Acceptable Targets and Miscellaneous Misrepresentations in the House of Night

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You would think, after four essays and over 32,000 words, I would have said everything that needed to be said about this series. We’ve discussed representations of queerness, blackness, and indigeneity, as well as sex shaming and internalized misogyny at length. Sadly, that’s not all this series has to offer — not by far.

However, because there are so many topics and I have already spent several years putting together these essays, I’m going to take a more quick-and-dirty approach to the rest of the topics I want to cover. This means I won’t be involving as many secondary sources, and instead relying more heavily on the text of the House of Night series itself.

Also, as with every essay before, I need to make two quick disclaimers: These books are credited as a co-authorship by P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast, a mother-daughter duo, but Kristin Cast didn’t actually write them. Rather, she served in some capacity as an editor. [Cast and Cast 2017: 277; Cast and Cast 2018: 332; Cast and Cast 2020: 358, 363; Rought 2020; Fricot 2019] For simplicity and the sake of abiding official citations, I will still be referring to the authorship as a joint effort.

Secondly, in-text citations for the books will omit “Cast and Cast” for the sake of making things less tedious to read.

Cast and Cast 2012: 138

Ableism

Throughout the original House of Night series, there are numerous instances of ableist language — specifically, slurs and other derogatory language against people with intellectual disabilities. The word “retard” is used 27 times, “’tard” is used once, “asstard” is used 6 times, and “fucktard” is used 4 times. That accounts for a total of 38 uses of “retard” or various derivatives.

Similar language used throughout the original series includes mentally impaired, [2007b: 46; 2009a: 257] impaired, [2008b: 27; 2009b: 228] special needs and/or special services, [2008b: 29; 2009a: 124; 2009b: 241] mentally damaged, [2010a: 212] and brain damaged. [2010a: 133, 278; 2012: 138, 167] Characters will also refer to someone being bad at or vulnerable to something as being “impaired” or “challenged”. This includes math impaired, [2007a: 9; 2009b: 37] fashion impaired and fashion challenged, [2007a: 26; 2008b: 52; 2009a: 262; 2013: 89; 2014: 85] hygiene challenged, [2008b: 44] and sun challenged [2011: 103].

About three-quarters of the way through the series, a group of students end up living separate from the House of Night, which normally operates as a boarding school. As a result, they need to be bussed from their living space to the campus. A minibus is sent for this purpose. Several characters (including the primary narrator, Zoey) complain about it and insistently call it a “short bus” and compare it to the transportation typically provided to special needs students. [2011: 16, 22, 84, 85, 123, 148, 196, 210, 230; 2012: 32, 66, 175] Zoey also seems annoyed and/or embarrassed by the presence of disability accommodations on their bus, as shown by this bit of narration: “[Thanatos] took a firm hold of the handicapped (sigh) rail with one hand […]” [2011: 249]

But the most egregious instance of ableism against intellectual disabilities comes in the form of a rant — two rants, technically. In Destined, one too many instances of Aphrodite using the word “retard” sets off Stevie Rae, who tells her that “using the r-word is demeaning and just plain mean” and she should “check out www.r-word.com.” [2011: 89] Aphrodite retaliates with the following rant:

“What about having a site for the c-word — as in cunt, which demeans half of the world? Or, wait, no. Let’s keep it the r-word site only make the r-word rape, which does more than just hurt upper middle class mommies’ feelings.”

Zoey cuts off the argument, Erin and Shaunee back up Aphrodite’s comments, and everyone goes back to the previous topic of conversation. Not only do most characters in-text support Aphrodite’s ableist tirade, but the author has supported it out-of-text, too.

On a post P.C. Cast made to her old blog in 2011, a reader commented that she was screening the books before letting their daughter read them and “was offended and a little surprised at the use of ‘retard’ in your book Marked.” They said they wouldn’t let their daughter continue reading the series, that they want to see the book pulled from their library, that the authors “should be ashamed of [them]selves,” and they should look at r-word.org. [Cast 2011]

P.C. Cast responded with a rant, part of it very similar to Aphrodite’s:

But while you’re busily trying to nullify a whole bunch of people’s First Amendment rights because you don’t like a word in a book you didn’t even bother to finish reading, why don’t you also petition your district to rank copies of TO KILL A MOCKING BIRD? Nigger is a way more offensive word than retard, and it’s all over that book. Speaking of, you should also insist Mark Twain’s HUCKLEBERRY FINN be banned because there’s definitely an offensive word used in there by children. Stick Shakespeare under your moral magnifying glass as well. I taught ROMEO AND JULIET to ninth graders for years, and I promise you there are seriously offensive words in that thing. Wow, that reminds me, Euripides’ tragedy, MEDEA (which I also taught), doesn’t just have offensive words in it — kids are actually killed — by their mommy! Better ban that. [Cast 2011]

While P.C. Cast’s response is lengthier than Aphrodite’s, the crux of their arguments is the same: They both deflect from the implications of using slurs like “retard” by pointing to other, supposedly more offensive language used by other people. By saying that “nigger is a way more offensive word than retard”, P.C. Cast is saying that black people matter more than people with intellectual disabilities; by saying that there should be a site for the c-word because it “demeans half of the world,” Aphrodite is saying that women matter more than people with intellectual disabilities. It creates a false narrative that there is only time and space to care about oppression and institutional violence against a few demographics, and that we thus must accept certain, more acceptable targets to be on the receiving end of abuse. But continuing to use slurs against intellectual disability doesn’t help women or reduce racism in anyway, nor does making an effort to avoid such language prevent the authors from also striving for better representation for women and people of colour in their books. To say nothing of the fact that this completely ignores intersectionality — women and people of colour can also be intellectually disabled, and are doubly subject to oppression and violence as a result.

That’s just how the authors handle the topic of intellectual disability. The introduction of the character Shaylin in Destined brought with it other ableist rhetoric, this time in regards to blindness.

Prior to being Marked, Shaylin was blind, which the authors describe as granting her “a unique viewpoint and a special maturity.” [2017: 7] However, her blindless is cured by being Marked, and Shaylin is overjoyed [2011: 56, 59, 85; 2012: 51). Despite having lost her sight just before her fifth birthday [2011: 57] and thus being blind for almost as long as she can remember, Shaylin seems scared of the possibility of her losing her sight again. [2011: 59] She also comments that she has “had to have people around [her] ever since [she] went blind,” [2011: 90] implying that her disability made her incapable of caring for herself or enjoying any measure of independence.

Moreover, this is an example of a common and problematic trope wherein the only imaginable happy ending for a disabled character is being cured. [Nijkamp 2014] This creates the impression that disabilities bring with them abject misery, even if the person hasn’t really experienced life any other way.

