Marked (House of Night, #1)

Marked by P.C. Cast, Kristen Cast
kindle book purchased from Amazon.com
Description from Goodreads:
The House of Night series is set in a world very much like our own, except in 16-year-old Zoey Redbird's world, vampyres have always existed. In this first book in the series, Zoey enters the House of Night, a school where, after having undergone the Change, she will train to become an adult vampire—that is, if she makes it through the Change. Not all of those who are chosen do. It's tough to begin a new life, away from her parents and friends, and on top of that, Zoey finds she is no average fledgling. She has been Marked as special by the vampyre Goddess, Nyx. But she is not the only fledgling at the House of Night with special powers. When she discovers that the leader of the Dark Daughters, the school's most elite club, is misusing her Goddess-given gifts, Zoey must look deep within herself for the courage to embrace her destiny—with a little help from her new vampyre friends.


My Take:
I know that this is a popular series and many people love it. I read it because I have tween daughters and I could see the title coming up in near future and I wanted to see if I would approve it for their reading. I thought the premise was promising and the covers are visually striking. I tried to give the book a fair chance and tried to be impartial when reading it. 

I really thought that there were too many agendas being worked in the first book.  I felt like the authors were trying too hard to cover all the bases. It felt like they worked off of a list of  issues they wanted to address, the character types they wanted to deal with and somewhere in the process, it all got turned into a formula.  I wanted to like Zoey, but I felt she was an inconsistent character. She is supposed to be the smart, level-headed girl but she had shallow friends and a stupid boyfriend before she was chosen -- and suddenly she is able to pick out the best of the kids at the new school to be her friends?  I don't really buy that. She is also very judgemental and hypocritical - there are several double standards in the story. I also was not impressed with the way sexual issues were handled in the book.

So, I won't be suggesting this series for my daughters - or any teen, really.  I think there are many better books available for teens and young adults.