Book Review: Marked by P.C. Cast and Kristen Cast

Marked is the first of 12 (so far the 12th coming out October 2014) books to this fast read of a series starring Zoey redbird as human turned vampire fledgling. The beginning of the book we see the normal everyday life of Zoey until she is marked with the outline of a crescent moon. This mark forces her to leave school and everything familiar behind to join the House of Night school where she was develop her fledgling ability as a vampire, though it will takes years, at any time a person’s body could begin to reject the turn and within hours they are dead. Supposedly…

Joining House of Night isn’t so bad. Zoey is quick to make friends, loves most of her unusual classes, and finds an odd sense of belonging there, but what she doesn’t understand is why she was hand selected as the ‘eyes and ears’ by the Goddess of Night, Nyx, herself, in a vision that she shares with no one, not even the High Priestess.

As you follow along with Zoey you are pulled into the world of vampires, magic, and the unknown. It was a good read and I give it four out of five stars.

As much as I loved this book and the thought out details in every aspect to the world: the influences of Wiccan, pagan, and Cherokee (which is in my blood), the controversy between the People of the Faith and Vampires, and a school that I would really love to be a part of, I was a little taken aback by the amount of swear words and sexual content. I’m normally not bothered at all by such things, but remembering that this is a YA I think some people will be surprised by the amount that’s present. Not to mention after the tenth pop culture reference I was getting a little tired of it, but it doesn’t take away from the plot of the story. It helps sets you into the teenage mind of their world.

All in all, it was a great read and I have to say I have become a fan. I will defiantly have to continue reading and review each book until the very last page!

-Brenda Franklin, author of the Pulse Trilogy and Guardian, A Fated Pairing.

Review of House by Ted Dekker and Frank Peretti

Jack, Stephanie, Randy, and Leslie finds themselves trapped in the same house in the dead of night after having their car tires shredded on nails, some trick by local punks, or the beginning to something much worse. Now, trapped into this house together, they discover that things aren’t what they appear as the find out they are apart of some man’s twist game and if they don’t follow three simple rules, they’ll be dead before morning. In House strangers become allies, allies become enemies, and the strange and unusual doesn’t begin to cover it.

It was a thrilling read and at times I thought for sure I knew what was going on and then the authors would throw in a twist, add a character, create something, and just blow my mind! There is a lot of symbolism within this book and at times it’s was gross- I’m referring to pudding. Anyone who has read the book would know.

The authors pulled off giving the book a creepy feel and confusing the heck out of me sometimes, but by the end you are able to pull the pieces together. Whether all the characters make it out alive, or at all, you're going to have to find that out on your own.

Something I love is that if you know Ted Dekker than you kind of might know the connection of the villain to his other works, but that’s all I’ll tell you about that. I will hint that the connection can be found in his Paradise Novels.

Now, one of the things I didn't care about was the mental comments or the connections your character was making or not making at certain times. The authors pretty much spelled out what was going on or what your character was not understanding in his thoughts and I was thinking, ‘yeah, I got that!’. But asides from pointing out what I felt like was obvious things the book took several twists and turns I didn't see coming!

This book was an interesting read and even though I find myself usually not learning towards the Christian books, this one is worth a read. It’s yet another hit from the minds of Ted Dekker and Frank Peretti.

I give it a four out of five.

A couple of their works:

Ted Dekker wrote Showdown, The circle Trilogy, and Skin

http://teddekker.com

Frank Peretti wrote This Present Darkness, the Oath, and Monster

http://frankperetti.com

-Brenda Franklin, author of The pulse Trilogy, and Guardian, A Fated Pairing.