Literature / The House of Night

aka: Dragons Oath

A young adult vampire series written by P.C. Cast and edited by her daughter Kristin Cast.

Main character Zoey Redbird is just an ordinary Native American girl, living in an extraordinary world where vampyres (as spelled in the series) are a fact of life, when she is Chosen and begins to Change into a vampyre herself. Once she starts the Change (a biological process that happens in certain people as they go through puberty) she begins attending vampyre academy The House Of Night, where she finds new friends, romance, and some typical high school situations... and gradually uncovers a dangerous conspiracy that threatens everything she values in her newfound life.

Books in the series:

1. Marked (May 2007)
2. Betrayed (October 2007)
3. Chosen (March 2008)
4. Untamed (September 2008)
5. Hunted (March 2009)
6. Tempted (October 2009)
7. Burned (April 2010)
8. Awakened (January 2011)
9. Destined (October 2011)
10. Hidden (2012)
11. Revealed (2013)
12. Redeemed (2014)

As of 2017, P.C. and Kristin Cast have announced a new series of novels set in the House of Night universe, House of Night: Other World. This is a direct continuation of the main series, picking up a year later.

Books in Other World:

• Loved (2017)
• Lost (2018)
• Forgotten (2019)
• Found (2020)

Prequel novellas about various characters have also been released, including:

• Dragon's Oath (July 2011)
• Lenobia's Vow (January 2012)
• Neferet's Curse (February 2013)
• Kalona's Fall (July 2014)

In 2012, a five-issue comic book titled House of Night: Legacy was published.

There are also two companion books: The Fledgling Handbook 101 (an in-universe textbook mentioned frequently within the series) was published on the 26th of October 2010, and Nyx in the House of Night: Mythology, Folklore and Religion in the PC and Kristin Cast Vampyre Series was published on the 7th June 2011.

Not to be confused with The Night House.

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The House of Night contains examples of:

• Absurdly Spacious Sewer: Justified to a degree. They're tunnels left over from Prohibition. Still a little too roomy, though.
• Abusive Parents: Aphrodite's parents are manipulative and emotionally distant, and only care about her when she gives them some kind of political power.
  • In Neferet's Curse, Emily Wheiler, who later becomes Neferet suffers sexual abuse at the hands of her own father.
• A Day in the Limelight: Professor Lankford, Lenobia, and Neferet have their own prequel novellas. Kalona is slated to have one as well.
• Age-Gap Romance: Sixteen year old Zoey develops romantic feelings for her twenty-five year old teacher Loren Blake; she eventually loses her virginity to him, cheating on her teenage boyfriend Erik in the process. It ends up being deconstructed to an extent, as it's revealed that Blake was just using Zoey and only romanced her on the villain’s orders to isolate her from her friends; strangely enough, it's the fact that Blake betrayed Zoey and never loved her that's most focused upon, more so than the utter inappropriateness and creepiness of the relationship.
• Aliens in Cardiff: While vampyres exist all over the world, most of the action takes place in a House of Night in... Tulsa, Oklahoma. A comment by Aphrodite's parents, in Betrayed, claims that, to them, going to the school in Tulsa was more notable and prestigious than going to a "no-name House of Night" in Europe. In fact, Neferet's backstory in Redeemed details her rise to power in Tulsa and the existence of Old Magick there.
• All-Ghouls School: The House Of Night teaches its "vampyres" how to behave in society and how to use their powers.

• Analogy Backfire: In Betrayed, when Zoey meets with her boyfriend Erik after he returns from a trip, he greets her as his "Desdemona". Aphrodite quickly comments that if she's his Desdemona, she'd better not cheat on him or he'll strangle her at night. Given that Zoey was seeing her human boyfriend on the side while flirting with a teacher and that like Othello and Desdemona, Erik and Zoey are in an interracial relationship...

• Artistic License – History: Kalona was bound thousands of years ago by a group of Cherokee wise-women — in Oklahoma. Thousands of years ago, the Cherokee lived in Florida. They're only in Oklahoma because they were forced to move.
• Aura Vision: Shaylin, one of the new Fledglings, is able to see people's auras and tell when they're lying, among other things.
• Author Filibuster: Every time someone is mentioned as using pot in the series the plot gets temporarily derailed so Zoey and her friends can rant about how doing pot is so uncool and stupid. In Betrayed, we find out that Neferet specifically chooses students to feed to the red-eyed vampires just because Zoey ratted them out to her as having used pot. When the police confront Zoey about the deaths, Neferet tries to blame it all on the victims falling in the river after being high, which sounds uncomfortably like "they were asking to die a brutal death!" And while Neferet is the bad guy, Zoey in no way ever contradicts or debates that argument, and since younger generations tend to have a more liberal attitude about pot (with most thinking that while it may not be good, you can do worse things to yourself) it comes off as even more dissonant.
• Awesome McCoolname: Aphrodite. Justified because when fledgling vampyres enter the school, they are allowed to change their names and are legally emancipated from their parents. Being incredibly self-centred and vain, she chose the name of the goddess of love.