Cast and Cast 2012: 204

Addiction

Addiction is simultaneously demonized and trivialized throughout this series. From the first chapter of the first book, Heath’s budding alcoholism is largely played for humour, with Zoey complaining that drinking too much is going to make him fat. [2007a: 10] He shows up drunk twice, first at Zoey’s school, and later at an off-campus ritual. In both instances it’s once again a source of humour, as well as some mild drama, as Heath completely misunderstands the situations he finds himself in, tries to flirt with Zoey, and gets jealous when he discovers that she’s started seeing someone else.

But this source of conflict in Heath and Zoey’s relationship, mild though it might be, is also resolved very easily. After Zoey drinks some of his blood, Heath Imprints, which is an incredibly powerful emotional and psychic bond between a vampyre or fledgling and someone they have fed from. This Imprint makes him extremely fixated on Zoey, which in turns leads to him quitting drinking so he can be with her. [2007b: 100] Within a month, he has completely stopped drinking and — except for one brief instance in Hunted — never drinks alcohol again.

But Heath isn’t the only character who deals with substance abuse in the series. Aphrodite routinely uses booze and pills to cope, and — once again — this is mostly played for laughs. After Aphrodite has a traumatic near-death experience, she is given medication to calm her down, to which Stevie Rae says, “Oh, good. They medicated her. Aphrodite will like that.” She and Zoey then laugh about this. [2009b: 270]

Aphrodite also combines or talks about combining wine and Xanax several times throughout both the original and Other World series. [2011: 215; 2013: 38, 46; 2014: 182; 2017: 44; 2020: 189] Her friends only try to stop her from doing so three times. [2011: 215; 2013: 38; 2017: 52] At one point, Zoey even thinks about how the only thing Aphrodite will want after having a painful psychic vision is “a Xanax and a bottle of wine,” but seems unconcerned other than thinking it will “probably set a bad example.” [2011: 212]

There are multiple instances where Aphrodite has booze for breakfast (usually a mimosa), which her friends essentially roll their eyes at or make jokes about. [2012: 54, 204; 2017: 25] She even specifically says she prefers “to drink [her] breakfast” (in other words, have alcohol) and that she does so “every day.” [2012: 204] Aphrodite also casually drinks throughout the series, including at moments when it is inopportune to do so. [2013: 8; 2014: 109] This includes her getting drunk in Hunted, where she starts drinking on page 32 and leaves the scene on page 57, drinking wine the entire time and carrying out a bottle with her. In another instance, everyone is staking out a hotel for a rescue mission, with Aphrodite and Zoey taking their posts inside the restaurant. Even knowing she has to be ready to go at any moment, Aphrodite drinks two glasses of champagne and orders a third. [2012: 236] After the mission is complete and everyone is ready to go home, Aphrodite remarks that she “need[s] a bath and a Xanax,” which no one even reacts to. [2012: 244] Note that this would also constitute combining alcohol and Xanax. Do note that these examples exclude her drinking wine for rituals throughout the series, as that is technically part of her religious practice.

Aphrodite’s addiction is left unresolved and relatively unexplored by the end of the original House of Night series. It isn’t until the Other World spinoff that any real point is made about of it. And the way that point is made is… troubling, to say the least.

Early on, Aphrodite is acting in much the same way readers have come to expect, ordering a mimosa for breakfast (though this time she asks for the champagne and juice in separate glasses, because she “can’t abide polluting [her] champagne with […] juice.”) [2017: 25] She ends up having four glasses of champagne and begrudgingly downing her orange juice like a shot. [2017: 29] She wants to mix wine and Xanax to cope with a vision [2017: 44] and complains about Darius having a “stranglehold on [her] Xanax bottle.” [2017: 52] Later on, she pops two Xanax to fortify herself before a confrontation with her abusive mother, who is in the hospital. [2017: 161] When the meeting is inevitably disastrous, Aphrodite leaves the hospital and pulls a flask of “twenty-one-year-old single malt scotch” from her purse, drinking heavily from it. [2017: 166] At some point between leaving the hospital and running into Zoey and several of their other friends outside campus, she takes a third Xanax and finishes off her flask. [2017: 169]

By this point, it’s obvious that Aphrodite is spiraling. All of Aphrodite’s friends know that her parents have abused her for her entire life, especially her mother, and they’ve all seen her recreationally use alcohol and Xanax to cope with everything from pain to boredom to annoyance to exhaustion. This is clearly a complex, deep-rooted problem that needs professional intervention.

However, when Zoey sees Aphrodite staggering around, she becomes angry. She grabs Aphrodite’s flask and throws it in a ditch, yells at her while getting in her face, and tells her that she needs to stop drinking and act like an adult because she’s in service to Nyx. Aphrodite, of course, responds in kind, yelling that she doesn’t want to be in service to Nyx anymore, that she doesn’t deserve to be because she’s “nothing except an idiot who isn’t even good enough for her mother to love.” [2017: 169] This is perhaps the most obvious cry for help and support that Aphrodite has ever made in the entire series. Rather than responding with kindness, patience, or a push toward professional counseling, Zoey “grab[s] her by the shoulders and [shakes] her. Hard.” [2017: 169] She yells in her face again, “let[s] her go so abruptly that she almost [falls]”, and tries to use her position as High Priestess to command Aphrodite to sober up. [2017: 169] When Aphrodite argues that she’s allowed to drink and get high because mother is abusive and dying, Zoey insists it’s no excuse.

“What you have is an obligation to yourself and to the people who care about you to deal with the issues in your life! You’re acting like you’re the only one of us who ever lost a parent. Or who ever had a crappy parent. Bingo and bingo for me and for a bunch of us. Grow the hell up, Aphrodite, and realize you have a problem.”[2017: 169]

Now, some additional context is needed here. Three years before she was Marked, when she was about 13 years old, Zoey’s mother remarried. She never really knew her biological dad because he left when she was very young. Her step-father was a religious extremist of the People of Faith church. He showed favoritism toward Zoey’s brother and sister, and Zoey was often denied permission to do things like go to parties after football games and blamed for things that were out of her control (for example, being Marked was regarded as a consequence of her sins). However, through all of this Zoey remained extremely close with Grandma Redbird, who had always been like a second mother figure for her and stepped even more into that role when Zoey’s actual mother faded away into a submissive housewife. And, prior to her second marriage, Zoey’s mother was genuinely kind and loving to her.

