House of Night Marked Recap
Before we go into House of Night Betrayed, let’s recap from the first book, Marked.
In Marked, Zoey Redbird got Marked by a Vampyre Tracker and transferred from her high school in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, to a local House of Night school in Tulsa. Zoey already felt like she couldn’t fit in at her high school in Broken Arrow, and coming to the House of Night made her an anomaly due to having a filled-in crescent moon on her forehead from day one. At the end of Marked, Zoey is gifted with added filigree tattoos (something unheard of in a Vampyre fledgling) for her heroic actions.
At the beginning of Marked, Zoey’s mother and stepfather, John Heffer (the Step-loser as she calls him), made it seem like Zoey getting marked was because of her so-called bad behavior and how she’s considered the bad kid compared to her brother and sister. Zoey goes to see her grandmother at her lavender farm, but falls and hits her head while trying to look for her. After regaining consciousness, Zoey wakes up in the House of Night infirmary with a filled-in crescent moon on her forehead, thus making her different from the average fledglings.
As Zoey tries to navigate life at the House of Night, she becomes best friends with her roommate, Stevie Rae Johnson, Damien Maslin, Shaunee Cole, and Erin Bates.
Throughout Marked, Zoey clashes with Aphrodite, the most popular girl at the House of Night and leader of the Dark Daughters and Sons, a prestigious group a Vampyre school version of a student council. Zoey also discovers Aphrodite misusing her Goddess-given affinity to see into the future by keeping her disastrous events.
While learning about life at the House of Night, Zoey sees how a fledgling dies if their body rejects the change. If a fledgling’s body rejects the change, they start coughing up blood and bleed through their eyes, ears, and nose. After seeing a student named Elliot die in the middle of Lit class, Zoey sees him again, but his eyes are glowing red, his skin is pale white, and he has fangs. Before seeing Elliot, Zoey saw another student who supposedly died the night before, and she also had fangs, pale white skin, and glowing red eyes.
Extremely bizarre, but you’ll learn more about why they’re lurking around the House of Night once you read Betrayed.
At the end of Marked, Aphrodite’s secret misuse of her affinity is exposed after Zoey encountered her ex-boyfriend, Heath Luck, during a Samhain ritual (an event on Halloween that Vampyres use as a way to celebrate ancient Vampyres who moved on into another life). The ceremony turned chaotic when Aphrodite was careless, and her improper use of saying a spell during the Samhain ritual brought in some evil Vampyre spirits that nearly killed Heath. Zoey then becomes the new leader of the Dark Daughters and Sons after her affinity for all five elements: air, fire, water, earth, and spirit becomes known.
Along with becoming the new leader of the Dark Daughters and Sons, Zoey is also given some extra filigree tattoos around her filled-in crescent moon and down her neck and upper back.
House of Night Marked
If you want to see my post on Marked, check out House of Night (Marked: Book #1) Review of the Best-Selling Book by Authors P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast
House of Night Betrayed Summary
Betrayed is the second book in the House of Night series and takes place a few weeks after the events of Marked.
Zoey has been at the House of Night for a month, and although she feels at home, she is trying to figure out how to be in charge of the Dark Daughters while having a new boyfriend (Erik Night) and trying to break up with her human ex-boyfriend, Heath. Zoey also tries to figure out who is killing human teenagers from her old life when evidence points to the House of Night. These issues throughout the novel come full circle when someone close to Zoey dies at the House of Night, and when Zoey learns more about that person’s cause of death, Zoey learns who her friends and enemies are.
House of Night Betrayed In Detail
Betrayed is a page-turner when you begin to read it. After reading Marked, I immediately read Betrayed afterward. A lot happens in this book that makes you see things more clearly. One thing in particular that sticks out to me is the depiction of the characters. I love how Aphrodite is depicted in Betrayed because you see more of her personality and not just the exterior of her appearance.
For example, Aphrodite has been deemed an outcast after her fallout at the end of Marked. During family visitation in Betrayed, Zoey overhears Aphrodite’s parents yelling at her because she disappoints them a lot. Zoey also learns that Aphrodite kept her visions to herself because she thought her parents wanted her to. After Zoey encounters Aphrodite’s hostile parents and Aphrodite feels remorse over her actions, Zoey begins to pity Aphrodite, much to her dismay.
If any of you have read Betrayed, you know that the two dead students Zoey saw in the first book have been brought back from the dead, and they’re not the only ones. When the fledglings came back from the dead, they came back as feral creatures, and they portray the stereotype we often classify vampires as.
Another interesting thing about Betrayed is how it explores bloodlust as a way of life for Vampyres. If an adult Vampyre sucks a human’s blood, they automatically imprint on each other and develop a special bond to where the human becomes more drawn to the Vampyre they’re imprinted with. Vampyres can also track the human they’re imprinted with by thinking about their blood and can even communicate with them telepathically.