• The Beautiful Elite: Vampyres are all gorgeous and talented — it's mentioned that most important historical figures like Shakespeare are vampyres, and so are most movie stars and pop singers.
• Beauty Equals Goodness:
  • When Stevie Rae died and then un-died, she was repulsive and smelt really bad. When the ritual to give her and the other Red Fledglings their humanity back was complete, they were all pretty again.
  • Also, the Bull of Light, which is black is described as "deep, mysterious and beautiful to behold," compared to the Bull of Darkness, which is white and is described as "a nightmare come alive."
  • Elliot is probably the only fledgling in the entire series who is not super gorgeous, being described as fat, pasty, freckled with nappy carrot red hair. He's also supposedly annoying, lazy, and stupid, and in his first appearance a teacher berates him for not being special and unique like every other male vampire, and this is never shown as a problem. When he starts coughing in class, a sign that everyone knows to mean death is imminent for a fledgling, all Zoey can think of is how he's being annoying and should ugh, just get a cough drop already! When he finally does die, all Zoey can say about him is that it's not sad that he died, it's sad that no one liked him. In his subsequent appearances as a Red Fledgling, Zoey doesn't even refer to him as a person like she does the others, instead referring to him as "That horrid Elliot creature."
  • Any old person of significance that is on the side of good, like Grandma Redbird or Mary Angela, are strangely bereft of wrinkles for people their age.
  • Kalona is stated to be a serial rapist demon god who will supposedly destroy the world, but Zoey thinks he can change. Why? Because he's the most beautiful guy ever. In Destined, Kalona pulls a Heel–Face Turn.
  • The Raven Mockers are half human, half raven monstrosities, but Rephaim, when he falls in love with Stevie Rae and becomes good, it’s revealed he can become an extremely hot human if he wants.
  • The cats aren't even immune. Of course Zoey's cat Nala is cute and Likable, while Aphrodite's cat is horrible and mean, and the only cat described as being ugly in the books. She's named Maleficent if it isn't obvious already that she's horrible.
  • Zoey's stepdad, a Straw Fundamentalist religious fanatic is described as having thinning hair, Chicken legs and horrible fashion sense. He's portrayed as a cartoonishly closed minded bigot who berates anyone for the smallest of differences, cheats on his wife, and drinks beer even though he says he doesn't. Other women in the Peoples of Faith, the stereotypical religious fanatic group he's an elder for, are described as fat, balding and beady eyed with pedophile husbands.
  • Also worth noting that while there are characters who are both beautiful and evil (Aphrodite, before her Heel–Face Turn, and Neferet and Erin), they're consistently slut-shamed for everything.
• Became Their Own Antithesis:
  • Stevie Rae became a more aggressive, impulsive, and slightly misanthropic undead after being The Cutie for most of the series. Unlike most of the initially heroic examples, it however contributed to improve her character, after she healed from her new aggressive nature, and to make her an independent, always heroic and more self-controlled person.
  • Probably an unintentional example, but Erik Night went all the way from a confident, open-minded and self-sacrificing young man who is asked out by his slightly possessive ex-girlfriend to a self-centred, I-mostly-don't-care-about-the-good-versus-evil-thing, self-doubting and possessive boyfriend who doesn't want to try to understand his newer girlfriend and shows off his newest girlfriend, the Evil Twin of the first girlfriend who Took a Level in Kindness and treats the heroine well, understanding the problems his being possessive can cause. This is treated as an example of Jerkass All Along.
  • It is difficult to say whether Neferet's warm, easy to trust, and maternal nature has changed since she became a priestess, or if it was a mask since more long ago. She is revealed in tome 2 as a ruthless and manipulative figure towards Aphrodite and Zoey. On a similar way, a Big Bad's reputation underwent this, to the great surprise of Zoey and her friends. It is never revealed whether he actually was a case of this.
• Beethoven Was an Alien Spy: Vampyre variant. A lot of historical figures as well as current famous people are said to be vampyres, including Shakespeare and Cleopatra, just to name a few.
• Belief Makes You Stupid: Subverted in Lenobia's Vow. Religious characters are either good or evil, but none of them are stupid. Lampshaded when Lenobia and Sister Madeleine talk about their morning routines.
  "Sister, for several weeks I have been leaving our quarters before dawn and returning before most of the ship awakens."
  "Yes, child. I know."
  "Oh. I thought you were praying."
  "Lenobia, I believe you will discover that many of my good sisters and I are able to think and pray at the same time."
• Bestiality Is Depraved: Neferet's consort is the Bull of Darkness.
• Better than Sex: Drinking blood from a human or other vampyre that one is imprinted with is described as being better than sex.
• Big Damn Heroes:
  • In Marked, Stevie Rae volunteers to be “the refrigerator” for Aphrodite’s ritual so that she can then pass on the location of the ritual to Damien and the Twins, so that when everything goes pear-shaped all four of them could step up and help Zoey save the day.
  • At the end of Hunted, just as Zoey and half her friends have just escaped from the House of Night, with Raven Mockers, Kalona, and Neferet closing in fast, with barely enough time to get a ritual circle in place, the other half of Zoey's friends show up and, by The Power of Love, defeat the bad guys.
  • When Neferet tries to mind control Stark, he decides to Take a Third Option and ends up almost killing himself rather than hurting Zoey.
• Blood from the Mouth: If a fledgling vampyre is rejecting the Change, they will start coughing up blood, then they will die.

• Break the Haughty: Aphrodite. She's kicked out of the Dark Daughters in a public, humiliating way and loses all her friends; gets told Nyx hates her and her (excruciating) visions are false by an authority figure she looks up to; gets disowned by her parents; and finally has her vampirism taken away, but not her awful visions. Also Rephaim.
• Broken Bird: Rephaim is a male example. For starters, he's a Child by Rape and never knew his mother due to Death by Childbirth. Destined to be Overlord Jr. or possibly redeemed by love?

• Brought Down to Normal: This happens to Aphrodite, and as of Revealed she has not gotten her vampyrism back. She still kept the visions, though, which was the one thing she would have happily gotten rid of.
• Bury Your Gays: Jack's death in Awakened is used only as a tool to get Zoe off the Isle of Skye.

• Can't Argue with Elves: Vampyre society is considered- both in-universe and by the authors- to be completely perfect. The narrative explicitly states that vampyres are smarter, hotter, stronger, and more creative than humanity. The only good humans in the story all assist vampyres in some way. Any humans who don't like vampyres are invariably hateful, murderous people who are hopelessly envious of the vampyres' perfection and probably serving evil.
• Cartwright Curse: The books seem to be heading in this direction. Out of Zoey's 4 lovers, two have died and one ended up turning on her. The remaining relationship ain't lookin' so hot either, as of Revealed.

• Cats Are Mean: Averted. Cats are friends and allies to the Changing vampyres. They roam the House of Night freely and main character Zoey's cat Nala is a source of comfort and aid to her.
• Character Shilling: Zoey Redbird. Nyx chose her because she is supposedly wise beyond her years, is a fount of empathy and compassion, and is well versed in both the old ways and the modern world. She has an instant fanclub of people that serve mainly to ooh and ahh over how wonderful she is, men fall at her feet in droves because of how beautiful and awesome she supposedly is, and she gets new tattoos and praise for her bravery from Nyx anytime she takes care of whatever problem is plaguing her that particular book. Actually reading the book shows us that she's a stupid, shallow, judgmental, hypocrite that doesn't do much of anything except bemoan her boyfriend problems until the authors decide that something needs to happen so the book can end.
• The Chosen One:
  • Zoey, who is already on the fast track to High Priestessdom.
  • Possibly Stevie Rae as well, in a different way.

• Comes Great Responsibility:
  • Said verbatim to Zoey by her grandmother in Marked.
  • Stevie Rae doesn't use her powers to "rule the world or anything crazy like that", because of this trope. Stevie Rae also reads comic books.
• Comic-Book Time: The first book is implied to take place in 2007, by Zoey's mention of having gone to see 300 with her friends. Each book takes place over at most about 2 weeks, which would place the most recent book in 2008 at the latest. However, the books often mention pop culture popular at the time the book was published, such as Game of Thrones in Destined.
• Cool Old Lady:
  • Grandma Redbird, who is Zoey's most supportive family member.
  • Sister Mary Angela, a Benedictine nun who becomes friends with Zoey and helps her and friends after they have to flee the House of Night.

