The One I Couldn't Read

Marked by P.C. and Kristin Cast
New York : St. Martin's Griffin, c2007.
306 p. ; 21 cm.

What can I say about this book? It's a hot mess of a work - sloppy, uneven, awfully plotted, silly dialogue, boring, unoriginal...and extremely popular - sigh.  It is a book that successfully takes advantage of the vampire phenomenon but is such a mix of high and low (pretentious references to myth and American Indian "lore" along with crass commercialism and sexuality) and poor writing that I just could never lose myself in it.  Unlike the Twilight series- where I didn't care for the plot and characters - but could appreciate the strong writing and structure of the book, this one just left me completely unsatisfied.

I really tried to give it a go, but around page 125, I signed the papers and pulled the plug (something I almost never do with a book I've started). I just couldn't take anymore lines like the following when the main character sees a "hot" young man at her new vampire school:

"The door opened and oh my dear sweet lord I do believe my heart totally stopped beating.  I'm positive my mouth flopped open like a moron.  He was the most gorgeous young lad I had ever seen. He was tall and had dark hair that did that adorably perfect Superman curl thing. His eyes were an amazing sapphire blue and..." (p112)

And that was one of the better passages of the book.  I guess this book and the series it launched (The House of Night series) proves that reading is an incredibly subjective endeavor - even just reading for entertainment.  I'm not above reading a book for light fun, but this one just didn't do it for me.