Book Review: Hidden by P.C. Cast & Kristin Cast

This book has been sitting on my 'to-read' bookshelf for a pretty long time. I started the "House of Night" series a few years ago, and let me tell you, I was instantly hooked, finishing the first two books in one day! But then there was the third book, then a fourth, fifth...all the way to a tenth now. And who knows when it'll actually end! But having nothing else to read on a rainy evening, I decided to give "Hidden" a shot.

With Neferet and her evil deeds finally exposed, Zoey and her friends should be free to live normal vampyre lives, but unfortunately for them, the former High Priestess of the House of Night in Tulsa is far from done with wreaking havoc in her thirst for power. To top it all off, Zoey is beginning to suspect that Aurox, the strange bull-boy who ended up killing Dragon, is actually Heath, her human boyfriend who sacrificed himself for her. With tensions running high and the stakes even higher, Zoey and her friends must find a way to stop Neferet before it's too late.

...And they better do it soon. Seriously, the Casts are dragging this whole series on wayyyyy too long. It would be so easy for the apparently powerful vampyre gang to take down Neferet with one of their many, many magical abilities, yet they just end up messing up one way or another. Neferet always finds some way to provoke Zoey, which is honestly pretty stupid when she's 500 years old and Zoey's only...seventeen or something. I mean, the things that she does just to provoke Zoey are so immature and stupid, and the fact that the entire book revolved around Neferet trying to hurt Zoey in an indirect way just made everything a little flat. The plot isn't horrible or anything, it's just a little annoying when you see this whole thing dragging on and on and on and on.

The "House of Night" series wouldn't seem as frustratingly long, I think, if the characters were a little more likable. Lets just take Zoey as an example. She's definitely a strong character, who's had to deal with a lot since a young age but is still trying to be the confident leader that her friends need, and the whole not-swearing thing (i.e. "bullpoopie") is a little juvenile but cute. But despite this she's not an all together likable protagonist. She's just a little too whiney and the fact that she's caught between all these different guys kind of makes me roll my eyes. I also feel like there should be more of a character development, especially given that there is ample space and time for what could be great development.

Overall, "Hidden" is probably a miss, though I do want to see how the entire series ends--I deserve that much, at least, after ten whole books! Don't get me wrong, the "House of Night" series would be great if it had ended a couple books ago. It's simply about time that things wrapped up by now.

Rating: 2/5