Posted by Brige | Posted in Book Reviews | Posted on 07-02-2010
OK so yesterday was much like the day before so I sat down and read the first book in the House of Night series by P.C. and Kristin Cast, Marked. I was actually looking forward to reading this book and really looking for a long series I could get into, but alas, this was not the book I thought it would be. Although I finished the book in one day, don’t get the impression that it was because I loved it so much I couldn’t put it down… It was more the need to finish it so I could move on to my next book – which by the way is not the second in the House of Night Series.
The thing is, I actually enjoyed the story: A world where vampyres (with a ‘y’) exist amongst society, aren’t bitten to be created but rather “Marked” (chosen) and must attend a ‘vampyre finishing school’ and either make the 4 year transformation from fledgling to vampyre or die if their body rejects the change. The idea is great in my eyes and I can really appreciate anything with imagination. It wasn’t the story I disliked about this book, it was the writing…
I found it so hard to relate to the very immature babbling of an adult obviously trying to write how she feels a 16 year old would… But I have been 16 and I don’t ever remember writing, nor talking the way this book was written. The overuse of brackets also drove me utterly insane – I couldn’t go one paragraph without the use of brackets and usually something very immature and totally unnecessary written in them. Here one I thought was an absolute doozy:
“She wasnt thin like the freak girls who puked and starved themselves into what they thought was Paris Hilton chic. (‘Thats Hott.’ Yeah okay, whatever, Paris.) … And she had great boobs. (I wish I had great boobs) … Speaking of boobs – I was totally sounding like one. (Boob… hee hee). (Page 51, Marked: House of Night)
The brackets (and complete silliness of justifying everything written in them) drove me crazy (I mean crazy) because it was totally unnecessary (I mean, like… totally) when you could have either left the silly details out (would be a good thing) or just not used brackets (but brackets are so fun!).
Other than that, the use of words like “poopie” and “boobies” also made me groan. 3 year olds speak like that, not 16 year olds…
I hate to compare this to Twilight but I will anyway – Twilight was an international hit, as was House of Night, but I felt that everyone could read Twilight and relate to it and read its words without groaning every 5 minutes… From 14 year olds to grandmothers, Twilight was maybe a young adult novel, but was something everyone could enjoy. Marked is a different story… It was written clearly sounding like a 16 year old wrote it – and I’m sure that was the intention – but for this reason I found it very hard to relate to. A less dumbed down version of this book would have been brilliant! I loved the story and really rate it, but the immature wording throughout the novel really bugged me. I enjoy reading young adult novels as they are generally relatable, but I love when the characters are at least a little intelligent, not justifying every bit of info they know and relating it to stars like Leonardo DiCaprio.
What I didn’t understand was that this book was unsuitable for younger readers because it speaks of some pretty sexual stuff for the younger crowd, uses some swearing etc, but is also written as though a 13 year old should be reading it. That was quite confusing for me as I feel that if a character is mature enough to witness blow jobs, understand the passionate and sexual nature of things and feel those things, then she is mature enough to not use words like “poopie”.
I was absolutely certain that I wouldnt read the next books in the House of Night series… CERTAIN! But I did really enjoy the story and think I may at least give one more a go as I want to see what happens next…
“It is better to be beautiful than good… But it is better to be good than ugly..” – Oscar Wilde
Until next time…
Brige xx