• Covers Always Lie: A textual example: the blurb of Lenobia's Vow implies that the character Cecile will not die on the first page.
• Creator Provincialism: Most of the series takes place in Tulsa, which is where the authors live. This becomes a bit silly when it's implied in one book that of all the House of Nights all around the world, including various famous historic sites in Europe, Aphrodite's socially-conscious ladder-climbing parents consider it far more prestigious for her to attend the House of Night in Tulsa.

• The Dark Arts: Using the power of any element/force of nature or an ancient immortal, whether it's for Darkness or Light, is Power at a Price. It's played straight with Neferet but subverted with Rephaim, who has only been shown thus far to use his Dark powers in a good way.

• Death Equals Redemption: An extreme and rather myopic example. Dragon Lankford has to make up for not forgiving the man who murdered his wife after less than a week by dying to save him.
• Derailing Love Interests:
  • Erik from is pretty much the perfect boyfriend to Zoey for the first three books. Then he suddenly turns out to be a possessive jerk in later books, thus justifying Zoey's displays of interest in other boys. Though considering that Zoey wasn't exactly a faithful girlfriend to him to begin with, his new attitude toward her might be somewhat justified. In addition, he exhibited a surprisingly cold, condescending, and sometimes insulting behavior towards his ex-girlfriend Aphrodite, which everyone overlooked, because they saw her as a borderline Dirty Coward Alpha Bitch with Skewed Priorities (instead of The Woobie Manipulative Bastard Broken Bird being a practitioner of Brutal Honesty).
  • Zig-zagged with Heath, he starts a drunk-jock-ex-boyfriend in Marked who looks in danger of being written off for good a number of times. He stays in the story almost completely by one virtue: the fact that he's taking advantage of Zoey's low self control over her new bloodlust to essentially roofie-rape her every time she sees him by cutting himself and triggering her compulsion to drink: an action that's both intensely arousing, energizing, and creates a mystical bond between them against her control. Then of course she realizes he's her soul-mate (one of them anyway) after he almost gets himself killed trying to win her back again, and all that is swept under the rug. He is then killed off in Tempted, but then is reincarnated by Nyx to be Neferet's Vessel, named Aurox. However, Aurox retains some of his free will and is eventually able to choose the side of Light, thanks to his soul connection with Zoey, so we don't know what to expect.
• Detect Evil: Apparently it's a lot harder to do unless you're familiar with it. For example, Zoey, Aphrodite, Stevie Rae, the Red Fledglings and Rephaim can all sense it easily, which is the reason why the Big Bad can fool everyone but make the heroes look like idiots.
• Deus ex Machina:
  • Literally. When Kalona kills Stark in Nyx's realm, the Goddess Nyx shows up and forces Kalona to bring him back to life.
  • Happens again, in Awakened with Nyx appearing at Jack's funeral to comfort Jack's boyfriend Damien, and to help the Raven Mocker Rephaim get over his demonic nature (by turning him into a boy at night) so he can truly love Stevie Rae.
• Disappeared Dad: Zoey's biological father left when she was two years old.
• Don't Answer That: A variant is done in Betrayed, when two police officers interview Zoey about the deaths and disappearances of several boys she knew from her human high school. Neferet sits in on the interrogation and continuously interrupts by insisting that Zoey not answer the questions. Given that Neferet was in no way acting as Zoey's legal advisor, was not a parent or guardian, and in fact informed the officers that all vampire students are legally emancipated (somehow), one wonders why the officers put up with her constant interruptions at all.
• Double Standard: Rape, Divine on Mortal: Despite the fact that Kalona radiates Darkness, females of all ages are still pretty keen on him. Even when the fact that he has raped women before is mentioned, it is conveniently ignored. Probably helps that Kalona has a Brainwashed and Crazy effect on people. Also, when he visits Zoey in her dreams, him repeatedly groping her to the point she jumps off a cliff to get away from him is repeatedly referred to as seduction by both him and Zoey, rather than assault.
• Double Standard Rape: Female on Male: In Marked, Zoey accidentally comes upon Erik and Aphrodite in the hallway. Erik is very uncomfortable and repeatedly says he does not want Aphrodite to give him a blow job, while Aphrodite insists that he does in fact want her and then slashes his thigh and drinks from it—a very sexual act for vampires. However, not once is this ever even thought of as sexual assault—Zoey's problem with Aphrodite isn't that she's ignoring Erik's wishes, it's that giving blowjobs is "skanky" and "letting a guy use you".
• Double Standard: Rape, Sci-Fi:
  • It's established that it's immensely pleasurable for both parties when a vampire drinks a human's blood. Early on, Zoey accidentally drinks Heath's blood, establishing a spiritual bond between them. There are several ensuing cases where Heath demands that Zoey drink his blood, even though she repeatedly tells him that she hates doing it and is disgusted by the fact that she finds blood tasty. Heath's arguments come across as very disturbing (for example, telling Zoey she really does want to do it and thus should), and he always wears down Zoey's will by cutting himself and letting her be intoxicated by the smell of his blood. These interactions are treated by Zoey as inconveniences, even though they are disturbingly similar to date rape via drugging. It also goes both ways, since Heath clearly is addicted to the pleasure of having her drink his blood, and continues to cut himself to get her to do so. The text does try to specify the difference between Zoey and Heath's relationship and the undead vampires forcibly drinking his blood later (which he describes as creepy and not like her drinking from him at all), but those situations still come across as pretty unsettling.
  • This comes across in quite a few backstory relationships between humans and vampires, since the bite of a vampire tends to have a drug-like effect on humans, making it questionable exactly how consensual their long-term relationships with vampires are. For example, in Betrayed and Chosen, it's mentioned in passing that Bram Stoker became obsessed with a female vampire after she drank his blood, and went insane when she left him to devote herself to her work as High Priestess, writing Dracula in revenge. Zoey's mother, upon hearing this, comments that the whole thing sounds horrible, while Zoey yells at her for being intolerant of what apparently was treated as a perfectly healthy romance.
  • Zigzagged when Stark mind-controls a fledgling and then almost rapes her. Zoey and her friends immediately condemn this as sexual assault, but as soon as Zoey decides she can redeem Stark, she walks it back to mild euphemisms like "extracurricular biting" and "not so nice past".
• Dream Within a Dream: In Tempted, Zoey is shown a vision of Kalona's past in a dream.
• Dress-Coded for Your Convenience: When the Big Bad decides to take over the Vampyre High Council, she changes her colourful wardrobe for skin-tight revealing black dresses. It's also a case of Sensible Heroes, Skimpy Villains, and she has Femme Fatalons to complete the look.
• Dropped a Bridge on Him: Erin, as of three seconds into Revealed. Her death comes out of nowhere and she is barely mentioned again after her funeral, despite being a main character for ten books.
• Easily Forgiven:
  • In Hunted, Zoey comes across Stark forcing a girl to have sex with him. She is outraged by this and intervenes. Immediately after, Zoey lets him kiss her, and a scene later, lets him sleep in her bed, next to her, because Stark says that being with her 'makes [him] feel more human'.
  • In Lenobia's Vow, Martin forgives Lenobia for lying about her identity (and impersonating a dead girl) after they have a two-page conversation about it. This could be a Justified Trope, as the two have only known each other for a few weeks...except for the part where Lenobia confesses her love to him immediately after, Martin does the same, and they go on to be a lovey-dovey couple. The fact that she has been lying to him since they met apparently doesn't affect their relationship at all.
• Easy Amnesia: The epitome of this trope occurs in Betrayed, when Neferet erases Zoey's memories and then she gets them back in the same chapter, after about only a page's worth of effort.

