Book Review: The House of Night Series – The Awakened

I want to keep this review quite short as it’s the eighth in the series and I have never reviewed the other books.

The House of Night Series is a bit of a guilty pleasure for me… Particularly because eight books later, I feel I have grown out of the age bracket for the reader. This is my first criticism of the book and the series. Whereas, most series develop their characters and plot to mature with the reader, this series has failed to keep up with its audience. Cringing as I dive back into the books, it takes me a couple of chapters to re-adjust to the teenage slang (like, oh my gawwwd) and random conversation about pure drivel that makes me question the heroes intelligence. PC Cast teamed with her daughter Kristen Cast for this teen fantasy series with the aim to produce books from a real teenage perceptive. I thought this was great in the first few novels where Zoey (the main character) who is a normal high school teenager is swept into the House of Night. Eight books on, she is an adjusted fledging and high priestess… Should she not have grown up a bit? She is supposed to be one most powerful fledging in the world. In my opinion there is nothing admirable or powerful about a heroine who refuses to swear and still uses the term ‘Bullpoopie’.

There are some great pop culture references throughout the series that set the book as a good urban fantasy; creating clever one liner’s and good comic moments that readers can really appreciate. I did enjoy the glee mention in this series and Jacks scene singing along to ‘Defying Gravity’ but these moments are equaled by moments that trivialize the plot and make you feel the characters are not taking their situation seriously.

What made me continue reading the House of Night series was the plot. In theory, it has a lot of components to an epic fantasy. There are vampires, gods, ancient mythological creatures and ancient magic. The ongoing conflict between Zoey and Neferet (the villain of the story) is essentially a battle between good and evil. I like the plot but it dismally lost its punch in this novel. And unfortunately, I can’t see it getting it back. It is incredible hard to feel a sense of danger and doom when the characters themselves seem to be underrating the whole situation. The inane childish commentary continues as does the pathetic teenage rivalry between characters (surely differences are set aside when people start dying?)

This being said, I think my main problem with this book was the deaths… or lack of. The sixth and seventh book focused on the dramatic death of Heath (Zoey’s first love) the trauma of which caused her soul to shatter. Heath’s death was sudden and shocking and suddenly the plot got serious. In the Eighth novel however, PC Cast has deemed to bring Heath back to life. It seems that Cast enjoys bring all significant deaths back to life in some shape of form (Stevie Ray, Zoey, Heath…) which makes me, as the reader no longer care if any character dies because I feel they will turn up again – Yawn. It ruins any sense of threat from Nerefet. Or evil. To me, Cast has proven she will never be brutal. She will only truly kill off the secondary characters who we have little emotional connection to. This series will finish as PG as it started and I fear everyone will live happily ever after. Nice…But, definitely not exciting.

This is quite a negative review for me. I am disappointed with the House of Night series because I feel it had potential. It has a strong and interesting plot which most vampire teen fantasy’s lack. Also, unlike Twilight, it has strong sense of matriarchal empowerment which is refreshing. It is also tackles a lot of social issues. It’s the only teen fantasy I have read lead characters who are gay and brings up racial issues. Not that it is a pinnacle point of topic in the book, but you can tell Cast has deliberately set up a theme of equality that is done effectively and positively.
All in all, if you are young this is a good book. If you are looking for light hearted fantasy this is what you are going to get. It isn’t going to bridge the gap to adults though and as much as I wish it would, it’s not going to get dark and poignant.

BUY AWAKENED: A HOUSE OF NIGHT NOVEL