House of Night is a series of vampire-based 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. The series has been on the New York Times Best Seller list for 63 weeks[1] and there are over seven million copies in print in North America alone.[2] The sixth novel, Tempted, which went on sale on October 27, 2009 with a first printing of a million copies,[3] entered the USA Today bestseller list that week at #1.[4] In January, 2010, Gezeichnet, a German translation of Marked, reached the #1 spot on the Der Spiegel bestseller list.[5] The series has so far sold more than ten million books[6] in 39 countries.[7]
The fictional world of House of Night differs from our own in one important respect: In a small percentage of teenagers, adolescent hormones trigger a strand of what is otherwise junk DNA, eventually changing them into Vampyres.[12] The change from human to Vampyre takes four years, during which time the adolescents, known as fledglings, must attend one of the House of Night boarding schools.[13] While there, they are required to take the Vampire Sociology 101 course to learn the dangers they face.[14] If a fledgling is not in constant proximity to adult Vampires, 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. [15]
The House of Night series is filled with religion. The House of Night religion is, in the words of P.C. Cast, heavily pagan and Wiccan based, with a huge influx of Native American myth and legend .[17] Within Vampyre society, the primary Goddess is a benevolent female named Nyx, who, at the beginning of the series, appears to Zoey and tells her that she will be Nyx's agent in the House of Night. Vampyres and fledglings cast a magic circle to communicate with Nyx or to harness the power of the elements: air, fire, water, earth, and spirit. Some demons from Cherokee mythology also play an important part in later volumes, and the Raven Mockers,[19] Kalona and Tsi Sgili[20] are taken from real Cherokee legends.[21]
Destined will be released in November 2011.In Destined, the forces of Light and Dark collide as their epic struggle focuses on Tulsa's House of Night. Zoey is home where she belongs, safe with her Guardian Warrior, Stark, by her side and preparing to face off against Neferet. Kalona has released his hold on Rephaim, and, through Nyx's gift of a human form, he and Stevie Rae are finally able to be together if Rephaim can truly walk the path of the Goddess and stay free of his father's shadow.