• Elemental Powers: Zoey's Goddess-given gift is to have all of the five elemental powers, and her friends have one power apiece.
• The End of the World as We Know It: Aphrodite has received multiple visions of this if Zoey doesn't step up to plate and prevent Kalona and Neferet from achieving power.
• Enemy Mine: Aphrodite and Zoey start out with an Arch-Enemy relationship, which ends up morphing when the two of them need each other and have a common enemy. Zoey and Aphrodite frequently have Jerkass Has a Point moments.
• Enemy Within: Usually involves Red Vampyres and Red Fledglings on how having dark feelings doesn't make you a monster; acting out on them does.
• Establishing Character Moment: Lenobia's introduction. She rides in elegantly on a horse, bluntly tells her new students that half of them won't last the semester, and warns them not to slack off ("Horses are not big dogs. Nor are they a little girl's dream image of a perfect best friend who will always stand beside you. Horses are work."). But she also allows her students to ask questions, mentions that she chose her name as a historical reference, and has a friendly chat with Zoey after class. Three pages, and we know that Lenobia is confident, stern but fair, and very knowledgeable.

• Evil Is Petty: In Marked, Aphrodite's various crimes, which convince Zoey she has to be "taken down" for, include having oral sex with her boyfriend in the hallway (granted the boyfriend clearly was trying to get her away from him, but the fact that she was trying to have unconsentual sex was glossed over in favor of the fact to having oral sex at all is skanky and degrading), generally being self-centered and catty, tricking Zoey into drinking wine with Fledgling blood in it via lying by omission, and not showing concern after having seizure-like visions of disasters.

• Evil Redhead:
  • Elliot from Marked is a pretty big asshole and later he becomes an undead Fledgling.
  • Neferet turns out to be the Big Bad.

• Extra Normal Institute: The House Of Night is a school where vampyres learn how to behave in society. It also helps students deal with the Change- in this particular mythology, vampyres are not made by biting but as the result of a biochemical change, which, once it has started, either leads to becoming a full-fledged vampyre or dying.
• Extremely Short Timespan: The series is a pretty big offender. While there are pretty big jumps in time between the books, the novels themselves take place over four or five days each, roughly. Discounting the novellas and short stories, the entire twelve book series takes place over the course of around a year.

• Fainting Seer: Aphrodite's visions leave her extremely faint and jittery. She becomes a Cassandra Truth when she falls from Neferet's good graces.

• Fate Worse than Death: "What Darkness can take take from someone who walks with Light can change your soul." Darkness has the power to break a soul and rip out the Humanity from it, and it's so bad that both Stevie Rae and Stark asked Zoey to kill them, preferring to die rather then continue to live as they were.
• First-Episode Twist: Betrayed reveals that Neferet- the protagonist's kind, wise mentor-figure is actually the Big Bad and a Manipulative Bitch. It is very difficult to describe the main story arc without revealing this. Which is a pity, as the relevant reveal was enjoyably unexpected.
• Five-Token Band: The series has Damien and later Jack, two gay boys who quickly become a Token Minority Couple, Shaunee, a black girl, her white mental "twin", Erin, and Stevie Rae, a country girl from the middle of nowhere with an Oklahoma accent. Add in Zoey, the main character of Cherokee descent, and you definitely have one of these forming.
• Flanderization: Zoey Redbird went from a somewhat more advanced vampyre who happened to have a boyfriend in Marked to The Chosen One with an Unwanted Harem by Betrayed.
• Flat Character: The books have been criticized having horribly one-note characters—Damien's main character trait is "effeminate gay man", Shaunee and Erin are "best friends", Stevie Rae is "country", etc. Interestingly enough, most of them seem to be getting phased out by the later books, while Stevie Rae eventually gets her own plotline.

• Gay Best Friend: Damien in the early books. After Jack, who is annoyingly stereotyped, arrives the two of them share this role.
• Gayngst: Damien has a bit of this. His father didn't react at all well to him being gay. What's strange is that at first he seems to be the only gay vampyre, aside from a couple of lesbians.
• God(dess): Nyx makes frequent appearances, usually to give the reminder that Dark Is Not Evil and Light Is Not Good.
• God Guise: Kalona and Neferet's Evil Plan is to convince the vampyre high council that they are the incarnations of Erebus and Nyx, respectively.
• Good Adultery, Bad Adultery: In Chosen, Zoey spends her time balancing her human boyfriend Heath, her vampire boyfriend Erik, and the twenty five-year-old teacher Loren Blake. Word of God is that it's not a good thing that Zoey hid her relationship with Blake from everyone (Erik does know about her being with Heath and is not happy about it).
• Gosh Dang It to Heck!: Zoey doesn't swear. She says words like "bullpoopie." Given that she's the narrator, this results in many unintentionally amusing Sophisticated as Hell moments. Interestingly this is downplayed in a way, since she has no problem using the words "slut" and "hell".
• Have I Mentioned I Am Gay?: Damien is kind of like this, until he gets a boyfriend (so there at least is an excuse to mention that he is gay).
• Have I Mentioned I Am Heterosexual Today?: When Stevie Rae Imprints on Aphrodite after she has to drink her blood to survive, she will not stop talking about how she's definitely not gay, she's only into guys, there are zero sexual feelings involved, etc.
• Have You Tried Not Being a Monster?: In Marked, when Zoey gets the Mark of a vampyre, all she knows is that vampyres often disappear. She then discovers that there is a school for them (the titular "House of Night") and that many celebrities are vampyres. Being a vampyre is treated similar to being gay in this universe. Because of this, her strict Christian stepfather disowns her. Vampyres also have to cover up their Mark in public to avoid being harassed.

• Heel–Face Turn: Kalona, when he realises that Being Evil Sucks.

• Holier Than Thou:
  • A recurring theme is that any male character who doesn't worship Nyx is inevitably a misogynistic, bible-toting hypocrite. In particular, the Big Bad of Lenobia's Vow is a Catholic bishop who believes his status makes it okay for him to rape and kidnap a bastard girl (and to use his pyrokinetic abilities to incinerate anyone who objects).
  • Female characters usually subvert this trope, being compassionate and even-handed toward other faiths.

