House of Night

House of Night, PC and Kristin Cast, St. Martin’s Press
Ok, so it’s Young Adult week here at the Guilty Indulgence blog site, and I get to tell you about The House of Night series. This series is written by the wonderful mother/daughter duo of PC and Kristen Cast. I am very excited to blog about this series because I enjoy reading it very much, but I feel I must start with a warning:


DO NOT READ THESE BOOKS WHILE RUNNING ON THE TREADMILL!!!! (The tears can cause you to fall and injure yourself)


This series is centered around a teenage girl from Oklahoma named Zoey Redbird. She has been “marked” as a vampyre, and has to leave her family to attend a boarding school for other fledgling vampyres until they complete the “change”. The mythology for this series is a Matriarchal society and the Vampyres worship the Goddess Nyx. Vampyres are out in this world and in fact are some of the most talented and popular people in society, a lot of actors and poets and artists. There are also your hate groups in this series, you have your pure blood fanatics, of which Zoey’s step-father and mother are members, which causes Zoey to basically lose all touch with her family except her FABULOUS Grandmother who is Native American and has her own non-traditional beliefs.


Now of course Zoey can’t be your typical fledgling, because where would the fun be in that. No our Zoey has been touched by the Goddess herself, so her vampyre marking, the half moon crescent tattoo on her forehead, is filled in while all other fledglings are just an outline. So she is starting out in a new school and she is already different, which for those of us that remember high school is NOT the way you want to start out. The good news, she ends up with a great roommate, Stevie Ray, and some great new friends, the twins and Damien. The bad news, there is of course that one snotty girl in the school that tries to make Zoey’s life hell and oh yeah there is always the chance that she won’t survive the “change” and will die a horrible death.


In 7 books Zoey and her friends have battled a fallen angel who thinks he is a God, a teacher with delusions of granduer, killer ravenmockers, friends dying and then maybe not dying and trying to decide which boy is the cutest.(by the way, it is sooo Stark)


I love this series for the simple fact that it’s a great story. It’s well written and the characters are very well developed and it reads very “real” for a paranormal. There are several times in this series when I have to stop and remind myself that Zoey is just a teenager so when she does those incredibly stupid things, which she does, I need to give her a break. I also love the development of the secondary characters and the very witty banter between the friends. But be prepared because there will be moments in this series that will make you cry, but I think there are more that will make you laugh and remember high school and that age fondly….not enough to EVER make me want to go back and do it over again though!

I give The House of Night series 5 chocolate dipped strawberries!!! (and don’t forget the Noxzema to help with the breakouts that the chocolate causes.)