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jesseecarjay's review
adventurous
inspiring
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
charspages's review
2.0
In case you were already worried I had forgotten about this series: fear not, my friends. Here I am, resilient and refusing to succumb to the absolute handful that is this book (and its two predecessors). It's time to get back into vampyre-land, pronto!
PLOT: 2 / 5
Okay, the storyline is definitely not this book's strongest suit. Luckily for it, though, its predecessor, [b:Betrayed|676924|Betrayed (House of Night, #2)|P.C. Cast|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1406941788l/676924._SX50_.jpg|662923] was so boring and uneventful that Chosen easily shone in comparison. On the grand scale of things, very little happens up to the second half of the book, when events start picking up by the humans who belong to a religious organization called the People of Faith begin openly attacking - read: brutally murdering - vampyres. Add to that Zoey's big dramatic love triangle showdown and the whole unresolved undead/dead Stevie Rae issue, and you've got a huge chunk of action.
I wish that this action would have been spread out a little bit more evenly over the course of the book, because the way it read now felt like a poorly rolled burrito: first, a whole lot of nothing, and then everything hits you at once.
Also, the only reason the Casts managed to make this book (and the entire series) as long as it was is because they really follow Zoey through the motions of every. single. minute. Like, there's so much unnecessary daily life and every-character-gets-to-say-something that it just feels endless. Chapter breaks are good, people. Leave some parts out; readers can very well imagine Zo preparing a bowl of Count Chocula or getting dressed, thank you very much. And reading about that in detail is just tedious.
CHARACTERS: 1.5 / 5
There's not a lot of new characters here, and the ones we already know undergo minimal development, so my opinion of Zoey and the Nerd Herd still remains largely unchanged.
Jack Twist, Damien's new boyfriend, is kind of annoying because the authors are trying so damn hard to pass him off as cute and adorable that he just seems like an eight-year-old who somehow got lost.
Erik Night, school hottie and one of Zoey's three boyfriends, is a bland doormat whose only character trait is having blue eyes. Erin and Shaunee add absolutely nothing to the story, and Zoey remains ridiculously overpowered.
There are only two character arches I'd like to mention briefly: the first belongs to Aphrodite, who is really getting kind of a cool storyline and is the best version of a two-dimensional character in this entire series. I still think she holds a lot of potential.
The second is Zoey Redbird's arch, which is, pardon my French, utter bullshit. Like being the Mary Suest Mary Sue to ever Mary Sue wasn't enough, now Zoey becomes a two-faced liar who cheats on her doormat of a boyfriend, Erik, with her human ex, Heath, and her teacher, Loren Blake. And of course, Zoey doesn't face any serious consequences because she really pities herself when everyone finds out, guys, come on, that should do the trick, right??
Not right.
WORLD BUILDING: 2 / 5
Interestingly enough, this time around, the world building captivated me a whole lot more than it did in the first two instalments of the series. I genuinely enjoyed reading a little more about vampyre beliefs and witnessing their way of worshipping Nyx; I also found the different vampyre instances, such as the Sons of Erebus, that were introduced to be interesting.
I do, however, feel like there's so much potential here that was never fully realized. The Casts could have gone places with their archetypically matriarchial vampyre society, but instead, they chose to write about Zoey getting it on with three guys and going to Starbucks at Utica Square at least four times.
WRITING STYLE: 1 / 5
Yeah, I still don't know what the Casts were trying to achieve here. Like the first two novels, this one is filled with ellipses, parentheses, and lots and lots of made up words that are, I reckon, supposed to sound like teenage slang. Spoiler alert: they do not.
I still throw up a little when Zoey's narrative voice tries to be relatable and funny and instead ends up being humiliating. Just a heads up: "miscreant" is not exactly a strange vocab word.
DIVERSITY: 0 / 5
My least favorite part of the House of Night-series is and always will be its completely tone-deaf portrayal of sensitive topics. The Casts tried in earnest to create a diverse cast of characters: they have a Native American protagonist, a cute gay couple, and a black girl, all with considerable page-time. However, Zoey's heritage is only mentioned when it can be considered cool and convenient for her vampyre business, Damien and Jack have absolutely no character traits except for liking cashmere scarves and crafting respectively, and Shaunee is - still - only described as some type of brown-colored food.
On top of this absolute failure of diverse storytelling, the Casts take it one step further and, in a desperate attempt at being quirky and cool, drop one or ten harmful bombs. Such as when Stevie Rae attacks a homeless woman and Zoey says something along the lines of "ew, Cowboy Boot, don't drink the street person's blood, she might have lice". Fuck you for saying that, from the bottom of my heart, and fuck you for perpetuating the stigma that homeless people (or, as the Casts like to call them, "street persons") are dirty and unsanitary and should pretty much be avoided at all costs because how gross is it to be homeless, huh?!
