hayli's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Content Warnings
Minor: Blood, Chronic illness, Terminal illness, Death, Murder, Violence, Vomit, Sexual assault, Cursing, and Injury/Injury detail
kspag206's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
This was a series I read in middle school (back in 2011ish) and decided to reread as adult to see if it still held up to my 12 year old expectations of what a fantastic book was. Unfortunately, it did not, at least not fully.
First, the writing style felt inconsistent. I’m not sure if this was due to the two authors or not, but the first 5 chapters were not well written at all. The middle was more captivating.
Second, for a book written in 2007, I have to say the cast of characters is fairly diverse. However it shows that it was written in 2007, and that two white women were very clearly playing on stereotypes of Native American culture, black culture, and gay culture. That being said, to have the cultures represented at all, in positive ways, as lovable characters, is still better than not.
Third, the pace of the story and the character’s moral development and acceptance of her fate/the development of an intense love interest was just felt immature. The whole first book takes place in the course of a week. Without giving away spoilers, there’s so much that happens, it just seems too rushed.
That being said, I loved the friend group, I loved many of the characters, I loved the aspect of fantasy in which normal life is just slightly altered, and I appreciated the different perspective on vampire stories. Worth a read, but also definitely NOT a YA book if you’re under the age of 16
First, the writing style felt inconsistent. I’m not sure if this was due to the two authors or not, but the first 5 chapters were not well written at all. The middle was more captivating.
Second, for a book written in 2007, I have to say the cast of characters is fairly diverse. However it shows that it was written in 2007, and that two white women were very clearly playing on stereotypes of Native American culture, black culture, and gay culture. That being said, to have the cultures represented at all, in positive ways, as lovable characters, is still better than not.
Third, the pace of the story and the character’s moral development and acceptance of her fate/the development of an intense love interest was just felt immature. The whole first book takes place in the course of a week. Without giving away spoilers, there’s so much that happens, it just seems too rushed.
That being said, I loved the friend group, I loved many of the characters, I loved the aspect of fantasy in which normal life is just slightly altered, and I appreciated the different perspective on vampire stories. Worth a read, but also definitely NOT a YA book if you’re under the age of 16
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault, Death, and Vomit
anilein's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Blood, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Terminal illness, Violence, Sexual harassment, Murder, and Death
Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Death of parent, Vomit, Sexual violence, Cannibalism, Child abuse, and Violence
flyintothestorm's review against another edition
lighthearted
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
No recordaba este libro tan desastre absoluto. Vine por el mamarracheo, pero me quedé por cabezonería: no se puede aguantar a Zoey.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Child abuse, Gore, Sexual assault, Terminal illness, and Religious bigotry
Moderate: Vomit
Minor: Homophobia
msradiosilence's review against another edition
I’m 95 pages in, and the last book I DNF’d was Allegiant 9 years ago, but I fucking CANNOT with this book.
First of all, way to whitewash your main “native” character. Very SMeyer of you. How is it that the other POC character (Shaunee, a black woman) is allowed to have ‘mocha’/‘chocolate’ skin but Zoey goes from ‘tanned’ to ‘pale white’ hm? Sounds very…cultural appropriative, no?
For a book that has a gay character and a black character in the main cast, this book was *checks notes* fatphobic, transphobic, racist, and slut shame-y all in the first 8 pages! And it only gets worse!! This is why I fucking DNFed, because there is much better shit out there.
The writing was annoying as fuck, Zoey was super judgmental and annoying as fuck, all the other characters were shallow and annoying as fuck…did I mention how annoyed I was with this book?
I read it back in middle school (and bc of the blow job scene in the beginning was subsequently banned from reading it) but as an adult I’ve been going through a nostalgia period and this was one of the books I wanted to revisit. Honestly, thanks Mom and Dad for sparing me from the rest of this series.
First of all, way to whitewash your main “native” character. Very SMeyer of you. How is it that the other POC character (Shaunee, a black woman) is allowed to have ‘mocha’/‘chocolate’ skin but Zoey goes from ‘tanned’ to ‘pale white’ hm? Sounds very…cultural appropriative, no?
