Perpetual Night-time: Marked

I just finished Marked this afternoon. I picked it up for summer reading because I've had a few students talk the book up and read every book in the series. It's co-written by P.C. Cast & Kristin Cast, a mother-daughter team. Some of the content struck me as quite interesting, particularly knowing the authors' relationship. The book finally began to win me over by about page 200 (out of 307 pages), and I could see how the book was easily part of a series- because of the slow buildup to the story itself.

The story begins with Zoey, an above average 16 year old. She's pretty (but she tries to pretend not to know it) and she's smart- so smart that she realizes her best friend, Kayla, and her ex-almost boyfriend, Heath, are even more moronic than they first appear. However, it takes her a week into the story to realize this, because all she needs is a little perspective, vampire perspective. The conflict is simply this: Zoey has just found out that she's 'marked' to become a vampire and she has now been rejected by her "People of Faith" loving friends and family- with the exception of her grandmother- who has strong Cherokee roots, religiously and biologically. Zoey runs away from her house to visit her grandmother and ends up at the House of Night after a vision-inducing fall (or because of one?). The House of Night is the vampire school that helps 'fledglings' adjust to the idea of 'vampyre' life.

The vampires (the Casts refer to them as vampyres) take classes in the middle of the night. The life seems like a night boarding school, except that magic and religion come into the school. The hocus-pocus is thick in the book and I couldn't help but read while imagining parents throwing fits about the blood drinking, religious circles, possible ghosts, and the rejection of the "opiate of the masses' (but, somehow thinking that the magic performed in the name of the Goddess Nyx doesn't fall under this category).

While at the House of Night, Zoey inevitably finds friends and finds that she is gifted. Of course there is a mean, popular girl who tries to make Zoey's life hell, but then Zoey shows this mean girl a thing or two.

I had a hard time buying into the book, but finally it took off around page 200 as Zoey begins to have contact with her love interest and she begins to use her abilities and "affinities" for improvement at the House of Night.

I appreciate the Casts' creative version of 'vampyres' and use of magic and Native American traditions, but it seemed that there was an overwhelming amount of text devoted to telling the potions and ceremonies rather than the story itself. However, once the story finally started to take off with Zoey and her friends, I began to like the story a bit, but I couldn't help but be reminded of Harry Potter. With this said, I think I'll stick with Harry Potter if I want magic and a creative storyline. But, knowing that the Casts' stories are still getting my students to love reading, I'd suggest reading the books for yourself, and rumor has it (on PC cast's blog- linked at the top of this blog entry) that the books may be made into movies.