P. C. Cast

Life at school becomes more tense and Zoey and her friends insist on parading a murderer around the grieving loved one of his victims and Nyx insists on not intervening with the super evil Neferet still in control

With ties of family and honour, Dragon and Kalona face hard choices: while the new being Aurox must decide exactly what he is.

Time to open another bottle of the Good Booze because it’s another House of Night review (or, as I’ve come to think of it, my penance for the terrible show more evil I must have committed in a former life).

The first point that struck me about this book was that I realised why Zoey’s mother died last episode – because Jack and Anastasia died. These two deaths could never ever be about Zoey. Even after a series of making everything about Zoey, this was too much a stretch. So Zoey’s mother died – and the other deaths are pushed quickly into the background. Damian gets to be occasionally “soggy” but now all deaths are eclipsed because now we have Zoey pain to focus on

I have ranted about this in so many books but the redemption/forgiveness themes in this series are truly and utterly awful.

Take Dragon. Dragon’s wife of several centuries was murdered by Rephaim the bird boy who was magically redeemed last book. Dragon is incessantly shamed and demonised in this book because this terribad evil man will not forgive his wife’s murderer when said wife’s ashes are not even cold. The idea that Rephaim should stay away from school and give this poor man a little space so he wouldn’t have to see his wife’s murderer every day (it’s not like he’d lose out on an education – this school has a terrible curriculum and Rephaim himself is over a thousand years old so how much of a high school education does he need?) is considered outrageous. Rephaim’s desire to experience life as a “normal teenaged life” outweigh’s Dragon’s soul crushing grief

Which, again, is presented as a terrible character flaw. Dragon is losing himself, losing his way – and no-one (not Thanatos and certainly not the useless goddess Nyx) bothers to do anything to try and comfort this grieving man. No they talk about how terribad he’s becoming, how he has to forgive and play nice with Rephaim. And it’s only made worse by the ending and what Dragon has to do to redeem himself. Yes he has to redeem himself

In fact – SPOILER WARNING (really if you care. And if you do, look at your life, look at your choices).

Yes spoilers, scroll over to reveal: Dragon dies, sacrifices himself to protect Rephaim. That is his “redemption” for grieving for his wife – protecting his wife’s murderer at the cost of his own life. This is what redemption looks like in this series – a man shamed for not forgiving his wife killer having to then martyr himself for that murderer.

On top of that we throw in the joy of Becca (remember her? She’s the woman who Stark tried to rape) being even further demonised because she has a “Mean Spirit”. Y’know, even if Becca is a reincarnation of Hitler, it STILL wouldn’t make it ok for Stark to try and rape her – stop trying with this demonising, sex shaming bllshit.

But now we have the utter culmination of redemption – I said it was coming and here it is. Kalona ended this book as team good guy. Yes, Neferet is the biggest of big bads (because we all knew we were going for a female villain) and Kalona, the evil, raping, murdering Kalona, is now being brought back into the fold.

Because of a great big act of redemption? Hah, no, of course not. Like Stark and Rephaim, he did nothing to actually earn his redemption – he’s just declared Redeemed. Yay good guy, everyone forget the victims (who, you’ll note with all three of these men, the victims were primarily female) and embrace them.

There is not enough booze in the world.

Read More show less

Do you remember when the absolute WORST thing a girl in a book could do is be a FUGLY SLUT? When it was criminal to be a hot blonde, and an absolute goddamn SIN to be a hot FAKE blonde? When making fun of Paris Hilton and the anorexics was the height of feminism?

House of Night is here to take you back to the dark. era: early 2000s YA fiction. I'm sure they weren't all this...obvious. But it's got that PC Cast brand of chatty, completely un-self-aware narration that really...really puts you show more in the mindset of a sixteen year old girl who doesn't know how hard this book would get her cancelled in ten years. [wipes tear from my eye] damn was the r-word really still this chill to say back then

(It mentioned flip phones, Nicole Richie, and Emos. This book is a time capsule.)

But okay. I'll be real. I liked the whole cute idea of a vampire finishing school even if it didn't make much sense besides just separating the vamps from the mortals. None of it made sense. But it was fun. I also liked the evil witchy squad of bad girls, summoning evil ghosts and all that. It was fun.

I'm not touching this series again though beliiieeeeve me. This is relevant in PC Cast's Goddess Summoning series too, so I guess this is just how she writes, which is fine but...confusing: the narration is so so so young ("poopie," that's all) but the content is far more mature (a boy vomits blood to death, big yikes; first time the love interest appears he's one downed zipper away from getting a blowjob; talk about "clit piercings"). It's the series for middle school kids who are interested in this Adult Stuff but still giggle at the word "boob."

Rereading this, I kind of wondered how it didn't manage to coast on Meyer's drag as well as PC & Kirsten probably hoped. It's got a trillion times more personality than Twilight, a much more fun cast, and a fairly neat magic/religious system. Also ghosts and creepy things. I want to read more of this messy, awful awful era's books out of curiosity about the trends, which is how I know I have a masochistic streak.