For a book that has a gay character and a black character in the main cast, this book was *checks notes* fatphobic, transphobic, racist, and slut shame-y all in the first 8 pages! And it only gets worse!! This is why I fucking DNFed, because there is much better shit out there.
The writing was annoying as fuck, Zoey was super judgmental and annoying as fuck, all the other characters were shallow and annoying as fuck…did I mention how annoyed I was with this book?
I read it back in middle school (and bc of the blow job scene in the beginning was subsequently banned from reading it) but as an adult I’ve been going through a nostalgia period and this was one of the books I wanted to revisit. Honestly, thanks Mom and Dad for sparing me from the rest of this series.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Misogyny, Toxic friendship, Ableism, Blood, Classism, Cursing, Excrement, Lesbophobia, Mental illness, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Violence, Vomit, Body shaming, Bullying, Death, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Transphobia, Alcohol, and Sexual assault
eleanorryd's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
1.0
I read these books when I was 12-13? Ish? With my friends and while I didn't love the books as much as my friends did, I thought they were okay. Now, at 21, I definitely don't think they're okay. Zoey is the meanest most unsympathetic and unlikeable main character I have ever read and I absolutely hate that everyone thinks she's the ultimate good guy. She is the chosen, the saviour, the love interest, on top of all of the qualities that are almost given for a YA heroine (humble, pretty, smart, funny, sarcastic). Except, she's not. Her ego is so fucking massive and yet she looks down on other people (mainly Aphrodite) for also having an ego?
There are a bunch of problematic terms just casually thrown in there for no good reason ('retard' is used several time, she uses 'midget' about corn, so I don't know if that counts but it definitely made me cringe), the only lgbtqia+ character is described by his friends as the 'token guy friend of the group' but, eh, yeah, no. The only black character of the main cast is described as looking like an 'African princess' until we learn her name (and that she's not African at all, she's from Connecticut with Jamaican heritage?). The main character's grandma is Cherokee and 'her people' are described as 'barbaric'. I mean, I'm white as they come, but if even I react then that feels like a sign they should have hired (some more) sensitivity readers.
The plot was not good, much like the writing, but that's really all I have to say about that.
Zoey is so mean and judgemental and rather than being 'wise beyond her years' she just acts like everyone's mum Karen and judges all the 'kids today' for being just that - kids. It's so horrible to read and I can't believe I didn't notice it when I was younger - which is exactly the problem! A book aimed at young kids (girls, most likely) tells them that if you're mean to everyone, and I mean EVERYONE (who isn't, like, super-attractive), you're still the good guy. That whole message is huuuugely problematic and absolutely disgusting.
Here is an incomplete list of people Zoey thinks she's better than:
1. Fat people
2. People who condone drinking
3. Her step-dad
4. Her sister
5. Dorks
6. Emos
7. Goths
8. Vampyres
9. Kathy Richter, 'the biggest ho in school'
10. Aphrodite
11. Her mum
12. Enyo, Deino, and whatever the third girl was called (the Wasp)
13. Elliott
14. All of the Dark Sons and Daughters
15. Stevie Rae (geez just let the girl enjoy her cowboy boots)
16. Heath
17. Kayla
18. Aphrodite again
There are a bunch of problematic terms just casually thrown in there for no good reason ('retard' is used several time, she uses 'midget' about corn, so I don't know if that counts but it definitely made me cringe), the only lgbtqia+ character is described by his friends as the 'token guy friend of the group' but, eh, yeah, no. The only black character of the main cast is described as looking like an 'African princess' until we learn her name (and that she's not African at all, she's from Connecticut with Jamaican heritage?). The main character's grandma is Cherokee and 'her people' are described as 'barbaric'. I mean, I'm white as they come, but if even I react then that feels like a sign they should have hired (some more) sensitivity readers.
The plot was not good, much like the writing, but that's really all I have to say about that.
