It’s time for another House of Night book, yes my epic
suffering continues
Here we have an evil plot to take over all vampire
society and doubtlessly do bad evil things – but far more importantly we have
to spend an age battling with Zoey’s endless love dodecahedron. This eclipses
doing any actual plot line. Oh and Stevie Rae decides to lose her ever loving
mind and find yet another irredeemable evil to redeem. Of course she does.
The desperate, awful, contrived theme of this book is
“choice” and making the right choice. This was kind of touched on in the last
book and now has been taken to new, utterly awful, appalling levels. So the
whole point of the Red Fledglings is because they made the right choice which
made them good little vampires. Or there’s the whole conflict with the Raven
Mocker and, again, choice.
So, here’s the theme – making the right choice to be a
good little Nyxy follower
Now the problems, firstly this “making the right choice”
comes with a clumsy and pretty offensive retcon. Previously we knew Kalona came
to the House of Night and managed to get everyone to worship and obey him
because he used woo-woo. Mind control allowed him to take over the House
despite how clearly dubious the whole thing was – and only a few managed to
resist because they had sufficient woo-woo to do so. Even Zoey’s band of
sycophants had to fight against his pull and they managed that because of their
woo-woo
Now, instead of woo-woo they make a big thing of choice
and outright blaming people for making the wrong choice. There’s a whole lot of
judgement of people who continued to follow Kalona and Neferet because they
made the “wrong choice” – but that support goes up to and includes actually
murdering a teacher. So what is it now? Are these students and professors mind
controlled (and we’re blaming them for “choosing” to be controlled?!) or did
they, of their own free will, decide that a raven monster killing one of their
teachers was totally ok? Whichever way you look at it, it makes no sense. It’s
there only so Zoey & co can be morally superior to their mind controlled
fellows
But this goes to much much much worse levels when we
consider Becca. Becca was the girl who Stark (the new redeemed Red Vampire)
raped – something Cyna covered in her
excellent take down of fucking Stark here. Becca was assaulted by Stark and
he would have raped her if Darius and Zoey hadn’t stopped him. She was then mind
controlled into forgetting and promptly turned into a mean girl so Zoey could
get on with redeeming Stark. Now, Becca is back, and she is the terribad awful
mean girl who hates Zoey because Becca just can’t make the Right Choices.
Because that’s how it’s framed now – Becca is a terrible, weak, awful person
because she’s not making the Right Choice.
We have zero sympathy for the rape victim, have demonised
her and are outright blaming her for her victimisation (for making a bad
choice!) while Stark is now firmly on team good guy. This is when I’d normally
call for killing everything with fire but I fear the air pollution it would
cause.
But let’s look at this redemption mess – because ye gods
is it awful. See, we already have Stark the rapist now declare himself to be
Zoey’s warrior and because he has made a “good choice” (i.e. joined Zoey’s
sycophant team which absolves him of everything) and all his bad actions are
now redeemed but now we also have Rephraim.
Rephraim the Raven Mocker. Rephraim the Child of Kalona. Rephraim
who has killed or tried to kill numerous people. Rephraim the enemy found weak
and helpless – and Stevie Rae declares that she simply cannot cannot cannot
bring herself to kill him because she can sense his HUMANITY and how can she
possibly kill that humanity?
Now, don’t get me wrong, not killing a helpless enemy isn’t
a bad thing. Being merciful, being kind, being empathetic, refusing to be
cruel, valuing life – these are all precious traits and good to explore.
Except Stevie Rae is a killer. We’ve
had numerous references to how she and the other Red Fledglings killed a
homeless person – and regarded it as nothing more than an embarrassing,
unfortunate incident, a faux pas which is oh-so-awkward. There are still at
least 3 other Red Fledglings out there who are still out there killing people
eating them and Stevie Rae not only leaves them unsupervised to go about
killing and eating – but when they talk about it she just brushes over it. She
skips past the topic with, perhaps, mild disapproval at best – certainly no outrage
or worry about someone’s humanity.
