Romance with a Raven Mocker ~ Book Review of ‘Burned’ by P. C. Cast and Kristin Cast

‘Burned’ starts of just where ‘Tempted’ ends, with Zoey Redbird’s soul broken because she witnessed Kalona (a fallen angel) striking down her childhood sweetheart, Heath.  If you haven’t been reading the ‘House of Night’ young adult series than the first sentence of this review isn’t going to mean much to you, which of course is an issue when reviewing a book that is part of a franchise.  Honestly, I don’t think any of the books the Casts women, a mother and daughter writing team, stand up on their own except the first book of the series, ‘Marked’.  In my review of ‘Tempted’, I indicated that I was going to go into more depth about my feelings as to the direction the ‘House of Night’ series is taking, and I am keeping my promise.  Park of my issue with reviewing ‘Tempted’ was that it had been over six months since I had read the book (that’s what happens when life gets in the way) until I actually got down to writing the review.  Thus, I did a little review cheating and looked at the reviews that were written about the book on Amazon.com.  They not only helped me remember parts of the book, but also confirmed some of my current feelings about the series.  I have come to the conclusion that the ‘House of Night’ stories started to derail partially with the fifth book ‘Hunted’, which was another book I reviewed months after reading it.    

                My history with this series began when I spotted ‘Marked’ at Costco.  I hope you will indulge me with a confessional, I started to read a bunch of books with vampire themes as well as literature that was marketed to the young adult/teenage girl audience.  I was recovering from cancer and chemo and I found that these books didn’t really demand that much of me except easy escapism, plus young adult books are cheaper than their adult market cousins.  Another check mark in their column is that many of them are written as a series of books therefore if you like a series you can just hop from one book to the next. 

              I was pleased with ‘Marked’ and from there I quickly read ‘Betrayed’, ‘Chosen’ and ‘Untamed’.  If I remember correctly ‘Untamed’ was still in hardback form, but I was so taken with the storyline that I had to get my reading fix.  Although I don’t give much thought to buying a book that is eight dollars and under, I do pause over any book that is over that in price.  Yet from ‘Untamed’ on I have been buying the ‘House of Night’ books as they have come on the market in hardback…now I’m not so sure if I want to continue that trend.

                Even from the beginning, I knew that the Cast women sometimes lost control of the details they added in their books.  In the first book Zoey had siblings, plus issues with her mother and stepfather not wanting her to fulfill her vampire potential because they were fundamentalist Christians then the books changed tact and rarely mention Zoey’s family except her grandmother (since the first chapter of ‘Marked’ the Cast women have never written about Zoey’s sister or brother).  I do get it that they stumbled upon a better storyline and abandoned elements of their ‘House of Night’ universe that weren’t working.  After all, in the ‘Marked’ Heath was just a bone headed football player who had been her boyfriend for years, but one she felt she was outgrowing – flash forward to ‘Tempted’ and ‘Burned’ and her soul shatters after she witnesses his death.  Thus, I think I have proven my point that consistency has never been a strong suit for the Cast writing team. 

                What they have been strong on is coming up with creative storylines that are page turning intriguing – much like Anne Rice and her ‘Vampire Chronicles’ until she decided to make Lestat a rock god.  Someone writing about the ‘House of Night books on Amazon hit the nail in the head when they said, and I will paraphrase, that the Cast women have great talent with the storyline, but their writing falls short and doesn’t do the storyline justice.  I think this is so true.  I also want to know where are the St. Martin’s Griffin editors?  If the Cast women can’t see it for themselves, isn’t it the job of an editor to see how much of the dialogue in ‘Burned’ turns the story leaden?  Yes, I know that the books are aimed at teen girls, but there seems to be some sort of disconnect between knowing how teens communicate when they are shooting the breeze with no care in the world, to one where there is something involving immediate life or death.  Poopy Snoopy easy peasy bully poop and all those other things the characters say just stops me in my reading tracks, especially since they seem not to have any qualms about using the infamous F word on several occasions.  Seriously, is it just me?  Is there no happy medium here?   

                Beyond the F bombs and words two-year-olds use for feces, I think the worst sin the Casts gals do, at least in the long run, is their pop culture references.  One of the reasons the Harry Potter literary series endured was because it never made mention of Tony Blair or the death of Princess Di or even going to an Elton John concert.  The main three characters never debated on the merits of the ‘Sex Pistols’ versus whoever is the newest London punk sensation.  If they had done it then the readers would have been taken out of the witching world that J. K. Rowling had set up.  It wasn’t even until the last book that the reading audience found out that the boyhood story of Harry ended sometime in the 90s and that he was preparing to send his first born to his or her first day at Hogwarts.  As a reader, I was surprised that Harry was nearly my age, but Rowling could do that because she never made any pop culture reference that would stick out in her books like a neon light forever sealing the tale not to a particular decade, but a particular year (sometimes month).  Dear P. C. and Kristin Cast, I know it is tempting to make ‘True Blood’ references because you probably assume correctly that if people are reading your books they are probably watching the HBO television series, but in five years the show may not be on and that reference you casually put in your story will make the book seem tired and old hat.  Now, don’t get me started on the ‘Star Trek’, Paris Hilton, and Britney Spheres references (BTW, she seems to be doing much better so mentioning that she had a shaved head just seems like you are making fun of the mentally ill)  Slowly I’m stepping off my soapbox.

                Within the context of ‘Burned’ part of the storyline is devoted to Stevie Rae and Raphine the raven mocker she saved. I liked this side story although I have issues with Stevie Rae’s hickish characteristics.  Further, the idea of a shattered soul in the afterlife seemed very original.  Once again, these interesting avenues are what make the Casts women competent storytellers.   

                Although the character Aphrodite is still supposed to be a bit of a pain, as least when I read about her I feel that she has some depth in characteristics.  She might still be a bit two-dimensional in places, but in comparison to Stevie Rae she isn’t dull as week old Wonder Bread.  I like the change that Stark goes through.  The rest of the characters aren’t mentioned much and it seems as if the politics of the Tulsa House of Night have been put on the backburner until the next book, ‘Awaken’ arrives.

                Despite some of my harsh comments, I do like this series, although I might wait to read ‘Awaken’ when it is out in paperback, that might be some time since I’m sure it won’t be released until at least the fall of this year, which probably won’t be released in paperback until the fall of 2011 – a year in a half between books for this franchise might mean that I would forget all about the story line (heck, it is hard enough to remember what happened in ‘Burned’ and I read that six months ago).  Overall, I would recommend the series although I believe that the best books thus far are the first few ones, some of the storylines in the later books are interesting, but the stories themselves tend to be riddled with sloppy storytelling.  I hope ‘Awaken’ with change the direction this series seems to be heading.       

Westerfield © 2010