Hidden

Neferet continues to be evil – and has decided the next step in her evilness is to kidnap and sacrifice Sylvia Redbird, Zoey’s grandmother. Naturally Zoey and the gang run to the rescue, even though the Vampire High Council is providing no support for their efforts. They also need to be careful with their public persona as Neferet is starting to launch a public relations battle with the human authorities.

It does give Aurox a chance to make a choice about who he wants to be and which side he is on.

We need to take a moment to look at the overall story arc of these books – because I’m on book 10 now and it’s not quite holding together.

The overall meta is that Neferet is a big bad evil who must be stopped. And if you preserve your show more thinking to that very shallow depth (understandable since deep thinking and the House of Night Series go together like Canadians and tropical weather) then that kind of holds together. Neferet does evil things, Zoey and co then respond to stop her. But what does Neferet actually want? And, no “evil” is not a motive. So we have Neferet rather belatedly acquiring a motive: she wants “control” rather than just power (which I’m taking to mean no accountability. Which I’ll let pass… except all of Neferet’s power now seems to come from her having to repeatedly bleed and beg for help from her Evil Cow. How does she have more power than she had before?). And to get this power she’s going to make humans and vampires fight each other and then she can swoop into the ashes and be confident she’ll take over

Ok, let’s suppose for a moment that this plan has a chance of working when she’s pretty much setting herself up as a number one target in the giant war she’s planning on starting. Let’s let that go for now and instead ask:

WHY THE HELL ARE YOU IN TULSA?!

Look if you want a global conflict, it’s not going to start in Tulsa (no insult to Tulsa, the same applies to my home city or most cities on the planet). In fact, her attempts to manipulate humanity have netted her some shaky control over the mayor of Tulsa. I paused a moment to see if she meant the Governor of Oklahoma. Or a senator. State senator? No, the Mayor of Tulsa. That’s the extent of her power. It’s not even the state capital or the biggest city in Oklahoma! It’s the 47th biggest city in the US. It doesn’t have a significant vampire presence – the most important vampire in this city was Neferet herself.

Even in Tulsa, Neferet ignores the one target that could actually make a difference in this conflict – Thanatos, High Council Member. Thanatos may as well not be there as far as Neferet is concerned – why ignore one of the most influential of the vampires’ leaders? But then, the feeling is mutual! Because facing indisputable proof of Neferet’s evil murderous ways the High Council of Vampires decides the appropriate response is to Not Talk To Her Anymore, so there. I suspect they may also have given her a nasty look. That’s it. Meanwhile Thanatos continually pokes Zoey and co to grow up and be ready to face the big bad evil Neferet and how can you be such nattering children?!

Really, Thanatos? How about you not rely on teenagers to save your entire civilisation? How about you actually DO SOMETHING?

Because this whole broken story comes down to one thing: centring Zoey. So Neferet, rather than actually do anything to further her wicked plans, instead decides to target Zoey again and again and again. She’s killed Zoey’s mother (and if she’d just chosen ANY OTHER HUMAN, she wouldn’t have been discovered by Thanatos) and the entire plot line of this book revolves around Neferet kidnapping Zoey’s grandmother to get a sacrifice to KILL ZOEY, despite KNOWING that Sylvia Redbird is an impossible sacrifice because she isn’t a person, she’s just a collection of Native American mystical stereotypes, a couple of handfuls of feathers and a good cry over environmental destruction from a full trope collection. Neferet has literally paused her entire plan to attack Zoey again. She repeatedly sabotages herself because she must attack those meddling kids!

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I do really like this series, but it's too long. I feel like we could have summed up the most important parts in about 5 books and been done already. The story gets dragged out and more and more good characters die and it feels like evil will win. I know Zoey gets stronger and more confident in herself and there has to be some losses so she grows, but man it's hard to keep going. I normally like multiple points of view, but these books have too many. There are about 10 and it divides the story too much. They should have kept it to 3 or so, that way things are less confusing. I do like the overall idea and plot. The way vampyres are written is unique and I like the elements and the way the Goddess is portrayed. At this point, I'm in too show more deep to stop reading and I'm really looking forward to how it ends. show less

Visti i commenti che circolavano, e il livello generale dei - dannati! - spoliers, credevo che questo romanzo sarebbe stato davvero, davvero una str...cavolata colossale.

Non che sia il libro rivelazione dell'anno, sia chiaro, sempre di una romanzo per giovani parliamo, ma rispetto agli altri è stato molto più intrigante. I personaggi stanno crescendo, si nota, e la varietà delle varie "voci narranti" danno una dinamicità alla storia che non permette il lettore di annoiarsi, mai.

Carino, davvero carino!

There's nothing better than a series that keeps you on your toes. This installment in the HON Series is no different. I blew through it in no time and loved every minute of it.

When Neferet seems to have lost everything, she takes matters into her own hands. Zoey and her friends are in a bind and must get help from even those the don't trust. There's only so much Zoey can take and the Seer Stone is becoming a pain. Seeking the truth yet not knowing who to turn to when she believes she sees her ex-boyfriend from HS, it's all Zoey can take when it comes to the men in her life. While her heart wants to believe one thing her head is telling her it cannot be real.

There's a light at the end of the tunnel for everyone and Neferet had it coming show more when she kidnapped someone beloved by all of Zoey's friends. It's one thing to take away a family member that's already blew you off, it's quite another to threaten someone as close to Zoey as her grandma.

Absolutely loved this installment to the series! Moving on to Neferet's Curse. show less

To some degree, I'm getting sick of the "Love. Always love" but that could be because I've never been very lucky in love. I've never really had a love like these characters, at least not one that was real and lasted. Maybe I would be an angry red fledgling if I was in these novels :-)

Regardless, I'm invested and I have to see how the storyline continues!!

Adrianne

I thought that this book was irritating. There were some things that I liked about this, but I found the characters to be frustrating, selfish, and exactly what they have been 'fighting' against this whole time. After 10 books they hold grudges, and refuse to believe that people change, or can make life changes, or choose good even if they haven't always. Zoey was the most irritating of them all. She acts so self important and in charge when really she did not contribute much at all to this book. I think it's time to wrap this series up. Like 3 or so books ago.

I hate that I always have to wait so long for the next book!!!!

Ok, the Cast girls have done it again, I loved this book. The struggle of Aurox was clear. Zoey, though some see her as a weak character, faces her fears head on time after time, this shows courage. Stevie Rae is coming into her own as a leader in her own right. And I'm loving seeing Shaylin's character grow. I'm very curious to see if Erin and Kalona continue on the paths they've chosen or will they turn back to what they once knew. I'd also like to see the High Council more involved and not just through Thanatos. And the confirmation of suspicions cast in book 9 revealed at the end of this book have me salivating for the next installment!