Wednesday, September 24

PC and Kristin Cast: Marked

A teenager is marked as a fledgling vampire and sent off to a school where she will learn what it is to be an adult vampire-if she survives the change. There she discovers that, along with her amazing new powers and blood lust, she has been chosen by the Goddess Nyx to secretly monitor the behaviour of those around her.
Confused and reluctant to embrace her altered identity she eventually finds acceptance amongst her new vampire friends and learns to embrace her destiny.
She infiltrates an elite clique that is abusing their powers, exposes the leaders for the weaklings they truly are and sets the followers back on the right path, demonstrating her courage and solidifying her status in the process.
Set in a world where vampires are an acknowledged part of society, explaining their existence as an activation of ‘junk’ DNA during adolescence via a process not yet understood and often fatal, this book offered an interesting twist on dark fantasy.
Full of teenaged angst about not understanding what is happening physically, the lack of compassion shown by fundamentalist family members, the loss of old friends, sexual awakening and the difficulty of not fitting in, this story reflected the issues faced by the main character and her reactions to them well. But it was prevented from becoming too oppressive by a number of lighter moments, such as when the main character accidentally imprints her ex-boyfriend.
This book does fall into the young adult fantasy cliché of the main character not only discovering that they are a member of a ‘special’ group but somehow being marked as extra special even amongst the members of said group. But once you accept that it is a remarkably good read for the type.
This is the first in a series I will be reading more of.-Lynn

No comments: