Michele says:
Chosen is an interesting title for the third book of the House of Night series. So far the books are focused on super chosen one, Zoey Redbird as she struggles not to just to come to terms with a major life change, but also with realizing how much stands against her in life. With a theme like that it’s easy to see why teens find something to like in these pages.
Being the third book it’s also a little more secure in writing style. There’s less of the eye-rolling author intrusion that annoyed me in the first books. This book brings in both the overall plots, like the red fledglings and Nefert’s real alignment. Furthermore since Nefert can read minds Zoey is forced to keep what she knows from her friends and budding inner circle.
The boy situation hasn’t improved. There’s a very awkward cross situation where Zoey needs her human ex Heath, partially because he’s human and a childhood friend and she doesn’t want to lose her own humanity in all this drama. Ironically she also needs him because the Change is already giving her a desperate need for blood and he’s a willing donor. (Also it’s said that human blood is more powerful for a vampyre’s health than fledgling or vampyre blood.)
Erik Night, Zoey’s super hot fledgling boyfriend is, for the most part, very sweet, understanding and supportive. But really who can blame him for being insecure when it comes to Heath (Especially when meanie Aphrodite is Erik’s ex.)
Then, there’s Loren Blake. This story aspect creeped me out from the beginning. He’s an adult vampyre, a teacher and Zoey literally loses herself around him, especially her ability to say no. It’s no wonder that Zoey falls for Loren, but it is so amazingly creepy. Maybe it is a storyline that brings a lot to the book, but it really bothers me that not one person points out that Loren’s seduction of Zoey isn’t just jerky–it’s rape.
One of my favorite parts of the series is the evolution of Aphrodite, who started out as the big bad guy. In Betrayed she shows regret for her actions and a willingness to make up for past behavior (as a bonus, while she was encouraged in her bad behavior by Nefert Aphrodite doesn’t once try to blame her actions on anyone else. She steps up and takes responsibility.)
In Chosen, the story continues with Aphrodite’s immunity to Nefert’s mindreading making her Zoey’s only confidant. Plus it turns out while not completely nice, Aphrodite is a heroically good person and proves she’s more than willing to step up and help humanity (or vampyre-kind).
In Chosen there’s a lot of justified and overwrought angst, tough decisions and complications, which any long series should have. Zoey struggles with herself and punishes herself for her choices and the choices of those around her, making the “chosen” bit seem more like she’s chosen to suffer, not be great. This makes the struggle more poignant to teens than other chosen one tales.
Naomi says:
Jeesh. Where do I start? The third House of Night book seriously changes the dynamic of the series, leaving super-speshul vampyre fledging Zoey Redbird with some serious problems. Her nemesis, Neferet, seems to be gearing up for war with humanity, her love life is a mess and her friends are turning away from her. Throw in some intriguing developments with Stevie Rae elsewhere, and on paper this should be a great instalment in what tends to be a somewhat shaky series.
But.
But…
All the problems I had with Marked and Betrayed are still here and there are some new ones to boot. The Twins continue to be the most irritating characters ever committed to paper. Cast’s attitude towards gay characters continues to be odd (Erik Night is a great guy because he has gay friends. Is that…I mean…Does anyone else find that incredibly patronising? (M: I did.)). Zoey’s ultra-religious parents are still used as an excuse to constantly bash Christianity. The slut-shaming that started in Betrayed is more prominent here (Zoey condemns kids who drink and have sex; Aphrodite is frequently castigated for having the temerity to have had an ex-boyfriend *gasp* whilst Zoey constantly calls herself ho-ish for being involved with three guys. And yet the Twins can drool over Erik, Loren, any actor you care to name, and any other vampyre student they deem studly enough and that’s okay. I don’t get it. Frankly it wouldn’t matter to me if Aphrodite had a million ex-boyfriends and Zoey was involved with twenty different guys. The constant tossing around of the words “ho” and “ho-ish” and the frequent insistence that even noticing a guy makes you slutty is really problematic for me and sends out a pretty poor message).
Moving on. The main problem I had with Chosen was that I felt a lot of potential was wasted. There was some truly interesting stuff going on here – adult vampyres being murdered in a brutal, ritualistic fashion, sinister plotting against Zoey, the mystery of Stevie Rae. And yet a lot of the time this was shoved aside so Zoey could bemoan problems which largely amounted to, “I’m really powerful and three hot guys like me. WOE.” That, for me, wasn’t particularly interesting. Although Zoey’s love life does feed into more important plot threads in Chosen, I felt it was given far too much focus and we lost some of the tension that might have come from the impending vampyre/human clash. We could have seen Zoey really tested in this book; her faith in herself is shaken and she shows the potential to really misuse the gifts she’s been given. A pivotal story like this could have seen Zoey questioning her choices, her future, and her perceived role as an agent of Nyx. Instead we get an awful lot of “why does this hot guy like me, am I becoming a ho because I like him back?” Maybe I’m just too old for these books, but Zoey’s relationship woes just aren’t as interesting to me as the other aspects of the series.
It doesn’t help that, whilst this should have been a book that really challenged and changed Zoey, it doesn’t. She’s exactly as scatty and self-righteous at the end as she is at the start. Despite the major upheavals she experiences throughout Chosen, she doesn’t seem to learn anything or grow as a character. She does suffer some serious emotional blows through the book, but they don’t seem to make her re-examine her choices. In one case, the source of the trauma is conveniently killed off off-page, meaning Zoey doesn’t actually have to deal with the fallout. The only difference between Zoey at the start of Chosen and Zoey at the end is that she now has no boyfriends instead of three. Goodness. But she still has the love and favour of Nyx, so we know she’s just going to Mary Sue onto the next book and be just fine.
I’m just going to admit it: I’d enjoy this series so much more if Zoey wasn’t the protagonist. A series following Aphrodite (who does change and grow as a character throughout the book and somehow manages not to kill the Twins, which is proof she is secretly a saint) would be much more interesting to me.
Michele:
I have to ask, do you think Loren raped Zoey? I’ve read Chosen twice now and I think Zoey’s reactions to Loren and the later admission from him that he was manipulating her heavily suggests that he might have been using vampire powers to coax her into bed. Did you pick any of that up in this book?
Naomi:
Yes, from his later conversation with Neferet, I think he must have been influencing Zoey with vampire powers. Her reactions around him made me think there was more to it than just a young girl losing her head over an older man. And even if he wasn’t using magic of any kind, showering her with gifts and actively working to seduce her the way he did amounts to grooming for me.