The House of Night

YA vampire series written by the mother and daughter team of P.C. and Kristin Cast.

Main character Zoey Redbird is just an ordinary girl, living in an extraordinary world where vampyres (spelling theirs) are a fact of life, when she is Chosen and begins to Change into a vampyre herself. Once she starts the Change (a biological process that happens in certain people as they go through puberty) she begins attending vampyre academy The House Of Night, where she finds new friends, romance, and some typical high school situations... and gradually uncovers a dangerous conspiracy that threatens everything she values in her newfound life.

In other words, Harry Potter meets Twilight.

The Fledgling Handbook 101 (an in-universe textbook used and mentioned frequently within the series) was published on the 26th of October 2010.

Books in the series so far:

  • Marked
  • Betrayed
  • Chosen
  • Untamed
  • Hunted
  • Tempted
  • Burned
  • Awakened
  • Destined
Tropes used in The House of Night include:
  • A God Am I: Kalona and Neferet have both declared themselves this.
  • A Load of Bull: In Burned, an ancient mythos of Darkness and Light being represented by telepathic bulls is introduced. See Beauty Equals Goodness.
  • Absurdly Spacious Sewer
    • Justified, to a degree. They're tunnels left over from Prohibition. Still a little too roomy, though.
  • Abusive Parents
  • All Girls Want Bad Boys: James Stark, what with his name sake being the main character of Rebel Without a Cause. He is idealized by his fans.
  • The Archer: Stark, who's Blessed with Suck in that he can't miss any target he's thinking about, regardless of where he is aiming. This leads to Mentor Occupational Hazard when Stark competes against his mentor. Ouch.
  • All Just a Dream: Kalona has the ability to enter people's dreams and usually does this to seduce people.
  • All Witches Have Cats: If you think the vampires are more like witches.
  • Alpha Bitch: Aphrodite, until Zoey arrives.
  • Back-to-Back Badasses: Kalona and Rephaim in Awakened
  • Beethoven Was an Alien Spy: Vampyre variant. A lot of historical figures and also current famous people are said to be vampyres, including Shakespeare and Cleopatra just to name a few.
  • Big Damn Heroes: In Marked Stevie Rae volunteers to be “the refrigerator” for Aphrodite’s ritual so that she can then pass on the location of the ritual to Damien and the Twins, so that when everything goes pear-shaped all four of them could step up and help Zoey save the day.
    • At the end of Hunted, just as Zoey and half her Nakama have just escaped from the House of Night, with Raven Mockers, Kalona, and Neferet closing in fast, with barely enough time to get a ritual circle in place, the other half of Zoey's Nakama show up and by The Power of Love, defeat the bad guys.
    • When Neferet tries to mind control Stark, he decides to Take a Third Option and ends up almost killing himself rather then hurt Zoey.
  • Big Damn Villians: Being a Fallen Hero, Kalona has his moments, most notably in Awakened and Destined.
  • Beautiful All Along: the Book Burned reveals that if Rephaim chose good and became human, he would look "hotter then an Oklahoma blacktop in the middle of the summer". Just how attractive he could be is the only thing Aphrodite and Stevie Rae can agree on Which leads to...
  • Beauty Equals Goodness: It's strong theme through out the entire series. When Stevie Rae died and then un-died she was replusive and smelt really bad. When the ritual to give her and the other Red Fledglings back their humanity was complete, they were all pretty again.
    • Also the Bull of Light, which is black is descibed as "deep, mysterious and beautiful to behold". Compared to the Bull of Darkness, which is white and is described as "a nightmare come alive."
  • Black Best Friend: Shaunee. Krashima.
  • Blood From the Mouth: When you start rejecting the Change.
  • Boarding School / Extranormal Institute / Super-Hero School / Wizarding School: House of Night is a combination of it all. Students study both some regular subjects, some more fun ones like horseback riding, some such as vampire sociology and magic goes on too.
  • Breakfast Club
  • Break the Cutie: Stevie Rae all the way.
  • Brought Down to Normal: Happens to Aphrodite, and as of book 9 she has NOT gotten her vampyrism back. Still kept her visions, though, which was the one thing she could have happily gotten rid of.
