Review: Hunted (House of Night, Book 5) by P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast

Rating (Out of 5): ~2.5/3

Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin

Amazon Synopsis:

What if the hottest guy in the world was hiding a nameless evil, and all he wanted was you?
At the start of this heart-pounding new installment of the bestselling House of Night series, Zoey and her gang must discover a way to deal with an unexpected danger that might bring them all down.  Neferet guards her powerful new consort, Kalona, who looks gorgeous and has the House of Night under his spell. A past life holds the key to breaking his rapidly spreading power, but what if it shows Zoey truths she can’t face?  Meanwhile, the red fledglings have cleaned up well, but are they really as friendly as they seem?  On the boyfriend front, Zoey has a chance to fix things with super-hot ex-, Erik, but she can’t stop thinking about Stark, the archer who died in her arms, and she is driven to save him from Neferet’s sinister influence.  Will anyone believe the power evil has to hide among us?

Review:

A friend of mine suggested that I start this series a while ago, as she was really enjoying it. So I did. And I enjoyed it, for the most part. The vampyres are different from normal, and how they're made is a little odd, and the whole goddess and demon thing is interesting. It's a bit odd how it all works, and they (at least as long as they're not fully into their 'powers' or whatever) don't really seem all that vampire-like. They're not a very dangerous vampire type.

And the one thing that I do like about this series is the actual plot point. The parts that Zoey's fighting against Neferet, and fighting against the other people as well; when she's being actually smart and mean. This doesn't happen very often. There are usually very few scenes like this in each book, and they are very brief (and sometimes at the very end). Which is disappointing.

And I like Aphrodite. Stevie Rae is pretty cool, and, despite the stereotypes, I do like Damien and Jack. I'm not too big a fan of Erin and Shaunee, as they seem immature. But I am finding a lot of this series immature and annoying.

First, Zoey. I am really starting to hate Zoey. She is supposed to be strong and smart, since she's practically a high priestess or whatever, so high up next to Nyx, and all that. And yet she isn't very smart, and is making bad decisions all the time. She falls for her teacher, stupidly, and is deceived and hurt. She can't make up her mind about what boy she wants, and whenever she seems to choose, she second guesses it and continues wanting and not resisting the other guys. She needs to make up her freakin' mind. (In my opinion, I think I like Heath most. Erik is pretty much a jerk. I don't know much about Stark yet. And I didn't even like Heath at first, but he's pretty fun.) (Also, and, yes, this is probably not a very good comparison, but with they way this is going with Zoey stringing on so many guys and feeling 'ho-ish' but then making excuses to make it seem alright, it's starting to remind me of the Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter series by Laurell K. Hamilton. In the later books, where she is practically a slut and has sex with so many guys. This is like a much more tamed, immature version of that.) She's dumb and doesn't deserve all that she has.

And I am really bothered by the writing. It's a little crude and, again, immature, and a little bit over exaggerated, in a fanfiction type way, with the words they use. There's cussing and little kid type of words, and it's all so stupid. And it's so very repetitive; the word choice and what they're talking about and the plot. And it's moving so very slowly. The characters are all pretty immature and dumb; they need to grow up a lot more. And, yea, there is quite a bit of stereotyping happening.
A lot of the story focuses on Zoey and her love troubles and her worrying and trying to think of how to solve what's going on. But very little of the plot is actually moved within the over three-hundred page book. And the ending was pretty lame.

It's just dragging on everything with Neferet and Zoey's love life and Kalona. And, really? Zoey has to be the one reincarnated as his love? But of course, though, since everyone has to love Zoey. I'm over all that. Some plot-line action needs to happen.

I already have the next book in the series, but I don't know if I'll be reading it any time soon. I know that there are other points of view than Zoey's, which makes it sound a bit better, since I don't like Zoey possibly most, but it's not enough to make me excited. I've been meaning to read it for a while, but I haven't gotten around to making myself actually do it yet. I'm not planning on not reading more of it, since I like finishing things and I do kind of want to see more of the plot, but it will still probably take a while.