• How the Mighty Have Fallen: The authors tend to favour the Break the Haughty method:
  • Aphrodite went from being the most popular fledgling, High Priestess-in-training, and dating the hottest guy at the House of Night to being friendless, completely powerless, and spending her meal times sitting out in the courtyard eating alone.
  • Rephaim - "The favourite son of an ancient immortal reduced to hiding in refuse and talking to the ghost of a human child."

• Human Sacrifice: Two in Awakened, Jack(!) and Zoey's mother Linda (very nearly Zoey's grandma!), both sacrificed to Darkness by Neferet.
• Humans Are the Real Monsters: All vampyres seem to have a rather dim view of humanity in general. In the first two books, Neferet tells Zoey that humans are violent and hateful and should be shunned by vampyres on principle. While Neferet does turn out to be evil and have her own reasons to be bitter towards humans, her backstory novella has her own mentor telling her that vampyres are all far superior to humans in terms of art, culture, and intelligence. Zoey gets on board with this pretty quickly, berating humans for hating vampyre celebrities simply for being jealous of them. Tellingly, the only humans portrayed as good are the ones who agree that vampyres are the best things ever and inexplicably believe in Nyx as well.
• Hypocrite: Zoey is juggling three-to-four boys for the first half of the series, yet she calls Aphrodite out for being "slutty."
• Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: All twelve books of the series are past tense verbs and end in "-ed", with the exception of the titles of the third and third-last books, which end in "-en". This also applies to the sequel series with the exception of Lost and "Found".

• I Was Born Ready: This seemed to be the Twins' catch phrase.
• I Will Find You: Heath's last words to Zoey before he leaves the Otherworld to be re-born. One of the biggest Tear Jerkers in the series. At the end of Awakened, he does come back to find her... albeit as a Vessel. Heath no longer exists, but he possesses the memories to protect her.
• Incurable Cough of Death: Once a fledgling vampyre starts coughing, this means they are rejecting the change and will die. Blood from the Mouth often occurs as well.
• Informed Flaw: 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...
• Instant Expert: Zoey Redbird has super-special Elemental Powers that she doesn't even need to practice to use without breaking a sweat. All she needs to do is to wait until her goddess-given sixth sense tells her exactly what she needs to do, and she can turn invisible, fly over walls, blow opponents off their feet, hurl fireballs, regain the memories the Big Bad wiped from her mind, restore the humanity of bloodthirsty vampyres, and much more without any beforehand practice whatsoever.
• Introdump: After Betrayed, this happens in every book. Usually with the same stock descriptors, such as describing Jack and Damien as gay, describing Erin and Shaunee being exactly alike except for their race, describing Zoey's best friend Stevie Rae, and in later books, describing Aphrodite.
• Involuntary Shapeshifter: At the end of Awakened, Rephaim is given a human form by Nyx, but he must become a raven again during the day.
• It Has Only Just Begun: Nyx says some variation of this in almost every book.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Aphrodite follows the usual "Alpha Bitch with abusive\neglectful parents" model.
• Keeping Secrets Sucks: A big theme in the series. Zoey almost loses all of her friends and almost dies because she didn't tell her friends that she 1) knew that Stevie Rae was really alive, and 2) was secretly involved with a professor. Stevie Rae also has problems with this when she does not tell anyone about her relationship with Rephaim. Also see No Good Deed Goes Unpunished.
• Killed Off for Real: Erin in the Hidden epilogue, this is confirmed in Revealed.
• Kiss of the Vampire: Vampyre bites are extremely pleasurable to both the 'victim' and the vampyre inflicting the bite. Applies to both kinds of vampyres, even if the vampyre and the human are of the same gender.
• Lady and Knight: The series adores this trope^note  Vampyre society is traditionally matriarchal; females have a stronger connection to the gods and are more likely to manifest magical abilities. Males are something like foot soldiers- trained in combat and referred to as 'protector' but rarely ever placed in positions of command.. Nearly all Love Confessions, if requited, are followed by the man swearing eternal love and fealty to the woman.
  • Particular examples include Zoey and Stark and Aphrodite and Darius.
  • Dragon and Anastasia became this after Dragon had gone through some Character Development. (Anastasia, being a Martial Pacifist, would not accept Dragon as her Knight unless he agreed to become The Fettered. He did, and a Morality Chain was born.)
• Light Is Not Good: One of the books actually has the line "Remember, darkness doesn't always equal evil just as light doesn't always equal good." And later in the book Burned there are two bulls and the white one is evil and the black one is good, meaning it's bad when Stevie Rae accidentally summons the white bull thinking it's the good one.
• Love Hurts:
  • Zoey ends up falling for three guys simultaneously (ish). It ends badly when she thinks her own-age vampyre boyfriend Erik is dead, flees to the hot-but-older Loren for comfort, and ends up losing her virginity to him. Proving that Joss Whedon is not the only one who can be incredibly cruel to his characters, the following things happen in quick succession: it breaks her bond with her human boyfriend Heath, Erik walks in on her and Loren Kissing, and it turns out Loren was in cahoots with the villainess and only using Zoey. And then Loren is brutally murdered. Ouch. Poor Zoey. And it gets worse for her: the guy she displays a brief romantic interest in in the fourth book promptly dies, only to be resurrected as a bizarre zombie-vamp hybird controlled by her archnemisis. Zoey has a bit of a Cartwright Curse, it seems...
  • At the end of Burned between Stevie Rae and her consort Rephaim. The returning of Zoey's and Kalona's souls to their respective bodies serves to keep the two apart.

• Love Redeems: Stark and Zoey's relationship is entirely built on this. Initially, after he becomes a Red Fledgling he works for the Big Bad, but after he falls for Zoey, he believes her when she tells him he can choose to be good and pledges to be her warrior.
• Magical Native American: Sylvia and Zoey Redbird, who are Cherokee. Much mention is made of how their Cherokee blood makes them closer to nature and more mystically inclined, and Zoey uses smudging rituals when she casts circles.

