Marked....and slowly changing! (Marked - Kristin Cast)

Member Name: kaitlinsmummy

Product:	Marked - Kristin Cast
Date:	22/08/09 (66 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: The start of a new vampire series.

Disadvantages: Not that suitable for younger readers.

When my husband treated me to a book that I have previously reviewed (The Host by Stephenie Meyer), it was a toss up between that book and the book I will now review.
Knowing my love of all things gothic and vampire related he was adamant that I would regret not getting this and the other two books that were available at the time and on offer........ok, I'm female, and when any when, especially my husband tells me I am wrong I go for my first instinct, which is usually the opposite to what he has suggested!

The book I will now review is - "Marked, by P.C and Kirsten Cast".

The basic premise of the story is thus -

Zoey is sixteen and the same as any other teenager, bored with her life! At the time the only thing that she has to worry about is her impending geometry test that she has not revised for.

Her life changes dramatically when she is marked to become a vampire! Long gone are the rumours that to become a vampire you have to be bitten, it is now known fact that to become a vampire your are sort out by a "marker" and thus given the mark of Nyx the head vampire goddess, this is usually a diamond shape of varying colours.

Being marked though also means that you now have to race to get to "house of night" which is a dedicated school for these marked people, get there or die...........

I have given a really basic premise for this story as there is so much happening at the beginning I couldn't write it all down without being accused of plot spoiling!

As this is the first in a series of house of night books this is a little slow starting as there is so much background that has to be covered concerning the characters and their backgrounds.

As mentioned Zoey is the main character but he is destined for much greater things, she comes from a once good home but after her mother re-marries she likens her mother as a zombie, not being able to think for herself but relying more on her domineering and bible bashing step father, this is also another hurdle, as out of the population of "humans" the "people of faith" organisation were the one's that publicly scorned the vampire race more than any other, unfortunately her step father is an elder of the group, this makes things at times a little uncomfortable to read.

There is also the sense of belonging that Zoey feels she lacks at home, so hopes that, even though this is not the situation she had hoped to be in, that she would finally find a place where she will belong amongst like minded and of course marked youngsters, of course even with vampires there is bound to be the occasional bitch present and this is no exception!

There are a few characters in this story, but all vital in my opinion, though there is never any sense of being over whelmed with information.

Alongside Zoey there are other "fledglings" boarding at the school, these all seem to be quite similar in character as her, social bereft, outsiders when in human form you might say, so it is heart warming to find these "people" banding together.

Stevie Rae - This is Zoey's roommate and eventually best friend and confident, she is very childlike in her actions but finds greatness when calling the elements in one of many rituals that vampires have to perform.

Shaunee and Erin - This is a harder coupling to explain away! Shaunee is black and Erin is white, but since starting the school at the same time they have discovered strange and inexplicable similarities between them, to the degree that they have started finishing each others sentences and now what each other are thinking and feeling, thus deciding to call the other "twin", you would have imagined that they were teased for this reason, but as they would beat you to a pulp lest look at you they get away with it!

Damian - He is what most would consider the token gay, but he is so much more than that. After finally "coming out" to his parents they start living in denial, so out of all the parents of the marked youngsters, Damien's parents are the only one's that are pleased with the situation, as they can now send him away without the fear of being "shown up!".

Erik - Is the school hottie! He was initially dating (and doing other stuff!) with the resident psycho bitch Aphrodite (and no these are not the characters real names, but there are allowed to changed them on entering the school, new life new name), but upon seeing Zoey, his head is immediately turned.
He is not my favourite character, as at present he seems a little insipid, I am hoping in further books his character develops a bit of edge!

Aphrodite - Now this is a character that you really love to hate! Alongside her new vampire status she has also developed powers that allows her to see future events, usually disasters yet to happen that will cause loss of life.
With this addition to her repertoire she is considered as the best choice to be trained up as a high priestess, this will eventually make her one of the most powerful people at the school, alongside this role she is the head of one of the many organisations within the school the "Dark daughters and sons", though she abuses her position only allowing her "clique" into the group, she is the most intimidated by Zoey and her extreme new powers.

I would just like to point out why I have yet to elaborate on Zoeys particular powers and mark as this is integral to the story and this really would be considered as a plot spoiler!

Neferet - This is the current high priestess and also Zoeys mentor upon entering the school, she is all powerful and very revered by staff and pupils alike, she is incredibly beautiful and starts off as a surrogate for Zoey's mother, but is she all she seems to be?

This is a fabulous book! There are many twists and turns to overcome, and even with all the spiritual talk and language I found myself drawn into the book completely. After the initial first chapter, this being while Zoey is still "human", which I found a little slow the book seemed to fly by for me.

Not only does it challenge popular conceptions of what we deem vampires to be, it also adds the angst of being a teenager into the mix, one of which you would think was troubling enough!

When first reading this book, I assumed that this was aimed at young teenagers, jumping on the bandwagon of such books as the twilight and night world series, I would like to state how wrong I was!
Whilst there are parts of the book that could be deemed readable for slightly older teens, there are also a good few part that are graphic in nature, there are a good few murders (not the ones you would expect!), and a few deaths of other varieties.
Also due to how blood drinking is described, there is quite a high sexually orientated content, ranging from the usual teenage heavy petting through to climax during drinking, good for me to read not what I would want the younger ones to be exposed to though!

Price wise these books retail around the £5.99 range, though at Waterstones there was a "buy 3 for the price of 2" offer on these.
There are five books in the series at the moment, though I do anticipate more to come, these all follow on and even though there is a small recap at the beginning of each book to catch up, it it easier to read them all in order.

For more information visit - www.houseofnightseries.co.uk

ISBN 978-1-905654-31-4

Thanks for reading x

Summary: See review.