Review: Hidden by P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast

 

Hidden by P.C. Cast + Kristin Cast Review Reviewed by Steph with commentary by Dani in blue
Steph’s Rating: 2 stars Overall Rating: 2 stars

*Dani will not rating this book because she has not read this series before, but she will be providing her thoughts in her commentary based on this review, and other things she has heard about the HON series. The overall rating will average only with Steph's rating*

Goodreads Synopsis:

At last, Zoey has what she wanted: the truth is out. Neferet's evil has been exposed, and the High Council is no longer on her side -- but she's far from done wreaking havoc in the vampyre world. First, a mysterious fire ravages the stables. Then, Neferet makes a devastating move that will test them all.

With the seeds of distrust sown and Darkness breeding chaos at the House of Night, everyone must band together -- but that's proving to be more difficult than ever before. The twins are barely speaking and the House of Night's former enemy, Kalona, has now become their warrior, pushing their trust to the limit. To top it off, Zoey is pretty darn sure she might be losing her mind. She saw something when she looked at Aurox through the Seer Stone that she can hardly explain to herself, let alone her friends. Is it possible that Heath has come back in a different form? Is that why Zoey's so intrigued by Aurox, when it's so obvious that he's dangerous? And who would believe her if she told them? Zoey knows that following her instinct about Aurox might be just what they need to defeat evil . . . but if she's wrong, it could cause the destruction of those closest to her.

With the tension at a breaking point and friendships on the line, can the nerd herd come together to stop the spread of Darkness before it's too late?

Review: *minor plot spoilers, couldn’t help it this time*

    I honestly don’t know why I continue to read this series. I really enjoyed the first few books because things actually happened in them. Now I think I’m waiting for Zoey to die or for Damien to admit he’s actually a girl who got transgender surgery or something. Seriously. I’m pretty sure P.C. Cast said something about writing 10 books in the HON series, and here we are at book 10 and we basically still have the same dilemma that we had in book 5. I think the Cast’s decided to up the number of books to 15, but I’m guessing that they didn’t outline five new plots for those five extra books since each of the books from 6 and on have had so little plot in them and too much fluff.

    I wanted to SCREAM so many times while reading this book! It took me a week to finish this teeny little tidbit since it was excruciatingly painful to read at times. Zoey and crew are still hanging out at the House of Night, though I have no idea why since they really aren’t going to classes anyways. There’s this puny little stable fire at the beginning of the book that just makes all of the characters get scared out of their pants. Come on! I’m pretty sure one of the elements of Zoey’s circle is a fire! Nobody was even hurt so I don’t see why it kept on getting mentioned over and over again in the book as a source of dread for the House of Night. Zoey and her friends also literally spend half of this book planning and executing a funeral for Dragon Lankford, who passed away in the book before. That wasn’t even important to the real plot of the series.

Don’t listen to the description when it says “Zoey finally has what she wants”, because that is not true at all from her actions in this book. Sure, that biatch and slut Neferet has been kicked out of the House of Night as High Priestess (took about 5 books to get that done), but that doesn’t mean that she isn’t causing a ruckus within Tulsa on her own. All Zoey does is let her “friends” handle the hard stuff while she just whines and cries to her waaaaay over-protective and possessive boyfriend Stark. By the time she realizes “hey! I’m the main character in this series! I need to do something holy crap!” (she’s still not cussing guys), the entire book is almost over anyways. Even though she FINALLY decides she needs to do something, one of her loved ones gets kidnapped she’s back to square one whiny teary Zoey again. There was another part in the book where Neferet was just lying on the ground unconscious, and I hate that nobody was smart enough to just kill her then, which would’ve just put an end to all of their troubles!

And the language and writing style of Hidden! Mrs. Cast and Ms. Cast, the majority of the world does not speak “okie-style” so it would be very nice if you could use normal slang for once. And FYI, I’m pretty sure 17 and 18 year olds do not use the term “bullpoopie”. I’m also pretty sure 17 and 18 year olds are a lot more mature than Zoey and her friends, so it would great if you stopped making us YA’s look bad.

So with all of these dreadful points, why did I give this book 2 stars? Well number one, one of Zoey’s good old cronies has finally stepped up and betrayed her--not gonna say who--but yes, it has happened. I’ve always wanted that to happen, and don’t think I’m sick or twisted please. I thought it was high time Zoey got a good dose of reality. Number two, Heath comes back through Aurox--kind of!!! We already knew Heath was used in making Aurox, but in this book it is more confirmed I guess? I was always Team Heath, although I think he could’ve done a lot better than freaking Zoey (seriously what does he, or for that matter, any guy see in her?) Those two things made this book interesting enough for me to finish it, and to give this book 2 stars. I really don’t recommend it anyone in particular. If you haven’t read this series at all (sneaky sneaky, reading reviews on book 10 :)), don’t start because it’s pretty disappointing. If you have been keeping up so far, don’t expect anything much better than before.

Dani says:

A Walk on Words is a unique book blog because you occasionally receive feedback from people who HAVE NOT read the book that is being reviewed. My first reaction when I read this review was “What kind of teenagers use the word BULLPOOPIE???”. I once read a book where a FOUR YEAR OLD used that word because when she said BS, her father would scold her. The House of Night series will probably be on my “To read if I don’t have anything else to read” list of books. The plot doesn’t really appeal to me.