• Marked Change: Slightly subverted with Zoey Redbird who gets new magical tattoos after she does something heroic.
• Meaningful Name: Upon being marked as fledgings and entering the House Of Night, young vampyres are given the opportunity to change their names. (It's considered symbolic of the new life they are entering.) All fledgings being teenagers, Awesome McCoolnames are common.
  • Aphrodite chose her name because she was an attractive, coldhearted girl who used her beauty to manipulate others. She also had a friend named Venus, and the two chose their names to complement each other.
  • Neferet was inspired to take her name when she saw a historical exhibit describing the eponymous Queen of Egypt. (As a bonus, the name also means 'wise and beautiful', which describes her well.) Having grown up in the eighteen hundreds, with an abusive father, she was fascinated that a woman could wield such power.
  • Zoey Heffer hated her surname, as it originated from a stepfather she detested. Therefore, she changed it to Redbird to honour her grandmother.
• Muggle Power: Option 2. Churches decide that vampyres are sinners and start killing teachers at Zoey's school. Neferet, the head of the school, decides to wage war against them.
• Murder Is the Best Solution: Completely and utterly subverted as most of Kalona's problems wouldn't exist if, say, he had just wiped Heath's memory instead of killing him.
• Murder the Hypotenuse:
  • Done twice. The first time, it's adult vampyre Loren Blake in Chosen, and at the end of Tempted, Zoey's human boyfriend Heath gets the axe as well.
  • In-story, it's Dallas's motivation to try and kill Rephaim. "I'm gonna fry him. And then whatever weird control he has over you is gonna be gone. You and me can be together, and I won't tell shit about what happened here, as long as you're my girl."

• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Stevie Rae saves Rephaim's life. In the end, this small act is the catalyst for Stevie Rae's boyfriend Dallas to go over to the Dark Side when he finds out she's been hiding him this whole time. Stevie Rae is also Mistaken for Cheating.
• No Sympathy for Grudgeholders: Rephaim murders Dragon's wife. He later switches sides, and Zoey is shocked- shocked- that Dragon doesn't forgive Rephaim.
• "Not If They Enjoyed It" Rationalization: In Hunted, when Zoey calls Stark on trying to rape a fledgling, he says that, given five more minutes under his mind control, "she would have been all over [him]". Zoey doesn't buy it. (Although she later ends up with her own "not if they don't remember it and find the guy hot" rationalization, which is no better.)

• Only One Name: Elizabeth, who named herself 'Elizabeth No Last Names' because she couldn't be bothered to come up with a new last name.
• Or Was It a Dream?: In Tempted, Zoey comes to this conclusion when it turns out the locations Kalona has been choosing as the backdrop of their dreams together reveal his actual location.
• Our Vampires Are Different: Vampyres have a crescent-shaped Power Tattoo on their foreheads, there's no way to predict who will become a vampyre, and worship the goddess Nyx. Then it turns out that there are two different kinds of vampyres, signalled by the presence of blue or red crescent marks, and the red ones are Undead while the blue ones aren't. Teenagers are "fledglings" until they either go full vamp or die... and "dead" fledglings sometimes become a different, more feral version of vampyre.
• Parent with New Paramour: Zoey's chief source of familial angst is the "Steploser", her ultra-religious stepfather who she feels stole her mother from her. Being Marked makes things worse between them, as he believes vampyres are satanic.
• Parental Abandonment: Happens rather commonly in the series if your parents don't approve of your new vamphood.
  • Zoey's mother has pretty much emotionally abandoned her in favour of her new husband/Church Militant religion by the start of the series anyway, and didn't need much more to abandon her child entirely.
  • This had also been happening to Aphrodite throughout the series for different reasons, but it was pretty much made official in Revealed, when her mother publicly disowned her shortly after the death of Aphrodite's father.

• Phantasy Spelling: The House Of Night would like to remind you that their vampyres are in fact super special. They have no association with feral, violent 'vampires' of any sort. Spelling vampyre with a 'y' both differentiates from these completely imaginary creatures and creates a cozy learning environment. The House of Night would also like to wish you a nice day.
• Pinball Protagonist: This sums up Zoey Redbird. If something isn't directly affecting her right then and there, she'll forget about it. In some cases, she forgets about it right after it happens.
• Polyamory: Many (sometimes with more than three people) involving Zoey, usually some sort of combination out of Zoey/Erik/Heath/Stark (and sometimes Loren). Zoey/Heath/Stark was a thing for a while. The problem is that Zoey often doesn't check that her boyfriends are okay with this, so she ends up hurting them.
• Power at a Price: When it comes to using Darkness, "that price is usually paid in pain" (refer to The Power of Love). Darkness hungers for blood and pain, whereas Light desires blood and love.

• The Power of Love: "Because Darkness feeds on pain and Light feeds on love."
• Power Tattoo: The fledgling vampyres initially get a crescent moon on their forehead. When it fills in completely, they have finished the Change into an adult vampyre. The main character Zoey Redbird's crescent tattoo has already filled in of course, along with getting various tattoos as she gains numerous special abilities.
• Prequel:
  • Dragon's Oath, about Dragon's past and his relationship with Anastasia.
  • Lenobia's Vow, about Lenobia's past.
  • Neferet's Curse, which relates Neferet's past.
• Present-Day Past: An example that applies to what's supposed to be contemporary fiction, likely caused by the fact the books were written and published between 2007 and 2014 but the writer and/or editor forgot the books themselves take place over the course of only about a year: Zoey is 16 in Book 1 (Marked) and turns 17 in Book 3 (Chosen); the first spin-off book (Loved) is set a year after Redeemed and features Zoey's 18th birthday (which falls on December 24th). Marked is presumably set in 2007, the year of publication, which would mean most of the books take place in 2007 or 2008, while Loved takes place around 2009 (the use of flip-phones, Zoey and her friends watching 300 at the cinema and so on in early books make the time period obvious). Yet the later books feature things like iPads (first one was launched in 2010) and references to Game of Thrones (first aired in 2011), as if it's the 2010s rather than the late 2000s.
• Promotion to Parent: Stevie Rae seems to be this for her Red Fledglings, mostly because of Parental Abandonment and/or because most people think they're still dead.
• Protagonist-Centered Morality: The entire series is seen and judged through Zoey's sense of Morality. Even in Tempted and Burned (when different POVS and a large cast are introduced) and someone has different opinion than that of Zoey's having, they're considered to be having an OOC moment at best or they're automatically considered to be a horrible bitch and/or in cahoots with the Big Bad.
  • Kalona, pretty much the cause for every single bad thing that's ever happened in the series, gets a Fallen Hero backstory and two chapters from his POV. Zoey thought it possible he could be redeemed. Why? Because in a past life Zoey was in love with him.
  • The majority of characters (and a large portion of the Fandom) consider Loren Blake to be idealized. Why? Because he was young good-looking substitute professor and because Zoey was in love with him and Death Equals Redemption. Loren Blake was a sexual predator and a Manipulative Bastard. On top of that, he decided to toy with the feelings of the Big Bad... A serious case of Too Dumb to Live and Hoist by His Own Petard. He knew what the Big Bad wanted and why she wanted him to do it and went along with her plans with no remorse.
  • When Venus is introduced she has just recently regained her humanity but she is deemed a horrible bitch and possibly evil in the first chapter of Hunted. She is also hated by the fandom considerably. Despite the fact that Venus's personality is very close to that of Aphrodite, PC Cast's favourite character and most popular character with the Fandom. Why? Because she DARED to flirt with Erik in front of Zoey and hooked up with him when Zoey and Erik broke up. Zoey was telling herself that it was wrong to behave and think the way she did, didn't stop it anyway.
  • Not to mention how Zoey and her friends all call Aphrodite a "ho" for dating two guys, even though she began going out with the second one only sometime after the first one and is genuinely serious about him. Zoey, meanwhile, has dated/flirted with no less than four guys, lost her virginity to her teacher Loren while she was dating Erik and letting Heath continually lure her into feasting on his blood, and she repeatedly calls herself out for being unable to settle on one guy. And yet when Erik calls her out on this in a later book, he's dismissed as just a jealous jerk by all her friends and we're clearly meant to disagree with her being a ho even when she keeps on saying that she is and is right.
  • Raven Mockers are mindless creatures of Darkness and they should all be wiped out. Everybody agrees with the attitude and, as of Burned, around twenty Raven Mockers have been killed. Even the idea of giving them a burial is seen as strange. The only exception is Stevie Rae and when she raises valid points of What Measure Is a Non-Human? and If You Kill Him, You Will Be Just Like Him! not only does every character tell her she's wrong but she is suspected of secretly turning over to The Dark Side.
  • Speaking of Stevie Rae, how is it okay for the Red Fledglings that haven't "Chosen" yet to be running around killing people? Even after she gives them multiple chances to choose, and they try to kill her and her friends multiple times, she ends up just chasing them away/exiling them... as if wherever they end up, they'll be any less evil and bloodthirsty? Maybe it's just a weakness moment or something, but the fact that they're Red Fledglings and thus "her people" seems to be what keeps her from stopping them from murdering any more innocents... permanently.
  • The authors almost poke fun at this in Chapter 6 of Revealed, when Kalona calls Zoey out for making a tactless comment concerning personal morality and Stark jumps to her defense, telling Kalona that he "just [doesn't] get her." Zoey is then shown to get all worked up and zone out when she realises that (gasp!) Kalona's assessment might be right.
  • In Hunted, Zoey catches Stark raping a vampire girl through forcible blood drinking, but ignores Darius condemning him because Nyx herself guides Zoey into deciding to redeem Stark. On the flipside, in Tempted, Zoey calls Stark out on what he did and Stark angrily declares that she's been mislead and turned against him by Kalona.
• Psychic Powers: Aphrodite has horrific future visions. Neferet can read minds.

