"House of Night" - Vampire Tale Aims Below the Belt
Written by Maria Gaura
SANTA CRUZ (July 2009) - Book agents have been hunting vampires for the past few years, inspired by the “Twilight” series of young adult books, and its millions of fans. Young readers are lusting for bloody tales of the supernatural, and publishers are racing to put more vampire books on the shelves, quickly, before this terrible thirst fades.
The industry’s mad scramble to cash in on a trend has produced a raft of “Twilight” lookalikes, including the wretched and popular “House of Night” series, written by mother-daughter team P.C. and Kristin Cast. Where “Twilight” coyly titillates, “House of Night” aims straight for the crotch with scenes portraying oral sex, masturbation during a dark ritual, and the orgasmic pleasures of drinking blood.
Is it too late to issue a spoiler alert for this review?
The authors actually issue their own spoiler alert on the dedication page of “Marked,” the first novel of the series. “To our wonderful agent, Meredith Bernstein,” it reads, “who said the three magic words: vampyre finishing school.”
They may as well have written the words “Look out! This is a novel based on a three-word movie treatment. Abandon hope.”
The “House of Night” books are marketed as “young adult literature”, a misnomer no matter how you twist the phrase. But I can only discuss the first novel, “Marked,” which was as much of the franchise as I could tolerate.
There is much to offend in “Marked”, even leaving aside the explicit and loveless sex, and the fact that it is aimed at the youth market.
The story is narrated by 16-year-old Zoey Montgomery in a crude stream-of-consciousness logorrhea that quickly becomes excruciating. Zoey is a most unpleasant heroine, racked by self-pity yet filled with loathing for practically everyone in her life.
Oddly, her world is entirely populated by two-dimensional caricatures.
Zoey’s boyfriend is a binge-drinking, football-playing dolt, and her best friend is a shallow, disloyal fashionista. Her sister is a slutty cheerleader, and her brother is a “troll” who lives in a violent video-fantasy world. Zoey’s Stepford-mother has emotionally abandoned her children for a new husband, who is a paper cut-out of an intolerant religious nut.
When Zoey is “marked” as a fledgling vampyre and enrolled in the House of Night, (the vampyre finishing school), she encounters a melting pot of character clichés. There is the domineering blond bitch who Zoey must battle for dominance, and a wise and spooky headmistress. The token black girl is a sassy sister straight out of a 70s sitcom, and the cute gay guy prissily lectures his friends on vocabulary.
(We are told that Zoey hates homophobes, and then informed that Damien is lonely because the other gays in school are “too weird and girly for him.”)
The one person that Zoey loves is her Granny Redbird, a wise Cherokee woman with mysterious connections to the spirit world, the matriarchal vampyre society and the elemental powers of nature. She also has “a proud nose.”
What explains vampire fiction's obsession with Native Americans? “Twilight” portrays the indigenous people of Forks, Washington, as mystical werewolves with an ancient grudge against the vampires. “House of Night” portrays vampyre spirituality as a mashup of Native American tradition, Wiccan ritual and Bram Stoker. Do Native Americans, or Wiccans for that matter, resent this trivializing of their spiritual belief? I would.
Oh sure, there’s an overt storyline of sorts. The story is set in alternate-reality version of Tulsa, Oklahoma, in which vampyres (spelled with a “y”) are a recognized if still despised minority group. Adolescents are chosen to join the vampyre world, and “marked” with a crescent-moon tattoo on their foreheads. Then it’s join or die, and maybe both, should a fledgling vampyre’s body rejects “the change”.
Inductees are swept off to the House of Night, a swanky vampyre prep school where classes are held at night, and dark rituals are taught alongside vampyre sociology and equestrian skills. As in every recent vampire tale, the undead are all incredibly physically beautiful, strong and charismatic.
The authors portray vampyres as a kind of misunderstood sexual minority, both shunned by intolerant Christians and overrepresented in Hollywood and the arts. There is a half-hearted attempt to form a biological rationale for vampyrism, involving a vaguely-described hormonal shift, and “junk DNA.”
But when Zoey is chosen for this life, she is magically transformed by a “tracker” who appears at her school locker, bids her “Welcome to the House of Night!” and zaps an indelible mark on her forehead with a pointed finger. So, was Zoey chosen, or is vampyrism a natural physical process? Junk science, indeed.
