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Paperback
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
ISBN13: 9780312360269
Condition: NEW
Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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The House of Night series is set in a world very much like our own, except in 16-year-old Zoey Redbird's world, vampyres have always existed. In this first book in the series, Zoey enters the House of Night, a school where, after having undergone the Change, she will train to become an adult vampire--that is, if she makes it through the Change. Not all of those who are chosen do. It’s tough to begin a new life, away from her parents and friends, and on top of that, Zoey finds she is no average fledgling. She has been Marked as special by the vampyre Goddess, Nyx. 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 misusing 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.
| Customer Reviews: |
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| I'm sorry guys, I tried... I really did... |
| Customer Rating: 1 out of 5 |
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I was disappointed greatly with this book! Let me say that I am a fan of Vampire fiction, and I love teen fiction to death. So I decided I'd rent this book from the library to feed my curiosity. Let me say that while I thought there was lots of potential, I also felt that none of it was used well. It has an interesting concept (Vampire boarding school), despite being unoriginal. And it was executed in the way that was as interesting as watching a toilet flush. THe main character, Zoey, is so terribly Mary Sue. She needs everything to be perfect, she is dating the most popular guy in school, she is rich, etc. SHe complains when something she's not used to comes along, which is annoying. I also found this book to be extremely sexist. Not a single male character is strong at all, they're like mannequins in a clothing store. And almost NOTHING HAPPENS in this until the end, and when it does happen, it lasts two pages. A real disappointment, do skip this book. But then again, it's better than Twilight.
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| Extremely Disappointing |
| Customer Rating: 1 out of 5 |
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"Marked" follows the progression of Zoey Redbird, a fledgling vampyre in a world (parallel? future?)where vampyres are a fact of life. They're separate from humans, they're dangerous, but they're here, and there's nothing to do about it.
Zoey's an interesting heroine. A normal teenage girl, she is reluctantly chosen as a vampyre, which basically means she's separated from her family. Zoey's also quite believable within the parameters of the story.
Unfortunately, Zoey is the only likeable part of this book.
While the opening sentence is certainly a gripper, the book swiftly falls flat from there. The writing is much too lean, and it seems unskillful; the progression is a little too fast, there aren't any smooth transitions--it's always very jarring, jarring enough to let you know you definitely are reading, and aren't lost in the book--and with the exception of Zoey, nobody's a sympathetic character. In fact, ALL of the sideline characters are incredibly shallow. Neferet is the deepest character after Zoey, and even she's a stereotype.
For instance, Aphrodite is so openly self-centered that, from her first or second sentence, I wondered if I was reading a bullying scene written by a 2nd-grader. Most of the writing style is like that, but Aphrodite saying, "This place is awesome because of me" is so incredibly stupid, even for a villainess, that I almost stopped reading. Aphrodite can easily be a nasty character without throwing it in our faces that like. Having to be so obvious is a mark of bad writing; if the writer has to tell that tidbit, and has no way of showing it for the reader to infer him or herself first, then there's a problem.
Also, Zoey's friends are just as unbelievable: one's the hick-stupid country girl, her human best friend is so without depth, so snarky and vapid, that it was boring; and even her love interest is your basic two-dimensional hero template. Excluding one dirty scene early in the novel, he's the boy next door--without anything to his personality or history beyond that. NONE of them have any personality beyond stereotypical high school roles. It's not that fitting the high school roles into this story is bad; in this novel, which has the potential to be funny, it could have been hysterical. But instead it's only ridiculous.
The plot is also so insanely juvenile. While you expect high school drama here--it's a vampire boarding school-- you would think the underlying plot would be deeper, or at least not so submerged in adolescent melodrama.
I do apologize for the severity here, but for any reader who likes story depth and character development is going to be so disappointed. The story was shallow, a thin plot developed in time to cash in on the vampire craze, an excuse for more adolescent fantasy in relatively clean book-form. I know we all need escapism, but I do think it could be better than this. The writers could have done much better; I don't know why they welshed here.
I'd advise you to skip it. Still, take this with a grain of salt; one man's trash, and all that.
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| Marked series |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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A series of book once you start them you can't put them down until you are done... I cannot wait till june 2010 when the next one comes out...
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| BE AWARE...Anti-Christian references |
| Customer Rating: 3 out of 5 |
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I read a ton of fiction and I really enjoy checking out what is going on in the Teen fiction realm. This is a so/so book. ( I have purchased/read all of them ).
BE AWARE that the book is about the main character growing up in a Christian home and she leaves to worship the pagan goddess Nyx. Now, normally in these teen science fiction paranormal genre, it is alluded to and not always right there in your face.
In this series though, it is really in the forefront...even to the point of the main character being disgusted with a "He's the reason for the season" Christmas card. ( she celebrates the solstice.)
As a grown adult, I am fine reading through this because it is who the character is...
As a mom of a 13 y.o though...I would not feel real comfortable with that child reading this without some discussion first.
This isn't Twilight by any means...and it isn't to the level of a Richelle Mead, but it was a very easy quick read.
Borrow from a friend or library.
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| DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY! |
| Customer Rating: 2 out of 5 |
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I bought the whole series (sigh) of these books when I was coming down from my Twilight high but now wish I would have just started with the first one. The writing is terrible. I used to write novels in high school and these remind me very much of those. The writers cannot come up with an original thought or story line and even compare people to modern movie stars when describing them (really?). This book was an attempt to make some money while the Twilight craze is going on from two really bad writers.
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