Awakened

Zoey is taking a holiday to avoids all the drama and sad things that have afflicted everyone (but which makes her super sad because she’s so special). The bad guys are not respecting her wish for a happy holiday so Zoey will eventually have to get back into the action

Meanwhile the redemption of Rephraim continues, because what’s a little murder when you’ve decided a guy is going to be your freaky birdy love interest?

Zoey spends a lot of this book hanging out on the Isle of Skye-author-isn’t-quite-sure-about-the-difference-between-Ireland-and-Scotland-but-likes-guys-in-kilts (Scotland doesn’t use Euros) deciding she wants to take a time out because it’s all so sad and hard and everyone else tries to think of ways to get her show more back into the action. Also I’ve been to the Isle of Skye – it’s not just a made up place but the author has just overlaid the whole island and made it vampire world.

Y’know I’d be sympathetic – but the shit she’s been through is not any deeper or smellier than what everyone else has been through (hey, remember Dragon mourning his wife of several centuries? Or Aphrodite changing species? Or Stevie-Rae and the Fledglings dying and coming back? Remember any of this?) and none of them had their soul shattered and then decided to take a prolonged island holiday. This follows book after book after book of everyone worshipping Zoey and centring her grief to the complete exclusion of everyone else’s. Stark’s death? All about Zoey. Stevie-Rae’s death? All about Zoey. Heath’s death? All about Zoey. Has anyone even told Heath’s parents yet? Anyone? Having an all-about-Zoey holiday so she can be all schmoopy with Stark the Redeemed Rapist and have a whole new set of vampires declare how super duper awesome she is just causes migraines.

And that’s ignoring the multiple prophecies all saying that if she doesn’t get her arse back into gear then the whole world is going to fall apart. No, screw prophecies, that is with her KNOWING Neferet is out there doing terribad awful things, but hey time out holiday time because precious Zoey!

Let’s hit another annoying element (and there are so many!): Rephaim’s redemption storyline – in fact, no, cut that. This isn’t a redemption storyline. Redemption storylines suggest some level of trying to make amends for the shit you’ve pulled. Redemption storylines mean actually working to earn forgiveness and being a better person. Wave the woo-woo of Nyxness and suddenly declaring yourself team good guy is not a redemption storyline.

Yet that’s basically what Rephaim does. As we all saw coming (with the inevitability of a train racing towards us while we’re tied to the tracks), Rephaim loves Stevie Rae (and she has a thing for bird guys) and that means all is good! Nyx even totally comes to seal the deal!

And, no, angst is NOT Redemption. Whining away that you’re a monster is self-absorbed self-pity, not redemption.

If I were the Dragon I wouldn’t forgive this bullshit either – “you’re sorry and have to have downtime when your girlfriend’s asleep anyway? Totally makes up for murdering my wife!”

(Oh and a side point on his - Rephaim continually beats himself up as a monster, as a "child of rape" - there is actually more shaming and attacking of Rephaim for being conceived through rape than there is of Kalona and Stark, actual rapists).

This is another really nasty problem House of Night series has – not just speeding people down the Redemption lines at a great rate of knots, but we also have this cult of forgiveness. These people (no, not people – men and I’ll come back to that as well) do terrible things and suddenly BING REDEMPTION and everyone is now expected to forgive them. Their misdeeds totally forgotten. The fact that Dragon doesn’t want to forgive Rephaim, the man who killed his wife, just days after she died (seriously, the ashes can’t even be scattered yet!) and doesn’t want Rephaim around him is seen as Dragon’s failing rather than completely natural. But we’ve seen the same thing with Stark before as well – absolutely no-one brings up his Red-Fledgling Rapist days and his victim has been thoroughly demonised.

Which makes me fear that we’re also looming closer to the biggie – the redemption of Kalona! Because he’s super duper sad (though can we shred hi “motivation” – he turned evil because Nyx friend-zoned him. Nyx wasn’t into you, she already had a guy Kalona, deal with it) and Neferet is being so very very mean to him and she’s the real bad guy! And look, he even let Rephaim switch sides! I shudder, but the more Neferet is demonised and the more we seem to be cutting Kalona some slack the more I can see this happening.

Because that is what this series wants – a female villain. Nothing about how Neferet is written suggests the slightest attempt at a redemption storyline for her. No way. She is evil evil evil through and through, embracing the darkness, kicking puppies and generally being universally awful. She’s also sexual and gets naked a lot because SEXY WOMAN IS EVIL IT IS KNOWN!

I’m going to have another rant about Nyx here – because she appears again and strongly hints to everyone that Neferet is totally not good. Y’know she could have done this several books ago or done it in front of the High Council or in front of any of the vampires who still think Neferet is a good guy – but nooooo. So she appears, tells everyone that Neferet isn’t all good, but mainly focuses on ramming forgiveness down Dragon’s throat. When she’s gone Neferet just mind controls everyone into believing her again with DARKNESS POWERS and Nyx does…. Nothing. Of course she does nothing. This series needs to make up its mind. Either Nyx decides free will means she can’t get involved at all – in which case she needs to stop throwing out prophecies and random appearances and squelching stomach cramps of guidance. OR she is an involved deity actively guiding, supporting and helping her supplicants – in which case she needs to get up a little earlier in the morning and getting her lazy deity arse in gear.