Aphrodite, by contrast, makes almost no mention of any family other than her parents. She has a grandmother in a care home and a grandfather she likes who is “drunk and sociopathic.” [2012: 141] Otherwise, Aphrodite was raised exclusively by her abusive parents — and they were abusive in several ways. A brief scene in Betrayed between Aphrodite and her parents offers readers a glimpse of this. They are verbally abusive, telling her she’s a disappointment, stupid, a ridiculous child, that crying makes her weak, and that she’s destroying her future — all for being removed from leadership of the Dark Daughters. Aphrodite’s mother is also physically abusive in this scene, slapping her across the face when she sasses her father. Both parents are manipulative and controlling, regarding her as a tool to use in her father’s political campaigns and dictating how she should share or withhold her visions to gain power within the school. They’re also emotionally abusive, dismissing her goals and feelings (as seen with the comment about crying making her weak), and gaslighting her into believing that her visions aren’t granted to her by Nyx because she would never be worthy of such a gift from a goddess.

So, while Zoey and Aphrodite do both come from unhappy homes, the scale of what they have dealt with, the trauma they’ve suffered, and the support systems available to them throughout their lives are all wildly different. Aphrodite has suffered almost two decades of abuse and spent most of that time with no protection or support — without even having real friends. Zoey has always had her grandmother, had Heath for most of her life, and only dealt with a controlling household for a few years before she was Marked.

In other words, Zoey directly comparing her struggles to Aphrodite’s and implying that Aphrodite is being selfish and immature for her addiction because Zoey is coping just fine is deeply ignorant and insensitive. And, more importantly, Zoey insulting her, violently shaking her, and using her position of authority to order Aphrodite around almost perfectly mirrors the way Aphrodite’s mother treats her. At no point does anyone suggest Zoey’s response was inappropriate, nor does anyone show sympathy or understanding for Aphrodite’s behaviour. Instead, they talk behind her back about her being “majorly fucked up” [2017: 170] and that her addiction is “going to tear [her and Darius] apart if she doesn’t get a handle on it.” [2017: 170]

After Zoey yells at her to grow up, Zoey and Stark both tell Aphrodite she has a problem, with Stark explicitly calling out her alcoholism and prescription drug abuse. When Aphrodite says she quits and storms off in a fury, Stark stops Zoey from following her, saying, “She’s drunk, full of pills, and mean.” [2017: 170] Note that Aphrodite is regarded as mean for screaming at Zoey, rejecting Zoey’s right to command her, and shoving past Zoey so aggressively that Zoey almost falls. This behaviour parallels how Zoey just treated Aphrodite, except that Zoey did so while sober and unprovoked, whereas Aphrodite is clearly intoxicated and everyone present knows she is reeling from an encounter with her abusive mother.

But this journey is not yet over.

Aphrodite drunkenly stumbles onto campus, finds her way into Nyx’s temple, and has a breakdown when she sees her reflection and realizes she looks like her mother. She has a series of flashbacks about her mother’s abuse, and within a page comes to the conclusion that she was never the problem and was never to blame for her mother’s abuse. After a soliloquy about how her mother is the one who is broken and she needs to let her go so she can heal, Aphrodite “[begins] to weep again, but this time her tears [are] an outpouring of relief and release because it was at that moment Aphrodite LaFont truly began to live her own life.” [2017: 175]

Again, it must be noted: Aphrodite went from heavily drinking and popping pills, to getting into a screaming fight with one of her best friends for calling her out on her addiction, to having an epiphany about her mother’s abuse and her own self-worth — all within well under an hour. Not even 24 hours later, she’s pouring champagne down the sink and dumping her Xanax in the toilet, proclaiming, “I am not her. I will never be her. I let that go.” [2017: 261] And her addiction is thus cured!

This subplot is handled so poorly. In the original series, Aphrodite’s frequent drinking, prescription drug abuse, and mixing of drugs and alcohol is hardly ever treated as a cause for concern, and instead a source of humour. And until that pivotal confrontation, her behaviour in Loved is much the same — having mimosas for breakfast and nothing else, requesting Xanax and wine after a vision, and just generally being reliant on intoxication to get through the day. The confrontation itself is horrifically insensitive and abusive, as I’ve outlined above, and the actual resolution of her addiction subplot is way, way too sudden and miraculous.

It’s also not actually handled that seriously. Even within this book, characters make jokes about Aphrodite’s substance abuse. When Aphrodite has her vision and is requesting Xanax, Darius and Zoey share a look, silently agreeing not to give her the drugs. Aphrodite notices despite being temporarily blinded from her vision. After Zoey leaves the room with Stark, she jokes that Aphrodite’s ability to know what’s going on around her when blinded like that is “a selective gift sent by the pharmaceutical gods.” [2017: 52] So even though she and Darius do make sure not to let Aphrodite have Xanax, she still thinks the situation is something to make light of.

Then there’s the actual, final conclusion of this subplot, which is as much about Aphrodite’s addiction as it is about her relationship with her mother. After disposing of her champagne and pills, Aphrodite announces that her mother is dead — because she overdosed. “She mixed too many prescription drugs and too much alcohol one last time.” [2017: 262] She then proposes a toast, saying, “Sometimes people get exactly what they deserve.” [2017: 262]

So the moral of the story is that good people like Aphrodite should be freed from their addictions, while bad people like her mother deserve to struggle with it their whole lives and die young. In other words, addiction is a measure of worth and morality.

Cast and Cast 2017: 160

Adult-Minor Relationships and Student-Teacher Romances

Romance is a huge feature of the House of Night series, with almost every major character ending up in a serious romantic relationship. Unfortunately, many of these relationships are inherently inapprioriate.

The first relationship of this nature we see is Zoey and Professor Loren Blake. I’ve touched on this briefly in my essay on sex shaming, but to sum up, this results in statutory rape because Loren is not only in his mid-twenties while Zoey has just turned seventeen, but also because Loren is a professor at Zoey’s school. The narrative, however, never presents it this way — their relationship is only seen as a mistake and harmful to Zoey because he turns out to have been lying to her and secretly in a relationship with the main villain of the series, Neferet.

Instead, readers are both told and shown that this age gap is okay. Loren’s obviously flirtatious attentions make Zoey feel as though he had “touched the woman inside [her], awakening her,” filling her with “a calm confidence in [herself] that [she] had rarely known before.” [2007b: 49] Later, when she and Loren share their first kiss, Zoey has a similar reaction.

“And a weird, magical thing happed [sic] to me. I wasn’t just some kid anymore when I kissed him back. I was a woman, mature and powerful, and I knew what I wanted and how to get it, too.” [2008a: 66]

Loren Blake himself also argues that the rules don’t apply to him and Zoey, stating that “sometimes there’s an attraction between two people that transcends […] age and propriety.” [2008a: 64] While this can be argued to be part of his process of grooming Zoey, he’s not the only one to espouse such views.