  • Broken Bird: Rephaim is a male example. For starters he's a Child by Rape and never knew his mother due to Death by Childbirth. Destined to be Overlord, Jr. or possibly redeemed by Love?
  • Broken Pedestal: For both Zoey and Aphrodite with regards to Neferet
  • Casanova: Kalona's on the "Monster" end of the spectrum.
  • Cartwright Curse: The book seems to be heading in this direction. Out of Zoey's 4 lovers, two have died and one seems to be turning on her.
  • Cool Old Lady: Sylvia Redbird, Sister Mary Angela.
  • Comes Great Responsibility: Stevie Rae doesn't use her powers to "rule the world or anything crazy like that." Because of this trope. Stevie Rae also reads comic books.
  • Country Mouse: Stevie Rae.
  • Cliff Hanger: At the end of Tempted and Burned
  • Cryptic Conversation: All Immortals (Nyx, Kalona and, to a degree, Rephaim) are prone to a mixture of this plus From a Certain Point of View
  • Deadpan Snarker: Aphrodite and Rephaim
  • Derailing Love Interests: Erik is pretty much the perfect boyfriend to Zoey for the first three books. Then he suddenly turns out to be a possessive jerk in later books, thus justifying Zoey's displays of interest in other boys. Though considering that Zoey wasn't exactly a faithful girlfriend to him, his new attitude toward her might be somewhat justified.
    • Heath is this in reverse... he starts a drunk-jock-ex-boyfriend in the first book who looks in danger of being written off for good a number of times. He stays in the story almost completely by one virtue: the fact that he's taking advantage of Zoey's low self control over her new bloodlust to essentially roofie-rape her every time she sees him by cutting himself and triggering her compulsion to drink: an action that's both intensely arousing, energizing, and creates a mystical bond between them against her control. Then of course she realizes he's her soul-mate (one of them anyway) after he almost gets himself killed trying to win her back again, and all that is swept under the rug. Ugh.
  • Detect Evil: Apparently it's a lot harder to do unless you're familar with it. Zoey, Aphrodite, Stevie Rae, The Red Fledglings and Rephaim can all sense it easily, which is the reason why The Big Bad can fool everyone but make the heroes look like idiots.
  • Deus Ex Machina: Literally. When Kalona kills Stark in Nyx's realm, the Goddess Nyx shows up and forces Kalona to bring him back to life.If a goddess appearing doesn't count as this, then what the heck does?
  • Disappeared Dad: Zoey biological father left when she was two years old.
  • Double Standard Rape (Divine on Mortal): Despite the fact that Kalona radiates Darkness, females of all ages are still pretty keen on him. Even when the fact that he has raped women before is mentioned, it is conveniently ignored. Probably helps that Kalona has a Brainwashed and Crazy effect on people.
  • Dream Within a Dream: In Tempted, Zoey is shown a vision of Kalona's past in a dream.
  • Dress-Coded for Your Convenience: When The Big Bad decides to take over the Vampyre High Coucil, she changes her colourful wardrobe for skin-tight revealing black dresses. It's also a case of Sensible Heroes, Skimpy Villains and she has Femme Fatalons to complete the look. Kalona also has the habit of only wearing pants.
  • Elemental Powers: Zoey's Goddess-given gift is to have all of the elemental powers, her Five-Man Band friends have one power apiece.
  • Eldritch Abomination: The White Bull of Darkness
  • The End of the World as We Know It: Aphrodite has recieved multiple visions of this if Zoey doesn't step up to plate and prevent Kalona and Neferet from achieving Power!
  • Enemy Within: Usually involves Red Vampyres and Red Fledglings about how having dark feelings doesn't make you a monster, acting out on them does.
  • Evil All Along
  • Evil Makes You Ugly: This seems to be the case with the Rogue Red Fledgling
  • Evil Mentor: Who's an Evil Redhead to boot.
  • Evil Redhead: Neferet. Elliot from the first book is a pretty big asshole and later becomes an undead Fledgling.
  • Evil Smells Bad
  • Eyes of Gold: Kalona and, as of Burned, Rephaim
  • Face Heel Turn: Neferet and Dallas
  • Fainting Seer: Aphrodite. She becomes a Cassandra Truth when she falls from Neferet's good graces.
