Untamed, by P. C. Cast and Kristin Cast

[rachelmanija]

Standard warnings apply. On that topic, I will take the time to copy out a typical moment of hilarious well-meaningness:

Jack and Damien are together. Hello. They’re gay. My friends and I, along with anyone who’s not narrow-minded and utterly judgmental, are cool with that.

I forgot to mention that vampyres may choose new names when they become fledglings. Jack is Jack Twist. Yes. From Brokeback Mountain . I thought the names could not possibly get more on-the-nose until a new possible love interest is introduced. He is named Stark. After the character played by James Dean in Rebel without a Cause.

In the department of shouldn’t-work-but-somehow-does, I reluctantly found myself liking Stark. He has a huge rowdy dog when all other vampyres like cats, he has the very cool power of shooting arrows that never miss even if they have to teleport in order to hit their targets, and he has some excellent angst which I won’t spoil.

This book takes the most cracktastic elements of previous ones and makes them even more cracktastic. Actual dialogue:

“Stevie Rae, honey, let me be clear that I’m not judging, but you didn’t eat a street person or anything like that after you caught on fire, did you?”

I also like that the characters, while plausibly driven by teenage hormones and emotions, generally behave in a sensible manner and try to clear up any stupid misunderstandings. And if undead creatures are doomed to lurk in tunnels, eventually they'll start fixing up the tunnels and trying to get net access down there. (I would if I was undead!)



Aphrodite: Still incredibly awesome. Love her cat. Love that she still enjoys sex, is still vain and bitchy, and that the Goddess approves of her exactly the way she is. I’m intrigued by the idea that she has the most humanity of any of them. I wonder what “humanity” really means in this context…

Stevie Rae: Love her new self. I think Aphrodite is completely right that she has a dark side, and I look forward to seeing it emerge.

Zoey: Still has more tats than anyone. Other than that, I like that Aphrodite and Stevie Rae seem equally special. It reminds me a bit of Cassie/Faye/Diana in L. J. Smith’s The Secret Circle. I wonder if the book will conclude with her becoming a blue AND red vampire – a purplepyre? Could that be the true and intended destiny of all vampyres?

Heath: Sadly AWOL for most of the book, but I note the contrast between his reaction to Zoey’s fling with Loren and Erik’s reaction: Erik calls her a slut, embarrasses her in front of her friends, calls her a slut again, and embarrasses her in front of the whole class. Heath breaks up with her because being with her is hurting him. I applaud Heath’s emotional maturity and boo Erik.

Stark: I was totally not expecting him to become undead – certainly not so soon! Were any of you expecting that? I like him and look forward to seeing more of him.



Untamed (House of Night, Book 4)

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