As a stand alone book, Hunted is quite lacking. The fifth book of the House of Night series Hunted is the kind of book that wraps up some story lines, introduces others and does little else. A place holder book Hunted has some major irks, but not nearly as much eye-rolling author intrusion as the first books.
The good is that Zoey isn’t an overconfident, gain-a-power-a-book (thought she does get a tattoo a book) type character. She sees the world unraveling now that the ancient, evil immortal Kalona has risen and Neferet, who has fallen from the path of Nyx and into evil, has taken over the Tulsa House of Night, bending vampyres and fledglings to her will. She struggles to keep herself and her friends safe, and stop the evil from permeating the world. Zoey wants to do what’s right, no matter what and takes the responsibility given to her very seriously. She doesn’t expect extra credit or praise. She just wants to be worthy of what she’s already been given.
I totally love this aspect. I adore that she’s not ready to ″be the boss″ but is stepping up anyway because that’s what she thinks needs to be done. I love that she’s not perfect. That she’s largely stopped slut shaming herself and others, and most other forms of shaming. She does still shame people for being evil or jerks (or both) but that’s a little more warranted.
The bad is the very idea that (SPOILERS) Zoey is the reincarnation of A-ya, the constructed woman who first defeated Kalona. It comes out of the blue and is, in itself, very eye-roll worthy. She’s the first fully marked and super gifted fledgling ever. Now she’s the reincarnation of the only person to ever stop Kalona too? Yawn.
The struggle between Zoey’s three boys is yawn-worthy too. But most frustrating is how good boy and mostly even-tempered Erik becomes super nasty, possessive, possibly abusive boy, The series started out with Heath being the budding addict, also budding stalker boy. Now he’s cast as the ultimate, loyal good guy and nice guy Erik is the nasty one. Not that Heath was at all nasty, but the twist feels sudden and more than a little forced at times, especially since Cast refers to Twilight in this book.
In Hunted, Zoey is seriously hurt by a Raven Mocker and forced to return to the House of Night (despite having just fled for her life and knowing Neferet is out to kill her.) The whole thing is a little awkward, like Cast forgot where she was going to go with having Zoey, her circle and the red vampyres escape and wanted to find a reason to make them go right back into where the tenseness is. Of course the first thing that happens when Zoey goes back is that Neferet pushes Kalona to kill Zoey while she’s weak and everyone has to see the nasty changes to the people who stayed behind.
I did find Stark’s struggle with humanity compelling, and was surprised that I wasn’t irritated with Zoey’s role in trying to save him. After all, I think since she’s taking the role of High Priestess this is exactly the kind of struggles she should be fielding. But it is hard to take in the girls who were about to be raped one moment, then nasty to Zoey and creepily Stockholm-y.
Zoey going back into the very dangerous situation at the House of Night, only to immediately start working on a plan to leave again is a very wishy-washy way to keep tension high. It would have been just as easy to have her go in to save Stark, get injured on the way in and forced to stay (and escape again). I just didn’t buy why she needed to voluntarily go back in, knowing there was a huge chance Neferet would just kill her outright when she showed up.
So like the other books there’s some good points and some really agitating bad. I’m still reading for the good. I do like Zoey, for the most part. I love Aphrodite’s progress through the books and I’m a total Stevie Rae fan. But I’m left with a desire to rewrite the tale a little tighter (which, of course, is where fan fiction comes from.) So still, I’m inspired. I want to see what happens next and I’m crossing my fingers, hoping it gets better.