#the main characters name is zoey redbird

[vitamin-zeeth]

Yesterday I picked up a second hand book for £2 because it looked AWFUL and I thought it'd be funny and I cannot wait to start reading it

[therobishow]

Saw your post and who am I to deny an opportunity to rant about terrible terrible twilight knock offs?

Okay so ever since twilight came out in 2005, there's been a load of knock offs inspired by the "vampire=hot and sexy/mysterious" and while some of them are, this author P.C cast and Kristen Cast saw the idea and cranked it up more than was necessary because what the hell.

The book is called House of Night and there are lots of books. And the idea of being a vampire was that you had to be marked/chosen in order to undergo it's transformation which. If you were chosen, you had to be with a fully fledged vampire until you were fully fledged yourself which is a long process (around four years) and what is a better place than being with a bunch of fully grown vampires than a academy with other chosen with the fledglings as the teachers?

I'm not gonna lie, it's a great concept but it's terrible what the authors done with it. Transformations don't always work and the chosen sometimes die, but in order to prevent this- you had to be pretty and not fat. Shockingly this isn't the worst thing on the list of how many messed up things this book had done

Then the authors worsen the book more by having the characters be problematic. (They sl#t shame a lot and this doesn't make sense since it's common knowledge that drinking human blood /blood in general is sexual in the story)

Examples include saying the r word, fetishizing queer characters, making a white character "twins" with a black character because they're just so alike like using aave as an example (and the black character she's twinning with is terribly written as well so it just ends up more terrible)

And absolutely terribly horrendous relationships!!

The main character is the "not like other girls tm" and so she gets the bad boy, some sort of thousand year old grandpa boyfriend, a TEACHER boyfriend, and a human boyfriend 😭 (for the amount of shaming this book has, the main character is getting busy with every boy she meets)

AND WHAT MAKES THIS BOOK MORE WORSE is that they thought it was cool to use Indigenous culture but strip everything about said culture so they can fit use what they thought was cool to use in the story. Im happy for any type of indigenous reputation as an indigenous person myself but WHY

They just made the main character (who was named Zoey redbird btw, cool last name tbh but absolutely shitty character) have op powers and call her a "Cherokee princess" with no respectful mention of Cherokee culture at all. They just made their own thing and slapped the word Cherokee on it and shipped it as representation.

For a character that's supposed to be non-white, she was acting the opposite despite being close with her grandma who was Indigenous (+ being stereotypical) and inheriting op powers that were meant to be from her "culture"

PISSES ME OFF SO MUCH

I don't even know how I saw past the red flags as a kid reading this book but now that I have, I'm just so angry just thinking about it 😭

I hope this rant of mine was entertaining

I was just on the right side of too old to hear about this series back when it came out. So let me tell you, it was an absolute trip to see what was in these books when my friends started raving about them a few years later.

Like, this? This is what they were so hyped about? I'd rather them tell me how much they love 50 Shades - well, okay, that's a little too far, but still.

I truly don't understand how any woman survived the absolute peak of fatphobia that we hit in the 2000s. And I'm including myself in that. No idea how I lived through it. These were the days when people were calling Britney Spears fat for being a size 4 instead of a 0. How did women not just collectively die off? Don't get me wrong, I'm glad that we made it through, but holy hell it was by the skin of our teeth.

So someone really needs to tell me what the actual hell was going on in the 2000s that made every piece of teen media present teacher/student relationships like a totally cool and not abusive and traumatizing thing. Remember how grossed out everyone was by the Archie/Grundy relationship in Riverdale? In the 2000s, no one would have batted an eye at that. It would have fit right in with every other teen show at the time. I can't watch hardly any of my favorite high school shows anymore because of that. Ugh, so gross.

And holy shit I forgot she was indigenous! Well, in heavy quotes at least. That Cherokee Princess nonsense is such a White People move and I just can't. I don't know what's worse regarding indigenous rep, House of Night or Twilight. My man Charles de Lint isn't perfect and he's fucked it up a few times, but at least he actually tries and shows respect (um, hey, if he's actually far worse than I think, please let me know).

But, hey, in maybe possibly good news, apparently the writers are trying to convince the publishers to let them rewrite the series so they can do something about all the problematic stuff. That at least has the potential of growth for them

[library-of-babylon]

House of Night: Marked - Review

★★★☆☆ lackluster start to utter nonsense

Craft ★★☆☆☆

Characters ★☆☆☆☆

Plot ★★☆☆☆

World-building ★★★☆☆

Were I to have come to this book with any standards above and beyond "don't be so bad I have to turn it off" I'd probably rate it a 2/5. The entire book just kinda meanders about and feels like set up for the rest of the series instead of a story in its own right. I do intend to buy a physical second-hand copy of every book in the series for my bad book collection.

Also just FYI I've been listening to the series through Hoopla while going about my day so there won't be any exact quotes.

Triggers?

Racism

Sexism

Homophobia

Ableism

Implied sexual assault

Religious abuse

Domestic abuse

Zoey is a really toxic person so I probably missed some

✨Spoilers✨

The entire book takes place over the span of about a month, it doesn't really have a plot until halfway through, and what plot it does have is well… lackluster. Zoey doesn't really have a reason to overthrow Aphrodite as leader of the dark daughters and sons until she has a moment of bizarre incompetence putting lives on the line. Those whose blood is mixed into the win are willing participants as shown by how Stevie Rae was allowed to refuse and leave, the group is not shown to consist solely of her friends, and vampire supremacy is hardly something only she shares. The only real reason she has for wanting to replace her is that they don't like each other.

Zoey Redbird

Zoey is marked to become a vampire and is chosen by the Greek goddess Nyx (also the goddess of vampires) to be her "eyes and ears" because she's Cherokee and not much else. She's not exactly an embodiment of all Nyx stands for, she's not exceptional in any way, and if there's a prophesy or reincarnation thing going on it's not really hinted at. It comes off to me as main character syndrome but if you're like me and came to it looking for a hot mess then that's not really a problem. What's worse is that the fan Wiki agrees with me having her page's personality section being a large paragraph of character flaws.

The books have a good amount of covert racism and homophobia beyond how they refer to characters like Zoey, Shawnee, and Jack. With Zoey, you have not only cringe complexion-food comparisons but also the very common Magical Native American/Indian trope. What little of Cherokee beliefs and practices there are is often muddled with general mysticism opting for herbs and vague gestures to Zoey's heritage.

Aphrodite LaFont

Aphrodite is a strange character. Yes, she's a bitch but she's also strangely incompetent and the books don't really seem to know what to do with her. Putting aside that cannabis has been used in mysticism for centuries and the books' aversion to weed in general, Aphrodite doesn't seem to have been trained at all for her position as head of the dark daughters and sons. She doesn't know how to cleanse a space before summoning spirits, how to control them, or how to rein them in despite her apparently doing the Halloween ritual before.

She's not really an antagonist more a speed bump on Zoey's super special journey. Despite personifying the Alpha Bitch trope and being a constant outlet for the books' slut-shaming she doesn't really do anything more than some light bullying and possible sexual assault. The aforementioned bullying is mostly relegated to name calling, making fun of Stevie Rae's being from a small Oklahoma city, and vampire supremacy (which is later backpedaled).

Her assault of Erik Night is very up in the air. We only ever hear about it from Zoey and Persephone but never from Erik. Zoey sees the interaction as assault, saying as such to Persephone who counters that it was in fact not only consensual but playful, and had she stayed she would have seen as much. Erik only ever says that she is his ex, does not back out of social engagements with her, and is shown to be a more willing participant in her illicit actions seeming to have no problem with the dark daughters on her order drugging people so they can have access to a random gazebo of all things

Erik Night

Erik is a cardboard cutout of a person like most characters in the book. Other than literature, being hot, popular, and apparently liking Star Wars he has no real personality. Past being attracted to each other getting along they don't really have a relationship and yet are somehow dating by the beginning of the next book.

He is so inconsequential that he could be cut from the book and little would change. His inclusion and relationship with Zoey almost seems to be obligatory because what would a young adult series from the 00s and 10s be without a love triangle and basic white boys.

