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Book Review of Marked (House of Night, Bk 1)

Marked (House of Night, Bk 1)
Pb-Patch avatar reviewed on + 42 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1


This is basically an almost adult version of "Mean Girls" with vampires. You have the new girl who is pretty enough and smart enough to fit in with the "popular crowd" but instead fits better with the [nonpopular/nerds/poorer/normal]?? crowd. Of course the leader of the "in-crowd" is a horrible control freak who is an absolute b**ch and the new girl has to try to take her down. Mixed with the "gorgeous hunk" who, of course, was dating the head of the in crowd but now is interested in the new girl. All of this played out in what is a school for fledgling vampires learning to cope with their new reality. While that sounds very cliched, the story line is pretty good and it sucks you in. Read it in just over one day.

My only real problem is the vampire thing itself in the context of this story. The plot plays out in such a way that it would have been much better to have had the characters be wiccans discovering they had actual powers and then going to a school for novice witches. I say this because the way the story sets up the rituals with the High Priestess, spell circles, prayers to their own personal goddess... combined with some minor Native American (Cherokee) shamanism.. it all sounds much more witch and magic oriented than vampire. Seems like the Cast family mainly wanted to capitalize on the current fad of romantic heroism that now surrounds what were once blood sucking fiends.