A review by fictionalkate
House of Night #1 by Karl Kerschl, P.C. Cast, Joëlle Jones, Kristin Cast, Kent Dalian

3.0

I admit that I wasn’t a big fan of the first novel in the House of Night series, Marked, but I was curious to read the first instalment in the graphic novel series of the same name.

This book picks up a very short time after the first novel ends and assumes that you’ve read Marked. Zoey has just been given the leadership of the Dark Daughters and is unsure how to proceed. The Goddess Nyx comes to her and tells her that there are five lessons to be learned – one for each one of the elements that Zoey has an affinity for – and once learned these lessons will help Zoey lead the Daughters.

With her friends, Zoey reads thought the stories of famous vampyres from history (who knew Cleopatra was a vampyre?) and learns that her abilities can be used for good or selfishly and only by discerning the difference can she be the leader that Nyx believes she can be.

I loved seeing how the authors imagined the marks and tattoos would look. The illustrations in this series of very short stories are gorgeous – the pages in between each story are incredibly beautiful. The stories themselves are a little simplistic and well… if I’m completely honest irrelevant. I also thought that some of the characters – Stevie Ray in particular – looked nothing at all like they were described in the book.

I think it’s a great book to read if you’re a fan of the series and can’t get enough of the characters. Otherwise I’d give it a miss… or borrow it from the library.