Review: Marked ( House of night book 1)

"Marked" is the first book of the "House of night" vampire series for young adults.

Not to be punny, but it sucks. I wont be reading any more of them, and since i bought the first four at the same time at costco, i have to decide how to get rid of them.

I would compare this first book to the Harry Potter series.... The main charcter is a teen girl who is "marked" to become a vampyre. She must move to the "house of night" boarding high school for vampyres or she will die. Her family is upset, like Harry's family... They dont want a vampyre as a daughter; the rigid Christianesque stepdad in particular. We quickly learn how special she is (a la Harry; while all vampyres have a blue tattoo-like cresent moon on their forehead, hers is special too) ... her powers develop too rapidly, etc. She is taken under the wing of the schoolmistress because she's so special ( a la Dumbledorf). Her roomate is a weirdo ( a la Ron Weasley), and before you know it a cat familiar has chosen her. Vampyres in this world are a publically-known species that excell in the arts...most actors and musicians are vampyres, like Shania Twain and Brad Pitt. And then we meet the villan of the series, Aphrodite (a la the Draco kid, but here Aphrodite is a much larger character). Rounding out the friend-gang are a gay guy vampyre and two girls that act like they are twins. While the plot isnt that stellar and the writing is vapid (the adult author says that she had her teen daughter co-author so that the speaking would be realistically teen-enough), my main objection is how native american and wiccan rituals are described in detail and lifted up as wonderful while Christian-esque religion is ridiculed at every turn. While Harry Potter is explicitly about witchcraft, at least it is vague or even just fantasy wand waving and latinized words. I'm not interested in reading about wicca under the name of vampyres.