House of Night


House of Night is a series of young adult vampire-themed fantasy novels by American author P. C. Cast and her daughter Kristin Cast. It follows the adventures of Zoey Redbird, a 16-year-old girl who is "marked", becomes a fledgling vampyre and is required to attend the House of Night boarding school in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Books in the series have been on the New York Times Best Seller list for 63 weeks and have sold over seven million copies in North America, and more than ten million books worldwide, in 39 countries.

Plot

Zoey and her friends face the usual teenage issues. Zoey keeps some secrets from her friends and gets in trouble with them, forcing her to consider the nature of friendship. Kristin Cast said that these moral dilemmas were included because "those are issues teenagers deal with... We're not afraid to discuss things that are actually happening." As with many contemporary vampire novels, exploration of human nature and social commentary forms a subtext. and Tsi Sgili are taken from real Cherokee legends.

The setting

The Vampyre World

Instead of "vampire", the authors use the variant spelling "vampyre" throughout the series. This convention is also applied to the words "vampyric" and "vampyrism".
In the fictional world of House of Night, a small percentage of the world's teenagers are changed into vampyres when adolescent hormones trigger a strand of what is otherwise junk DNA. Fledglings are "marked" by a Tracker vampyre with a blue crescent-shaped tattoo on their foreheads; when they become full-fledged adult vampyres, this mark becomes solid blue, and is eventually elaborated upon with the addition of further blue 'tattoos', which extend over their forehead and cheeks, typically taking designs related to some aspect of their personality. Fledglings that die and then are later resurrected have their crescent tattoos turn red in place of the usual blue. Red fledglings appear to complete the change once they have made a choice to side with either good or evil, and their expanded tattoos are the same red. The marking of a fledgling, and the consequent gifts received as part of being a vampyre, are considered to be gifts from the goddess Nyx, the Greek personification of the night.
The change from human to vampyre takes four years, during which the vampyre teenagers, known as "fledglings", must attend one of the "House of Night" boarding schools, and must remain in constant proximity to adult vampyres, as otherwise the fledgling will die. As a result, fledglings rarely leave the schools in which they live. While at the House of Night boarding school, fledglings are required to take lessons in vampyre history, sociology, and in the powers gifted to them as part of their transition into an adult vampyre. However, one in ten fledglings die before completing the transition into adult vampyre, as their bodies reject the Change. Fledglings who do survive the Change into adulthood are physically stronger than most adult humans, with accelerated reflexes, enhanced dexterity, a heavily extended lifespan, and heightened senses, including night vision.
Older fledglings and adult vampyres need to drink small quantities of human blood, but vampyres at the House of Night do not attack humans to get this, instead receiving donations from blood banks. The taking of blood is pleasurable for both human and vampyre, comparable to and described as better than sex or a drug rush within the series, and may lead to a strong emotional bond between the human and the vampyre, known as "Imprinting". An Imprint can be broken through death, the vampyre Imprinting upon another, or through mystical means; when an Imprint is broken, it causes considerable anguish for both the vampyre and the human.
The series has a strong religious setting, with both Christianity and the beliefs of the vampyres a common thread throughout. In the human world within the series, various faiths exist in opposition to or in support of the vampyres; the "People of Faith", a fictional Protestant Christian denomination, is highly intolerant of those they perceive to be in opposition to their beliefs, including the vampyres. Catholicism also plays an important role later in the series, with the fledglings joining forces with Catholic nuns against Kalona. The religious setting of the series gives it a strong moral perspective, as it is often enforced that Nyx gives vampyres and humans free will. Throughout the series, Zoey faces difficult decisions and commonly questions whether or not she has made the right choices, with one character dying as a result of her actions in Tempted. In Burned, a Manichaen view of the Universe is presented, in which Good battles Evil, and characters must choose which side to be on, with the black and white bulls, known as Light and Darkness respectively, introduced as representatives of these forces.

The Human World

The series is set in Tulsa, in a small and reclusive part of Midtown, with many locations in the series taken from real-life Tulsa itself. The House of Night campus is in the real life campus of Cascia Hall Preparatory School, and the climactic scene of the first book in the series takes place in the extensive gardens of the Philbrook Museum of Art. In the series, Zoey also sometimes travels off-campus to the real-life shops of nearby Utica Square, and several important confrontations take place in Utica Square's Starbucks coffee shop. Some of the novels' most dramatic scenes take place in a catacomb-like network of tunnels under downtown Tulsa, built by bootleggers during Prohibition; though a few such tunnels do indeed exist, and can be visited, they are far less extensive than the tunnels described in the series. The abandoned Art Deco train depot where the tunnels begin, however, is real, and is slated to become a concert hall.
The location of Aphrodite's parents' mansion, South 27th Place, is a real street, though the mansion itself is fictional. Though Aphrodite's father, Mr. LaFont, shares a similar name to former mayor of Tulsa Bill LaFortune, his character is not based on LaFortune himself. The Benedictine monastery to which Zoey and her friends flee in the series is real, known as St. Joseph Monastery. The devastating ice storm through which they flee was based on a real ice storm that hit Tulsa in December 2007. The climactic scene in Tempted takes place far from Tulsa, on San Clemente Island near Venice, called Isola di San Clemente in real life. The church at which the Vampyre High Council meets was built in 1131.
Much of Burned takes place on the Inner Hebrides island of Skye, in the palace of Sgiach, the vampyre queen. According to Scottish tradition, Sgiach was a princess many centuries ago, who ran the best warrior training school in Scotland. Princess Sgathach lived in Dunscaith Castle, which is today a ruin.

