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A review by earutherford
Redeemed by Kristin Cast, P.C. Cast
2.0
This review is my review for the overall House of Night Series
Because this book series was technically a re-read for me (I read this series as a teenager...I think through book 8 before I went off to college), I decided to not write a review for each book in this series. I'm very happy with this decision...because honestly, I think my reviews would have gotten repetitive at some point. The authors of this series follow a very specific formula when writing each book: (1) Zoey has some sort of boy drama, (2) Neferet or one of her minions show up and create problems, and (3) Zoey & her friends cast a circle and fix everything. As a result, this series gets very boring after book 3 – I can safely say that the overall series was much longer than necessary – instead of 12 books, I honestly think the series could have been wrapped up in 5 (maybe even less).
As for the end of this series…. It was anti-climatic to say the least. However, I’m glad this is finally over! I will say the authors did a good job of tying off all loose ends and although those ends may not always make sense (like Damien moving on so quickly after Jack) – they didn’t leave us with any unanswered questions. Overall – I’m just glad this series is over lol.
My general thoughts on each of the characters:
- Zoey: What’s with all the early 2000s MCs and narrators being so self-righteous? The way that Zoey talks about herself and others…I genially think that she thinks she walks on water or some sh*t. The multiple boyfriend thing doesn’t bother me as much as her inability to communicate with her friends/partners.
- Stevie Rae: She fulfills the perfect supporting role characteristics in this series. I am glad that the Casts took the time to give her somewhat of a story line (unlike Aphrodite). However, I do find Stevie Rae (like most of the characters) falls into the type-stereotyping – from the way she dresses, her hobbies & even her accent.
- Aphrodite: I really liked Aphrodite & I think the authors did a decent job of giving background on her to explain why she acts the way she does. However, to take it a step further…it would’ve been helpful if Aphrodite actually went through her own self-discovery/character progression – I mean the book series is 12 books… you’d think they would’ve had enough time to do this!
- Shaunee & Erin: Why did it take until book 10 to separate these two characters from each other? In the end, I did like that Shaunee had her ‘come to jesus’ moment and started developing her own characteristics – it would’ve been nice if we could have gotten the same for Erin other than just developing her into an evil b*tch
- Damien: The thing that I found the most annoying about Damien is that he just fulfills every gay stereotype…and his character development stops there. Like it feels like his personality was just a ‘diversity’ bone. Like I honestly think that the authors sat down and were like ‘How do we make this more diverse?’ ‘ohhhh. I know – let’s just throw the most stereotypically gay boy into here’.
- Aurox/Heath: He’s fine – just another stereotype thrown into these books….like in order to be a jock you need to popular and dumb – which is not true.
- Kalona: Kalona got his redemption arc… and we learned more about his past. I think that his character development might’ve been the best by the Casts (in the grand scheme of things…that doesn’t really mean much though).
- Neferet: Honestly, I wish that we had gotten a whole prequel about Neferet’s life before the HON series. Although the authors touched on her past…I have a hard time believing that Neferet just went evil over a cat. I think that she could have had more depth and complexities in her personality. She felt like a Disney bad guy rather than an actual thought out villain.
- Stark: This boy is so
Because this book series was technically a re-read for me (I read this series as a teenager...I think through book 8 before I went off to college), I decided to not write a review for each book in this series. I'm very happy with this decision...because honestly, I think my reviews would have gotten repetitive at some point. The authors of this series follow a very specific formula when writing each book: (1) Zoey has some sort of boy drama, (2) Neferet or one of her minions show up and create problems, and (3) Zoey & her friends cast a circle and fix everything. As a result, this series gets very boring after book 3 – I can safely say that the overall series was much longer than necessary – instead of 12 books, I honestly think the series could have been wrapped up in 5 (maybe even less).
As for the end of this series…. It was anti-climatic to say the least. However, I’m glad this is finally over! I will say the authors did a good job of tying off all loose ends and although those ends may not always make sense (like Damien moving on so quickly after Jack) – they didn’t leave us with any unanswered questions. Overall – I’m just glad this series is over lol.
My general thoughts on each of the characters:
- Zoey: What’s with all the early 2000s MCs and narrators being so self-righteous? The way that Zoey talks about herself and others…I genially think that she thinks she walks on water or some sh*t. The multiple boyfriend thing doesn’t bother me as much as her inability to communicate with her friends/partners.
- Stevie Rae: She fulfills the perfect supporting role characteristics in this series. I am glad that the Casts took the time to give her somewhat of a story line (unlike Aphrodite). However, I do find Stevie Rae (like most of the characters) falls into the type-stereotyping – from the way she dresses, her hobbies & even her accent.
- Aphrodite: I really liked Aphrodite & I think the authors did a decent job of giving background on her to explain why she acts the way she does. However, to take it a step further…it would’ve been helpful if Aphrodite actually went through her own self-discovery/character progression – I mean the book series is 12 books… you’d think they would’ve had enough time to do this!
- Shaunee & Erin: Why did it take until book 10 to separate these two characters from each other? In the end, I did like that Shaunee had her ‘come to jesus’ moment and started developing her own characteristics – it would’ve been nice if we could have gotten the same for Erin other than just developing her into an evil b*tch
- Damien: The thing that I found the most annoying about Damien is that he just fulfills every gay stereotype…and his character development stops there. Like it feels like his personality was just a ‘diversity’ bone. Like I honestly think that the authors sat down and were like ‘How do we make this more diverse?’ ‘ohhhh. I know – let’s just throw the most stereotypically gay boy into here’.
- Aurox/Heath: He’s fine – just another stereotype thrown into these books….like in order to be a jock you need to popular and dumb – which is not true.
- Kalona: Kalona got his redemption arc… and we learned more about his past. I think that his character development might’ve been the best by the Casts (in the grand scheme of things…that doesn’t really mean much though).
- Neferet: Honestly, I wish that we had gotten a whole prequel about Neferet’s life before the HON series. Although the authors touched on her past…I have a hard time believing that Neferet just went evil over a cat. I think that she could have had more depth and complexities in her personality. She felt like a Disney bad guy rather than an actual thought out villain.
- Stark: This boy is so