Publisher: St. Martin's
Genre: Young adult, paranormal romance
Series: House of Night
Series Order:
1. Marked
2. Betrayed
3. Chosen
4. Untamed
5. Hunted
6. Tempted
7. Burned
8. Awakened
9. Destined
10. Hidden
My Rating:
HoN is a series about a teenage girl named Zoey who gets marked to be a vampyre (notice the New Age-y spelling) and then goes to vampyre finishing school (aka the House of Night in Tulsa, Oklahoma, aka Why Not Somewhere Cooler Like Chicago or New York?) in the hopes of not dying before she transitions to be a full vampyre. Vampyres and fledglings are identified by the marks they sport of their foreheads: a sapphire outline of a crescent moon for fledglings, a filled in crescent moon and markings around the top half of the face for vampyres. Their goddess Nyx must be trolling them because it's cool in theory but when you actually imagine someone with markings (all different, some vamps have swirls, others have squiggles, etc, some of them form shapes like horses) like that, it's not that cool.
So the slut-shaming and girl-jealousy I mentioned. There are so many instances where Zoey either thinks girls who have any sort of sexual experience are sluts or calls another girl names because she actually possesses redeemable qualities (unlike Zoey) that it got to the point where I wondered how anyone could stand this girl. She is such a hypocrite! Zoey goes on and on about how terrible girls who like ro want sex are and then goes on with her three boyfriends and barely acknowledges the fact that she is, in fact, one of those girls she kept on insulting. Why do guys even like this girl? So far, I've gotten up to the 8th book and I still barely see why Zoey has practically her whole town beating down her door in order to hook up with her. The only semi-interesting thing about her is that she's some sort of super fledgling and is supposed to save the world from the evil vamps. Couldn't Nyx have given that mantle so some girl who isn't a hypocritical brat??
Each book has an abnormal number of pop culture references. The trendiest celebrities, popular TV shows, 'nerdy' references of comics and Star Wars (HA!), that sort of stuff. A reason I really don't like authors sticking heaps of pop culture references in their books is because five years down the track, most people won't even get the references and it will leave the scratching their heads. I DON'T NEED TO KNOW HOW SASSY PROJECT RUNWAY IS. (that is all.)
The books can't ALL be bad, can they? Well, no. In Awakened, two of the most annoying characters die and I swear to God I had like a mini party. Also, Aphrodite. Aphrodite starts off being this bitch and then turns into my favourite character. God, I love this girl. She and her super adorable relationship with Darius is what gets me through these books. Aphrodite is the one character who has actual depth and has evolved as the series goes on. She's also really hilarious and snarky. What's not to love? But apart from these two things, HoN is really not worth the read. All of the characters are one dimensional and clichéd and these books consist of Zoey being a bitch and all this drama being usually caused by her or something to DO with her.
My verdict: I realise I just spent thirty minutes writing a terrible review of this series, but in all honesty, there's not much more to write about than all the reasons I didn't like these books. I've listed the only redeemable factors that have kept me reading, so that's something, right?
I have to totally agree with you on this. My first thought was that these books were god, but the closer I looked later on, the worse they were. I haven't finished this series for lots of those reasons. Zoey is judgmental, Aphrodite has become the most developed character. My very first impression was not a good one. Needless to say, they could have been done better.
ReplyDeleteThey really could have, especially since it's two authors working on it and not one. It's just turned into a massive train wreck now. I finished Awakened last week and the ending was a mess and it was all just going around in circles!
Delete"And then I re-read them. The sheer amount of slut-shaming, girl jealousy, pop culture references and stupidity that is present in these books"
ReplyDeleteYou just made me LOL so bad.
I used to love this series before I knew any better too. I gave all the books away when I realized there were so many other YA books out there that were way better. I never really understood what was so special about Zoey either, and while I disliked Aphrodite initially, her and Darius kind of made up for her being so bitchy initially. I can't remember when I gave up on this series, but really, nothing ever happened. And I HATED how girls were shown to be such sluts if they even considered having sex with someone... and yet Zoey loses her virginity to a guy she doesn't even know and leads two guys on. Who knows if there are even more out there.
I did remember that I enjoyed when Kalona(?) entered the series, though. Some twisted part of me wanted Zoey to be paired with him LOL.
Oh wait, I forgot about Stark. Wasn't he in love with her too?
DeleteHe and Zoey got together in the 7th book and I really like Stark but I feel sorry that he has to be paired with Zoey. >:( But Heath's coming back into the equation in the 9th book (he died at the end of the 6th) and he'll probs cause some love triangle drama. Sigh.
DeleteI remember Heath dying. I celebrated. I also remember Erik getting pissed at her and walking off on her. I think I got up to the part where Stark died but came back or something? Gahhh such a hot mess.
DeleteO dear, I just bought this series for my stepdaughter!
ReplyDeleteI think it's okay as long as your step-daughter doesn't take Zoey's values to heart and knows that Zoey and her friends aren't the best role models. :)
DeleteYes! I am glad I found another person who realized how bad this series was once the heat for it died down! I finished the first 7 books in lightning speed, then I took a break and wait for the 8th book to come out. Then I started reading the 8th book, and slowly realized how blinded I am by this series. The plot was dragging, and P.C. Cast just basically keep adding on stuff for the bad guys to do until the last book to finish them off (I am sure no one would want little princess Zoey lose, right? Ugh, blah! :P) And actually I have hated Zoey since the 2nd book when things with her entourage of guys started getting complex, as they say. I didn't notice much of the references though, I just skimmed through most of those parts and skip to the actions, the writing was keep of dragging too. Have you seen the number of words crammed onto each page? I know it's how St. Martin's Griffin does most of its books, but I am sure those 300 pages or so are totally longer than other books with the same page count from different publishers. Which made my point completely, each book was dragging while the whole plot of the series is dragging, so I just dropped it now even though I bought book 8&9 and haven't finished them yet. There are fr better books out there :P
ReplyDeleteAllyson Rida @ Chillin' With Books
I do agree that the series drags on but zoey I not a brat! the house of the night is really thrilling! No wonder u like Aphrodite she is always bad mouthing people just like u are these books!!!! And all those references from star wars and comics are some of the things the make this book funny and enjoyable!!
ReplyDeleteReally green pixie? Why do I find trolls like you in every blog comment column I read? It's called constructive criticism green pixie, if a book has plot holes and character flaws in them then obviously it was a bad read and ppl are going to be pissed. Honestly, this book is just following the horrid example of the YA mother of all bad books, Twilight, and it surely won't be the last...
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