Book Review: Marked by P.C and Kristin Cast

Marked by Kristin Cast, P. C. Cast
Series: House of Night #1
Genre: Paranormal
Release Date: May 1st, 2007
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Source: Bought
Add it: Goodreads
Rating:

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 mis-using 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)

There wasn’t much I actually liked about this book, no matter how hard I tried. The main factor which put me off was the writing style. If you’ve read my other reviews, then you will know that I don’t like it when adult authors try to sound like teenagers. It usually always comes across poorly as, believe it or not, a lot of teenagers are very well spoken. Especially if they are as intelligent as you are claiming your character is. In Marked, the writers did just this, and that was their main error. The dialogue came across as silly, childish, and as though the Casts were trying too hard.
Character descriptions were repeated every forty or so pages, and this irritated me, as I prefer descriptions of characters to be kept at a minimum. It was starting to become very Twilight-esque!

Also, adding to the writing style, the amount of brackets in this book is quite infuriating. Every fifth sentence or so is a sly comment that the narrative is making. This is honestly just me being extremely picky, but I hate brackets!

Despite my dislike for the writing style, the plot does have potential. A girl who becomes a vampire, and starts a new boarding school that is as old and the hills and full of secrets? Yes, please! It is clearly well thought out and, if the writing was improved – and the writers stopped trying to be overly sarcastic and ‘teen-like’ – this could have been a good book.