Review ~*~ Marked by PC and Kristin Cast

Reading level: Young Adult
Paperback: 320 pages
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin; 1st edition (May 1, 2007)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0312360266

I just finished this book today. I had bought the whole series from someone who was selling a bunch of books from our local classifieds. I only bought them because of the hype. I didn't have very good expectations of the book going into reading it. I really don't like books that have a lot of hype. I like for my books to be understated and not super popular. Marked surprised me. I can say that I liked it much better than Twilight. I couldn't stand Bella in Twilight whereas in Marked I loved Zoey Redbird. Marked has been out for a few years now and I'm sure it has been blogged about countless times so I will not go into great detail on what I thought of the book.

Zoey Redbird is the main character in Marked. She gets Marked by the Vampyre tracker but that Mark is made special by the Goddess Nyx. Her Mark is completely coloured in where other fledglings marks are only outlined. Zoey's special Mark makes her an outsider at the finishing school House of Night from the start.

I think the reason I liked this book so more than I thought I would is because of the different take on Vampyre Lore. The book mixed Vampyre Lore with Goddess Mythology. At times I felt like the Goddess parts of the book overshadowed the Vampyre parts and that the book could have functioned purely on the Goddess parts. I felt that the Vampyre parts were thrown in at times because Vampyres are the big sell right now. Overall I did enjoy reading Marked and will continue to read the rest of the series.

I found that even though this book is classified as a YA novel it didn't read as such. True, in parts the dialogue is senseless prattle that doesn't lend to the storyline it does show what teenagers are like in High School. The House of Night is a totally different High School where you learn to become an adult vampyre. Zoey is also in training to become the next High Priestess.

I give this book almost 4 out of 5 babies. Its more than 3 but not quite 4. I really enjoyed it but think at times the plot does not flow as well as it should. It exceeded my expectations but didn't have me staying up all night like 5 baby books do.