Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Burned, House of Night Novel, Book 7

by P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast

Dedication: "P.C.: This one is for my Guardian. I love you."
"Kristin: (She means you, "Shawnus.")"

First paragraph: "Kalona lifted his hands. He didn't hesitate. there was no doubt whatsoever in his mind about what he had to do. He would not allow anything or anyone to get in his way, and this human boy was standing between him and what he desired. He didn't particularly want to kill the boy; he didn't particularly want the boy alive, either. It was a simple necessity. He didn't feel remorse or regret. As had been the norm during the centuries sine he'd fallen, Kalona felt very little. So, indifferently, the winged immortal twisted the boy's neck and put an end to his life."

Review: This is the seventh book in the House of Night series. Books One and Two were definitely my favorites. Books Three, Four, and Five were still pretty fun and entertaining. And then Book six came around and it looks like I enjoyed it but I was really ready to find out how the whole thing ended. Then I came to the end and it said, "The End for now" or something like that. Turns out there was going to be Seven books in this series. I was not so pleased. So I waited and the book came out in April. And I reserved it from the library but there were 100+ holds and when I finally got it I was swamped with other books so I never managed to pick it up. Then I reserved it again and the same thing happened. Finally, I reserved it and managed to read it!

To understand anything that is going on in this book you'll definitely need to go back and read all the other books. This book is not about Zoey. Well, in a way it is but not like the last ones have been. I think the main focus was on Stevie Rae. Turns out she didn't learn anything from Zoey's mistakes and it appears she's now going make all the same mistakes herself. So frustrating!

Also, I can't remember if this is how the last one was written but this book was being told from around seven or eight different perspectives. Fortunately, they pulled it off without confusing me too bad but it did make it feel a bit like a daytime soap opera to me. I was really excited to find out how things were going to wrap up for Zoey, Stevie Rae and the "nerd herd" but it appears that the Casts still need a little more money in their wallets at least one more book to finish their story.

I love the characters, the story, I really do, but I'm losing interest. I think the fact that it took me 8 months to manage to get the book from the library explains that clear enough. I'm sort of getting bored of the same conversations over and over again and different people making the same mistakes. And listening to the horrible dialogue between certain characters with their awful "accents" and "teen speak".

Finally, my last complaint. Is it really necessary to use the F-word so much in a YA Fiction novel? I "understand" seeing that type of language in Adult fiction. It's adult fiction. People talk like that in adult fiction. But I did not think it was necessary in this book. At all. I think of my younger sister who is obviously reading these types of books and I don't want her seeing all that filthy language. I know it could have been worse, thankfully it wasn't, but it could have been a lot better too.

I feel like this review was sort of harsh and negative. Maybe it's because I'm still a little annoyed by yet another, "The End for Now. Stay tuned for the next installment of The House of Night. Awakened."

Overall, I have really enjoyed this series. It provided me with lots of pages of entertainment. If you've started the series and want to find out what is going on with Zoey and her gang, read this book. Hopefully they'll wrap up this series sooner or later so we can finally figure out how it all ends. If you haven't started the series, I guess a few bad, dragged out books may be worth the entertainment quality of the first ones. Besides, if you enjoy vampire-esque books you'll probably like these. If you like fantasy books you might enjoy these. But don't have my head if you don't.

Click here for the House of Night website.

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