A review by reading_warren
Marked by Kristin Cast, P.C. Cast

mysterious medium-paced

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated

3.5

The only reason this book is rated so highly for me is because of the nostalgia factor. I loved vampire YA as a kid, and I love it now, even when the plot is a little meh, the characters are a little bit one-note and/or stereotypical, and it's (somewhat) diverse at the cost of being pretty racially insensitive (at least from what I can tell as a white person).  The one gay character is also not what I would consider exemplary representation.  But, it's fun, it's got a little mystery, and it's got vampire school.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death and Violence

Minor: Sexual violence

Child death:

the death is of other vampire high school students because the course of the change into a vampire can be fatal, the deaths aren't of those in the main cast

Violence:

there is a violent altercation at the end of the book in which multiple characters are in life-threatening danger, blood is shed

Sexual Violence:

there is a scene early in the novel in which a girl is trying to convince a guy to let her give him oral sex. the behavior is condemned and called "rapey" later in the novel