House of Night (3) - Chosen by P.C. and Kristin Cast
And now to part 3 of 12 of the House of Night-Series - Chosen (in French Choisie, in German Erwählt). I read it in German where it contained 409 pages. Originally published 2008.
Everything has changed – irrevocably. Z has to try to redeem her friend while keeping her knowledge from her mind-reading enemy's radar – even if this means that Zoey's only ally can be Aphrodite, of all the people! While her heart is torn between not two, but three guys, Z has to wrestle with her guilty conscience – and the murders at the House of Night continue...
Okay. Chosen sucks. Sorry, but it's the truth. Let's start with all the content & character mistakes I found.
- Spoiler:
Damien is the brain. He's the most intelligent boy in the school. He should have at least noticed something was going on! Seriously! Okay, Jack and Stevie Rae did sidetrack him a lot, but he and the twins want to take care of Z – because they think that Zoey has lost most, since SR was her room mate and bestie. By the way, why didn't the twins notice something was going on? They were basically in love with Loren, and the have a nose for gossip – and this would be gossip material, no doubt. If Z was a good liar, I'd say, okay. If Z was a good actress or even remotely average intelligent, I'd say maybe. But Zoey is none of this! So, you're going to tell me that someone who can't lie and has always a guilty conscience can keep her really not okay affair with a teacher from her friends, who love to stick their noses into other people's business and watch Z closely to take care of her? Hell, no! Plus, Loren more or less seduced her whenever he saw her – and, since Z is a little blind sometimes, he had to get obvious. But no, no one even got suspicious – the only person noticing something was up is Erik – and he didn't think of the (to say it with JLA) “bike” of the school (likes to give everyone a ride). … Yeah. Right. Or not! How does this make any sense?
- Z stops trusting Neferet and makes a huge effort to not be alone with her et cetera. No one gets suspicious.
- Z sneaks out of school quite often to see Stevie Rae or Heath – and she begins to talk a lot with Aphrodite. Still, no one notices. Are they blind???
- Apropos Aphrodite: I like her. She's changed a lot – unfortunately, it's not realistic. That Aphrodite would eventually stop a) manipulating b) hating and c) trying to destroy Z – okay. That Zoey would eventually grow to trust her? Sure. She doesn't hold grudges. But that this happens in next to no time? Seriously, it's like some alien came down and did some mind-controlling mojo on them (I hope its last name was Black). It's just way too fast!
- Okay, I spend lots of sentences to make clear that the fact that Z's and Loren's relationship remains a secret doesn't make sense. Now to the affair itself – because it's just as realistic. Are you seriously trying to tell me that Zoey Redbird, chosen by Nyx, getting important information through her intuition and dreams trusts Loren after everything? Seriously, she had a very bad feeling about him in the first place. And then she dreams of him being all evil with Neferet – Nyx more or less told her that Loren's a bad guy, and Z simply forgets it over the fact that he's suddenly sooo more attractive than Heath and Erik??? Seriously?????
Well. The only thing I actually like in that book (besides the fact that Z gets to feel the consequences of her actions) is Stevie Rae's development. That was pretty well done. And it was still tense. Besides? The book sucked. And I still don't like that Z has so many boyfriends! Seriously! How can a girl does that to herself – or the boys? It's not fair on any one of the participants. Heath adores her, so much that he says he'd share her if he just got to be with her. She treats him like crap!
Spoiler:
Erik loves her and agrees to share her with Heath, but only because of the blood connection. She goes in throws it in his face. And if this isn't bad enough, she sleeps with Loren while Erik has just one of the most important moments in his life. And he sees that. That's, like, the worst thing ever. And she hurts herself because a huge part of her knows that what she does is wrong – and, besides, she can not have the relationship she wants, the one where you can trust the partner and just be happy. All she has is varying levels of body contact – kisses with Erik, blood and other stuff with Heath and sex with Loren. That's all her relationships consist of.
In brief:
Okay, I give the book half a star for style and half a star for ideas, plus a star for Stevie Rae. Minus a star for characters and minus one for content. So, zero stars it is.
Prequel:
Sequel: