Reviews with content warning for Alcohol - Marquée

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.

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nick13's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.25

Ok, let me say this first, this book is not very good. Now that that's over with, let me also say that this book is also really damn good! Not in the good way, but because the writing is so bad it's really enjoyable. One minute characters are cussing and calling people sluts and then the main character says someone is poopy, like, wtf!
Along side this terrible writing, the beginning is so rushed it gives me whiplash and the main character a hollow bitch who thinks they are awful yet amazing! Yet, I enjoyed almost every moment of this book! There are so many things wrong with it and the rip-off of Twilight it starts out as yet the rip-off of Harry Potter it ends as is so bizarre that I can't help but love it. That and the characters, love interests, and the actually kind of intriguing plot at the end just kept hooking me in!
I'm giving this book a 2.25 solely due to the bad pacing, bad writing techniques, and overall terribleness of this book, but I will continue this story because it a 2 star read that feels like a 4!

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tashaj's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious medium-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? No

4.0

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anniedactyl's review against another edition

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dark mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

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michellemaas's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

0.5

* Beware of minor spoilers

First Read: 3 - ⭐⭐⭐
Second Read: 0.5 - 💫

First Installment in the House of The Night series. This Young Adult Paranormal Romance follows a ragtag group of teenagers at a vampire finishing school featuring the "chosen one" and "found family" tropes.

I read the first seven books in this series while in the sixth grade, but being hopelessly in love with the Vampire Academy series at the time, I didn't give it a fair chance at being liked. So having gotten back into reading last year, I decided that maybe I was just too young to appreciate the world-building and more complex, mostly religious, themes of the series and wanted to give it a second, unbiased shot. I was wrong. Age has nothing to do with it, this book is just terribly offensive and poorly written.

“If I died, would it get me out of my geometry test tomorrow? One could only hope.”

Marked follows Zoey Redbird who is marked to transition into a vampire. She has to go to a special vampire finishing school and attempt to adjust to all these new physical and social changes while ridding the school of the queen bee, Aphrodite.

"You are old beyond your years Zoeybird. Believe in yourself and you will find a way. But remember darkness does not always equate to evil just like light does not always bring good.”

Firstly, this was offensive. This book BASHED catholicism in a way that I'm surprised the authors got away with. There was an instance where the author described Catholics as "beady-eyed wives and their pedophile husbands" . . . If I have to explain what's wrong with that sentence, you might never understand. And I get it, with Freedom of Speech and all that, if you want to get into your dislike for religion because of some personal stuff, you're well within your rights to do so. But to degrade an ACTUAL religion that people in real life believe in is in such poor taste. People believe what they do because of their upbringing, life experiences, and the information they have, so to disregard that simply because that doesn't match up with your experiences and beliefs is not only entitled and arrogant but also incredibly insensitive. I don't even identify as Catholic, I identify as a Christian, but her portrayal of any religion that she does not consider the "right religion" is truly concerning. If you want to make the stepfather a bad person, that's fine. If you want his motivations for being a bad person to be that he believes his actions are justified as being in the name of religion, that understandable too. But saying everyone who believes in this religion (that not a made-up religion specific to this world, but rather a very common real-life religion) is terrible people is a horrible message to be spreading.

“I want you to live as you would be remembered if you would die tomorrow, because you might. Then if you do die, your spirit can rest peacefully knowing that you leave behind an honorable memory. If you do not die, then you will have set the foundation for a long life rich with integrity.”

Secondly, I didn't like the writing style. This book was published in the late 2000s and it shows. There are so many "Oh. Huh. Weird" phrases along with lots of inserts that have absolutely nothing to do with anything. I hate it when authors add random tidbits that have no relevance to the story and don't end up aging well such as opinions on trending actors and what is socially acceptable at the time of publication. It also does not make the book more relatable for the teens reading it, it just makes everyone uncomfortable, especially when someone picks up the book now and has no clue what the author is referring to half the time. Hell, I'm nearly 20 and I didn't even get all the references!

“Bask in your uniqueness, revel in your strength. We stand separate from the world because of our gifts. Never forget that, because you may be sure the world never will.”

Thirdly, Zoey as a main character was hypocritical, and just because she was a better person than Aphrodite doesn't mean she was a good person . . .and that's not in the intentionally morally gray type way. It's in a holier-than-thou, I'm so perfect that nothing can touch me kind of way. She annoyed me with her superiority complex so much that I wasn't rooting for her to come out on top in the end. Mean girls are mean but at least you know what you're getting as opposed to seemingly nice girls who only have their own interests at heart.

Even with all of this, my biggest complaint is that nothing really happened in this book. It was a lot of world-building (and not fun world-building either, since the story was set in our world with a few mythical history changes) and following Zoey around as she adapted to her new life. I will admit that it picked up quite a bit towards the end, but the last 15 pages being mediocre does not make up for the previous 330 pages being bad. I remember the series got better as the books went on, but I forgot just how boring everything was until that point.

“I've found that the way a person feels about cats-and the way they feel about him or her in return-is usually an excellent gauge by which to measure a person's character.”

Overall, I would not have recommended this if I was judging this as a standalone, but since I don't remember the rest of the series well enough to give a thorough review on the series as a whole, I'd just suggest you weigh up if you're willing to sit through a terrible first book to get to a potentially okay sequel.

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