House of Night
Cover of Marked, the first novel in the series
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| Author | P. C. Cast & Kristin Cast |
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| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Romance, fantasy, young adult fiction |
| Publisher | St. Martin's Press, Atom/Little Brown(in UK) |
| Published | 2007–2014 |
| Media type | |
House of Night is a series of vampire-themed fantasy novels by American author P. C. Cast and her daughter Kristin Cast. It follows the adventures of Zoey Redbird, a sixteen-year-old girl who has just become a "fledgling vampyre" and is required to attend the House of Night boarding school in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Books in the series have been on the New York Times Best Seller list for 63 weeks and have sold over seven million copies in North America, and more than ten million books worldwide, in 39 countries. The series, published by St Martin's Press, is planned to include twelve books.
Instead of vampire, the authors use the variant spelling vampyre throughout the book series. This convention is also applied to the words vampyric and vampyrism.
In the fictional world of House of Night, a small percentage of the world's teenagers are changed into vampires when adolescent hormones trigger a strand of what is otherwise junk DNA. The change from human to vampire takes four years, during which time the adolescents, known as "fledglings," must attend one of the "House of Night" boarding schools. While there, they are required to take the Vampire Sociology 101 course to learn the dangers they face. If a fledgling is not in constant proximity to adult vampyres, the fledgling will die; so the fledglings rarely leave the school. About one in ten fledglings die anyway, since their bodies cannot tolerate the Change. For those who survive, there's a big reward: in the words of one of the authors, "Vampires are like Superman. They’re super-gorgeous. They’re super-talented. They’re super-men." Vampyres are physically stronger than most adult humans, with accelerated reflexes, enhanced dexterity, life of more than five centuries, as well as heightened senses such as night vision.
Only vampires and fledglings that have blue tattoos are not destroyed by sunlight, as in many vampire novels, but it is painful to them, so classes at the House of Night are held at night. Fledglings are marked by a sapphire blue crescent-shaped outline on their foreheads; when they become full-fledged vampires, this mark becomes solid and they receive more 'tattoos' which extend over their cheeks (these usually represent some personality aspect; for instance, Zoey's equestrian teacher, Lenobia, has tattoos that look like horses.) Zoey is the only fledgling to receive a filled-in mark and tattoos. As she defeats evil her tattoos extend over her shoulders, down to her lower back, around her waist, down her arms and palms, and across her chest. Older fledglings and adult vampires need to drink small quantities of human blood, but House of Night vampires do not attack humans to get it, instead getting it from blood banks. The taking of blood is pleasurable for both human and vampire, comparable to (and better than) sex and a drug rush, and may lead to a strong emotional bond, called "Imprinting" between the two. When an imprint is broken, either through death, Imprinting of another, or mystical means, it causes major anguish between the vampire and human. Like with Zoey and Heath.
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Wikipedia