Spoiler
When tension actually starting building up and the story got closer to its climax, I was actually getting invested and thinking "wow this could actually be something? The stakes seem pretty high right now" but no. They pull the most cliché deus ex machina and all of Zoey's friends show up so she can save the day and look like the hero. After spending half the book talking about how she wanted to 'bring [Aphrodite] down', she then tells Aphrodite that she 'never wanted to win anything'?? That is simply not true. And then Zoey says that they don't have to 'continue playing their roles' and, again, 100 pages ago or something you called her a 'ho' for being comfortable in herself and her sexuality?Spoiler
Zoey is so mean and judgemental and rather than being 'wise beyond her years' she just acts like everyone's mum Karen and judges all the 'kids today' for being just that - kids. It's so horrible to read and I can't believe I didn't notice it when I was younger - which is exactly the problem! A book aimed at young kids (girls, most likely) tells them that if you're mean to everyone, and I mean EVERYONE (who isn't, like, super-attractive), you're still the good guy. That whole message is huuuugely problematic and absolutely disgusting.
Here is an incomplete list of people Zoey thinks she's better than:
1. Fat people
2. People who condone drinking
3. Her step-dad
4. Her sister
5. Dorks
6. Emos
7. Goths
8. Vampyres
9. Kathy Richter, 'the biggest ho in school'
10. Aphrodite
11. Her mum
12. Enyo, Deino, and whatever the third girl was called (the Wasp)
13. Elliott
14. All of the Dark Sons and Daughters
15. Stevie Rae (geez just let the girl enjoy her cowboy boots)
16. Heath
17. Kayla
18. Aphrodite again
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood
Moderate: Vomit, Sexual content, Death, and Child death
Minor: Ableism, Fatphobia, and Xenophobia
rachaelarsenault's review against another edition
slow-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
0.25
I read this book a while back but never got around to adding a review. I figure it's better late than never. "Marked" is one of those frustrating books where I see promise in the premise but the execution is absolutely abysmal.
What I wanted: A book about a teen girl pulled between two lives - her old life as a human and her new life as a fledgling - who is gifted with great powers and a mysterious burden by a goddess, who struggles to fit in and fights for the underdog, whose friends are diverse and quirky.
What I got: A spoiled, elitist brat who insults anyone who doesn't fit her definition of cool or attractive, who praises herself for being open-minded while simultaneously being deeply prejudiced, who constantly looks down on others, and who settles into a position of power and importance with little effort or difficulty.
Zoey is insufferable. She claims to be a nerd and laments not fitting in, but attracts attention of the hottest guys in school as a human and a fledgling, instantly has a faithful entourage of friends, and really only gets flak from a small section of the school populace. Given that the people who give her a hard time are the designated Mean Girls of the story, that's hardly remarkable: They're mean to everyone. Moreover, Zoey doesn't seem to like anyone. She insults chess players, redheads, people with eating disorders, gay men (we'll get to that), black people (we'll also get to this), people struggling in school, poor people, etc. ad nauseum. Honestly, belittling other people is her defining character trait.
While Zoey does have a token gay friend, that doesn't excuse her from bigotry. She praises Damien by saying he "isn't a swishy girly-guy". In other words, he's not "too gay". She and her friends also make a point to emphasize that Damien's sexuality means he isn't really a guy, which is an incredibly offensive notion. Zoey also has a token black friend named Shaunee, but that doesn't stop her from having narrow-minded views of black people. For example, when meeting another black girl, Zoey is quick to dismiss the girl's long hair as being a weave, playing into a racist notion that black people can't possibly have naturally long hair. There's also the fact that Damien and Shaunee's characters are almost entirely defined by their tokenism: Damien is sassy, sensitive, and artistic; Shaunee is angry, sassy, and sensual.