  • Fate Worse Than Death: "What Darkness can take take from some one who walks with Light can change your soul." Darkness has the power to break a soul and rip out the Humanity from it. It's so bad that both Stevie Rae and Stark asked Zoey to kill them, rather then continue to live as they were.
  • Flat Character: The books have been criticized having horribly one-note characters.
    • Interestingly enough, most of them seem to be getting phased out by the later books.
  • The Fashionista: Shaunee, Erin and Aphrodite.
  • Five-Man Band: Even though they don't quite fit the stereotypes.
  • Gayngst: Damien, a bit.
  • God(dess): Nyx makes frequent appearances and the occassional reminder that Dark Is Not Evil and Light Is Not Good.
  • Gosh Dang It to Heck: Zoey doesn't swear. She says words like "bullpoopie."
  • Handsome Devil: Kalona lives this trope and enjoys every minute.
  • Hair of Gold: Erin, Aphrodite, Professor Dragon Lankford.
  • Have You Tried Not Being a Monster?: The response Zoey's parents have.
  • Hearing Voices: With Neferet, as of the audiobook chapters available of Awakened, it appears to be a combination of type 1 and 2
  • Heroic BSOD: Zoey at the end of "Tempted." She gets better.
  • High School Sweethearts: Zoey and Heath
  • Hormone-Addled Teenager: Zoey could be the poster girl for this. The Big Bad is even Genre Savvy enough to use this against Zoey.
  • Horror Hunger: Red Fledglings occassionally suffer from this.
  • How the Mighty Have Fallen: The Authors tend to favour the Break the Haughty method:
    • Aphrodite went from being the most popular fledgling, High Priestess-in-training, dating the hottest guy at the House of Night to being friendless, completely powerless, and spending her meal times sitting out in the courtyard eating alone.
    • Rephaim - "The favourite son of an ancient immortal reduced to hiding in refuse and talking to the ghost of a human child."
  • Human Sacrifice: Two in Awakened: Jack(!) and Zoey's mother Linda (very nearly Zoey's Grandma!), both sacrificed by Neferet.
  • Hypocrite: Zoey all the way, she calls Aphrodite a slut while juggling multiple boyfriends.
  • I Just Want to Be Normal: Zoey at ALL times.
  • I See Dead People: One of Thantos's and Rephaim's abilities.
  • I'm a Humanitarian
  • Incurable Cough of Death: If a fledging starts coughing, it means their body is rejecting the Change.
  • I Will Find You: Heath's last words to Zoey before he leaves the Otherworld to be re-born. One of the biggest Tear Jerkers in the series.
    • At the end of Awakened, he does come back to find her... albeit as a Vessel. Heath no longer exists, but he pocesses the memories to protect her
  • It Has Only Just Begun: Thus far, Nyx has said this (in some variation) to Zoey at the end of Every. Single. Book.
  • I Was Born Ready: This seems to be the Twin's catch phrase
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Aphrodite.
  • Keeping Secrets Sucks: A big theme in the series. Zoey almost loses all of her friends and almost dies because she didn't tell her friends she 1)knew that Stevie Rae was really alive and 2)was secretely involved with a professor. Stevie Rae also has problems with this when she does not tell about her relationship with Rephaim. Also see No Good Deed Goes Unpunished
  • Kiss of the Vampire: Applies to both kinds of Vampyres, even if the Vampyre and the Human are of the same gender.
  • Love Hurts: Does it ever. Oh, does it ever. The end of "Chosen," anyone? Or "Tempted?" Though, considering that she was juggling three boyfriends at the time, the impact may have been lessened.
    • At the End of Burned between Stevie Rae and her consort Rephaim. Zoey and Kalona's souls return to their bodies, thus keeping the two apart
  • Love Redeems: Stark and Zoey's relationship is entirely built on this.
  • Man in a Kilt: In Burned, Seoras shows us how it's really done.
    • Stark has also taken to wearing one all the time.
  • Magical Native American: Sylvia and Zoey Redbird, who are Cherokee.
  • Meaningful Name: Vamps can change their name upon entering the school, thus there are a lot of these.
  • Murder Is the Best Solution: Completely and utterly subverted as most of Kalona's problems wouldn't exist if say he had just wiped Heath's memory instead of killing him.
  • Murder the Hypotenuse: Twice, actually. The first time it's adult vampyre Loren Blake in Chosen, and at the end of Tempted, Zoey's human boyfriend Heath gets the axe as well.