• Raised by Grandparents: Due to Parental Abandonment by both Zoey's mother and father, Grandma Redbird pretty much raised Zoey and continues to help her out whenever possible.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Mentioned a lot in the series. The Red Fledglings and Vampyres have red eyes when they've just fed from a human or when they're seriously pissed off. The Raven Mockers also have red eyes.
• Reincarnation Romance:
  • Kalona with Zoey. Unfortunately, Zoey wasn't exactly human in her last life, and Kalona doesn't really get that the girl who was literally created to love him (It Makes Sense in Context) now has free will. And that they're on opposite sides of a war. Cue very creepy dream-stalking.
  • A reciprocal example is Lenobia and Martin. They met as teenagers in 1788 ^note As detailed in the prequel Lenobia's Vow, but Martin died soon after Lenobia was Marked as a vampire fledging. Around 200 years later, he was reborn.
• Rescue Romance: Rephaim and Stevie Rae's relationship is entirely built on this. First Stevie Rae finds Rephaim almost dying from being shot out of the sky, hides him in a garden shed, patches him up, then lets him go. A I Owe You My Life moment is exchanged between them, which comes in handy when Stevie Rae is then later trapped on the roof a building. Rephaim rescues her and an Imprint is formed between them. Then when Stevie Rae summons Darkness, it's none other then Rephaim who rescues her from Darkness. When Stevie Rae sees Darkness hurting Rephaim, she summons Light to help rescue Rephaim. When Dallas finds out that Stevie Rae's been lying about knowing Rephaim, and plans to "knock some sense" into Stevie Rae, Rephaim's the one that steps up and protects Stevie Rae. Then Stevie Rae protects them both when Dallas embraces Darkness and tries to kill them both.

• The Sacred Darkness: The series uses this trope extensively. The titular House is a beloved, sheltering Extranormal Institute, and the protagonists are all nocturnal vampyres ^note weird spelling intentional. The vampyres' main goddess, Nyx, combines this trope with Light Is Good; she is most frequently associated with shadows and night, but comments that others worship her as Dawn.
• Sadly Mythtaken: Sister Mary Angela, the Head Nun of the Benedict Abbey, calls Kalona a Nephilim. A Catholic nun would know better then that, and that the Raven Mockers, which are beings that part-Immortal/part-Human, are in fact Nephilim. Kalona even named his eldest son, Rephaim, after a type of Nephilim.

• Self-Insert Fic: Zoey is essentially a more perfect version of Kristen Cast. According to Wikipedia, they based the character on her so she would be easier to write. Yeah...
• Shapeshifting Lover: Rephaim, a Raven-Mocker, is given the gift of humanity by Nyx. However, he can only be a human at night and is forced to turn back into a Raven-Mocker during the day. This causes problems in his relationship with Stevie Rae.
• Single Girl Seeks Most Popular Guy:
  • Zoey catches the eye of Erik, who's repeatedly referred to as "the hottest guy in the school" and makes practically all girls swoon while thinking about how gorgeous he is. True to this trope's description, his ex-girlfriend is the Alpha Bitch Aphrodite who is not amused when she finds out about his relationship with Zoey. They eventually break up, though, mainly because of Zoey's utter inability to not throw herself at every hot guy who crosses her path.
  • Zoey's other boyfriends, incidentally, are the popular football star from her previous high school and the incredibly handsome poetry teacher that all the female students seem to have crushes on.

• Slut-Shaming:
  • Aphrodite is constantly put down by the narrator, Zoey, for being a "slut", despite only being involved with two guys in the whole series, the second with whom the relationship is incredibly serious. This despite the fact that the main character has had several boyfriends (some at the same time) throughout the series. The plot also occasionally derails to talk about how bad blowjobs are.
  • At one point in the series, Zoey refers to a group of girls from her old high school as "hateful sluts". Since we never actually meet them, that's the only reason we really get as to why we're supposed to be angry at them hanging around Heath. Kayla is also lumped with the group, and earlier Zoey threatens to drink her blood for trying to date Heath after Zoey repeated said she wasn't interested in him anymore.
• Social Circle Filler: Kayla is this. She appears briefly in the beginning of Marked and briefly again near the end. After that she's pretty much forgotten in favour of the Five-Man Band.
• Stalker with a Crush: Several examples.
  • Heath, after Zoey drinks his blood and they imprint on one another. He texts her endlessly when she doesn't see him, hallucinates her, and seeks her out even under unsafe conditions.
  • Also Kalona with regards to Zoey. He repeatedly shows up in her dreams, attempting to seduce her because she was his lover in her past life.

