Zoey Montgomery is standing by her locker at school, half-listening to her best friend babble at her and generally minding her own business when a vampyre* appears:
Then the vampyre spoke and his ceremonial words slicked across the space between us, dangerous and seductive, like blood mixed with melted chocolate**.
"Zoey Montgomery! Night has chosen thee; they death will be thy birth. Night calls to thee; hearken to Her sweet voice. Your destiny awaits you at the House of Night!"
When she wakes up from her faint (because obviously she faints), she has the outline of a blue crescent moon tattooed on her forehead. She now knows that she is a fledgling vampyre. And she knows she doesn't have long -- if she doesn't get to the House of Night ASAP, her body will Reject The Change and She Will Die.
So, she runs away from her horrible bigot of a stepfather and downtrodden mother, straight to her loving grandmother's house and then to the House of Night. Where there is danger and romance and magic and a very mean girl and lots of vampyre class.
Okay. I read Betrayed, the second book in the series last fall, but apparently I never wrote about it. I liked it well enough, and actually (to put it very bluntly), I liked it a whole lot more than I liked this one. Part of the problem, I think, is that everything in Marked was rehashed in Betrayed, so for me, Marked seemed extremely repetitive. So that was a Problem.
There are a lot of pop culture references thrown in there to (I would assume) hip-ify it, but some of them already seem dated and in some cases, feel extremely forced:
Aphrodite's laugh, followed by her perky, "Of course I'd be happy to show her around! You know I'm always glad to help you, Neferet," was as fake and cold as Pamela Anderson's humongously huge boobs, but Neferet just nodded in response and then turned to face me.
Also, Zoey's Cherokee heritage is mentioned on what felt like every third page, which got old. And she is, of course, one of those The One characters, so, you know, some people are jealous and she doesn't know why she's special or what she has to do or why and blah blah blah been there done that.
Oh, and come on. She has a bad home life, gets a special mark on her forehead and has to go to a special school? Yeesh. At least she gets a cat instead of an owl...
I did think there was decent foreshadowing about the events in Book Two, and there are a bazillion YAs out there who will not have the same issues with this book that I did. After all, you know, there are vampYres in it. So I'm sure it'll be popular with quite a lot of readers*** no matter what.
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*No, that's not a misspelling. That's how they spell it in this series. Yes, really.
**Um, EWWW. Is that supposed to be an attractive description? Because, just... ewww.
***As long as, like, they won't get freaked out by Zoey seeing Aphrodite trying to force oral sex on her ex-boyfriend in the middle of a school hallway (okay, in an alcove just off the hallway) on page fifty-something. Oh, and the f-bomb gets dropped a few times. And some people might not like the fact that the only Christian people in the book are super-horrible...
I read Marked but almost didn't finish it and I skimmed Betrayed. I couldn't stand the writing. It seemed to me they tried way too hard to make Zoe sound like a teenager but no teenager I know actually talks like that. And I have a problem with main characters that are so super duper special that no one in the world is like them and all the popular girls hate them while all the boys love them.
Have you read the Vampire Academy books by Richelle Mead? Currently their are two with number three out in October. A much better boarding school vampire series.
Posted by: Casey | 01 October 2008 at 10:39 AM
I knew I should have previewed before posting...there not their.
Posted by: Casey | 01 October 2008 at 10:40 AM
Um yeah I'll be skipping this one.
Posted by: sharonluvscats | 01 October 2008 at 10:59 AM
I'm reading the newest one now and it's more of the same. Rehashing the story every 50 pages or so, lots of "hip" language, and whatnot. One difference, there are actually some of the kinder persuasion of Christians. It's getting rather dull, but I have 32 pages left so it's FINALLY getting to the good part. I hope.
Posted by: Heather | 01 October 2008 at 01:05 PM
"Aphrodite's laugh, followed by her perky, "Of course I'd be happy to show her around! You know I'm always glad to help you, Neferet," was as fake and cold as Pamela Anderson's humongously huge boobs, but Neferet just nodded in response and then turned to face me."
So...Pam Anerdon's boobs are cold? Weird.
Posted by: annie | 01 October 2008 at 01:06 PM
Well, the moon tatoo sounds spiffy -- but that's about it.
blood and chocolate? Um, isn't that what you get if you bite your cheek while eating a Hershey bar?
FYI, Polidori, the dude who hung out with Mary Shelley when she originally thought up Frankenstein, wrote one of the oldest vampire stories, basing his vamp on Byron, if I remember correctly.
Anyway, his story is called "The Vampyre." So this author MIGHT be referring back to that tale.
However, there's a really good reason why Stoker's Dracula became famous and Vampyre didn't: The Vampyre is even less well written than the tidbits you've chosen to quote from this nasty piece of work.
Posted by: a Paperback Writer | 01 October 2008 at 09:04 PM
Oh, I know that 'vampyre' gets used with some regularity -- but it just added to the trying-way-too-hard-to-be-mysterious-and-romantic-and-hip vibe for me...
Anyway, there were things I enjoyed about the book (well, more the second one...) but they seem to be escaping me at the moment...
Posted by: Leila | 02 October 2008 at 08:43 AM
Ahhh! marked sounded so boring. I started with Betrayed --got it for three dollars at Edward Mcay :)
I don't like the repetitveness, its so annoying. Does Zoey even realize shes a whore?? She says all throughout the other books.. "god i'm such a ho" but its not like she ever really realizes it. She just keeps going. Will it ever end??? I do know people who talk like her. I'm vaugley annoyed by her saying "ah, hell." all the time. My god, can't she say anything else?? I still enjoy the series sadly. I do loath Zoey though, my favorite character is Aphrodite by far. She seems to be the only character who isn't one dimentional. Bah, I read Chosen and really hated it, everyone dies. wtf. Whats up with her not being upset over Loren...she lost her virginity to him and was imprinted...it looks like she'd give it at least a second thought even though he 'betrayed' her. Also, Eric wasn't even that big of a deal though she acts like it. He was less of a boyfriend than Heath and Loren. Annoying. Repetitive. But I CANT STOP READING. haha.
Posted by: Gwen | 17 January 2009 at 11:20 PM
i actually realy like the books i read marked and couldnt put it down and then i had to read the other books but everyone has their opinions so i think we should be aloud to say what we think and some of you are right the book can be anoying at times, but then agen it can be good.
Posted by: kerry | 02 April 2009 at 09:03 AM
I also can't stop reading it, those books are so addtictive,but some of them are really boring, escpecially 'untamed'.
I don't like Zoey, because she does such stupid things sometimes. Also it is annoying that she has millions of boyfriends :S
Posted by: Miranda | 03 December 2009 at 03:03 AM