    • It's Dallas's motivation to kill Rephaim. "I'm gonna fry him. And then whatever weird control he has over you is gonna be gone. You and me can be together, and I won't tell shit about what happened here, as long as you're my girl."
  • New Powers as the Plot Demands: Zoey and in later books, Stevie Rae. To a degree, Aphrodite.
  • No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Stevie Rae saves Rephaim's life. In the end, this small act is the catalyst for Stevie Rae's boyfriend Dallas to go over to the dark-side when he finds out she's been hiding him this whole time. Stevie Rae is also Mistaken for Cheating.
  • Not Quite Dead Heath technically comes back at the end of Awakened
  • Our Vampires Are Different: And how! Vampyres have Power Tattoo going on, and worship the goddess Nyx. Teenagers are "fledglings" until they either go full vamp or die...and "dead" fledglings sometimes become a different, more feral version of vampyre. Our Zombies Are Different, anyone?
  • Or Was It a Dream??: In Tempted, Zoey comes to this conclusion when it turns out the locations Kalona has been chosing as the back-drop of their dreams together reveal his actual location.
  • Parental Abandonment: Happens rather frequently if your parents don't approve of your new vamphood. Zoey's mother has pretty much emotionally abandoned her in favor of her new husband/ChurchMilitant religion by the start of the series anyway, and doesn't need much more to abandon her child entirely.
  • Parent with New Paramour: With Zoey and Rephaim it's type 3.
  • Passive-Aggressive Kombat: Neferet possesses a black belt in passive aggressive dialogue. Overlaps into Politeness Judo whenever Thanatos and Neferet share a scene.
  • Peer Pressure Makes You Evil: Played straight with Aphrodite but toyed with for Zoey.
  • Pet Homosexual: Damien in the early books. After Jack arrives, he shares this role with this boyfriend. Jack is annoyingly stereotyped.
    • Apparently, the Casts know nothing about homosexuality aside from what they see in chick flicks.
    • Jack brought it on himself. He chose the name Jack Twist when he was Chosen.
  • Phantasy Spelling: They are "vampyres" instead of "vampires".
  • Power Tattoo: Zoey gets a lot of these. Seems to be a different variant of New Powers as the Plot Demands, only it's New Tattoos Every Time You Do Something Nyx Likes. Then it's subverted in "Tempted" when all of Zoey's tattoos except for her original fledgling mark are wiped from her body.
    • There's also the Mark that fledgelings get.
    • It's not really a subversion seeing as at the end of Burned she gets them all back, but no new ones
  • Power At a Price: When it comes to using Darkness, "that price is usually paid in pain." (refer to The Power of Love). Black Magic hungers for blood and pain, whereas with White Magic blood and love.
  • Psychic Powers: Aphrodite has horrific future visions. Neferet can read minds.
  • Promotion to Parent: Stevie Rae seems to be this for her Red Fledglings, mostly because of Parental Abandonment and/or because most people think they're still dead.
  • Promoted to Love Interest: Stark is properly upgraded to this in Awakened
  • Protagonist-Centered Morality: The entire series is seen and judged through Zoey's sense of Morality. Even in Tempted and Burned (when different POVS and Loads and Loads of Characters are introduced) and someone has different opinion than that of Zoey's having, they're considered to be having an OOC moment at best or they're automatically considered to be a horrible bitch and/or in kahootz with the Big Bad.
    • Kalona, pretty much the cause for every single bad thing that's ever happened in the series, gets a Fallen Hero backstory and two chapters from his POV. Zoey thought it possible he could be redeemed. Why? Because in a past life Zoey was in love with him.
    • The Big Bad, despite have a pretty legitimate Freudian Excuse, has yet to ever have a chapter in their POV explaining why and how they have pretty much become the very thing they have always hated the most. The Big Bad has been written off as a Complete Monster. Why? Because Loren's real lover was Neferet and she sent him to seduce Zoey and segregate her from her friends and allies. Neferet also flirted with Erik when Zoey was still in love with him despite the fact that he wasn't dating anyone and he was a Changed Vampyre.