When Zoey tells her best friend, Stevie Rae, about the situation, Stevie Rae at first says “students are off-limits to teachers”, [2007b: 66] but later on the same page “sigh[s] dreamily” and compares them to Romeo and Juliet. [2007b: 66] By the next page she’s suggesting Zoey “sneak around and see Loren” [2007b: 67] and arguing that Zoey is “different than the rest of [the fledglings]” and “maybe the same rules don’t apply to [her].” [2007b: 67] Stevie Rae again compared them to Romeo and Juliet in the following book while practically swooning over the news that Zoey and Loren had been making out. [2008a: 150]

Later on, after Loren Blake is killed, two of Zoey’s other friends, Erin and Shaunee, are soon interested to hear details about what Zoey’s relationship with him was like. [2008b: 81] There is no judgment or alarm from them over the fact that she slept with a teacher. Even Damien, who is typically the most level-headed and logical of the friend group, makes no comment on the illegal nature of their relationship, saying only that the experience would have been “very traumatic for [Zoey], what with the Imprint and the loss of virginity […]” [2008b: 81]

Even when Zoey is rekindling her relationship with Erik after he completed the Change and officially became an adult vampyre, she doesn’t directly address this issue in her and Loren’s relationship. She has anxieties because “Erik was a man,” [2009a: 75] and things had turned disastrous with Loren, the only other person she’s been with who was a man, not a boy. But when reassuring herself that Erik isn’t like Loren, she doesn’t focus on his more appropriate age — 19 versus Loren’s 20-something — but instead on the fact that “Erik had never used [her] or lied to [her].” [2009a: 76]

This is only one example of inappropriate adult-minor relationships in the series.

Erik, mentioned above, becomes a professor at the House of Night after completing the Change. He and Zoey break up briefly, but then rekindle their relationship — after­ Zoey has become one of his students. He sexually assaults her by forcing her to join him in an improv scene and kissing her in front of her entire class. After he and Zoey break up for good, he eventually begins pursuing Shaylin, a 16-year-old a student at the House of Night where he teaches. A relationship with Shaylin never comes to fruition, and he instead ends up dating Shaunee, who is also a student at the same school where he teaches.

Then there’s Stevie Rae, who becomes involved with Rephaim. To keep matters simple, I’ll just say that Rephaim was an inhuman creature given a human form after he chose to follow the path of Light instead of Darkness. He is at least 1000 years old, even if his time in a human body is much more recent. As such, mentally and emotionally, he is wildly older than Stevie Rae, who is just 17 when they meet.

In a male example, Damien is just 17 when he starts dating a reporter named Adam Paluka, who is based on a real person. Pinning down age for this character is a bit tricky because of how the timeline in the series is laid out. Pop culture references throughout align with the year the books were written in, spanning seven years despite the actual events of the plot unfolding in less than one year. At the time the book was published, Adam would have been about 26 or 27 — roughly a decade older than Damien. Even if we posit that the story is technically set in 2008, based on the first book in the series being set in late 2007, Adam would still be 22 or 23. In other words, Adam could have completed a four-year university program but is dating someone still in high school.

Another of Zoey’s friends, Aphrodite, is in a relationship with a Warrior named Darius. When he was first introduced, he was described as not “look[ing] much older than [Zoey].” [2008a: 134] This is reiterated in the following book, where Zoey describes him as “clearly young and not long Marked”, [2008b: 78] which would put him in his late teens or early twenties. Given that Aphrodite is 18 at the time and near the end of the Change, this isn’t an unreasonable age difference. However, Darius’ age is later retconned when he says “[he has] not been a boy for decades.” [2012: 93] In the Other World spinoff, his age is revealed to be 88. [2017: 160] Aphrodite has also been retconned to 21, though she should actually still only be 19. Regardless, it’s an uncomfortable and inappropriate age gap, even if it is technically legal in this example since Aphrodite is an adult when they begin dating.

Also in the Other World, we briefly have a relationship between Other Kevin and Other Aphrodite. Once again, in this continuity her age is 21. Other Kevin, however, is only 16. When Other Aphrodite is dubious about Other Kevin’s claim that the Aphrodite from Zoey’s world kissed him (which, incidentally, is technically a second instance of him having age-inappropriate romantic interactions) because he’s only sixteen, Other Kevin argues that that’s not a fair assessment of him.

“I’m not a kid. I’m a lieutenant in the Red Army who has seen more death than even you have — only with me it was real death, happening in front of me. I stopped being a kid a long time ago.” [2018: 180–181]

Essentially, Kevin is arguing that because he has experienced significant trauma and hardship, he shouldn’t be regarded as a child and should instead be treated like an adult. But traumatized children are still children. They might be forced to grow up faster than their peers in some ways, but ultimately they are still kids — still minors. If anything, their trauma may make them more vulnerable to abuse and exploitation at the hands of adults.

The spinoff also has Other Stark and Other Neferet as lovers. Other Stark is, at best, 19 — likely younger when he met Other Neferet. Other Neferet is over 130. Much like with Darius and Aphrodite, even if Stark was legally an adult when they met, the age gap is still uncomfortable, especially in the context of all the other age gap relationships seen throughout the series.

Given that so many of these relationships are inappropriate specifically because a professor is dating a student, I feel it important to mention that P.C. Cast is a retired high school teacher, and was still teaching when writing early books in the series. As such, she should be well-aware of restrictions on student-teacher romances.

Cast and Cast 2007a: 43

Body Shaming and Disordered Eating

In the tenth book in the original series, Zoey sees the goddess Nyx in one of her many forms. In this iteration, Nyx is “naked” with “enormous boobs, wide soft hips, and thick thighs.” Her body is “full and dark”, and “she [is] absolutely and completely beautiful — every single pound and curve of her,” causing Zoey to “rethink [her] idea of ‘fat.’” [2012: 190]

Two things are notable about this description. First, Nyx is fat in a way that is still easily seen as beautiful. The focus is on her breasts, hips, and thighs, all of which are readily associated to femininity and fertility. There is no mention of her belly, of extra chins, of flabby arms.

Second, Zoey is not reconsidering her perspective on fatness and her past use of it as an insult. Rather, she is reconsidering what body types she will categorize as fat in the future. Nyx, who is still beautiful and feminine in this form, is not fat. Fatness is ugly.