So for the sake of that, here is a list of nonsense it pulled that I think is a product of the time/market:
-Zoey is part Cherokee and there's a lot of weird ~ Cherokee Magicks ~ that I didn't remember. It doesn't really...make any sense with the overall Greek theme we have going on, so maybe that was copped from Meyer too?
-antagonist is SUCH a Slutty McSlutface
-nice focus on her new squad of best friends, with the love interest as a side-plot (a wholly underdeveloped and half-assed side-plot, but anyways)
-Zoey fears being a slut after kissing the boy she likes, who also likes her, because have you EVER heard of something sluttier? i sure haven't
-token gay bff
-blood is necessary but also wanting blood isn't cool but also u need blood but also it's inhumane but also
-"hee hee"
-"boobies"
-hates her bff at the beginning, because she's chatty...AND a slut
-seriously omg SO MANY SLUTS!!! CAN U BELIEVE!!
-male love interest just liked the slut for physical reasons but no he loves u for MORE...because ur not a slut
-do we hate the antagonist because she's a slut or because she apparently bullies people into giving blood for her parties OR because...she's a MEGA SLUT

Anyways. I can freely donate this book now. show less

Decisamente questo nuovo romanzo delle Cast è nettamente superiore al precedente. Ci ritroviamo nei tunnel con Zy, il suo gruppo di vampiri e novizi blu e Stevie Rae e il suo gruppo di vampiri rossi. Nel complesso alla scuola c'è il caos più "ordinato" che sia mai stato generato. Neferet è una cattiva con gli attributi e non perde mai un colpo mentre, invece, Kalona è estremamente ridicolo nel suo tentativo di sedurre Zy e il suo voler "Tutto, voglio tutto!". Fa tanto cattivo dei show more fumetti!

Stevie Rae è un personaggio che non fa altro che "crescere" di libro in libro e, con tutte le sue luci e ombre, è uno dei protagonisti meglio caratterizzati. Accanto a lei spicca per originalità anche Afrodite che non fa altro che sorprenderci e stupirci con il suo sarcasmo velenoso che nasconde una grande Umanità (e amore visto quanto tiene a Dario!). L'importante è che nessun altro lo sappia, eh!

Per quanto riguarda i maschietti... Trovo questo sia uno degli aspetti negativi del romanzo. Erik, Heath e Stark. E' veramente insopportabile questa Zoey che si fa tutti, vuole tutti, non sa chi scegliere e dispensa baci come caramelle salvo poi farsi prendere dal panico di fronte alla vena passionale di Erik (ormai Vampiro completo, ricordiamo). Non dimentichiamo che la signorina non è più "pura e casta" dai tempi del caro e vecchio Poeta Laureato! E allora che sono tutta questa improvvisa ritrosità? Se ti comporti come una poco di buono non puoi aspettarti se qualcuno ti considera tale o, diversamente, si aspetta che tu sia disinvolta e tranquilla in questi frangenti.

Erik è un bel personaggio. Per alcuni è una "zerbino" perchè accetta che Zy abbia anche Heath nella sua vita, per altri è un maniaco possessivo quando le fa una scenata di gelosia. IN realtà è solo un vampiro adulto, con pulsioni da vampiro adulto, che è alle prese con una ragazza che ama ma che, ormai è rassegnato, non riesce a tenere la lingua in bocca! E' un miracolo che non l'abbia legata e chiusa nell'armadio!

Heath è dolce, sa cosa vuole Zy ma alla fine è solo un umano. Coraggioso, piacevole ma non fa altro che creare casini. Incoerente. La lascia, se la prende con lei per l'Imprinting, le urla contro quando lo rompe... Insomma. Per quanto perfetto dovrebbe capire che lei gli vuole bene ma non l'ama davvero. L'abbiamo capito perfino noi!

Stark è un bel personaggio che merita. Ha uno spessore, molto più degli altri due, ma è anche vero che c'è un tale assortimento di uomini che quando è rientrato in scena l'unico pensiero è stato "Ancora!!!".

La storia è carina, senza essere troppo impegnativa, si legge tutta d'un fiato e con piacevole rilassatezza. Siamo curiosi di vedere come andrà a finire ma, di fatto, questa leggerezza della protagonista mal si accorda con il suo lato saggio di Sacerdotessa di Nyx. E' come se le autrici avessero il timore di creare una Mary Sue e quindi non fanno altro che farla svolazzare di fiore di fiore per darle un lato umano e adolescenziale. Che Dio le perdoni, e speriamo davvero che Zy non sia il prototipo di adolescente media! show less

Surprising in it's ability to keep me engaged. I liked it, but was thrown and often exasperated by the way the protagonist thought and spoke--not that she was perplexing, but the brand names and mini-lectures about stupid sheep high schoolers, drugs and alcohol was... odd. But bringing the whole wicca type religion into the world of teenagers and vampires? Hella cool.

The friends and love interest seem mostly like sounding boards at this point. The promise that the antagonist makes at the show more end of the book makes me hope that the High Priestess and the other vampires are not all that they seem.

Strangest of all though, I almost forgot to mention, is that so many famous people of the past are vampires, and many popular celebrities are also vampires, and yet they still face discrimination the way that gays do today. A better back story might have been celebrities coming out of the closet about their vampirism, and the schools only becoming prominent recently--explaining why the House of Night was a recent edition to Tulsa. That would also eliminate the token: anyone talented, ever, was a vampire. Had a few of them made it big, and the rest lived in fear, it would have been better. Imagining William Shakespeare with blue tattoos on his face was just... bizarre. So, makeup! Living in secret! Sounds more plausible.

As it stands... I'm itching to read the rest of the series. show less