Heath Luck

I don't like Heath, especially after reading book two. He's such a bad love interest for a number of reasons and just writing them down seems to manifest red flags.

🚩 Zoey and him are not dating as of the very beginning of the book and he blatantly disregards this repeatedly

🚩 He repeatedly calls and texts Zoey despite her saying she doesn't want to have anything to do with him

🚩 At the end of the book he goes looking for Zoey on Halloween, interrupting a ritual she's part of, and refuses to leave

🚩 He has a substance abuse problem and is first seen drunk at school. He never actually seeks treatment for this because of his love for Zoey he just stops on day.

World

The world of the House of Night series is an interesting but mismanaged one. Nyx is said to be several goddesses and mythological figures across the world but not much is given to the implications of this. Despite Nyx being everywhere for centuries the world doesn't really seem to have changed at all in response to this and her very real tangible presence. Yes, people like evangelicals or "the people of faith" would look at this and deem it all to be demons or evil but Kuan Yin also known as Guanyin is not just a goddess from Chinese folk religion she's also a figure in some sects of Buddhism.

Society at large also doesn't seem to have changed. Magic is real and no one seems to know or care. Aphrodite can see the future and even summon spirits. Prophets and mediums are real but we never really spend any time with this revelation. We're told that most of Hollywood, famous writers and poets are/were vampires. Beyond this being extremely demoralizing for anyone else the implication that most attractive or creative people are vampires you'd think would cause tension. However, the only people we see or hear having a problem with vampires are evangelicals or those with a bone to pick with an individual (often founded).

Craft

There are objectively worse books out there with some people out here not even bothering to edit out obvious mistakes like misspelling a main character's name (give me a year and I'll review that series I need time to want not hunt down the author and demand my $3 back jfc).

Would I recommend this book?

Yes but with a giant caveat, I'm not enjoying this series because it's good I'm enjoying it because it's hot garbage and I want to actively see it get worse. My favorite book is My Immortal and my favorite movie is The Happening, when I say I love bad media I mean it. Now that being said if you also love hot garbage and the triggers I listed don't bother you then by all means skip on down to your local library and see if they have any or scope out Amazon and eBay to see if they have any cheap used copies.

I've seen some people say that you can't call this a product of its time but I disagree, it is a product of its time, the worst of who we as a polite society were. A collection of the insidious undertones that have plagued us laid starkly bare now in the present day where we're actively trying to purge these tendencies from ourselves and our spaces. It is a product of its time and it is not a comfortable one.

[neon-mooni]

Can we start talking about how problematic the House of night series is? (Note I have only read up to Burned in the series).

1. The main character is named Zoey Redbird

2. Zoey Redbird is a whitewashed Cherokee.

3. The two Authors aren't Cherokee.

4. Cherokee culture is hardly ever shown in the books.

5. The book romanticises statutory rape with a teacher and his student.

6. Zoey is toxic to her friends and is rewarded for it.

[eternallyimaginative]

Marked ( House of Night Novel) by P. C. Cast & Kristin Cast

Book: Marked (Book 1 of House of Night)

Author: P.C. Cast & Kristin CAst

Publisher:   St. Martin’s Press

Release Date:   May 1st, 2007

Format: ePub

Pages:  306

Started Reading: October 15th, 2019

Finished Reading: November 15th, 2019

Summary (supplied from GoodReads):    After a Vampire Tracker Marks her with a crescent moon on her forehead, 16-year-old Zoey Redbird enters the House of Night and learns that she is no average fledgling. She has been Marked as special by the vampyre Goddess Nyx and has affinities for all five elements: Air, Fire Water, Earth and Spirit. But she is not the only fledgling at the House of Night with special powers. When she discovers that the leader of the Dark Daughters, the school’s most elite club, is mis-using her Goddess-given gifts, Zoey must look deep within herself for the courage to embrace her destiny – with a little help from her new vampyre friends (or Nerd Herd, as Aphrodite calls them)

My Thoughts: Hmm...where to start....