And this is reinforced by every other description of fatness in the series. When Zoey remarks that her on-again, off-again boyfriend Heath is “going to get fat from all that beer”, her friend Kayla reacts with disgust. [2007a: 10] Her description of the over-controlling, bigoted, and cult-like People of Faith consists of “fat women and their beady-eyed pedophile husbands.” [2007a: 29\ Similarly, when observing (and judging) the other patrons at a greasy fried chicken restaurant, Zoey and Aphrodite are “jostled around with the rest of the herd animals, finally getting in line behind an obese woman who had really bad teeth and a balding guy who smelled like feet.” [2008b: 142] Another character, Jack, seems disgusted when describing an abuser caught on camera as “some horrid and […] fat, poorly dressed nanny.” [2008b: 192] In discussing ideas for celebrity dolls, someone suggests “a bald Britney Spears doll” that comes with a number of accessories, including “a fat suit”. [2010a: 128] While in a seedy bar, Neferet encounters “a rotund woman with bleached-blond hair, fire-engine-red cowboy boots, and short-shorts that left no cellulite to the imagination.” [2019: 60]

This is to say nothing of that fact that, among fledgling vampyres, being fat or chubby is almost literally a death sentence. Because fledglings can unpredictably reject the Change, any sign of poor health is a possible indicator that they’re about to die. Thus, “you don’t see fat vamps,” [2007a: 83] and fledglings are expected to eat healthy and engage in regular exercise, “so that [their] bodies are as strong as possible, because if you start getting weak or fat or sick, that’s the first sign that your body is rejecting the Change.” [2007a: 83] One fledgling who rejects the change is Elliott, and he is consistently described as pudgy or chubby. [2007a: 102, 135; 2007b: 46, 135; 2009a: 37] Elliott is also seen as annoying and disgusting and, after resurrecting as a red fledgling, permanently dies because he sides with one of the villains, apparently motivated by laziness and a desire to get kicked out of school so he wouldn’t have to go to class. [2013: 170] Incidentally, the other kid who sides with this villain is Kurtis, who is also fat. Kurtis in particular is described as “bovinelike”, [2009b: 247], as well as big and stupid. [2009b: 247; 2010b: 99]

Becoming fat is also, in general, regarded as a terrible fate. Damien remarks that “a chubby gay is not a happy gay.” [2010b: 49] And Aphrodite apparently has the ability to “predict which girls were going to turn into their fat, flabby mammas by how much makeup they wore to breakfast[.]” [2013: 53] Fatness also makes people unappealing as a blood source for vampyres. While complaining about people seeking refuge at the House of Night, Aphrodite rants that no one wants to eat the paranoid mothers or their children because “most of them are fat anyway.” [2014: 159] Similarly, while assessing the hostages assembled before her in the hotel she has taken control of, Neferet remarks that everyone is “fat, ugly, and unimpressively dressed” and that “their blood [probably] tastes like sloth.” [2014: 177]

Throughout the series, certain types of food restricting is treated as normal. Zoey thinks smoking marijuana is gross, one of the cons for it being that it “made [people] want to obsessively eat fattening snack foods[.]” [2007a: 130] Characters criticize each others’ food choices for having a lot of calories [2011: 231] or advise each other to “drink water” because “anything else will make you fat.” [2011: 99] There is also, of course, general calorie counting [2013: 211], including talk about certain foods being “worth the calories.” [2011: 211] There’s also a scene where Aphrodite is eating brownies and worries that her butt is going to get too big, [2014: 234] and thinks working out to burn those calories is a bigger priority that figuring out how to defeat Neferet. [2014: 245]

On the other hand, characters in this series also see fit to mock or degrade eating disorders. In the very first book, when describing how beautiful Neferet is, Zoey notes that “she wasn’t thin like the freak girls who puked and starved themselves into what they thought was Paris Hilton chic.” [2007a: 43] Later in the series, there’s a joke about bulimic vampyres, [2008b: 49] and Zoey compares a homeless man carrying a bag over his shoulder to “an anorexic Santa.” [2013: 213] Zoey also judges a girl for ordering a small meal at a fastfood restaurant as “one of those meals that girls get when they’re on a date so they look like they don’t each much, and then they go home and snarf down the refrigerator when they’re alone.” [2008b: 146]

It creates a narrative of constant pressure and shame around eating, either because you’re eating too much and will become fat, or you’re eating too little and are thus a “freak”. There’s little to no sensitivity or consideration shown for different body types, different health needs, or just straight up looking different. Given the target audience for these books is young girls, this undoubtedly did them harm by perpetuating diet culture rhetoric.

Cast and Cast 2011: 179

Bullying and Abuse

For a series whose arc words are “love, always love”, there’s an awful lot of bullying and abuse coming from the main characters.

We’ll start with a character from very early in the series, who I touched on in the previous section. Elliott is a fledgling and classmate of the central protagonist, Zoey. He is described as having “bright orange-red, bushy, unattractive hair and a pudgy, too-white and freckled face.” [2007a: 135] When he is introduced, Zoey notices he has fallen asleep in class and expects the English Literature professor, Professor Penthesilia, to punish him for being a “slug sleeping in the back of the room[.]” [2007a: 102] Just before the bell rings for the end of class, Professor Penthesilea tells the other students to talk quietly amongst themselves and calls Elliott up to her desk. There, in front of the entire class, she delivers this speech:

“Elliott, you are, of course, failing Lit. But what’s more important, you’re failing life. Vampyre males are strong, honorable, and unique. They have been warriors and protectors for countless generations. How do you expect to make the Change into a being who is more warrior than man if you do not practice the discipline it takes even to stay awake in class?”[2007a: 103]

She assigns him a short paper due the very next morning and, when he doesn’t respond and attempts to leave without being dismissed, yells at him in a voice that causes “the air around her to [crackle] with the command.” [2007a: 104]

Zoey later has Equestrian Studies with Elliott. When she hears Professor Lenobia “chew[ing] out a student” in a “sharp and angry” voice, [2007a: 113] Zoey looks over and sees that it is once again Elliott being publicly told off by a teacher. Zoey resumes grooming her horse, telling the mare “[her] theory about how [her] generation could single-handedly wipe out slugs and loser kids from America”, which she dubs her “Don’t Procreate with Losers speech.” [2007a: 113] In other words, Zoey’s perspective on how to approach overweight, not conventionally attractive kids who don’t do well in school borrows the language of eugenics.

Later on in the same book, Elliott rejects the Change and dies. Afterward, Stevie Rae says that “no one liked Elliott” and that made dealing with his death worse; with a student everyone likes, they “could at least honestly feel sorry [they were] gone.” [2007a: 203] Zoey agrees. She says she’s only upset because “[she] saw what can happen to us and now [she] can’t get it out of [her] mind,” but she’s “not upset that the kid’s dead.” [2007a: 203] Zoey later makes a vow to never “make fun of the death of a fledgling, no matter how insignificant” [2007a: 216] while specifically thinking about Elliott.

