Review of the young adult fantasy book series "The House Of Night" by P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast

The series is about teenagers getting marked to become vampires. What that means is that this person called a Tracker goes out and marks them. The trackers are full fledged vampires. When the teen gets marked they get a tattoo of an outline of a crescent moon in the middle of their forehead, it just appears. Kids that get marked are called Fledglings. Once they are marked they get sent to one of the many schools called the House of Night. There are schools all over the world. It is a school where the fledglings go for four years where they learn all about being a vampire. Once they go through the change to become a full vampire the crescent moon becomes filled in and they get more tattoos on their face.

This series follows the adventures of Zoey Redbird and her group of friends. They are all gifted by the Goddess Nyx. Nyx is a Goddess that all vampires worship. There is a lot of love, action, and drama packed into each book of the twelve book series.

The vampires in this series are a lot different than they are in all other vampire stories. Some of the things that are the same are that they are very beautiful, strong, fast, and have heightened senses. In this story the vampires and fledglings can go out in the sun, but it is uncomfortable. That is why classes at the house of night are held at night. Fledglings live on campus and sleep during daylight hours. They have to live on campus because if they are away from full vampires for too long they will die. Another thing that is different is the tattoos on their faces. All fledglings have outlines of a crescent moon on their foreheads and once they change into full vampires the moon gets filled in and more designs are added around their faces.

They do drink human blood once they get closer to the change but they don't hurt and/or kill humans to get it. Drinking blood is pleasurable for the vampire or fledgling and the human. The experience is very sexual and sometimes it can create a bond between human and vampire which is called imprinting. When this happens they can feel each others emotions and are very drawn to one another.If the imprint is broken because of death or other reasons it causes major agony for everyone involved.

The vampire community worship the Goddess Nyx. In order to communicate with the Goddess, the vampires cast a magic circle. They also cast the circle when they need to harness the power of the five elements: Air, Fire, Water, Earth, and Spirit. Nyx gives the vampires free will and often gifts them with special abilities or affinities for one of the five elements.

ZOEY REDBIRD

Zoey is the main character of the series. She is a very special fledgling. She is the first ever fledgling to have a filled in crescent moon tattoo. She is also the only known fledgling to be gifted with the affinity for all five of the elements. At the end of the first book Marked she gets extra tattoos added to the crescent moon on her face, that go down her neck and shoulders. No other fledgling or vampire has ever had tattoos anywhere else but on their face. At the end of the second book Betrayed she gets even more tattoos added down her spinal cord and back. In the third book Chosen she gets another tattoo, this time around her waist. She gets even more tattoos in the fourth book Untamed on the palm of her hands. Hunted which is the fifth book in the series, she gets another tattoo this time across her chest. To learn if she gets more tattoos read the rest of the series. I don't won't to spoil everything.

STEVIE RAE JOHNSON

Stevie Rae is Zoey's roommate at the house of night. They become best friends right away. She introduces Zoey to the rest of her friends in the first book. Stevie Rae has a normal mark on her forehead. She is curly hair blonde country girl. She loves wearing roper jeans and cowboy boots. She is an Oklahoma native who loves her mama. She ends up having an affinity for the element Earth. She is very sweet and energetic.

DAMIEN MASLIN

Damien is a fun-loving gay fledgling. He is very good in school and a very handsome guy. He is exemplary at vocabulary. He loves going to class and learning everyday. He is gifted with the affinity for the element Air.

THE TWINS

ERIN BATES

Erin is a blonde headed white girl that loves fashion. She loves to go shopping and buying expensive clothing and shoes. She is also very into boys. She is best friends with Shaunee Cole. She is considered her twin because they got marked on the same day, arrived at the same house of night on the same day, and have been room mates ever since. They are not actual twins but they complete each others sentences and love the same things. Erin is gifted with the element Water.

SHAUNEE COLE

Shaunee is a sweet black girl. She loves fashion and shoes just like Erin. Even though they do not look anything alike, everyone calls them twins. Shaunee has rich parents so her and Erin go shopping quit a lot. Shaunee is gifted with an affinity for the element Fire.

APHRODITE LAFONT

Aphrodite is a very popular girl at the house of night. Her dad is the Mayor of Tulsa, OK. She is the leader of the Dark Daughters which is an organization at the house of night. Zoey and Aphrodite are frenemies but later in the series things change between them. Aphrodite is gifted with having prophetic visions. Which means that she has visions of stuff that is about to happen. Sometimes they can stop it before it does happen. She calls Zoey group of friends the nerd herd and they call her a hag from hell. She later becomes the Prophetess of Nyx.

NEFERET

Neferet is the high priestess of the Tulsa House of Night and Zoey's mentor. She is gifted with special healing powers and great intuition. She can hear what all humans, fledglings. and vampires are thinking, with the exception of Zoey and Aphrodite. She is a very beautiful vampire and everyone thinks she is amazing. Zoey and her friends later find out that Neferet has a lot of secrets.

Later on more main characters come into the story. To find out the rest of the characters read this amazing series and fall in love with them just like I did.

THE NOVELLAS

• DRAGON'S OATH
• LENOBIA'S VOW
• NEFERET'S CURSE
• KALONA'S FALL

The four Novels that go along with the series are about different vampires at the house of night. Dragon is the sword master at the school. He teaches the student how to sword fight. Lenobia is the horse mistress at the school. She teaches the students about horses. Neferet, like I have already said, is the high priestess at the Tulsa house of night. Kalona is a fallen warrior of Nyx. He has big black wings and has many sons, that are called raven mockers. They are half human half raven.

I personally love The House of Night series. Once I started reading the first book, I couldn't put it down. I fell in love with most of the characters and began to hate others. when I read these books I feel like I am actually in Zoey Redbird's world. If you like Harry Potter and Twilight, I am pretty sure you will like this series as well. It isn't exactly like either of those two series but there are some similarities. If you like supernatural/ fantasy books and vampires, then this is the series for you. So much action, love and drama is packed into each book. Another bonus, is that the outside of the books have beautiful designs all over it. The hardback books even come with a poster as the outside cover. You can decide to keep it on the book or hang it up if you choose. I suggest that you go and buy this series or borrow from a friend. The story is defiantly worth cost of the books and you can buy them pretty much anywhere.

The series has received many rewards over the years.

Awards:

• Romantic Times Reviewers' Choice Award for Marked
• Romantic Times Reviewers' Choice Award for Tempted
• Goodreads Choice Award for Burned
  
• In 2010 the series received a nomination for Teen Read Award for Best series.
• Tempted, USA Today bestseller list at #1. Burned, USA Today bestseller list at #1. Awakened, also entered the list at #1.