Books

Speaking of books, I've had lots of time to read lately. Having a 4 year old who loves preschool and a 10 month old who loves to take 3 hour naps, plus LOTS of free time off work the past few weeks has been GREAT when it comes to consuming new reading material.

So I FINALLY (after, I swear, like 6 months) finished The Host, Stephenie Meyer's non-Twilight novel, which actually was pretty good and not as whiny as the Twilight series (although I never got past New Moon, and I hear the third book is better). Quick synopsis of The Host - humans are virtually extinct because "parasites" (think worm invading our brains) have enslaved us. Except these parasites are fundamentally good, and the one invading the main character, Melanie, begins realizing that not only is her host not gone, but it's really hard to WANT her gone. Once I had time to actually sit down with it, I really enjoyed getting through this one. This one seemed like Meyer was trying to reach a slightly older audience, although it still is a young adult novel (don't be expecting Faulkner, here).

Then I started the Marked series, by P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast - another vampire story. I like the bloodsuckers, what can I say? This mother-daughter team seems to really understand teen minds (mainly because the daughter isn't much older than a teen herself and made sure that her mom didn't sound like a dork [her words] when she wrote the character). In an odd divergence from the Twilight series, this one seems like it's written to a younger audience but addresses issues like sexuality, language and overall bitchy teenagers in a more adult way. Twilight was definitely more tame and addressed sexuality just the way you'd think an LDS author would (Meyer is a card-carrying Mormon - went to BYU and everything). The Marked series begins with the main character witnessing an attempted blow job, so it kind of blows (hehe...no pun intended) the Twilight subtlety out of the water.

The main character, Zoey, lives in a universe where vampyres (the olde spellyng) are real and you don't change into one if you're bitten, you have to be chosen and Marked. And even then you might die while you're changing. But Zoey gets Marked and finds out that she's a special fledgling chosen by the Goddess Nyx (Night) to be her eyes and ears. And that doesn't cause her as much trouble as you might think, because her new friends accept her difference - it's just outside influences like her very religious stepfather and Stepford Wife mom that cause the problems.

Anyway, I just started the third book in the Marked series, and it's definitely something I'd recommend for light reading. A friend once told me she wouldn't let her daughter read it, but I think about what I was reading in 5th or 6th grade (right about the age that kids would start getting interested in these books)... Compared to some of those novels, most of which would definitely NOT be considered young adult, I would wholeheartedly endorse these for teens. A short list of books I read back then - I discovered V.C. Andrews, of Flowers in the Attic fame, as well as Dean Koontz, horror novelist (back then he was strictly horror, now he has really expanded his repertoire to the quantum-physical level). So compared to those two authors, yeah, Marked is tame.

I've been reading a lot of vampire books lately. Maybe someone should start checking Scott for bite marks. Hehehe...