If multiple instances of Elliott being publicly humiliated by professors seems extreme, I regret to report that that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Zoey tells readers that “at the House of Night Professors can call kids idiots when they act like idiots because the idiot children can’t run home to their mommies and cry about it[.]” [2009a: 224] And the way professors often treat their students seems to corroborate this. When Dallas makes snide comments about Rephaim during Thanatos’ class, Zoey describes Thanatos’ reaction:

The change that came over her was fast and utterly, totally scary. She seemed to grow larger. Wind whipped around her, lifting her hair. When she spoke I was reminded of the scene in LotR when Galadriel gave Frodo a look at what kind of terrible dark queen she would become if she took the ring from him.

[…] The power of her presence shivered against us. Thanatos was so gloriously angry that she was hard to look at, so I glanced over my shoulder at Dallas, He’d pressed back into his chair as far as he could. His face was winter white.

[…]

“Call me Priestess!” Thanatos exclaimed, looking like she could throw lightning bolts and call down thunder. [2011: 179]

Another professor, Erik Night, also has multiple physical alterations with students. The first is when he sexually assaults Zoey in front of her entire class, which I alluded to in an earlier section. During Drama class, he singles her out to perform an improv scene with him, motivated largely by his jealousy and anger. During the scene, Erik “bent and kissed [Zoey] on the lips” in a “kiss [that] was rough and tender — passionate with anger and betrayal[.]” [2008b: 156] He becomes physically aggressive with her in the scene, enough so that “his fingers were digging into [her] shoulders so hard that [she] knew they were going to leave bruises[.]” [2008b: 157] He also upsets Zoey so much by ranting about her cheating on him within the framework of the scene that Zoey genuinely begins crying. And, while pretending to strangle her, he yells that she “acted like a slut, so now [she] get[s] a slut’s reward!” [2008b: 158] Once again, this happens in front of Zoey’s entire Drama class.

And it’s not the only time he uses physical force against a student. The second instance occurs when students run past him down the hall. To stop one student and ask what’s going on, he grabs the student “by the scruff of his plaid school jacket.” [2011: 52] Rather than simply telling them to stop and asking what the hurry was, but he instead chose to use physical force to halt them.

Though not a professor, Travis Foster is employed by the House of Night as a stablehand and helps Lenobia with her Equestrian Studies class. Two students were unattended during class in the stables and tried lifting the hooves of a Percheron named Bonnie, knocking her off balance and causing her to go down on her knees. In retaliation, Travis “grabbed each by the scruff of their collars and [threw] them directly into a pile of Bonnie’s manure.” [2011: 187] This physical discipline is his only response to the situation — he says nothing to the boys or the other instructors who were supposed to be overseeing them. However, after observing this, Lenobia decides that “he’s good with the students[.]” [2011: 187] It’s also pretty telling that Zoey seems to genuinely expect Travis to “skewer smart aleck, muscle-brained Johnny B” with his jousting lance for speaking somewhat negatively about his horse. [2011: 146]

In the Other World spinoff, after meeting a new student named Kacie, Aphrodite remarks that she is “a fantastic combo” of “brains and beauty”, and Stevie Rae confirms that these traits are “a big part of why [she] said yes to her transfer” from the Chicago House of Night to Tulsa. [2019: 165] Zoey and her friends then have a lengthy discussion about why it’s okay to show favouritism to students, declaring “there’s nothing wrong with picking out the kids who are super talented or smart or athletic — or whatever — and giving them extra attention[.]” [2019: 165] In other words, it’s perfectly fine to give special attention and support to a student because they’re conventionally attractive and have “excellent fashion sense[.]” [2019: 165]

I must reiterate: The author, P.C. Cast, is a retired high school teacher, and was still teaching while writing some of the books in this series.

But it’s not just the professors that bully and abuse characters in this series. Our protagonists do much the same, often to their own friends and partners.

As a fledgling High Priestess and eventual Queen of the elements, the line between friends and subordinates often gets blurred for Zoey. This, understandably, is a hard situation to navigate. However, Zoey often chooses to deal with conflict in her friend group in a manner that isn’t appropriate as a friend or leader: She resorts to threats, intimidation, and violence. One way this manifests is through her elemental affinities (powerful magic allowing her to control air, water, earth, fire, and spirit) augmenting her voice, which she uses to scare friends, partners, and even professors. [2007a: 146; 2007b: 105, 180; 2008a: 78, 145; 2009b: 143; 2013: 72; 2014: 249] Zoey also genuinely considers using violence against people she disagrees with or is annoyed by numerous times throughout the series. [2008b: 120; 2009a: 36, 55; 2009b: 191; 2013: 197, 213] But she also goes beyond just being threatening or thinking about using violence. In one instance, Zoey becomes increasingly angry while Stevie Rae and Aphrodite are arguing and calls on the power of wind to “[knock] them back in their seats[.]” [2008a: 108] This hits Aphrodite and Stevie Rae with enough force to genuinely shock and frighten them.

Zoey has similar interactions with her romantic partners. Throughout the series, she has a number of boyfriends, which is a significant source of stress and drama for her. Not only are her boyfriends often upset with her for cheating on them, but they’re hostile toward each other and end up arguing or competing for her time and attention. Her multiple relationships lead to a series of nasty breakups in the third book, Chosen, but by the fifth book, Hunted, Zoey rekindles her relationships with Heath and Erik, and begins a new relationship with Stark. During Hunted, right after she gets back together with Erik, Heath comes to visit, resulting in the two boys butting heads. Zoey tells them to stop, reminding them that “[she] could summon the elements and kick both of [their] butts.” [2009a: 99] Heath invites Zoey to leave and speak in private with him. Erik tells her not to go for two reasons: It’s dangerous to leave the place they’re staying in, and he’s worried she’ll cheat on him again. Zoey is infuriated by this, telling him that “as [his] girlfriend, [he’s] just pissed [her] off. As [his] High Priestess, [he’s] just insulted [her].” [2009a: 100] But Zoey’s position as High Priestess has no bearing on this interaction — being a High Priestess means it is socially acceptable to have both a Consort and a Mate, but it doesn’t mean she can supersede the need to gain consent from all partners before pursuing polyamory. Rather, what Zoey is doing here is reminding Erik that she is in a position of social and political power over him, in addition to having immense magical powers, all of which she aims to use to control him.

Her abusive behaviour toward Erik, specifically, comes to a head in the following book. Through a short conversation, he first brings up her relationship with Heath, and then Stark, and then Loren Blake. This pisses Zoey off. While channeling the power of spirit, she speaks with such power in her voice that Erik is genuinely frightened of her. She tells him he’s “too possessive”, [2009b: 79] and the following unfolds:

“No.” Feeling spirit swirl around me I channeling it into my next words as I stepped forward, backing him down the hall. “I don’t think anything. I know this is how it’s going to be. We’re done. Now you need to go away before I do something I might, in like fifty years, be sorry for.” I purposefully pushed hard with the power of the element that was flowing through me, causing him to stumble.”[2009b: 79]

In plain terms, Zoey first intimidates Erik with a subtle show of power, then tells him he needs to leave before she hurts him, then backs up that threat by using enough physical force against him to make him stumble. All because he is jealous of her cheating on him — for a second time — and insists that they have a conversation about how she has been treating him and their relationship.

