The series is heavy with slut shaming and hypocricy. Cyna and Kayla at You're Killing Usdo a great job of reviewing/shredding this series as well (scroll down the list the link takes you to for each book) and take the authors to task for that crap.
Hmm, I have a theory: I wonder if P.C Cast is not much more than a ghostwriter? Maybe not completely, but I wonder if Kristen (*cringe*) came up with the idea, figured she either couldn't write worth a shit, or she was the typical teenager who couldn't stick to something, so she got mommy to write it. (Which, I find ridiculous. I wrote a full novella when I was 15 that eventually morphed into the novel I'm writing now.) I mean, even look at the names. We get the daughter's full name yet the mother is reduced to initials. Granted, she could have wanted it that way, but I think P.C was the writer while Kristen was the storymaker. *shrugs* Could be me, I'm a bit of a conspiracy theorist.
I don't know. I think "PC" is how she signs her name on everything (her full name is "Phyllis Christine", so yeah). If she did all of the writing though, I'd imagine that the characterization would be more consistent. I dunno...
I *think* the whole Marking/Tracker/Change thing works as:
Step 1 - Kid gets weird coughing fits symptomatic of vampyrisation. Step 2 - Trackers find which kids have symptoms and mark so they know/people know/know to get help. Step 3 - They go get help so they don't kick the bucket.
I think. There are still some bits that annoy me (like how they become vampires in the first place, and why Trackers aren't a full on agency if all they're doing is finding the ones already changing), but anymore thought down that road ends in dead ends for me. :S
I get what you mean about the fluctuating characterisation, and I think it's definitely the differences in the writing styles. Parts of it feel like my first writing attempts while others are quite good.
I'm glad she took the stuffed toy though. For some reason, people forget the stuffed toys.
"Step 1 - Kid gets weird coughing fits symptomatic of vampyrisation. Step 2 - Trackers find which kids have symptoms and mark so they know/people know/know to get help. Step 3 - They go get help so they don't kick the bucket
( ... )
{And yes, the stuffed toy thing was something I liked, especially the thing about her calling it a "shish" because she couldn't say "fish". That was cute.}
Occasionally, there are tiny little bits like that that are something I sort of liked about this book. It added realism to Zoey, something as a teenager, I could relate to. On a tale beside my bed is four stacks of mangas next to an even larger group of Monsters Inc and Kidrobot Fatcap toys I've been collecting since I was 11. Bella Swan was never mentioned having any knick-knacks, no toys from childhood or pictures as memories and this made her extremely unrelatable. Even if you've moved out of your parents home there's probably a photo album or a necklace from ages ago you still have.
Trackers still confuse me. I never really got them, though the possibility of dying IS rather frightening.
That is the one thing that I really do like about this book - we are given some life to Zoey outside of OMG VAMPYRES!!! I just wish that some of this would have been set up *before* the Mark thing, because I do like that she has her favorite toy and things like that, but I'm also wondering when the stupid vampires are coming into this.
Oh, no hopefuls. All boyfriends. Anyone can be with Zoey if they're hot! There's only one guy in the entire series I really like and he doesn't come in until book 4, damnit!.
What frustrates me is that making Zoey's family a bunch of self-centered, mean-spirited jerks is that it's lazy. If they're jerks, then she doesn't have to feel bad about abandoning them. She won't be sad, or homesick, or have to deal with the fact that she's turning into a vampire while the rest of her family stays human.
Of course, I will retract this all if Zoey actually has to deal with some of the negative stuff that comes from having a troll brother, slut sister, and mom who's more obsessed with what her husband thinks than what's going on with her children.
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Step 1 - Kid gets weird coughing fits symptomatic of vampyrisation. Step 2 - Trackers find which kids have symptoms and mark so they know/people know/know to get help. Step 3 - They go get help so they don't kick the bucket.
I think. There are still some bits that annoy me (like how they become vampires in the first place, and why Trackers aren't a full on agency if all they're doing is finding the ones already changing), but anymore thought down that road ends in dead ends for me. :S
I get what you mean about the fluctuating characterisation, and I think it's definitely the differences in the writing styles. Parts of it feel like my first writing attempts while others are quite good.
I'm glad she took the stuffed toy though. For some reason, people forget the stuffed toys.
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Occasionally, there are tiny little bits like that that are something I sort of liked about this book. It added realism to Zoey, something as a teenager, I could relate to. On a tale beside my bed is four stacks of mangas next to an even larger group of Monsters Inc and Kidrobot Fatcap toys I've been collecting since I was 11. Bella Swan was never mentioned having any knick-knacks, no toys from childhood or pictures as memories and this made her extremely unrelatable. Even if you've moved out of your parents home there's probably a photo album or a necklace from ages ago you still have.
Trackers still confuse me. I never really got them, though the possibility of dying IS rather frightening.
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Of course, I will retract this all if Zoey actually has to deal with some of the negative stuff that comes from having a troll brother, slut sister, and mom who's more obsessed with what her husband thinks than what's going on with her children.
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Yeah, she kind of has a revelation about that in a chapter or two. -_-
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