Characters

The following lists a number of the characters in House of Night.
  • Zoey Redbird: the main protagonist of the series. She has an affinity for all five elements, and is the only High Priestess to have ever been given that magnitude of power by the goddess Nyx. Zoey is also the youngest High Priestess in vampyre history.
  • Neferet: Main antagonist and former High Priestess, now immortal consort of Darkness and witch queen of the Tsi Sgili. Neferet is initially introduced as a kind, loving mentor to Zoey, but is gradually revealed to be on the side of Darkness.
  • Aphrodite LaFont: Former "hag from hell" and Zoey's enemy in the first book. Aphrodite starts as a rather bitchy and arrogant vampyre fledgeling. Aphrodite is later unmarked to save Stevie Rae and the two imprint briefly. Her visions remain in spite of losing her mark and becomes an oracle and prophetess. Gradually grows to trust Zoey and the rest of the nerd herd.
  • Stevie Rae Johnson: Zoey's best friend, and the first red vampyre High Priestess in history. She also has an affinity for earth and is Rephaim's girlfriend later in the series.
  • Erin Bates: A fledgling and member of the nerd herd with an affinity for water before she left to be with the evil red fledgling Dallas. Her body eventually rejects the Change and she dies.
  • Shaunee Cole: A fledgling and member of the nerd herd with an affinity for fire. She is Erin Bates twin until she starts to grow her own personality much to Erin's dismay. Suffers the loss of her twin. Girlfriend of Erik Night in Redeemed.
  • Damien Maslin: A fledgling, member of the nerd herd with an affinity for air. Jack is his boyfriend until being murdered by Neferet. Damien eventually finds love again.
  • Heath Luck: Zoey's human " almost-boyfriend", who cannot seem to stay away despite her best efforts. Their Imprint breaks twice: once when Zoey Imprints with Loren Blake, and again when Heath is killed by Kalona. Part of Heath's soul later returns in Aurox, the Vessel created by Neferet.
  • Erik Night: A former fledgling and Zoey's ex-boyfriend, now the vampyre Tracker for Tulsa's House of Night. Erik has a talent for acting, and once won an international House of Night monologue competition. He and Shaunee later start seeing each other.
  • James Stark: A red vampyre who is introduced in the 4th book and eventually becomes Zoey's main love interest as well as her Warrior and Guardian, and has an affinity for archery.
  • Nyx: The goddess of the vampyres and Kalona used to be her warrior that he loved too much and she banished him.
  • Kalona: Fallen immortal Guardian of Nyx. Father of Rephaim and the Raven Mockers. He was once a glorious winged immortal of Nyx as well as her warrior, but he grew jealous of his brother and was eventually deceived by Darkness, and was thus cast from the Otherworld by Nyx, an act that broke her heart. His wings turned black after this, reflecting the taint of Darkness in his soul.
  • Darius: A Son of Erebus tasked with guarding Zoey. He later becomes Aphrodite's Warrior.
  • Loren Blake: The vampyre Poet Laureate and a professor at the House of Night. He flirts with Zoey and later Imprints with her after having sex with her, but is revealed to be Neferet's lover and puppet. Neferet kills him in Chosen when he begins to show real concern for Zoey.
  • Kramisha: A red fledgling with a gift for poetry who is named Zoey's Poet Laureate.
  • Dragon Lankford: Anastasia's husband, the fencing instructor.
  • Anastasia Lankford: Dragon's wife, the Spells, and Rituals professor.
  • Sylvia Redbird: Zoey's grandmother, a Cherokee Wise Woman. She owns a lavender farm and is often on hand to give Zoey advice and reassurance in the fight against Darkness.
  • Jack Twist: Damien's boyfriend and a member of the nerd herd, who has an unofficial affinity for technology. In Awakened, Neferet, needing a sacrifice for the white bull, chose Jack because he refused to revoke Nyx in favor of evil, and killed him, making it seem like an accident.
  • Rephaim: Kalona's eldest and favorite Raven Mocker son. Later he becomes Stevie Rae's boyfriend, and is given a normal body in Awakened, but because of the mistakes he made in the past, is only normal by night. By day, he takes the form of a raven.
  • Shaylin Ruede: A blind girl who is the first fledgling to be Marked red. When Erik Marks her, she is gifted with an affinity for True Sight, and later for water.
  • Nisroc: Kalona's second eldest son and second most evolved, took care of his brothers while Kalona and Rephaim were away.