    • The majority of characters (and a large portion of the Fandom) consider Loren Blake to be idealized. Why? Because he was young good-looking substitute professor and because Zoey was in love with him and Death Equals Redemption. Loren Blake was a sexual predator and a Manipulative Bastard. Ontop of that, he decided to toy with the feelings of the Big Bad... A serious case of Too Dumb to Live and Hoist by His Own Petard. He knew what the Big Bad wanted and why she wanted him to do it and went along with her plans with no remorse.
    • When Venus is introduced she has just recently regained her humanity but she is deemed a horrible bitch and possibly evil in the first chapter of Hunted. She is also hated by the fandom considerably. Despite the fact that Venus's personality is very close to that of Aphrodite, PC Cast's favourite character and most popular character with the Fandom. Why? Because she DARED to flirt with Erik infront of Zoey and hooked up with him when Zoey and Erik broke up. Zoey was telling herself that it was wrong to behave and think the way she did, didn't stop it anyway.
    • Not to mention how Zoey and her friends all call Aphrodite a "ho" for dating two guys, even though she began going out with the second one only sometime after the first one and is genuinely serious about him. Zoey, meanwhile, has dated/flirted with no less than four guys, lost her virginity to her teacher Loren while she was dating Erik and letting Heath continually lure her into feasting on his blood, and she repeatedly calls herself out for being unable to settle on one guy. And yet when Erik calls her out on this in a later book, he's dismissed as just a jealous jerk by all her friends and we're clearly meant to disagree with her being a ho even when she keeps on saying that she is and is right.
    • Raven Mockers are mindless creatures of Darkness and they should all be wiped out. Everybody agrees with the Kill'Em All attitude and, as of Burned, around twenty Raven Mockers have been killed. Even the idea of giving them a burial is seen as strange. The only exception is Stevie Rae and when she raises valid points of What Measure Is a Non-Human? and If You Kill Him You Will Be Just Like Him not only does every character tell her she's wrong but she is suspected of secretly turning over to The Dark Side.
    • Speaking of Stevie Rae, how is it okay for the Red Fledglings that haven't "Chosen" yet to be running around killing people? Even after she gives them multiple chances to choose, and they try to kill her and her friends multiple times, she ends up just chasing them away/exiling them... as if wherever they end up, they'll be any less evil and bloodthirsty? Maybe it's just a weakness moment or something, but the fact that they're Red Fledglings and thus "her people" seems to be what keeps her from stopping them from murdering any more innocents... permanently.
  • Raised by Grandparents: Due to Parental Abandonment by both Zoey's mother and father, Grandma Redbird pretty much raised Zoey and continues to help out whenever possible.
  • Ravens and Crows
  • Red Eyes, Take Warning: Mentioned a lot in the series as the Red Fledglings and Vampires have red eyes when they've just fed from a human or when they're seriously pissed off. The Raven Mockers also have red eyes.
  • Rescue Romance: Because You Were Nice to Me combined with Villainous Crush, Stevie Rae and Rephaim. She saved his life, then Rephaim proceeds to save Stevie Rae's life twice, Stevie Rae saves him from her psychotic boyfriend. It's an ongoing thing. It even has a I Owe You My Life, Take My Hand and Say My Name moments.
  • Rich Bitch: Aphrodite, who later becomes a cross-between Fallen Princess and Only Sane Man.
  • Rapunzel Hair: Many of the vampyres have long, flowing hair.
  • Reincarnation Romance: Kalona's angel with Zoey.
  • Sadly Mythtaken: Combined with Did Not Do the Research. Sister Mary Angela, the Head Nun of the Benedict Abbey, calls Kalona a Nephilim. A Catholic Nun would know better then that and that the Raven Mockers, which are beings that part-Immortal/part-Human, are in fact Nephilim. Kalona even named his eldest son after a type of Nephilim.
  • Sassy Black Woman - Shaunee and Kramisha
  • Samaritan Syndrome: Stevie Rae seems to suffer from this. With her past history it's understandable.
  • Salt and Pepper: Shaunee and Erin.
  • Seeking Sanctuary: When Zoey and the gang need help and a stay, the Benedictine Nuns come to the rescue.
  • Self-Insert Fic - Zoey is a essentially a more perfect version of Kristen Cast. According to Wikipedia, they based the character on her so she would be easier to write. Yeah...
  • Sixth Ranger: Aphrodite and Jack Twist.
