Marked

This is the first in a series of books. It's some kind of alternate reality where vampires not only a real, but are a part of society, generally in the entertainment arts.

Zoey is a high-school student who is the main character of the series. She has Cherokee heritage, and has learned quite a bit about the Cherokee spiritual system.

The vampires in the story can “mark” a person with a symbol that appears on their forehead. If that happens, the person (fairly young) has to attend the House of Night, which is basically a school for fledglings, people who have been marked but are not yet actual vampires.

Zoey meets the goddess named Nyx, who is the Goddess of the Night. Her mark is different that that of others, and has indicated that she may end up accomplishing great things.

The vampire school has various groups (almost like fraternities and sororities), and also has various rituals. All the rituals are basically Wiccan in nature, although some are also related to Native American rituals.

Zoey manages to make some friends at the new school, but she also realizes she has some enemies. There is also something very strange going on, strange even for vampires, although only hints of it are given in this first book of the series.

It's a very good book, although I wish there had been some sort of background given about how long vampires had been part of human society, and why that ended up happening. It would seem that humans would have done their best to destroy the vampires, and there would be nothing like the House of Night, so there are some mysteries of the past that, hopefully, will be cleared up sometime in the series.

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