Book Review of Marked by P.C. and Kristin Cast

Goodreads Summary: After a Vampire Tracker Marks her with a crescent moon on her forehead, 16-year-old Zoey Redbird enters the House of Night and learns that she is no average fledgling. She has been Marked as special by the vampyre Goddess Nyx and has affinities for all five elements: Air, Fire Water, Earth, and Spirit. But she is not the only fledgling at the House of Night with special powers. When she discovers that the leader of the Dark Daughters, the school’s most elite club, is misusing her Goddess-given gifts, Zoey must look deep within herself for the courage to embrace her destiny – with a little help from her new vampyre friends (or Nerd Herd, as Aphrodite calls them)
Goodreads Rating: 3.79 stars with over 379,000 ratings
Genre Listing: Young Adult, Vampires, Fantasy, Paranormal, Romance, Fiction,
Get the Book: Amazon, Book Depository

Book Review:

So, this is not a new read for me. I read most of the series what feels like forever ago. I've been thinking about it a lot though and wanted to start rereading it. It's amazing how much of the first book I've forgotten, but then again I think I might have read it around the time it first came out. Despite how much I had forgotten it was just like catching up with a long-lost friend. 

Rereading this made me remember why I fell in love with the series. I love that it combines a variety of different beliefs to give Vampirism a unique twist. The intricate tattooing and the importance behind it is still fascinating to me. While I'm usually not a spiritual person, I really enjoy the spirituality that surrounds Nyx and her children. I'm assuming a lot of it is based on Paganism, but I should probably research that to be sure. Regardless, I enjoyed reading it the first time and still enjoyed it the second time around. 

I forgot how incredibly awful Aphrodite was early in the series. I think the thing that bugs me the most about Marked, and I don't know if it did previously or not, is the inconsistency in the language. There are a lot of parts that just mainly use regular swear words and then all of the sudden it will switch to things like "Poopie." It completely drives me nuts. Pick one, preferably the swearing. I don't mind swearing in books and given that the characters are 16ish actual swear words makes them seem more their age. I cringe every time Zoey reverts back to things like "poopie." It makes her seem so completely juvenile, even though she's supposed to be the most powerful fledgling and future High-Priestess. 

Aside from that annoyance, I still really enjoyed Marked the second time around. I'm going to be hopefully diving into the rest of the series soon. It'll be nice to reread everything somewhat close together. I know when I read it before there was a lot of gaps in between each book because I was generally waiting for the next one to come out. Now I have a dilemma, do I finish rereading this series or dive into my library books? Hmm.

Oh, and I'm not putting this on my reading challenge since I've already read it. That seems like it'd be cheating to me.  When I originally read it I gave it a five, and I'm content enough to keep it there.