  • Sssssnaketalk: The Raven Mockers are prone to this.
  • Sliding Scale of Vampire Friendliness: Varies between Friendly Neighborhood Vampires to Transhuman Treachery due to Smug Super and Van Helsing Hate Crimes
  • Stalker with a Crush: Heath. Also Kalona with regards to Zoey
  • Starbucks Skin Scale: Shaunee is described as having "Cafe au Lait" skin a couple of times.
  • Strange Bedfellows: Aphrodite and Zoey start out with an Arch Enemy relationship, which ends up morphing when the two of them need each other and have a common enemy. Zoey and Aphrodite frequently have Jerkass Has a Point moments.
  • Invisible to Gaydar: Damien. Unfortunately, he mostly comes across as Have I Mentioned I Am Gay?
  • Tempting Fate: Done in two forms:
  • The Bait: Rephaim was this for Stevie Rae in Tempted, but it was more a case of Got Volunteered.
  • The Beautiful Elite: The adult vampyres.
  • The Bus Came Back: For Erik Night and Thanatos
  • The Chosen One: Zoey, who is already on the fast track to high priestessdom. Possibly Stevie Rae as well, in a different way.
  • The Dark Arts: Using the power of any element/force of nature or an ancient immortal, whether it's Darkness or Light, is Power At a Price. It's played straight with Neferet but subverted with Rephaim who has only been shown thus far to use his Dark powers in a good way.
  • The Power of Friendship
  • The Power of Love: "Because Darkness feeds on pain and Light feeds on love."
  • Their First Time: Boy, does this end badly for Zoey Also ends pretty terribly for Dallas and Stevie Rae.
    • With all the terrible sexual experiences in the books so far and the fact that the only people who we KNOW are having sex being the bad guys, I'm surprised an Aesop about how sex-before-marriage-is-bad hasn't been made yet. Maybe it's unintentional.
  • Token Minority: Shaunee and Kramisha. Also bonus points that Kramisha is the only black Red Fledgling. She is portrayed as a Soul Sister who speaks mostly in jive.
  • Too Good for This Sinful Earth: Almost literal in Awakened. Jack is killed by Darkness because Neferet needed to give Darkness a soul she could not taint (as a payment for trapping Kalona's soul). Later, when Nyx appears to the crowd at Jack's funeral, she tells his boyfriend Damien that he is one of the happiest souls she's known.
  • Triang Relations: Zoey's love life has Too Many Love Interests. Polyamory may end up being the only solution.
    • Well, it may (or may not) calm down, because as of Tempted, Loren Blake died in Chosen, Zoey broke up with Erik Night due to his Jerkass nature and extreme possessiveness (though his behavior could be somewhat justified), and Big Bad Kalona's killed human boyfriend Heath and sent Zoey into a Heroic BSOD.
  • Troubled but Cute: Stark
  • Twin Banter: Erin and Shaunee, dubbed "the Twins" out of personality rather than resemblance, which is more Salt and Pepper.
  • Try Not to Die: Aphrodite and Stevie Rae have these moments occassionally. Used to show serious character development given that Aphrodite treated Stevie Rae like she was only good for being a snack and Stevie Rae tried to kill Aphrodite, twice, before her humanity was restored
  • Van Helsing Hate Crimes: The Fundamentalist Christians are accused of brutally murdering two teachers at the House of Night.
    • Averted when Neferet is revealed to have arranged their deaths
  • Valley Girl: Erin and Shaunee fall into this category, but Zoey and Aphrodite do have their moments.
  • Villain with Good Publicity: One of the central plot points of the whole series.
  • Villainous Rescue: Has occured a few times between Rephaim and Stevie Rae. Started out as I Owe You My Life has started to develop into a Rescue Romance.
    • Kalona shows up in Destined to save the Day!
  • Wham! Episode: tons of these moments.
    • For starters, Neferet is portrayed as quite likeable with nothing suspicious hinted about her in Marked. In Betrayed, she's revealed to be the Big Bad. For the rest of the series to come. Wham.
  • What Measure Is a Non Super: To the point where, most likely, if you are not an insanely well trained vampyre(unless they are main characters), you will probably reject the Change to a full grown vampyre and die.
  • You Talk Too Much: Often exchanged between Rephaim and Stevie Rae
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