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Just because a book targets a Young Adult audience doesn't justify it being poorly written. Especially when the books young readers imbibe can have such a lasting impact on their view of the world. Vampires, werewolves and supernatural creatures are hot right now. My daughter is asking to read them. I bought several YA books in this genre to preview before adding them to my bookshelf. This book will not be staying in my house.

My expectations coming into this book were modest. I anticipated a kind of sex-sanitized Harlequin Romance with blood suckers and magical creatures. I enjoyed watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel with Daughter #1 in all of its badly-acted, campy awfulness because many episodes touched upon a social issue show more that was relevant to my kid. Read (or watch) what your kids are reading and all of a sudden that 30-year difference in your ages disappears and you are speaking the same language. In this book, however, the heroines/villains were all so shallow that I just wanted to smack them. The plot was thin. The writing bad. The whole thing reminded me of this Mary Sue book I co-wrote with a friend in the 9th grade in a loose-leaf notebook.

I will keep reading ... searching for a suitable YA vampire series for my kid to read to sit besides the three 'Hunger Games' books and all our legacy Lord of the Rings and other fantasy books. This book, however, is going into the 'donate' bin as soon as I hit 'save' on this review. My YA daughter deserves more nourishing fare, and I will keep searching for it until I find that magical YA vampire/werewolf series that can bridge the gap and help us speak whatever middle-earth language young people speak these days show less

Yikes- this series really is a train wreck! I really gave up all hope of these books getting better about five books ago but I've made it to book eight and just can't look away from the disaster. They are so bad it's almost amusing.

Firstly, I find it highly ironic that the Casts dedicated this book to ''LGBT teens everywhere'' given the fact that the two gay characters in these books are walking stereotypes. They are not presented as gay characters- they are presented as girls! Called Queen Damien and Miss Jack. Told they don't ''count as guys because they're gay.'' Jack spends his time fainting, crying, giggling, squealing etc.

There is only one major scene in [b:Awakened|42900|Lover Awakened (Black Dagger Brotherhood, #3)|J.R. show more Ward|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1169957160s/42900.jpg|1214837] where Damien, Jack and all the gang are together and it is shockingly bad- every sentence is mentioning that they're gay- we get it, we've known for the last eight books! This, coupled with the ''dedication'', only further validates my opinion that the Casts are just looking for a pat on the back for having gay characters.

Zoey is worse than ever! She really is the biggest Mary Sue I have ever come across in YA literature- it's appalling and I think she sets a terrible example for any younger teens who might be reading these books and thinking this is actually acceptable and healthy behaviour for a 16 year old girl. As usual, she has all the guys falling all over her. Stark is just a male version of Zoey. They have nothing in common and their relationship is so over the top and cheesy. I was cringing at many of their conversations. We're on book eight and Zoey still can't let go of Heath yet at the same time she has no problem going with some other guy.

Of course Erik had to forgive Zoey, even though she's never been anything but awful and unfaithful to him. I just don't get why he still sees her desirable even as a friend. Zoey gets everything she wants in this book and acts like a spoiled five year old! She's apparently all powerful and chosen and everything... yet she runs off to an island and basically says ''I'm just going to stay here so I don't have to deal with any of my responsibilities'' and leaves her friends alone to deal with it.

I'm so over Kalona. And Neferet. And Rephaim and Stevie-Rae. These plots and relationships are SO overdone at this stage! Kalona hasn't interested me since the first time he entered the series. The whole Neferet thing is so played out- it just keeps going back and forth. Stevie-Rae and her bird-lover is just, well, creepy. Every time any of these characters started narrating I just switched off.

Aphrodite has really been pushed into the background which is a shame! By the time we got to page thirty, I had counted 9 times in which Zoey and her gang had insulted, mocked and shamed Aphrodite. It's just appalling. Sure- there's a personality clash there- but Aphrodite has been nothing but helpful to them for books upon books. Zoey decided she was a slut at the beginning of book one (for doing nothing bad at all) and even though Zoey has done ten times more things with ten times more guys, while Aphrodite is with one nice guy, Aphrodite is still the slut and the one who is beneath the rest of them. It really sucks because she's the one decent character left. Zoey and her friends need to grow up and realize they're not funny or witty- just mean and immature.

The switching of narrators is so bad- it's obviously just because the Casts can't handle writing a book without showing the plot from every single angle, thereby leaving no questions at all. It's really annoying. And this book is going date so bad! It's all pop culture references, especially for the first half of the book. They mention Glee, True Blood, iPods, Anita Blake, Twitter... the first 50 pages are like an advertisement.

Overall, yeah, it's bad but I can't look away after making it this far and now I'm just wondering how bad it can actually get.

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The book opens with Zoey, Stark, Aphrodite, and Darius still on the Isle of Skye. Several factors are adamant about keeping Zoey and Stark there, from their romance to Sgiach's sudden change of perspective about keeping the Isle a secret. All through the book I get the feeling that Sgiach is not as trustworthy or pure of intention as the reader is led to believe, but I imagine that will be a subject for a future book.
Fairly early in the book, a death occurs - I won't say who - but it feels a bit like an author's attempt to cull an entirely-too-long cast list. I have felt for awhile that there were too many characters in this series to keep track of all of them in a single book, but even with the random death occurring every so often, show more many of the characters are almost non-existent in this book.
I really like the character Rephaim and what the authors are doing with his sub-plot. He has much potential for growth in personality and maturity, and he brings a more adult element to what often feels like a very immature series. I was thrilled with how Nyx helps him at the end, as it shows him that good has its own rewards. His presence has forced Stevie Rae to grow up and make decisions that have a great impact, too. Normally Stevie Rae can be quite annoying, but around Rephaim I like her.
Neferet is of course, beyond revolting. Everything she does makes me want to hurl the book across the room - from her posturing around Kalona and Rephaim, to her false guilt at the funeral, to her simpering over the white bull. Her character is actually my strongest clue that the authors are good at what they do. Only a well-written character can elicit the kind of strong emotion that Neferet brings out in me. They do a good job of showing how the soul-sucking darkness is driving her to madness, even to the point of always underestimating what Zoey and Nyx are capable of. I may be delusional, but I still think that Kalona can be saved from this darkness, even though it's obvious that Neferet can not. His actions seem to be driven by bitterness and a hunger for what is denied him, rather than evil for the sake of evil.
I do love that the authors found a way to continue using Heath in the plotline, as he was always so good for Zoey and probably the only "normal" person in the cast list of supernaturally-gifted beings. He likely will have a long way to go with the direction the authors are taking him, but I imagine I'll keep reading this series through to the end - whenever that is.
Many of the same problems that I had with the series early on still persist - such as sickly-sweet teenage lingo, the condensed time frame of each book, and too many characters with too little time. I find myself wondering which parts of the books are written by which author, as the writing style seems to change sporadically.
I was actually both relieved and saddened by the death at the end, first that it was not someone else dying, but also how it will affect Zoey. Beyond that, there are simply too many characters for me to be emotionally-attached to all of them. So on to the next book - Destined (House of Night Novels). show less

For some reason I couldn't put this book down, but when I think back on it, all I can think is 'What actually happened?' And find the answer is, not much. Zoey returns to the house of night, Neferet is still bad and so is Kalona. The end. Seriously?
And still it is written in such a way that I found it absolutely fascinating and couldn't put it down. I have a love/hate relationship with these books. Really I do.

Awakened by P.C.Cast


Zoey Redbird just came back from Nyx’s realm. When things finally come down and go back to somewhat normal. Well as normal as it can be for a vampire Priestess. Neffer murders her one of her friends. Because of this Zoey must leave her sanitary and come back to help the grieving process of her friends. But evil continues to strike . Is Kalona still around trying to find Zoey. But who will dies next in the hands of evil…
Awakened is brilliantly written. With many perfectly placed twist and unexpected turns. Awakened is one of the books in the house of night novels. About Zoey Redbird a high priestess vampire. . This is nothing like twilight. This is the world of vampires , this is better than twilight. This book show more series sucks you in and you explore new realms with it perfect imagery. It takes you on a journey . But every journey has flaws when you get sucked in your heart will race every time some one dies or almost dies. There are a few flaws with this book . First off the book ends very abruptly . Second it can get confusing when you bounce between characters. But overall this is a amazing book. show less

This book was a little bit darker than the previous books. Zoey and Stark decide to stay on the island of Skye for a while until news of Jack's death reaches them from Stevie Rae, who has become the high priestess of the House of Night. Things are becoming serious with Stevie Rae and Rephaim, and we find out Kalona is not really bound. Sadly, at Jack's funeral pyre, Neferat starts trouble and all seems lost until Nyx shows up. She forgives Rephaim and allows him to become human at night. Once Nyx leaves Nepherat twists what she said to her advantage and Zoey and the gang leave for the tunnels.

I was a little bit disappointed by the fact that Zoey excused away Stark's abusive behavior in bed right at the end of the book, even though I am show more going to assume that it was Kalona controlling him. I am not a huge fan of Stark's character in general because I do not buy into the whole 'I was dark and it wasn't my fault' at the same time as 'I am that person I just have to choose to be good' he tried to rape that Becca girl, he probably raped other girls, and even though it was probably not him this time, it fits his character.

I did feel bad, however at the ending where Zoey finds out he mother is dead. It was such a bitter ending to that story line, that Linda would just be coming around (even if it is just because she caught him, and not because of the way he treated her children) and she goes and dies. That being said I am really glad it was Linda and not the grandmother!
It was also a little darker because of the random bestiality that showed up there at the end. I'm not talking about Stevie Rae. What was with that White Bull sex scene? Nope. Just nope. show less