The rest of the backstory is just as poorly thought out, but the lack of structure pales in comparison to the crudity of the language, motivation and writing in “Marked.”
Dear readers, this is a family-oriented site, and I apologize in advance for the next few paragraphs. But it is impossible to express how off-the-charts inappropriate this book is for young readers without including some direct quotes.
Keep in mind that a major publisher is marketing this series to kids, and that a movie version is in the works. And according to local bookshops these "young adult" books are big sellers, even in Santa Cruz.
Women get no respect in “Marked,” and the characters refer to each other repeatedly as sluts, bitches, hags and hos. The double standard is alive and well, as the bitchy blonde is considered a whore for performing oral sex in a school hallway. But the boy who receives the sexual favor suffers no loss of status, even though he tries to hit on another girl while he is being fellated!
In fact, he is acclaimed as the hottest boy in school, and becomes the prize that the girls battle to claim. This is a sad vision of a matriarchal clan.
The humor is as lowbrow as the sexual politics. There are knowing comparisons between “sucking” and, you know, “sucking.” One character is comically named “Titsworth,” another gets her “clit” pierced. The authors are not afraid to insert the phrase “suck my cock” into a teen novel, but they refer to manure as “horse poopie,” and to breasts as “boobies”. These crude interludes have nothing to do with plot advancement or character development, they’re here to push the envelope.
“Did I look like Eric’s mom when you watched me suck his dick in the hall?” the bitchy blond girl demands of Zoey, before attempting to claw her eyes out. This is finishing school? It sounds like repartee from a prison yard.
Remember when parents, teachers and school librarians considered Judy Blume’s beautifully-written books to be edgy because of their uncomfortably real subject matter? Doesn’t that level of attentiveness now seem quaint, when a popular mass-market book like “Marked” degrades its female characters, and oral sex is a major theme?
The people at St. Martins Press appear to be proud of this series, or at least, happy to be profiting by selling it to kids. But “Marked” is horse poopie, and yet another reminder to parents that the “young adult” label on a book means practically nothing, and this vampire-lit trend has become a race to the bottom.
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This is a sad vision of a matriarchal clan. You did not once mention the true plot lines of the book. I just wish to point out the many positive pieces of the House of Night series that you have overlooked.Hello all! I just wanted to introduce myself to everyone. Sorry if I've posted this in the wrong place :-)
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written by Maria , December 19, 2010
and I respect the fact that fans of these books care enough to defend them. But even after reading the previous posts and considering the points raised, my low opinion of the House of Night series remains unchanged. While we will probably never agree on the merits of this particular book, I do respect a reader's instinct to discuss, defend and analyze what she reads.
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written by savaz , December 19, 2010
I think that you're just focusing at stuff you find negative and not on anything positive. And really, my opinion is that these are really great books, and I don't think you should write a "report" like this that's not containing anything positive! I don't wish to chritisize you for making this text, I just want you to be aware of that you're seeming to think that your opinions and your meenings are the only right ones.
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written by Brittanya , December 14, 2010
I do not wish to sound utterly rude, but I feel as if you've missed a lot in this article. Although you did cover the negative aspects of this book, you failed to mention anything about the main character's distaste and immediate distrust of the said 'bitchy blond girl' and the 'hottest boy in school'. You did not once mention the true plot lines of the book. Zoey starts in this series as a girl who is very alone and wishing for a place to become her home, a place to feel comfortable within. Sure, she meets a lot of cliched friends, a lot of crud humor, and semi-pornographic things to paint your imagination with, but what is in this book that you would not find in any middle or high school hallway? are you saying that there are not girls giving blow-jobs in high school bathrooms? you would be wrong, as disgusting as that might be. Through the series Zoey finds not only the place she longs for, a place of family and security, she also finds self recognition. She stands up to her fears and doesn't allow herself to submit as a weak woman under a man's demand. I feel like these are all things you have failed to mention, and I am wondering if you have read past the first half of the very first book. Again, I wish not to sound rude. I just wish to point out the many positive pieces of the House of Night series that you have overlooked. There is much more things that could be positive influences for a young adult, but I don't feel as if I need to point them out to you or any of your readers, if you have read my comment thus far you are aware that this article is not a completely honest review in retrospect.
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