a review by Clare Elaine
Awakened is the eighth novel in the House of Night series written by P.C. and Kristin Cast. The series follows the story of Zoe as she is first marked and then joins in life at the Tulsa House of Night, which is known to the locals as vampire finishing school. Far from being a whiny teenage story about hair and boys, the story takes you on an emotional journey of sacrifice and growing up.
P.C. and Kristin Cast create a world filled with characters that could be a part of our every day life. When they combine these people with a goddess, a fallen immortal and a priestess on a power trip, in settings both familiar and unfamiliar to us the stage is set for an epic battle between good and evil.
Throughout this section of the saga the focus is on choice. Each of the characters we have spent the last seven books either loving or hating has a choice to make that will determine the path that they take, and as a consequence, which side of the battle they are giving their support to.
Unlike previous books in the House of Night series, Awakened is difficult to pick up and read without prior knowledge, each of the other books in the series spends time giving a recap of what has happened and the vampire lore specific to this series. Awakened skips through the back story of Zoe and her friends, and goes straight into a tear jerking, heart wrenching account of where choices can lead.
Awakened, like each of the House of Night books before it, was one I was unable to put down even if I had wanted to, and I eagerly await the next installation of the story Destined which, rumor has it, is due out in November this year.
This article was previously published in Dark Matter issue 3, April 2011, and predated on this website to reflect the original publication date.