Zoey is also horrible toward other girls, which is truly distressing in a story aimed at young teens and praised as progressive and empowering for said audience. At every turn, Zoey is hating on other women for any variety of reasons: They flirt with a boy she likes, they flirt with a boy she used to like but is dead-set against actually dating, they flirt with their own boyfriend, they wear clothing she doesn't like, they engage in sexual acts she doesn't like - in fact, a lot of Zoey's hatred toward other girls revolves around slut shaming. The antagonist of this book, Aphrodite, is hated on primarily because she is sexually confident and expressive. Her actual villainy is mostly dismissed - even though it includes refusing to report psychic visions that could save dozens of lives. Moreover, the way Zoey attacks her for her sexuality is nonsensical. An example of this is found early on in the book when Zoey stumbles across Aphrodite giving a blowjob to her boyfriend. The fact that the blowjob was against the boy's will and performed in the middle of a hallway is barely given a second thought; instead, what matters is that she was giving a blowjob. Apparently, only hateful, brain-dead sluts give blowjobs. For a series that's all about girl power, this is a deeply troubling view to espouse.
This isn't even touching on the writing, which is incredibly poor. There are numerous asides that interrupt the narrative, often killing the tension and serving no real purpose. The writing frequently shows instead of telling. Plus, Zoey can't maintain a consistent narrative voice. Sometimes she sounds like she's twelve, using words like "gihugic", "poopie", and giggling when she comments on "boobies" or calls something "gay". But then she'll suddenly start narrating poetically, describing moonlight as "spilled mercury" or saying that "raw fear engulfed [her] like a bitter wind." It makes it difficult to stay immersed in the story or get a clear idea of what Zoey's personality and maturity is actually supposed to be.
Even from a less technical standpoint, the narrative is pretty awful. The pacing is terrible - for example, at the beginning of the story Zoey needs to get to the House of Night so she can be around adult vampyres and avoid dying from Rejecting the Change. That sounds like it should be urgent, but the first four chapters are basically her going from one drawn out argument to the next. When characters stand around talking about how important and urgent something is for five pages instead of actually doing anything, it feels like maybe the stakes aren't so high. And it never gets better: A third of the book is spent following Zoey around for her first day of classes. A few important things happen, but not enough to warrant consuming so much time in the narrative. It isn't until page 160 that we have any sense of what the actual goal or conflict is in this book - and then, when we get to the climax, a completely out-of-nowhere antagonist appears and is almost immediately dismissed without any real struggle on the part of the protagonists.
The world-building is shoddy, too. It's essentially a patchwork of randomly capitalized words to signal they're important, dismissing actual folkloric ideas about vampirism, and picking random celebrities or historical figures and going, "Hey, this person is actually a vampyre!" Then throw in a matriarchal power structure that is still somehow deeply misogynistic and call it a day. If you take more than a few seconds to question how things work, the whole world starts to fall apart pretty quickly.
Overall, this is a terribly written, deeply offensive, and incredibly disappointing book. I've continued reading the series out of a purely academic interest - there is no true enjoyment to be gained from it.
What I wanted: A book about a teen girl pulled between two lives - her old life as a human and her new life as a fledgling - who is gifted with great powers and a mysterious burden by a goddess, who struggles to fit in and fights for the underdog, whose friends are diverse and quirky.
What I got: A spoiled, elitist brat who insults anyone who doesn't fit her definition of cool or attractive, who praises herself for being open-minded while simultaneously being deeply prejudiced, who constantly looks down on others, and who settles into a position of power and importance with little effort or difficulty.
Zoey is insufferable. She claims to be a nerd and laments not fitting in, but attracts attention of the hottest guys in school as a human and a fledgling, instantly has a faithful entourage of friends, and really only gets flak from a small section of the school populace. Given that the people who give her a hard time are the designated Mean Girls of the story, that's hardly remarkable: They're mean to everyone. Moreover, Zoey doesn't seem to like anyone. She insults chess players, redheads, people with eating disorders, gay men (we'll get to that), black people (we'll also get to this), people struggling in school, poor people, etc. ad nauseum. Honestly, belittling other people is her defining character trait.
