Hunted by P.C. and Kristin Cast
Despite the fact that I resolved to do so as soon as it came out in paperback, it took me forever to actually get around to reading this. Having now finished it, I can say with confidence that I wasn’t missing out on much. As I read, I found myself coming across so many issues that I had to start keeping track of them on a pad of sticky notes. So I’m just going to expound on them here in list form.
-Zoey has the compulsive need to label every woman she finds slightly disagreeable a “bitch”. Venus, one of Stevie Rae’s red fledglings, earned this title just because she flirted with Erik. Plus she’s blond and she was friends with Aphrodite when she was alive. (Who, for the record, still gets saddled with the label and the judgment despite her heroics in the last few novels.) The shallow hatefulness is so attractive on you, Zo.
-Even more irritating is the fact that Zoey labels every woman comfortable with her sexuality a “ho”. She fears she’s becoming ho-ish because she feels sexual attraction to her three boyfriends and yet--even when she feels Erik might be pressuring her into sex-she never labels any of them a ho. Oh, but I forgot-women don’t like to have to sex. And if they do then they deserve the ridicule, am I right?
-Any writer that uses “WTF” in the middle of narration-especially during a serious scene-needs to be smacked in the nose with a newspaper. I counted it used three times in this book. Just as annoying were Zoey’s uses of “boobies”, “potty”, and “poopie”. What are we, nine? When you’re describing a tense scene where a character has an arrow shoved through her chest it’s quite jarring to see a reference to that characters exposed “boobies”.
-Can we stop with the stereotypes? Please? Just because Kramisha is black doesn’t mean she has to talk like she’s had no formal English education. Just because Damien and Jack are gay doesn’t mean they should be prone to giggling, crying fits, and fainting. Just because almost every other character is woman doesn’t mean that clothes and boys should occupy every second of their thoughts.
-Was it really necessary to rehash the plot for over one hundred pages? Most of the first half of the book is spent doing nothing while the characters are in hiding. During this time we are treated to riveting descriptions of Zoey recounting the plot to the reader, and then the characters recounting the plot to each other, and then Zoey recounting the plot to Heath. There are additional summarizations throughout the novel and it quickly became taxing to read the same information endlessly.
-Speaking of Heath-why the hell is he still making appearances? Zoey and her boy problems stopped being even remotely interesting in book two. Personally, I’m not fond of Erik and I detest Stark but Heath of all people has no reason to be in the story. For the third time in five books, Zoey has found herself in the same position of lusting after Heath’s blood and thinking that they might have a chance together. And they are thrown together and she fights with herself as Heath encourages her to drink from him. How fascinating! How novel! These books are wells of originality.
-Oh yes, the boy troubles. Zoey’s issue is that she’s a closet polygamist who is still holding onto the idea of monogamy. She’s obviously intrigued when Erik tells her that a High Priestess can have multiple consorts and mates. Obviously that implies that polygamy would be the norm so why doesn’t she just accept that she can have all of her little one-dimensional boytoys and stop taking up the story with her wangsting?
-If I see the words “brown pop” one more time I will knife an innocent book.
-The Casts have decided that their readers are so vastly unintelligent that Zoey needs to spell every little thing out for them. Best example: Erik and Zoey have a riveting discussion of Dracula-more specifically, how Zoey wished Mina and Dracula were able to live happily every after despite the “mistakes” Dracula made. Next paragraph she so brilliantly informs us that obviously she wasn’t really talking about Dracula and Mina. Thank you Zoey! I was too stupid to pick up on your ham-handed implications.
-Yeah, okay, we get it. Jack and Damien are gay. It’s not necessary to point it out up front to everyone that meets them and it’s especially not necessary to constantly remind the reader every single time one of them speaks. And no, actions aren’t inherently gay even if it’s a gay person performing them. So when Damien speaks he doesn’t do it in a gay manner, unless you’re trying to convey that he’s very happy. Somehow I feel that this not what you’re getting at when you describe every other thing that he does as “gay”.
-There were a number of mistakes with names. I saw a few where Damien and Darius got mixed up and at least one where Neferet was used instead of Nyx. Whoever is editing is doing an atrocious job.
-Stark needing to sleep with Zoey to ward off her dreams was one of the worst plot devices I’ve seen in published fiction.
-And speaking of Stark, did there honestly have to be so many pages devoted to angsting about his humanity? I started skimming through their conversations together since it became almost as repetitive as the thoroughly rehashed back story.
I don’t even know if I should try Tempted once it’s released in paperback. I don’t have high hopes for it, but then, I fully admit to being one of those people that enjoys laughing at a trainwreck of a novel. I’ve heard that Zoey doesn’t narrate the next novel which sparks my interest given how much I hate her. Perhaps the series could be better without her vapid voice to drag it down. Consider me undecided.
Honestly, I’m just here to ship Stevie Rae and Aphrodite.