Betrayed

The House of Night books are amazing! I love the twists in this book. Rephaim is an awesome character! I love the parts with Kalona in them. And just when you think Neferet cannot get any worse, she does. There is a death in this book (I won't say who for the fans that have not read it), that was incredibly sad. The Cast ladies have another fantastic book to add to the House of Night collection!

Well, there's certainly some improvement in the second novel and the plot thickens to an extent, yet I feel that the majority of what we experience in Betrayed could be condensed and several matured. Again, my only complaints about the novel as a whole is the maturity of the writing and the often very insensitive material. Honestly, don't even get me started on the choice of “Nature's Jihad” for the name of their terrorist organisation...

First of all, I think we can all agree that Zoey is a Mary Sue, in fact I would go as far to say that Zoey is the biggest Mary Sue in YA that I've read so far (I've read my fair share). The two young men who are reported missing and then murdered are apparently missing as they were spending time around the HoN looking for Zoey because she's just that hot, wow. Her hotness is obviously a great source of comfort to Heath too as the trauma of being kidnapped, tortured and almost eaten by creatures not quite alive and not quite dead suddenly disappears as Heath stands in the rotten tunnels like ‘love you Zoey :) let's kiss Zoey :)' while even the undead watch on confused by the display of simp behaviour. I also really wish we could have seen more of the realisation that the blood drinking is mutually enjoyable so has Heath really given up on his drinking and smoking because he loves Zoey, or because he has found a new addiction? Isn't it also an allegory to SA and r*pe when Zoey repeatedly tells Heath ‘no' to drinking his blood but knowing she can't resist the urge does it anyway which then leads to the lust side of blood lust?

I think my biggest issue overall with the whole novel is the grooming. I can tolerate the idea of a woman being just so beautiful all men are attracted to her, I genuinely think it could be a clever plot point if it wasn't just to fuel teenage ego. Wouldn't it be much more interesting to watch the plot of men constantly chasing Zoey but with more than just love as their motive? What if we saw more of these men having true ulterior motive(s) and we have to follow a young girl becoming aware that not all male advances are genuine, like Loren's (which is reality considering many young girls would be reading these novels and picking up on potential red flags instead of being subconsciously told it's okay to be lusting over/groomed by poetry teachers).

Now I'm pretty sure I remember that we find out Loren is not a good guy (as if we haven't figured that out with his creepy grooming techniques) but Zoey's narration is so unreliable, which may be part of the maturing of the story, yet I can't remember enough of the other books to know if she does start to doubt that her beauty might not be the only reason men are chasing her. Especially grown adults in positions of power attempting to groom 16-year-old students.