While Zoey does have a token gay friend, that doesn't excuse her from bigotry. She praises Damien by saying he "isn't a swishy girly-guy". In other words, he's not "too gay". She and her friends also make a point to emphasize that Damien's sexuality means he isn't really a guy, which is an incredibly offensive notion. Zoey also has a token black friend named Shaunee, but that doesn't stop her from having narrow-minded views of black people. For example, when meeting another black girl, Zoey is quick to dismiss the girl's long hair as being a weave, playing into a racist notion that black people can't possibly have naturally long hair. There's also the fact that Damien and Shaunee's characters are almost entirely defined by their tokenism: Damien is sassy, sensitive, and artistic; Shaunee is angry, sassy, and sensual.
Zoey is also horrible toward other girls, which is truly distressing in a story aimed at young teens and praised as progressive and empowering for said audience. At every turn, Zoey is hating on other women for any variety of reasons: They flirt with a boy she likes, they flirt with a boy she used to like but is dead-set against actually dating, they flirt with their own boyfriend, they wear clothing she doesn't like, they engage in sexual acts she doesn't like - in fact, a lot of Zoey's hatred toward other girls revolves around slut shaming. The antagonist of this book, Aphrodite, is hated on primarily because she is sexually confident and expressive. Her actual villainy is mostly dismissed - even though it includes refusing to report psychic visions that could save dozens of lives. Moreover, the way Zoey attacks her for her sexuality is nonsensical. An example of this is found early on in the book when Zoey stumbles across Aphrodite giving a blowjob to her boyfriend. The fact that the blowjob was against the boy's will and performed in the middle of a hallway is barely given a second thought; instead, what matters is that she was giving a blowjob. Apparently, only hateful, brain-dead sluts give blowjobs. For a series that's all about girl power, this is a deeply troubling view to espouse.
This isn't even touching on the writing, which is incredibly poor. There are numerous asides that interrupt the narrative, often killing the tension and serving no real purpose. The writing frequently shows instead of telling. Plus, Zoey can't maintain a consistent narrative voice. Sometimes she sounds like she's twelve, using words like "gihugic", "poopie", and giggling when she comments on "boobies" or calls something "gay". But then she'll suddenly start narrating poetically, describing moonlight as "spilled mercury" or saying that "raw fear engulfed [her] like a bitter wind." It makes it difficult to stay immersed in the story or get a clear idea of what Zoey's personality and maturity is actually supposed to be.
Even from a less technical standpoint, the narrative is pretty awful. The pacing is terrible - for example, at the beginning of the story Zoey needs to get to the House of Night so she can be around adult vampyres and avoid dying from Rejecting the Change. That sounds like it should be urgent, but the first four chapters are basically her going from one drawn out argument to the next. When characters stand around talking about how important and urgent something is for five pages instead of actually doing anything, it feels like maybe the stakes aren't so high. And it never gets better: A third of the book is spent following Zoey around for her first day of classes. A few important things happen, but not enough to warrant consuming so much time in the narrative. It isn't until page 160 that we have any sense of what the actual goal or conflict is in this book - and then, when we get to the climax, a completely out-of-nowhere antagonist appears and is almost immediately dismissed without any real struggle on the part of the protagonists.
The world-building is shoddy, too. It's essentially a patchwork of randomly capitalized words to signal they're important, dismissing actual folkloric ideas about vampirism, and picking random celebrities or historical figures and going, "Hey, this person is actually a vampyre!" Then throw in a matriarchal power structure that is still somehow deeply misogynistic and call it a day. If you take more than a few seconds to question how things work, the whole world starts to fall apart pretty quickly.
Overall, this is a terribly written, deeply offensive, and incredibly disappointing book. I've continued reading the series out of a purely academic interest - there is no true enjoyment to be gained from it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood and Death
Moderate: Body shaming, Homophobia, Religious bigotry, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Vomit, and Misogyny
Minor: Ableism, Alcoholism, and Eating disorder
Sex shaming
More...