The House of Night/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.



  • Anvilicious: I'm surprised noone mentioned this, so it may be YMMV, but I found a number of the anvils dropped particularly annoying, and almost couldn't finish the first book due to how many moral observations and absolutist judgments were thrown around by the teenage goddess-chosen main character. Slightly mitigated by the fact that the books largely are in her point of view, and some of them later prove to be ironic or character developing as Zoey matures, but it still constitutes bad writing when the narrative is suddenly derailed for a few paragraphs to talk about how blowjobs are only something done by skanks and means the girl is being used.
    • Pot usage gets it really bad as well. In Betrayed, there's one point where the conversation about a missing teenage boy is put on hold to talk about how un-cool he is for experimenting with pot.
    • Not to mention how Aphrodite is constantly put down for being a "slut", despite only being involved with two guys in the whole series, the second with whom the relationship is incredibly serious. Compare that to how many boys the main character is stringing along at any given moment...
  • Non Sequitur Scene Um, why is Erik the new Tracker? How is he the new Tracker? A Tracker hasn't appeared since page 2, Book 1...
    • In Chosen, Zoey has two guys run down with a truck just because they posed a threat to Heath. It is never mentioned again.
  • Designated Protagonist Syndrome: Some fans feel this way towards Zoey.
  • Designated Villain: We're really apparently supposed to think Kayla's a bitch for freaking out over Zoey drinking Heath's blood, and then going to the police when Zoey threatens to do the same to her.
  • Evil Is Sexy
  • Ensemble Darkhorse: Stevie Rae, Rephaim and Kramisha are quite popular with the Fandom.
  • Idiot Plot: Pretty much all of Hunted. For starters, The End of the World as We Know It has just begun, Raven Mockers potentially everywhere and anywhere waiting for them to venture above ground, the weather outside is blizzard conditions, so what does Zoey do? She goes outside with Heath to say goodbye. It just so happens that a Raven Mocker is outside (waiting for her specifically) and it then goes to attack Heath. Now Zoey could have done many things here. She could have summoned her elements to immediately and attacked the Raven Mocker, or dragged Heath to her and headed back to the Depot, or headed towards Heath's car and used it for cover while she thought of something to do or screamed for help (what with Erik being relatively close by). What she does do is push Heath out of the way and takes the hit for Heath instead and almost ends up nearly dying because of it. Um What? The idiocy is futher compounded due to the fact that Zoey has already fought off Raven Mockers before by using her elements.
  • Jerkass Woobie: While Aphrodite is a gigantic bitch, you have to feel bad for her from having Abusive Parents. It's also unfair how she's called a slut or hoe, even though she's only has been in two relationships. (And actually serious about the second one!)
  • Mary Sue: Zoey is arguably one. While her being chosen by the goddess Nyx for a special mission and having special powers probably wouldn't make her qualify for this title alone (as hero/heroines are typically expected to have some degree of specialness), her other character traits - receiving almost constant attention from other characters (especially those of the opposite sex), being Easily Forgiven, most characters who dislike her being immediately deemed evil (Aphrodite being the only exception, as she hates everyone equally), being of an exotic Cherokee heritage, and having a broken home life that she regularly angsts about - seem like enough to make her cross the line. Then again, some of this perfection can be justified by the sheer amount of training required of fledglings; basically, if you're not doing absurdly well at near everything, you're probably going to fall down coughing by the next chapter.
    • Some readers believe that Stevie Rae is headed this way as well, though she's nowhere near Zoey's level. Yet.
  • Romantic Plot Tumor: Your Mileage May Vary, of course, but many readers find the mythological and action/adventure parts of the series to be much more interesting and compelling than the romantic parts. And some have just plain stopped caring about which boy Zoey will end up with out of her neverending Unwanted Harem.
    • It's probably telling that the most highly rated book of this series on Amazon is Untamed, the one where Zoey's love problems don't take up a large part of the plot.
  • They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot - The following subplots have not been/were not really resolved:
    • Zoey and her Christian Fundementalist mother (her mother was killed by Neferet as of the most recent book).
    • The High Council and the election of a new Vampyre High Priestess
    • The Twins and their respective boyfriends. One stood up against the Raven Mockers, the other didn't.
    • The Rogue Red Fledglings and the secret orders they're receiving from Neferet.
    • The potential war between Humans and Vampyre, which if declared will be The End of the World as We Know It. As the story stands there is still considerable tensions between the two parties due to the recent murders of two professors (see Van Helsing Hate Crimes), which still haven't been solved in-universe.
    • Neferet's motivations for doing the things she's been doing. Broken Bird turned Well-Intentioned Extremist or was it just For the Evulz?
  • Unfortunate Implications: Smoking pot makes you a worthless idiot that deserves to die.
    • Giving a blowjob is something only degraded women do when they're being used by their significant others, and it's a sign of supression and isn't something people with mutual respect for each other would do.
    • Sexually loose behavior is only okay when it's the main character, and she doesn't mean to be a slut. Not like that bitch Aphrodite!
    • It's okay to be gay! ...just remember to point it out every time you have a conversation. Heck, you might as well name yourself after one of the cowboys from Brokeback Mountain and save yourself the trouble.
      • Gay men aren't as "manly" as straight men.
      • Lesbians are all snooty secret-cult types who shun the real world in favor of each other.
    • Having Cherokee blood makes you exotic and means you'll be more in-tune spiritually than everyone else.
  • X Meets Y: Twilight meets Sailor Moon meets Harry Potter. If you want to be more specific, it has the vampire romance from Twilight, the reincarnated princess with her friends who each fill a specific role from Sailor Moon, and the chosen one at a supernatural boarding school.