For that matter, what
about the Black men that Zoey so casually killed and then didn’t spend more
than two seconds feeling sad about this guy
So, no, I’m not exactly going to praise the agonising over the humanity of the vicious, evil Raven monsters when none of them have so much as spent 10 seconds together worrying about the humanity of the now demonised Becca, or those nameless Black stereotypes, or the often dismissed and demeaned homeless people that Stevie Rae snacked on. I’m not going to celebrate the agonising over the life of another monster while innocent bodies have been scattered in their wake - in fact it’s an insult to all those dead and victimised people that they finally decide to realise the value of life when confronted with an evil Raven-monster
Who they then start to walk down the path of redemption!
Which means we’ll have another load of victims hastily brushed under the rug
for the sake of a character’s rapid joining of team good guy. And while we at
it, let’s add extra awful of how the Raven Mockers are evil because they’re
products of rape.
While we’re at it, let’s look at some of the people on
the various bad guy teams:
Kalona – who we spend most of the book with Zoey umming
and awwwing because she wants him to be redeemed as well! Yes, of course she
does! Because he’s hot (yes, we will return to the tortuous morass of awful hat
is her love life later). He even gets a sympathetic back story.
Neferet – evil with a capital E. While Kalona is
considered redeemable, no-one even spends a second considering that the former
High Priestess may rejoin team good. In fact, in the last book and even this
book Kalona’s evil is repeatedly blamed on her – she is presented as corrupting
and possibly leading Kalona astray
Nicole – leader of the rogue Red Fledglings. Evil,
despite a couple of requests (well, threats actually – yes threats) redeeming
her is not high on anyone’s agenda. She’s evil and even scares her fellow rogues
Venus – Venus is Aphrodite #2, a woman who exists
entirely for Zoey to hate, to be sexual (therefore evil), dare to go for Zoey’s
men (because, of course, Zoey can have multiple love interests but someone even
looking at her ex is a slutwhorejezebel) and is generally straight from Mean
Girl central casting.
Aphrodite – has now joined team good guy – but only by
debasing herself at every turn. The last three books have had multiple
instances of Aphrodite saying what a terribad, awful person she was and how
much she hates herself and is totally unworthy of anything. Aphrodite is one of
the rare women who is allowed to be redeemed or considered redeemable like the
men only by engaging in constant mea culpas and self-punishment which none of
the men have had to endure. It’s also worth noting that when Aphrodite was
terribad evil, she was sexual – she had sex. She even outright denounces her
past sexual behaviour as a desperate need of control. Now she’s good? She’s
chaste, because her relationship with Darius is “purer” than sex (because this
book so loathes all things sexual). Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want Darius (a
man in his mid-twenties) and Aphrodite (a 17-18 year old girl) to enter a
sexual relationship (but then, him declaring his eternal bonded love to her is
hardly better) but the contrast between evil sexual Aphrodite and good, chaste
Aphrodite is gross and obvious.
Stark has never had to endure such self-flagellation. His only angst is whether his Red Vampireness will be able to properly protect the sainted Zoe.
The redemption of men vs the redemption of women is
increasingly blatant.
Alas, it’s time for a depressing trip into Zoey’s awful
love life – and that includes the awfulness of Erik.
Erik is a mess. His sole personality trait is his overwhelming,
raging jealousy. It’s vicious, it’s all consuming and all he cares about. No
matter what epic events are happening, what he cares about is always being Zoey’s
one and only. He’s always stomping and whining and angsting and attacking Zoey –
including attacking Zoey for Kalona being interested in her. Yes, the big bad
guy stalking Zoey is totally Kalona’s fault.