Furthermore, the story continues being completely ignorant and problematic when Zoey's teacher, vampyre Laureate Loren Blake, takes advantage of her emotional vulnerability and coerces her into having sex with him. This is even worse considering the enormous power imbalance between them, which exists on three levels: Loren being an adult vampyre with Zoey a just-Marked fledgling (which is, by the way, illegal according to vampyre law); Loren being in a position that is equal to a teacher, preying on a student of his; and last but not least, Loren being considerably older than barely-seventeen Zoey.
Of course, none of these issues are discussed; on the contrary, Zoey keeps excusing Loren's disgusting pedophilic ass and bends over backwards to make it seem like a hot and forbidden and therefore romantic romance. Here's the tea: it is forbidden, but not because it's romantic.
Lastly, the book's 307 pages are chock-full with slut-shaming. Be it by calling someone a "ho" or "slut" outright or just by making snot-nosed comments regarding girls' sexual activity, the message is loud and clear: having sex makes you a bad, morally evil, gross person. (Oh, except for when it's Zoey who has sex with Loren Blake, because, you know, they're making love even though Zoey has two other boyfriends she's cheating on. So giving your boyfriend a blow job is bad, but cheating isn't? Got it.)
Zoey also continously perpetuates the virgin/good girl versus slut/evil culture:
"And there's nothing wrong with being a virgin. It's better than being a skank."
Big fat yikes - yes, there is absolutely nothing wrong with not having had sex at a certain age, and no one should be shamed for it. BUT there is absolutely nothing wrong with having a lot of sex either. The only thing that's really wrong here is shaming girls for their sexual activity (whether they're having lots of sex or no sex at all), and fostering the virginity myth. It's cool if you want your first time to be special, with someone you love, but honestly? Having sex does not change your life, nor you as a person.
On that note: abolish the construct of virginity and rate this book
OVERALL RATING: 1.5 / 5
PLOT: 2 / 5
Okay, the storyline is definitely not this book's strongest suit. Luckily for it, though, its predecessor, [b:Betrayed|676924|Betrayed (House of Night, #2)|P.C. Cast|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1406941788l/676924._SX50_.jpg|662923] was so boring and uneventful that Chosen easily shone in comparison. On the grand scale of things, very little happens up to the second half of the book, when events start picking up by the humans who belong to a religious organization called the People of Faith begin openly attacking - read: brutally murdering - vampyres. Add to that Zoey's big dramatic love triangle showdown and the whole unresolved undead/dead Stevie Rae issue, and you've got a huge chunk of action.
I wish that this action would have been spread out a little bit more evenly over the course of the book, because the way it read now felt like a poorly rolled burrito: first, a whole lot of nothing, and then everything hits you at once.
Also, the only reason the Casts managed to make this book (and the entire series) as long as it was is because they really follow Zoey through the motions of every. single. minute. Like, there's so much unnecessary daily life and every-character-gets-to-say-something that it just feels endless. Chapter breaks are good, people. Leave some parts out; readers can very well imagine Zo preparing a bowl of Count Chocula or getting dressed, thank you very much. And reading about that in detail is just tedious.
CHARACTERS: 1.5 / 5
There's not a lot of new characters here, and the ones we already know undergo minimal development, so my opinion of Zoey and the Nerd Herd still remains largely unchanged.
Jack Twist, Damien's new boyfriend, is kind of annoying because the authors are trying so damn hard to pass him off as cute and adorable that he just seems like an eight-year-old who somehow got lost.
Erik Night, school hottie and one of Zoey's three boyfriends, is a bland doormat whose only character trait is having blue eyes. Erin and Shaunee add absolutely nothing to the story, and Zoey remains ridiculously overpowered.
There are only two character arches I'd like to mention briefly: the first belongs to Aphrodite, who is really getting kind of a cool storyline and is the best version of a two-dimensional character in this entire series. I still think she holds a lot of potential.
The second is Zoey Redbird's arch, which is, pardon my French, utter bullshit. Like being the Mary Suest Mary Sue to ever Mary Sue wasn't enough, now Zoey becomes a two-faced liar who cheats on her doormat of a boyfriend, Erik, with her human ex, Heath, and her teacher, Loren Blake. And of course, Zoey doesn't face any serious consequences because she really pities herself when everyone finds out, guys, come on, that should do the trick, right??
Not right.
WORLD BUILDING: 2 / 5
Interestingly enough, this time around, the world building captivated me a whole lot more than it did in the first two instalments of the series. I genuinely enjoyed reading a little more about vampyre beliefs and witnessing their way of worshipping Nyx; I also found the different vampyre instances, such as the Sons of Erebus, that were introduced to be interesting.
