Marked

"The First One Pretty Good The Rest Of The Series..."

"I just love vampires. This book was good, in a way. I really enjoyed the "new" take on vampires and stuff. The only thing that is kind of hard to imagine, for me at least, is the markings they have on their foreheads, it's just a little too weird for me. I thought this was a YA story and don't get me wrong it is but there's a certain scene that happens early on and I got to say that wasn't very YA, especially when they kept referring back to it. I could definitely tell this was story written in the early 2000s so some of it was kind of cringe worthy but it's still good. Side note here: I also somehow became delusional towards the very end of this book because I thought a characters name(Erik) was spelled Eryk, I went all they way back to the beginning and scrolled through the book to find that spelling and I couldn't. I was completely shocked and a little terrified of my brain conjuring up that misspelled name. I now wonder what other names or things I've been misspelling without noticing. Anyways, this was good, I'm going to read book 2 soon!"

"I liked the series at first, but after awhile I could not continue reading it. There are just way too many books in this series. Just got tired of reading it after awhile"

"This is a vampire series that isn't really about vampires. There's no traditional vampire lore or a lot of talk about sucking blood. There's way more this series brings: elemental magic, Native American infusion, friendship, romance, mystery, and more. Those who are Marked with a blue tattoo could die in the process of being turned. Zoey is unusual. Everyone has an elemental affinity but she has one for all five and her tattoo appears as that of a full fledged vampire. "

"Right after my “Hush Hush” by Becca Fitzpatrick book-obsessed era came this. (2016ish) I totally fell in love with the world inside this series as well as all of the amazing characters. Leaves you wanting more and more and more and then GIVES ! Spicy ! Pain ! "

"I’m liking this series and wishing it was a show!"

"Could really do without n9t only the racism, but the sexism and **** shaming. If you can get pasts that it's a good story. "

"One of my favorite series! Started it when the first book came out and just read it all over again beginning to end! Has another series that links to it as well"

"I wish I could justify giving this book anything higher than maybe 2 stars max. But the fact of the matter is that when I read this book as a high school sophomore, I finished the entire thing in a day. And the second book the next day. It's just one of those things where you don't realize what you're reading when you're younger, and when you've grown and matured and curated your common sense, you come back to books like this and have to do a double-take: "I liked this when I was a kid?"<br/><br/>When I read Marked as a teen going through The ****, I ate it up. Like for-reals, devoured this book. It follows the story of Zoey Montgomery, typical teen extraordinaire. During school, she's approached by a "Vampyre Tracker," (note the edgy Vampyre with a 'y' spelling) who is there to tell her she's to abandon her life as a human and start anew as a Vampyre at the House of Night. He Marks her, she passes out, she wakes up a Fledgling, and from then on, it's Mary Sue City.<br/><br/>Over the course of her first year at the House of Night, Zoey Redbird (as she has thus named herself), has proven time and time again just how... Awful? Mean? Judgmental? she could be. Somehow the authors thought that straight talking **** relates to the teenage experience. Just something to point out: ****-shaming, being abominably stereotypical describing literally anyone including feminine gay guys, people of color (yes, even in a "positive" way), etc. are not things that people just naturally say or think. Stereotypes and being horribly judgmental over people that play video games or look/dress differently than you or even just ARE different from you, is **** that's learned behavior. And all the little quips and anecdotes where Zoey has to constantly try to put in her 2 cents when the damn bank is closed is definitely **** we don't want readers to think is okay.<br/><br/>In addition to her shallow attitude to damn near anyone who appears in the book, the authors really drive that Mary Sue **** home with poorly-established characterization highlighting her prejudice against people who aren't like her or her friends. She's straight up a hypocrite whose actions and judmental thinking are only enabled by the people she spends time around. <br/><br/>I guess I liked this book series a lot as a kid 'cuz I liked the concept of vampire school, how even with craptastic religious parents, the main character got to escape to a place that she not only has some "good" friends, but discovers **** about herself that she wouldn't have been able to had she stayed home. I was really into that "run away from home and find yourself" deal, but to be honest, it could have been so much better had the authors (and it's really sad to say considering that there were two of them) just written the damn book better.<br/><br/>If we're supposed to be rooting for her as the main character, the authors have done a pretty bad job in convincing us that we should. Instead of giving us growth, they've "special-fied" Zoey and have had a slew of characters comment on how she is unique or special, from a Goddess to the Hottest Guy in School, to the other Hot Guy, to her crew of Best Friends she's only known for a day or two. If I read "You are special, Zoey Redbird," one more time by anyone including Zoey herself, I might just reject the Change myself so that I don't have to deal with that again.<br/><br/>Do you know how many times I came across Zoey's very formulaic "I'm trying to relate to teens and their fashion sense" sentence structure? You know, where she says stuff like, "I tried to [insert random trivial action here] by looking at my [COOL NEW PRODUCT PLACEMENT]." More than once. And that's more than I would have wanted to see. Seriously, from sunglasses, to her dress, to other random stuff she wore or noticed on others, she describes it as a "cool, new whateverthefuck." I don't care if she's 16, lots of 16-year-olds have a broader vocabulary than that, especially when it comes to describing **** they like. <br/><br/>Partially related, when it comes to **** teens don't like, do the authors realize that teenagers are a little bit more complex than the general public may believe? Or is it that Zoey's friends and other classmates are one-dimensional stereotypes that only exist to validate all the hateful opinions Zoey spouts? They've been in this "world" longer than Zoey has, but everyone who goes to school at the House of Night just can't form their own opinion to save their life? It's all, "Everything you say is right, Zo, even if my education here is much more established than yours is and I'm only agreeing with everything you say because you're the shiny new girl with unimaginable specialness powers!"<br/>Like can you imagine what would have happened if ANYONE she knew woulda just been like, "Zoey, I don't think so..." or "Well, actually, it's like this..." or even "Dude, stop." Whole House of Night woulda been turned upside down and we might have gotten more than 1 instance of character growth that wasn't Aprhodite.<br/><br/>This has become less of a review and more of a rant, dude, let me stop. Anyways, 3 stars max for the nostalgia factor and interesting worldbuilding, minus stars for poor characterization, poor "representation" of diversity, poor use of a main character that doesn't grasp anything outside of "uniquely special-ing down the hall in front of the hottest boy in school who also saw that I was special, because why? The Goddess of our entire religion said so--As well as me, and everyone else, while they watched me wave my specialness around.""

"This book was written in the late aughts so it really shows how the time was. I think the story was good. Could do without the token gay boy in the friend group. It was kind of weird. But the story at the same time had pacing issues because it takes forever to pick up!!! And when it does it really takes off. I liked the story it was really cute "