• Starbucks Skin Scale: Shaunee is described as having "Cafe au Lait" skin a couple of times.
• Start of Darkness: Pretty much the plot of Neferet's Curse, which details how an innocent girl named Emily Wheiler grew up in 1893 and ended up broken and vengeful as a result of being abused and eventually raped by her own father. She ultimately changes her name to Neferet, upon becoming a vampire, and vows to never again be used by anyone.
• Straight Gay: Damien. Unfortunately, he mostly comes across as Have I Mentioned I Am Gay?.
• Straw Feminist: This is the defining trait of most of Aphrodite's friends in Marked. Vampyric society in general has shades of it, given that everyone cheerfully accepts that men are primarily suited for being consorts and warriors.
• Superior Species: Vampyres are all ethereally beautiful, and live away from humanity in peaceful enclaves. Many famous historical figures (and celebrities) are retconned into being vampyres. They are matriarchal, but never sexist. They are incredibly wealthy, but never spoiled. They are stronger and faster than any human, but they never use this strength to do anything bad. They are deeply religious, but never bigoted. They are very long-lived, and look youthful even after centuries have passed. They can be identified by the exotic, intricate tattoos that grow over their bodies, and the "glossy, inhumanly attractive light that [radiates]" from each of them.

• Take a Third Option: Used subtly in Lenobia's Vow. A bishop and an abbess are discussing the vampyres' presence in New Orleans, which the bishop considers "blasphemy". The abbess is faced with a dilemma: does she disagree with the bishop (thus starting a tedious argument) or agree with him and lie about her beliefs? Her response is to shrug and reply, "Some say so, some say so."

• There Are No Global Consequences: Vampyres ostensibly suffer immense Fantastic Racism, however we find out that most popular actors, singers, and others in the entertainment industry are vampyres. Vampyres also were many historical figures, who were apparently just as influential as they were in real life. Not to mention that there's no word that the governments have any problem with the vampyres keeping their own government, setting up Houses of Night in various towns (even though regular people supposedly hate the presence of vampyres), and automatically having all fledglings legally emancipated. Also, even though vampyrism is supposed to occur because of junk DNA and a hormonal imbalance, there's no talk at all of scientists studying vampyres to find ways to prevent regular people from turning into them or, at the very least, reduce the risk of fledglings dying horrible deaths.
• Token Black Friend: Shaunee is the only black main character, and her main character trait is being best friends with Erin. Later, Kramisha fulfills this role for Stevie Rae—she's a sassy sounding board for boy problems, a cleanup crew, and a prophecy dispenser.
• Token Minority:
  • Kramisha is the only black Red Fledgling. She is portrayed as a Soul Sister who speaks mostly in jive.
  • Shaunee, the only black member of the "nerd heard" (and the only black lead for the first several books) and who we're constantly reminded is black.
• Too Good for This Sinful Earth: Almost literal in Awakened. Jack is killed by Darkness because Neferet needed to give Darkness a soul she could not taint (as a payment for trapping Kalona's soul). Later, when Nyx appears to the crowd at Jack's funeral, she tells his boyfriend Damien that he is one of the happiest souls she's known.

• Try Not to Die: Aphrodite and Stevie Rae have these moments occasionally. Used to show serious character development given that Aphrodite treated Stevie Rae like she was only good for being a snack and Stevie Rae tried to kill Aphrodite twice before her humanity was restored.

• The Unfair Sex: Zoey initially was slightly hesitant about having a relationship with Erik because he had previously dated Aphrodite. This is after (A) she walked in on Aphrodite all but raping Erik (trying to force a blowjob on him while he repeatedly asked her to stop) and (B) it was made pretty obvious that Aphrodite and her friends made use of Erik and other boys in such a way. Zoey does hook up with Erik...and dives into a relationship with a teacher at the school, while rekindling a relationship with her human boyfriend. At the end of Chosen, we're apparently supposed to think Erik's such a mean guy for not being so kind and understanding that Zoey had sex with said teacher and just had "We share a bond" as an excuse.
• Unwanted Harem: Zoey Redbird has three admirers/boyfriends: Heath, her human ex-boyfriend and quarterback of the football team, Erik Night, the hottest guy in the vampyre high school, and Loren Blake, a teacher and poet. Loren leaves the harem later on when he's revealed to be evil and then dies, only to be replaced by Stark.
• Van Helsing Hate Crimes: The Fundamentalist Christians are accused of brutally murdering two teachers at the House of Night.Averted when Neferet is revealed to have arranged their deaths.

• Verbed Title: All 12 books of this series are past tense verbs:
  • Marked
  • Betrayed
  • Chosen
  • Untamed
  • Hunted
  • Tempted
  • Burned
  • Awakened
  • Destined
  • Hidden
  • Revealed
  • Redeemed
• Villain with Good Publicity: One of the central plot points of the whole series. Neferet is able to hide her desire to kill all humans for quite a long time, maintaining a respectable appearance.

• Wake Up, Go to School & Save the World: Zoey is not only dealing with many mystical issues threatening the vampyres, but also juggling multiple boys and a couple of men (both of them bad guys).
• Wham Episode: The series has tons of these moments. For starters, Neferet is portrayed as quite likeable with nothing suspicious hinted about her in Marked. In Betrayed, she's revealed to be the Big Bad. For the rest of the series to come. Wham.
• You Talk Too Much!: Often exchanged between Rephaim and Stevie Rae.
• Yo Yo Plot Point: Zoey's Unwanted Harem problems. The first couple of books had her being torn among her boyfriend Erik, her jock ex-boyfriend Heath, and poetry teacher Loren. Chosen resolved the love polygon, albeit in an abrupt and contrived way that brought into question Zoey's intelligence, by having Erik leave Zoey after she slept with Loren which severed her blood-based connection with Heath and then Loren turned out to be working for the Big Bad all along and was killed off at the end of the book with the clear message that Zoey had learned her lesson and would work hard to repair her broken relationship with Erik. But then Hunted brings Zoey's Unwanted Harem right back with her renewing her blood-based connection with Heath thanks to a contrived "you need to drink his blood or else he'll die" situation (and making their connection even stronger than it was before) and getting a Replacement Goldfish for Loren in the form of Stark. To top all this off, Erik is derailed into a possessive jerk to justify why Zoey is suddenly going back on her earlier vow to stick to just him, and she proceeds to repeat the "woe is me, I'm a ho for being unable to choose between three hot guys" indecisiveness/wangst from Betrayed and Chosen all over again. Tempted appears to try resolving at least one factor of this love issue for good by killing Heath off, only for Burned to reveal that he's not so dead after all and Zoey proclaims her love for him, even though she's still stringing Stark and Erik along.

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