Why is Zoey Able to Imprint on a Human While Still a Fledgling?
Well, Zoey is not the average fledgling, and she’s the only Vampyre fledgling to have the ability to control all five elements: air, fire, water, earth, and spirit. At the end of Marked, she also received a filled-in mark and extra tattoos by Nyx, the Vampyre goddess. Zoey experiencing bloodlust when the average fledgling doesn’t have it until a few years after getting marked is further confirmation that she is an anomaly at the House of Night and in the Vampyre world.
Even though Zoey is only a fledgling, she imprints on her ex-boyfriend, Heath, when she runs into him in Tulsa. She drank a drop of his blood in Marked, but drinking more of his blood in Betrayed strengthens their bond even more. When Heath gets kidnapped, Zoey uses their imprint to find him.
As for the teenagers from Zoey’s old life being killed, the dead fledglings Zoey has seen in Marked are responsible. As they’re called in the second book, these rogue red fledglings are hungry for blood, and biting into them and causing massive amounts of blood loss is how these teenagers have been killed. These rogue red fledglings target Heath when he attempts to see Zoey, but they don’t kill him because Zoey saved him. Because Heath and Zoey have imprinted on each other, it prevents the rogue red fledglings from drinking his blood, which in turn prompts Zoey to find him and save him.
Friends And Enemies
Zoey being a very gifted Vampyre fledgling has its perks, but being so exceptionally gifted also has its downsides, especially if it comes with enemies along with friends.
Aphrodite is a spoiled mean girl in the first book, and even though she still is, she becomes an ally to Zoey. She does so by helping save Zoey’s grandmother, Sylvia Redbird, from crashing her car into the Arkansas River via a vision she had several hours before it was supposed to happen. Before this, Neferet, the High Priestess of the House of Night in Tulsa, declared to everyone that Aphrodite lost her ability to see in the future due to the mistakes she made in the past.
However, this proves false because she also had a vision of Heath being killed and saw the rogue red fledglings in her visions killing the teenagers from Zoey’s old life. She tried to go forward with this information, but Neferet didn’t believe her. Neferet was responsible for the rogue red fledglings and the missing teenagers in this book.
Speaking of High Priestess Neferet, she is not one of the good guys depicted in Marked and Betrayed. She’s had a hidden agenda all along, and after reading this book, I believe that Neferet being the enemy and not a friend is the reason why P.C. and Kristin Cast titled the second book Betrayed. You don’t learn about the reasons why she resurrected dead fledglings and had them kill the teenage humans until later on in the series, but this book does open the door to Zoey’s journey as a Vampyre fledgling and her fight against Neferet.
Heads Up! Spoiler Alert
Since we just went over how Zoey learns who her enemy is, I wanted to point out something else.
In the House of Night Betrayed summary, I mentioned that someone close to Zoey dies and sees her real friends and enemies.
In Betrayed, Stevie Rae dies when her body rejects the change. This happens after Zoey performs her first circle in front of the entire school and after Stevie Rae develops an affinity for the element earth. Stevie Rae also gets resurrected as a red fledgling, but Zoey does see that she still does have some of her humanity while saving Heath since she was gifted with an Earth affinity.
After Zoey rescues Heath, they run into Neferet, and she erases both of their memories. Zoey then sees Nyx, who reminds Zoey that “the elements can restore as well as destroy.” When Zoey is later found by Detective Marx, who had previously interviewed Zoey earlier in the book, he tries to help Zoey remember what happened when she realizes that someone messed with her mind.
When Zoey recalls what Nyx told her, she calls upon the elements she has an affinity for to restore her memory. After restoring her memory, Zoey discreetly confronts Neferet about what she knows. Neferet tells Zoey that if she speaks against her, she’ll make sure no one will believe her. Zoey responds by showing off the new tattoos going down her back and informing Neferet that she doesn’t need anyone to believe her because Nyx does.
Overall Perspective on House of Night Betrayed
Betrayed has a mix of fantasy, humor, drama, and suspense. When reading Betrayed, you see how Vampyres are depicted and how their way of life is compared to other novels like Vampire Diaries, Twilight, and even Dracula (Ironically, Dracula is one of Zoey’s favorite books in the House of Night Series). Of course, you see how Vampyre’s are portrayed in Marked, but Betrayed and the House of Night books after this one explore more ways in how they live and coexist among humans.
Stay Tuned
After Betrayed, the next book to read in the House of Night series is Chosen. It’s the third book in the series, and in that book, Zoey is going to have more confirmation that some people she sees as her friends are enemies, and some of her enemies become her friends. Zoey also struggles to find a way to save Stevie Rae, who is undead and trying to hold on to her humanity as some Vampyres are murdered at the House of Night.
I’m not going to go into more details about Chosen but stay tuned for the following review of the third book in the House of Night series. If you wish to share anything about this post, please comment and/or share it.
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