Well lets start with setting I assume? In my minds eye this is in a parallel universe to our own, not quite our own reality. I say this because in the book it is common knowledge that there are humans and vampyres amongst the civilians of the universe. Heck the humans know that they may get “changed” into a fledgeling if they are “marked” by a “tracker” (another vampyre gifted with the ability to sense where a potential fledgeling is and mark them for the vampyre goddess Nyx). Other than that little difference based on my opinion, most of the technologies for 2007 are the same as we would have had in that year. Its kind of interesting that both of the writers made a logical choice and had the vampyre schedule be pretty much the flip side of the human schedule, Night vs Day. To me it made sense, and I wouldn’t have had it any other way.

Characters were actually pretty well rounded out for a beginning book of a series I think. It kind of gives you a glimpse at them, and want to learn more about them. But, of course with there being at least 12 books in the series there is still a lot of character development to be made. Honestly I’m not too surprised that this one has the content that it does simply because there is A LOT to cover. 

As for each individual character....Nefret you can tell that there is something more with her from the foreshadowing that the protagonist Zoey gives us. Damien seems like a cupcake BATHED in glitter goodness, funny because thats how Stevie Rae is portrayed to the other characters. Speaking of Stevie Rae? I freaking LOVED her, honestly from the moment we’re introduced to her character you’re made to feel like there is to be a deep bond between her and Zoey. Mind you I think this is foreshadowing for the other books. The Twins are two psuedo twin girls from different ethnic backgrounds, but love everything the same way. I found them interesting in the fact that they are so much alike and spicy in personalities, but I do wish that we could have seen them more in this book, but again there is another at least 12 books so there is time for that. The character of Zoey’s “ex-almost-boyfriend” is named Heath....he’s not a bad guy....but he’s very much like a puppy that just won’t leave you alone...yeah take that how you want. The 2nd love interest of Zoey is Erik. He’s not a bad guy, but it just seems too easy of a love interest to me, like way to easy? “Hey I’m the new kid and I’m going to automatically get the attention of the hottest guy on campus”. Honestly I don’t know if I like that trope simply because I prefer the build up of a relationship dynamic. But, lets not forget about our main character Zoey Redbird. She’s not a bad character? She just seems kind of flat to me a bit. Especially when she has such a rich background and ethnic history that could have been explored more, or even stressed more to the audience. She seems like the type of character that is just spit out in a video game world and knows what they have to do *looks pointedly at SAO with a glare*. But, that’s just my opinion.

Now for a possibly touch topic? It really shouldn’t be touchy considering that its JUST a book. Religion/Faith/Spirituality. You’ve got a lot of this in the novel’s, and I guess you could say its the driving force of the realm that the books take place in. You have the humans and their “People of the Faith” who honour and worship the Judeo/Christian God, and who think that anything that is different than that is devil worship. On the flip side of that coin you have the vampyre society who acknowledges this god, but knows its not for their path and have been chosen to follow the way of Nyx the goddess of the night. Honestly this book was the first thing that introduced me into my own faith. I myself am Wiccan, but didn’t know exactly what this book was pulling from at the time of reading it. This is where I really do have to pay it to the writers for doing their research regarding pagan, mainly I do believe Dianic Wicca (I’m taking a guess on this path of Wicca simply for the fact that Dianic is more feminine power based to my knowledge). The symbolysims were pretty spot on from the colour candles representing each element to the fact that there is a goddess in this path. There is another reason why I want to say that it seems like the Vampyre society reflects pagan faiths. They acknowledge the other paths are there, but know where their feet are looking to go down the paths. 

Now, I think I should address the writing style. Its actually fitting for the books. Its written like a teenager communicates. With the exception of Zoey though....to be honest she’s a little too innocent in the language department when I compare it to how I was at that age. On the other hand its probably at an age group that is probably available for a 13 year old to read? Even if there is some conent that you’re like “how is this in a book written in the language appropriate for a 14 year old? They should be more innocent?” Its just a little bit of a mixed vibe, but not bad. 

Verdict: I’m going to rate this book as a 3.5 stars. Its showing that its got more in store for the story, and keeps you reading. It really is showing the potential in my eyes.