Of course, narratively he HAS to be terribad awful. Because if he isn’t almost cartoonishly terrible then there’s no way that Zoey can have the moral high ground. If he weren’t cartoonishly awful, there’s no way that Zoey couldn’t be the bad guy. She cheated on him which ended their relationship. She then re-entered that relationship on the understanding they would be monogamous – and continually pursued relationships with two other men, Heath and Stark. She repeatedly sleeps with other men, she kisses other men over and over again. She doesn’t make even the slightest token effort to respect him or follow through on that pledge of fidelity.
I say again, this is not a good representation of
polyamoury. Not least of which because both Stark and Heath now have woo-woo
reasons to be connected to Zoey (therefore “justifying” the relationships with
Nyxy seals of approval). But mainly because none of the men involved want a
polyamorous relationship – they’re connected to Zoey largely through woo-woo
reasons or her own promise of a relationship, all of them want to be her one
and only, she even promises that to Erik – while she continues to maintain
romantic or quasi romantic relationships with all three.
Erik has to be an arsehole, otherwise there’d be no way
to distract from how outrageously Zoey is behaving.
Oh and can we have a special prize for Zoey being JEALOUS
of Stark feeding on someone else. The hypocrisy is stunning. I mean, it takes a
special kind of arrogance to even dare to be jealous in this context
This is all linked to Zoey’s eternal conflict to Kalona
and the epic struggle of actually not running away with your libido. Just
because you’re attracted to someone, especially someone morally repugnant,
doesn’t mean not following through with that attraction is so epicly
impossible. Zoey’s “struggle” with her being “drawn” to Kalona is cringeworthy.
Yes, he’s hot. Deal with it. It would help if Nyx would actually get involved
Speaking of – on to Nyx and the whole terrible plot
Let’s look at Neferet’s Master Plan and how it all rests
on the complete uselessness of Nyx.
See, Neferet has decided to declare herself Nyx
incarnate, Kalona is Erebus and wants the vampire High Council to make her the
new boss. Obviously this would completely fail because Nyx would naturally buzz
in and say a loud “not true, you lying liars who lie! Bad, naughty, wrong!”
Except… she doesn’t. Of course she doesn’t. Because Nyx
never does get involved – except to direct Zoey’s every move, give her prophecy
through two different cryptic prophets (yes, two) and give her random
certainties (honestly half the time Zoey and now even Stevie-Rae just KNOW
things because NYX and because it saves them having to think or research or use
their brains at all) and, of course, the constant stomach cramps and rumblings
that guide Zoey’s every move.
Give me one, just one, logical reason why Neferet wouldn’t arrive at the council and the whole council wouldn’t get vast amounts of Nyx stomach cramps?! She should have arrived, been chased out within 10 minutes, then the whole council should have had to retreat to baths and clean underwear.
Time to cling to one vague, desperate attempt at a
positive. The treatment of Kramisha, Shaunee, Jack and Damian is better. Not
because they’re treated with anything resembling respect but because they’re
just mentioned less. The author’s inattention ensures that we are spared the
immense awfulness which is every word they say, every time they’re described
or, in fact, every time they appear or are referenced. It’s sad that the depiction
of marginalised people approaches more tolerable simply because they’re more
ignored. That’s the ultimate “pass
at writing marginalised people” right there. Oh it’s not free – we have
Damian “looking gayer”, “gay boys” and referring to Jack as a girl/boyfriend as
well as Aphrodite being insulted by calling her “Aphrodikey” (really). “Special
needs/services” is also used as an insult. Shaunee is described as “cappuccino”
and worried about being “scared white”, Heath and Erik throwing around “pussy”
as an insult as well as lots of misogynist insults. And ye gods Zoey needed
Damian to tell her what misogyny means.
Really, it says how BAD this series has been that this
terribleness is actually a step up.
Part of lower rate of awful may come from all of the
tiresome Stevie Rae point of view – she’s completely separate from everyone
else and gets to inflict a terribly written accent with hokey vernacular that
overwhelms her “narrative.” Honestly does anyone actually speak like this?
Really?
I am impressed that it has found another way to be
annoying. It plumbs new depths each time.
