House of Night Book One
Cast, P. C., and Kristin Cast. Marked. St. Martins Paperbacks, 2013.
Personal Response:
I chose this book from my bookshelf a few weeks ago, I took it with me when I went to Old Vineyard for my stabilization week. I chose it because the story was familiar to me, I have read the whole series more than once. P.C. Cast is one of my favorite contemporary fantasy authors, she writes stories about Goddess, magic, and strong women. This series is written in conjunction with her oldest daughter, Kristen, and forges into the ever popular world of vampire fantasy. The story, I think, is unique among its kind because the Vampyres in this world follow a pagan goddess named Nyx, and it is established early on that the vampyres are merely an evolutionary branch of humanity, not the undead. The story is rooted in Tulsa OK, and has strong threads of the Cherokee history of that area weaving through it. I felt that it brought a nice diversity to my choices of strong female protagonists to have a Native American teen in the mix. Unlike other books I have reviewed this one’s magic is rooted in the elements with very pagan roots, Its a great mixture of my own pagan beliefs combined with the nature oriented Cherokee heritage.
Summary:
Our story begins in a typical small town high school, our main character Zoey is well established as a normal 16 year old girl worried about her geometry test and her football playing boyfriend who has begun a nasty habit of drinking beer after school, something she does not agree with. As she and her best friend approach her locker after school she sees a Tracker Vampyre (hereafter:vamp) waiting for her. He touches her forehead and pronounces that Night and Nyx have claimed her with a very formal monologue-y statement about destiny and then she passes out. When she comes to her BF is freaked out and won’t come near her after seeing the crescent moon outline Mark on Zoey’s forehead. Though vamps are everywhere in society there is still mystery and stigma surrounding them. Zoey will have none of her nonsense and does her best to stay calm. After an unpleasant encounter in the parking lot with her boyfriend and some of his teammates Zoey makes her way home. At home she ends up having another unpleasant confrontation with her mom and her very very religious step-father (People of Faith=religious zealots) and sneaks out to her grandmother’s lavender farm. By this time Zoey is getting sick, if she doesn’t go to the House of Night school where all the other adult vamps and fledglings are she will die as her boy rejects the Change. While searching for her grandmother on the farm Zoey passes out again and is sucked into a vision of the goddess Nyx who tells her that the Night is her destiny and that Nyx has chosen her to do great things. When she awakens she is in the House of Night. We meet Neferet, the head of the school and Zoey’s new mentor, Zoey is encouraged to see her Change as a rebirth and she officially adopts her grandmother’s Cherokee family name Redbird. The rest of the story establishes the routine of the school, the cast of teenage intrigue and drama, complete with love interest Erik Night, and mean girl Aphrodite. Zoey discovers during her first Full-Moon ritual that she has an affinity for all five elements (air,fire,water,earth, and spirit), something unheard of for a full priestess, much less an un-Changed fledgling. Also Zoey’s Mark, unlike those of other fledglings, is filled in solid. The first book in the series ends with Zoey creating her own circle of power to save a human with her new best friend’s, all of which have been gifted with an affinity for a different element. Zoey’s Mark expands into a tracery of lace around her eyes and down her shoulders and back, also completely unheard of even in full grown and powerful vamps. The book closes with Zoey being placed in charge of the Daughters of Night, a sorority like group that run their own rituals to worship Nyx and who also are seen as peer leaders on campus, displacing mean girl Aphrodite from that position. We are left as readers with the sense that there is much more to come in the following books.
Theory:
I would encourage my students to read these books, they stand apart from the vampire craze of the early 2010s with their P.O.C. protagonist and their knowledge and inclusion of Cherokee knowledge. I also like the way the matriarchal vamp society is structured, as a direct contrast to patriarchal human society and faiths. The character development is strong, well-rounded, and Zoey is a great role model. Though there is a romance aspect to it, it is very age appropriate and is not the center driving force of the pot or the character’s personality.
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