I do, however, feel like there's so much potential here that was never fully realized. The Casts could have gone places with their archetypically matriarchial vampyre society, but instead, they chose to write about Zoey getting it on with three guys and going to Starbucks at Utica Square at least four times.
WRITING STYLE: 1 / 5
Yeah, I still don't know what the Casts were trying to achieve here. Like the first two novels, this one is filled with ellipses, parentheses, and lots and lots of made up words that are, I reckon, supposed to sound like teenage slang. Spoiler alert: they do not.
I still throw up a little when Zoey's narrative voice tries to be relatable and funny and instead ends up being humiliating. Just a heads up: "miscreant" is not exactly a strange vocab word.
DIVERSITY: 0 / 5
My least favorite part of the House of Night-series is and always will be its completely tone-deaf portrayal of sensitive topics. The Casts tried in earnest to create a diverse cast of characters: they have a Native American protagonist, a cute gay couple, and a black girl, all with considerable page-time. However, Zoey's heritage is only mentioned when it can be considered cool and convenient for her vampyre business, Damien and Jack have absolutely no character traits except for liking cashmere scarves and crafting respectively, and Shaunee is - still - only described as some type of brown-colored food.
On top of this absolute failure of diverse storytelling, the Casts take it one step further and, in a desperate attempt at being quirky and cool, drop one or ten harmful bombs. Such as when Stevie Rae attacks a homeless woman and Zoey says something along the lines of "ew, Cowboy Boot, don't drink the street person's blood, she might have lice". Fuck you for saying that, from the bottom of my heart, and fuck you for perpetuating the stigma that homeless people (or, as the Casts like to call them, "street persons") are dirty and unsanitary and should pretty much be avoided at all costs because how gross is it to be homeless, huh?!
Furthermore, the story continues being completely ignorant and problematic when Zoey's teacher, vampyre Laureate Loren Blake, takes advantage of her emotional vulnerability and coerces her into having sex with him. This is even worse considering the enormous power imbalance between them, which exists on three levels: Loren being an adult vampyre with Zoey a just-Marked fledgling (which is, by the way, illegal according to vampyre law); Loren being in a position that is equal to a teacher, preying on a student of his; and last but not least, Loren being considerably older than barely-seventeen Zoey.
Of course, none of these issues are discussed; on the contrary, Zoey keeps excusing Loren's disgusting pedophilic ass and bends over backwards to make it seem like a hot and forbidden and therefore romantic romance. Here's the tea: it is forbidden, but not because it's romantic.
Lastly, the book's 307 pages are chock-full with slut-shaming. Be it by calling someone a "ho" or "slut" outright or just by making snot-nosed comments regarding girls' sexual activity, the message is loud and clear: having sex makes you a bad, morally evil, gross person. (Oh, except for when it's Zoey who has sex with Loren Blake, because, you know, they're making love even though Zoey has two other boyfriends she's cheating on. So giving your boyfriend a blow job is bad, but cheating isn't? Got it.)
Zoey also continously perpetuates the virgin/good girl versus slut/evil culture:
"And there's nothing wrong with being a virgin. It's better than being a skank."
Big fat yikes - yes, there is absolutely nothing wrong with not having had sex at a certain age, and no one should be shamed for it. BUT there is absolutely nothing wrong with having a lot of sex either. The only thing that's really wrong here is shaming girls for their sexual activity (whether they're having lots of sex or no sex at all), and fostering the virginity myth. It's cool if you want your first time to be special, with someone you love, but honestly? Having sex does not change your life, nor you as a person.
On that note: abolish the construct of virginity and rate this book
OVERALL RATING: 1.5 / 5
afterplague's review
adventurous
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
1.75
Ah, here's the start of the "every single man is in love with Zoey" plotline that will continue for most of the series. Including men who definitely should not be in love with her *cough cough* LOREN *cough cough*.
I think that the way the tension is escalating is good, but Zoey is REALLY unlikable in this one which is saying something because Zoey is never really very likable.
I think that the way the tension is escalating is good, but Zoey is REALLY unlikable in this one which is saying something because Zoey is never really very likable.
adelle_bookworm's review against another edition
4.0
Napsané lépe než předchozí díl, u některých scén jsem se fakt nasmála. Zoey se sice často jevila jako pěkná mrcha, no ale co... :)
amandalyn's review against another edition
3.0
Aphrodite was annoying as hell. To the point where it got a little ridicules. Also some parts got really repetitive. There was quite a few times where they used the same phrasing multiple times. One last complaint was when Zooey made obvious bad choices, then was hurt or surprised when they blew up in her face. But other than that, I liked it and will still continue with this series.