There are also passing references to Zoey being violent with her boyfriends, including with Heath before she was even Marked. He casually mentions Zoey “knock[ing] the crap out of [him]” when they were younger because he wanted to have sex. [2009b: 185] Similarly, when Heath and Stark are passive-aggressively competing for space next to her, Zoey tells Heath that “[she’s] going to elbow the crap out of [him.]” [2009b: 244] Even other characters’ observations of her paint an unpleasant picture, though they themselves view her with admiration or fondness. For example, Stevie Rae expects Zoey to be annoyed by Erik seeking her out for a conversation, thinking that “Zoey was going to eat him for breakfast, spit him out, and go on about her day.” [2009b: 52] Zoey thinks about hitting, threatens to hit, or actually hits her various love interests multiple times throughout the series, typically because they annoy her or are being flirtatious. [2008a: 53, 54; 2009a: 100; 2009b: 105, 205; 2010a: 266; 2010b: 80, 216; 2011: 83; 2012: 101; 2013: 51, 57, 127, 178]

Zoey also uses threats and physical force against people outside her friend group. When two healers, Sapphire and Margareta, are under the magical, mind-controlling influence of Kalona, Zoey is angered by rants at them, “feel[ing] the elemental force of spirit […] swirling dangerously around [her,]” causing the vampyres to back away from her in fear. [2009b: 164] She also threatens one of her friend’s cats because it hisses at her and has a tendency to scratch people. Specifically, she says “[she] will throw [the cat] out the window and call down rain to soak the crap out of [it].” [2008b: 162] When meeting a group of red fledglings for the first time, one named Venus angers Zoey by flirting with her ex-boyfriend and bringing up the fact that she murdered a fledgling that attacked her about a month ago. Zoey responds with this:

“[…] you all should know I’d do it again.” My eyes shifted from Venus to the fledglings behind her while I stifled the urge to reach for a couple of the elements and have wind and fire put a little added punch to my threat.” [2009a: 35]

In other words, Zoey expresses no regret for killing someone and openly threatens to do so again, simply because the person she’s speaking to is “a hateful bitch.” [2009a: 34]

Note that, with all these instances of Zoey becoming violent with her friends and partners, only in Revealed is it explicitly presented as her losing control — and even then it’s a result of outside interference from the Old Magick of a Seer Stone. Zoey kills multiple people over the course of the series — Elizabeth No Last Name, two unnamed black men, and two homeless men — but only regrets the murders she committed under the influence of the Seer Stone.

Zoey isn’t the only heroine or High Priestess in the series, however. Her best friend, Stevie Rae, is the High Priestess of red fledglings in Tulsa and also relies on threats and violence for problem solving. When a group of rogue red fledglings refuse to listen to her, not only does she channel the power of earth through her elemental affinity to make “the ground [rumble] and [shake] with the force of her irritation” [2009b: 248], but she punctuates her commands by “stomp[ing] her foot” and making “the entire depot [shake], sending plaster cascading from the low basement ceiling.” [2009b: 248] In another instance, Stevie Rae gets angry at Aphrodite and starts drawing power from the earth, claiming in her narration that she has no intention of hurting Aphrodite, “but the girl definitely needed a good smack.” [2011: 102] When Kramisha almost spoils a TV show, Stevie Rae threatens to use her affinity to “smack the living crap right out of [her.]” [2010b: 39] And Stevie Rae even threatens Erik for being jealous about Zoey cheating on him again, telling him that she “could stomp [her] foot right now and make the ground under [him] shake[.] [She] could also pick [him] up and toss [him] on [his] silly jealous butt.” [2009b: 13] Stevie Rae is also aggressive toward Dallas, a boy she briefly dated. This includes smacking him when he’s annoying her [2009b: 41] and threatening to beat him for startling her. [2010a: 61]

Neither Zoey nor Stevie Rae’s abusive behaviour is presented as wrong or worrying. Rather, it often seems as if readers are meant to be cheering for them — like this is empowering.

Cast and Cast 2008a: 39

Homelessness and Poverty

During the years before they grow into full vampyres, fledglings can reject the Change at any moment, causing them to bleed out gruesomely and die. However, a group of characters that I will hereafter refer to as the undead fledglings begin appearing when Neferet, the High Priestess of the titular House of Night and villain of the series, begins resurrecting fledglings who have rejected the Change.

Undead fledglings are presented as completely lacking in humanity and thus are evil and monstrous. This is best demonstrated by their preference for eating non-consenting humans, draining their blood until they die, in contrast with the standard practice of drinking refrigerated, packaged blood from donors or feeding from a consenting human. Additionally, many elements of the undead fledglings’ physical appearance denote immorality. They have red eyes, fangs, sometimes have a hunched posture and animal-like movements, and sometimes hiss when they speak (notably, the undead fledglings we are supposed to consider the most immoral/animalistic are the ones who hiss: Elliott and Stark). They are also described as foul smelling, dirty, and poorly dressed.

The last point is also true of homeless people in the House of Night series. One particularly notable example of this is found in Chosen when Zoey interrupts a then-undead Stevie Rae in the process of feeding. Her victim is a homeless woman described as having “dirty wrists” [2008a: 39] and “matted hair”. [2008a: 40] While trying to stop Stevie Rae, Zoey says the woman “probably has lice and who knows what else” [2008a: 39] and that “[Stevie Rae doesn’t] even know where [the woman has] been.” [2008a: 40] Given the dehumanization of undead fledglings through their ugliness and uncleanliness, it is worth considering how a similar portrayal of homeless people effectively presents them as subhuman and immoral.

An even stronger case for the comparison between homelessness and immorality is seen in the juxtaposition of the homeless woman Stevie Rae tries to eat and Stevie Rae herself. Like the woman, Stevie Rae’s hair appears unwashed and “nappy” [2008a: 40, 41] (which, it must be noted, is a derogatory and dehumanizing term for Afro-textured hair) and she wears a “nastily stained black trench coat.” [2008a:41] At this point in the series, Stevie Rae is struggling to maintain what little humanity she has left, so having her appearance resemble that of a homeless person (even if not deliberate) points to the idea that dirtiness denotes a person as subhuman.

