked nothing else. Even her Wiccan rituals, which I find her placing them and not appropriately naming them very offensive. Especially since she picked and choose how Wiccan the rituals would actually be, leaving out important details of the religion. I will avoid this series like the plague, and I hope you do too. Though if for some reason the rest falls into my hands for free, alas, I will read it. PS: PC Cast- Your spelling of vampyre isn't cute, it's pretentious.
Rating: 3/5 - Because despite it's many and overwhelming flaws, I finished it, and I did enjoy the basic storyline, and I think if someone else had written it, it could have been something special.