Chosen (House of Night) by P C Cast and Kirstin Cast
| Chosen (House of Night) by P C Cast and Kirstin Cast | |
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| Category: Teens | |
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Reviewer: Loralei Haylock
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| Summary: Chosen is perfect teen fiction for the fantasy fangirl. Light-hearted entertainment with a generous side order of hot boys of both the vampyre and human variety. | |
| Buy? Maybe | Borrow? Yes |
| Pages: 352 | Date: February 2009 |
| Publisher: Atom | |
| ISBN: 978-1905654338 | |
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Life has not been easy for Zoey Redbird since she was marked as a vampyre fledgling. Between the pressures of being singled out as 'special' even amongst her fellow fledglings and discovering that her mentor, High Priestess Neferet is pure evil (a small detail she can't share with any of her friends, lest Neferet read their minds and know Zoey is on to her) it's a wonder she has any hair left.
Then there's Stevie Rae, Zoey's best friend who is dead, but not dead. Undead. And in serious need of a shower. Stevie Rae is fast losing track of her humanity, and Zoey wants to save her, but the only person who can help is the last person Zoey wants to associate with – Aphrodite, the ousted leader of the Dark Daughters, and queen bitch of the House of Night.
And as if that wasn't enough, there's the issue of boyfriends. All three of them.
Erik Night is in many ways the perfect guy. He and Zoey have a lot in common, both being fledglings, and his extreme cuteness and popularity don't hurt either. Heath Luck is Zoey's on-again-off-again human boyfriend, who she knows she should make permanently off-again, for his own good, only there's the slightly tricky detail that they've Imprinted on each other. A deep bond exists between them that is really hard to break. Finally, there's Loren Blake, Poet Laureate of the vamps, who, despite it being forbidden, wants to make Zoey his…
Okay, so it is a little bit indulgent of the authors (mother and daughter team, P.C. and Kristin) to make their narrator so unbelievably irresistible that every guy in her vicinity falls in love or lust with her. Love triangles (or perhaps in this case quadrangle?) are a much overused plot device which is usually a warning sign that an author has run out of ideas for things to constitute 'real' plot. I'll admit, when I read the synopsis of this book I did worry it would read like a bad Harry Potter fanfiction.
However, Chosen is not just a diary of the ups and downs of Zoey's romantic life. There is enough else going on, with ongoing tension between Zoey and Neferet, and the issue of undead Stevie Rae, to lift this book out of the banal and into it's own category. Teen fiction for supernatural aficionados? Urban fantasy for sixteen year olds?
However you chose to label it, it is most definitely teen fiction, of the light-hearted, read on the beach variety, though this latest instalment does hint at darker things to come. So Zoey having three boyfriends and several potential admirers (and more still to come if I've read the upcoming books' synopses correctly) is a tad unbelievable, it doesn't matter, because teenagers love that kind of stuff. The heart of escapist reading is reading about the kind of lives we wish we could lead, and what sixteen year old girl wouldn't wish to have three hotties tripping over their own feet to be with them? And Zoey isn't an infallible heroine – she has her good and bad moments like the rest of us, rendering her relatable and far more three dimensional than a lot of teen fiction narrators.
Chosen and the House of Night series are perfect for fantasy fangirls, although with one or two uses of the f-word and some sex, it's probably better kept to the older teens, sixteen and above.
My thanks to the publishers for sending a copy.
If this type of book appeals then we think that you might also enjoy Twilight by Stephenie Meyer.
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You can read more book reviews or buy Chosen (House of Night) by P C Cast and Kirstin Cast at Amazon.co.uk Amazon currently charges £2.99 for standard delivery for orders under £20, over which delivery is free.
You can read more book reviews or buy Chosen (House of Night) by P C Cast and Kirstin Cast at Amazon.com.
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