House of Night- P.C. Cast and Kristen Cast
Kristen Cast (left) and P.C. Cast (right)
P.C. Cast and Kristen Cast are a mother daughter writing team. They have each written stories alone, but they are best known for the House Of Night. P.C Cast was born in the Midwest and grew up being shuttled back and forth between Illinois and Oklahoma. Because of this she fell in love with Quarter horses and mythology. When she graduated from high school she decided to join the United States Air Force (USAF). She also began public speaking and writing. After her tour with the USAF she taught for 15 years until she retired to write full time. P. C. Cast has received numerous awards for her writing. Kristen Cast is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author. Kristen is currently working on her first stand-alone novel.
Synopsis
You have heard of twilight with the intense gaze of the vampyres and the sparkly skin. Well at the House of Night they set the vampyre rumors straight. P.C. and Kristen Cast made their vampyre characters as normal as possible, with the exception of their elaborate tattoos. Zoey Redbird is a normal high school student, dating the quarterback, she has okay grades and lots of friends, until she is marked with the crescent moon. Once Zoey is marked, she knows she must go to the House of Night or else she will get very sick and die. Zoey goes to find her grandma, when she passes out and wakes up at the House of Night in her hometown of Tulsa. Right away, she meets the head master, who is also the healer for the school, Neferet. Neferet becomes Zoey's mentor. All fledglings, new vampyres who have not made the change yet, have a mentor to help guide them. Zoey soon makes friends with her bumpkin roommate, Stevie Ray. Stevie Ray soon introduces her to Damien and the Twins, Shaunee and Erin. Zoey goes about trying to fit in, but as time goes on, it gets harder and harder. She soon finds things are not all right at the House of Night and not all right with her as tattoos begin to appear on her even though she has not made the change to a full vampyre yet. Zoey also finds she has an affinity for all of the elements, earth, air, fire, water and spirit, which is unheard of. Zoey and her friends soon find themselves in danger and need to learn who is on their side before it is too late
Characters
The main character is Zoey Redbird, a typical teenage girl living in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Zoey is very unsure of her surroundings and herself while she goes through the changes. Zoey is very fortunate to have her best friends around as she goes through these changes. Stevie Ray, Zoey's roommate, is always smiling and is very supportive of Zoey even when Zoey makes mistakes that hurt her friends. Damien is extremely smart and can always find a way around a problem. Shaunee and Erin are very much alike, which is why they are called the twins. Shaunee is tan with brown hair while Erin is white with blonde hair. Their physical differences don't stop them from being extremely alike when it comes to their sense of style and love of shopping. Erik Night appears as numerous roles in the series, but his most prominent role is as Zoey's boyfriend. Erik begins as a fledgling, but he, like many others, soon makes the change to full vampyre and moves on to what we would call University. All vampyres do this and many, because of their natural beauty, become models, actors or celebrities. Many also become writers. In the books Cast refers to many celebrities she claims to be vampyres. We also meet Neferet; the equivalent to a principal, Anastasia Lankford and Dragon Lankford, teachers at the school who become very important in some of the last books; Aphrodite, who starts out hating Zoey, but soon learns to tolerant her; and Nyx, the goddess the vampyres worship. Along with these characters there are many more that will be mentioned later on.
Related Books
If you like this series you may also be interested in the book series by Lynne Ewing, 'Daughters of The Moon'. The story line is about 4 teenage girls who know nothing about each other to start, but soon find they have everything in common. The girls all live in Los Angeles and go to the same school, but have never talked to one another before. Soon though, they find the reason they have strange powers, telepathy, time-travel, invisibility, and premonitions, is because of the mythology of Pandora's box. This series has 13 books and features a very enticing story line.