Zoey Redbird is most possibly the most irritating teenage protagonist ever in the history of young adult fiction. I sincerely hope she gets hit with a bus at some point in her useless existance.

The Casts open up with Zoey complaining about her birthday being right before Christmas, December 24th, and whining about how she constantly gets holidays-themed presents every year. Thus, everything goes downhill when her friends give her snowman-themed gifts. Since Zoey never bothered to tell her friends about dislike for such things, even though her birthday was coming up, it was her fault. She certainly had no excuse to be a brat about the whole thing, and just storm out of the room when she did not seem to like anything.

Our protagonist is then off to Starbucks to meet her grandmother, who will actually get her a cool present that is so much better than the Christmas-like things from her best friends. Once again we are reminded that the Cherokee word for "daughter" is "u-we-tsi-a-ge-ya" and how it "wrapped around" her. Then her mother shows up, and everything is once again going downhill for our poor Zoey who has never done a wrong thing in her life. Because she is so nice and pure and always does good, damn it.

Her mother makes an attempt to let her know she is still part of the family, which Zoey turns away without a second thought. She even returns the book in which it is scribbled. Of course her step-father shows up and poor Zoey and yadda yadda.

Throughout the whole novel it is stuffed down the reader's throat how Christianity is bad and how Nyx's religion is much better, and how Christians ( more specifically, the People of Faith ) are loud-mouthed, close-minded, psychotic people that do not tolerate other beliefs and believe that those that do not believe in their God go to Hell. Now they are the ones blamed for the murders of vampyres that began going on. The whole topic just irked me. Maybe it is because I am a Christian, maybe that is why it offended me personally. Well, okay then, Casts.

The plot is . . . wait what plot. Literally, most of the book is devoted to Zoey and her love life, exclusively. She still has three guys going after her, Heath, Erik, and Loran. She imprinted on Heath and keeps wanting his blood, and can never get through with breaking up with him. She needs to grow a damn backbone. Erik is her official boyfriend, whom she only thinks about once in a while and feels guilty about liking other guys. Loran is the sexy grown vampyre that she is sure loves her. Of course everyone wants her, since she is so amazing and lovely and perfect. Bah.

We did have little snippets of other things, however. Aphrodite I actually grew to tolerate, since she is her own character and actually has her own personality and a backbone. The Twins became annoying after a while with the dialogue, and constantly talking together. Can't Shaunee or Erin say something without having the other butt in? Jesus.

The ceremonies got a little boring after a while. The scenes did not hold a magical feeling for me, just words that I had to read through to get closer to the end of the book. The one star I gave this waste of trees was for the murders going on, because that did spice things up a bit. Other than that, nothing eventful really happened. Eh.

Sweet Jesus, this was even worse than Marked. Well, serves me right for picking it up because it had a nice cover.

The writing style still seemed horrific to me. It still seems like the authors are trying too hard to sound young, modern, and teenager-like, and it just refuses to work out for them. In the end, it is a mess.

So, in this continuation of House of Night, we are reminded once again what a special brat Zoe Redbird is, and what a joy and blessing it is to have her. The book opens up with a parent visiting night, and her mother and stepfather actually show up, only to embarrass her. The stepfather insults Neferet, apparently, and they just storm out. Later, Zoe overhears Aphrodite's parents chewing her out for losing her powerful leadership spot and force her to try and get rid of Zoe. Now, I felt more sympathy towards Aphrodite than Zoe. Even as a bully, she is more likeable. At least she has a reason to be the way she is.

The whole novel is one huge soap opera where Zoe just cannot choose one guy and keeps flirting with three — Erik, the typically hot, dreamy teenager whom everyone loves; Heath, her former love interest whose blood she keeps wanting; and Loran, an almost-teacher and a vampyre at the school who she thinks is flirting with her. I cannot describe my frustration with the whole thing.

Interestingly enough, the novels still continue to do tons of slut-shaming, going as far as hinting that losing your virginity makes you one. Maybe I am reading too far into it, I am not certain. But I wonder what having three men going after her and her trying to go further with each of them makes her. Hm.

The climax was not even exciting. Actually, it bored me, and I kept counting the pages until the book ended. And the sad thing is, I am probably going to pick up Chosen anyways, because of my OCD-like obsession with finishing every single series I begin. Ah, well.

All right, now that this is out of my system.

We have our lovely protagonist, Zoey Redbird, get marked and she is now a vampyre-in-training. Yet she is blessed by the night Goddess, Nyx, and now she is different from everyone else. She is special. There are great things ahead of her, some of which may include a high position in the school, named The House of Night.

I always feel bad whenever my friends love a novel and I end up disliking it. So I seriously tried to enjoy this one. And yet, no such luck. I have a vague feeling that the Casts attempted too hard to sound like a teenager. The result is a main character that sounds really cliche at times, and whose opinions come off as just offensive. The People of Faith comments can be taken as an offense to Christianity. The eating disorder comment leads to believing that a young lady with a life-threatening eating disorder is a freak. Things like that.

I do like the new and quite refreshing plot of having vampyres a sort of mutation, where not everyone makes the Change and they need to go to a special school in order to survive. It is a very interesting concept, and I do wish that this series will get better just for that. I do not even mind the cliche romance stuck in the middle, just the concept itself is something I would continue reading for, and keep tolerating Zoe until she dies at some point. ( Or at least I am hoping. )

rating: ★★☆☆☆