Y’all need to get yourselves together. Here’s a newsflash from the only High Priestess you have left at this dang school: Zoey isn’t dead. And believe me, I know dead. I’ve been there, done that and got the fricken tee-shirt.

Zoey Redbird is the youngest High Priestess in House of Night history and is the only person—vamp or fledgling—that can stop the evil Neferet from raising all kinds of immortal trouble. And she might just have a chance if she wasn’t so busy being dead.Well, dead is too strong a word. Stevie Rae knows she can bring her BFF back from her unscheduled va-cay in the Otherworld. But it’s going to take a lot more than hoping to bring Zoey back. Stevie Rae will have to give up a few secrets of her own.

For weeks I have struggled to make it through this reread. While I had several issues with the previous books, this one truly took the cake. In fact, I am certain this is turning point for my original interest in this book. As a fan of the series, I remember P.C. Cast writing about her trip to Scotland and the inspiration it was giving her for this particular book. But honestly, I feel the inspiration was wasted on a bunch of nonsense.

In the wake of watching Kalona murder her human consort, Heath, Zoey’s soul shatters, leaving her physical body for this entire book. Actually, Zoey’s journey to the Otherworld had a lot of potential. Cast did a great job of showing the utter despair one can feel after the loss of a loved one. The idea of Zoey losing herself and becoming a creature that was neither living nor dead was interesting as well. Sadly, Cast did a poor job at explaining this during the scenes.

Now for the bad: Stevie Rae. Someone stick a fork in her, she’s done. What do I mean by this? Well, for one, Stevie Rae’s storyline this book is basically a rewrite of Zoey’s sneaking around with Loren and Heath. On top of that, Stevie Rae is suddenly becoming a super vamp, what with her sudden ability to call forth a circle and summon both the Light and Dark bulls. And then there’s this sudden desire to say magick, instead of magic. I think Aphrodite’s original assessment of her was completely on the nose. She’s a dull, goody-good wannabe, with terrible fashion sense.

The other severely annoying part is Casts to try to spell out a Scottish accent. Honestly, this was beyond annoying and a truly distracting aspect of the story. It took away any interest I had in Sgiach, her island and her status as a female Warrior and Ace. Honestly, if Cast had just bothered to write without the accent, I would have at least rated this with three stars. But between that and Stevie Rae, I actually wish there was a 0 star rating (on Goodreads). Fortunately, here on my blog, I can rate it however I please.

Rating