Marked - P C Cast

When sixteen-year-old Zoey Redbird gets Marked as a fledgling vampire she must join the House of Night school where she will train to become an adult vampire. That is, if she makes it through the Change. But Zoe is no ordinary fledgling. She has been chosen as special by the Goddess Nyx and discovers her amazing new power to conjure the elements: earth, air, fire, water and spirit. When Zoey discovers that the leader of the Dark Daughters, the school's most elite group, is misusing her Goddess-given gifts, Zoey must look within herself to embrace her destiny - with a little help from her new vampire friends. Not suitable for younger readers.

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I did like it. Enough to want to read the next book, probably the others too, but it's just.....missing something. Maybe it's because it's part one of a long story and so it feels like not a lot happened in this one. But maybe it's because it's similar to another book I read, which seemed to have a lot more story to it. And no, I'm not talking about Twilight. The only similarities this has with Twilight, is that there are vamps in both storylines.

I'm thinking it's more like a series I read which has a boy lead....and he's a wizard. Zoey's been marked on her forehead with a crescent to let her know she's special, she's moved to a new boarding school full of other 'marked' kids, they're all special but she's uber special, her parents are a total waste of space but she's got a nice older mentor at the school to look out for her, she picks up a few outsiders as friends and they all hate the blonde, mean kid who hates them right back..... it's been done before. OK, that time it was magic and a lightning bolt on the forehead, but still.....

I actually like the diagloge though.....Well, apart from the word 'poopie', that's REALLY bad. The 'Oh Hell!' and 'Nu uh' language made it easier to get the feel of the characters but it's very obviously a YA novel. I'm not in the target audience probably, but that shouldn't be a barrier to me liking it more....I wasn't in the Harry Potter age bracket either but I lapped that up.

I think it's just that when all is said and done, this is just an ok book with some interesting ideas. I don't think it would matter what age I was, to me it still would be only 'ok'.

I'd recommend it to anyone who likes multi book series, vampires, Harry Potter and/or teenage angst. Although, having said that, the much talked about early scene between a boy and a girl caught in an 'act', isn't really for anyone under the age of 16....legally speaking.