Though the woman is presented as a victim in this particular scene, throughout the series homeless people are portrayed as eyesores at best, villains at worst. In addition to comments about them being dirty, [2007b: 216, 224, 225; 2008a: 39; 2013: 213] constantly staggering, (2011: 194; 2012: 203) and smelling like urine, [2009a: 88] at the end of Betrayed, Zoey pins the murders committed by the undead fledglings on a “crazy street person” [2007b: 239]. Such an action makes it apparent that “crazy” homeless people are believable as murderers, which is only reinforced when Zoey’s friend Shaunee comments on Heath’s victimhood at the hands of a “nasty street-person-turned-serial-killer[…]”. [2008a: 132] In fact, some of the characters more readily believe the suggestion that a homeless person is the perpetrator of these crimes than they did the suggestion that a vampyre was behind the attacks [2008a: 132, 141]. And late into the series, Zoey encounters two men whose homelessness makes them outright villainous.

They’d just stepped out of the azalea bushes and were pausing at the top of the stairs. They were scruffy looking, dirty even. Their clothes didn’t fit right. One of them carried a plastic garbage bag slung over his shoulder, making him look like an anorexic Santa. That one saw me first. He nudged his friend with his elbow and jerked his chin in my direction, grinning with a rot-toothed smile. His friend nodded and they started down the stairs. [2013: 213]

They men then ask Zoey if she can spare some money so they can buy food. Zoey is immediately angered by this, accusing the men of scaring girls into giving them cash. Though the men do confirm that they specifically target girls when asking for money, it’s notable that the only thing the men have actually done at this point is walk over to her and ask for money. What makes them threatening, based on their description, is the fact that they are dirty and clearly homeless.

Contrasting portrayals of homelessness, undead fledglings get a chance at redemption. At the end of Chosen, Zoey casts a circle and calls on the aid of the five elements and the goddess Nyx to heal Stevie Rae. This causes Stevie Rae’s Mark to expand into an adult Mark and turn red in contrast with the standard blue, making her the first of a new type of vampyre called a red vampyre. All the other undead fledglings have their Marks turn red, creating a group known as the red fledglings. For simplicity’s sake, I will hereafter refer to the red vampyre and the red fledglings under the umbrella of red fledglings.

It is tempting to regard the red fledglings as an example of homelessness and disadvantaged positions in society. They are invisible or unknown to most of the world, some of those who do know of them view them as monsters, and they have unique needs and limitations compared to other vampyres (e.g. burning in the sun, preferring to be underground, and bloodlust occurring among fledglings instead of being isolated to adults). However, the living conditions of the red fledglings does not remotely align with those of homelessness, even when taking into account the wide variety of types of homelessness. Their living situation is never presented as unstable or economically motivated — quite the contrary, the red fledglings have access to a huge cash flow in the form of the gold credit card of an affluent family. Though the red fledglings live in abandoned prohibition tunnels and the abandoned depot above them, this is a fixed accommodation and they enjoy many luxuries in this space.

While they were still undead fledglings, the tunnels were described as ugly and dirty. However, once they became red fledglings the tunnels were newly decorated. Each red fledgling has their own room. These rooms have a sense of privacy and individuality, as each room is furnished according to the fledglings’ personal tastes. There is also a fully-stocked kitchen in the tunnels, and in the abandoned depot they have access to bathrooms with stand-up shower stalls and hot running water. The tunnels also have electricity. There are closets filled with towels, bathrobes, and sleeping bags, and the tunnels and aboveground depot are decorated with elaborate pieces of art. The changes to the tunnels don’t just make them homely, but beautiful. This seems to indicate that cleanliness and beauty in this series are attached to humanity and morality. For instance, when discussing whether or not they are safe in the tunnels, Zoey’s narration says this: “At least I hope we’re okay down here. I patted the bed I was sitting on, which really did have some cute light green linens on it.” [2009a: 49] Similarly, Zoey thinks it is “moronic […] to be imagining booger monsters in every shadow when the place had been Pier One-decorated.” [2009a: 67] These types of comments imply that there is a connection between the aesthetics of the furnishings and the safety of the tunnels.

The red fledglings themselves have also changed. Instead of being described in dehumanizing terms emphasizing their dirtiness and animalistic behaviour, they are presented with same dignity as any other character, and several are explicitly identified as beautiful. For example, a red fledgling named Venus is described as having “an icy beauty” [2009a: 34].

Perhaps a more interesting point about the red fledglings and homelessness is their response to the homeless people that occupied the abandoned depot before them. Before the red fledglings regained their humanity and were still undead fledglings, they terrorized those who had been seeking shelter in the depot and, some lines suggest, preferred to feed on homeless people rather than other demographics. For example, when discussing Neferet’s involvement with the undead fledglings, Stevie Rae says that she “[brought] street people for us to eat.” [2008b: 128] In addition, when Zoey catches Stevie Rae feeding in Chosen, a homeless woman is her victim, and later in Hunted Stevie Rae mentions becoming drunk after eating a homeless “wino”. [2009a: 142] Later on, when the existence of antagonist, rogue red fledglings is revealed, Stevie Rae mentions their preference for feeding on “homeless people or bad drivers”. [2009b: 237]

When the undead fledglings regained their humanity to become red fledglings, they again acted against those who had previously used the depot as their shelter. As part of the process of asserting their humanity through décor, the red fledglings elected to dispose of all the items left behind by the homeless people. According to Zoey, the basement “wasn’t as disgusting now as it had been the last time I’d been down here. Stevie Rae and her group had obviously done a lot of cleaning and throwing away of the street people’s stuff that had been littering the place before.” [2009a: 88] This indicates a few things: 1) the authors continue describing homeless people with language denoting dirtiness (“disgusting”), 2) the possessions of homeless people are viewed in the same terms as garbage (“throwing away”, “littering the place”), and, ultimately, 3) the homeless people do not have any entitlement to the spaces they occupy or the items they own.

And this is just how the series presents homelessness. Throughout the series, there are also disparaging comments about white trash, [2011: 60, 172, 210; 2014: 47; 2018: 20] trailer trash and trailer parks, [2007b: 228; 2008a: 39; 2010a: 278; 2018: 20; 2019: 84, 241; 2020: 86, 103, 125] the projects, [2010b: 198] and blue collar workers. [2008b: 192] Characters frequently shame or look down on buying cheap or discounted products or shopping at more affordable stores. [2007a: 66, 72; 2007b: 97; 2008a: 18, 28; 2009b: 32; 2018: 111; 2019: 60]By contrast, much praise or admiration is given to owning expensive brands and shopping at expensive store such as:

• Valentino [2012: 70; 2013: 38, 83]
• Coach [2008b: 52; 2013: 83]
• Victoria’s Secret [2007b: 117]
• Ralph Lauren [2007a: 64]
• Maui Jim [2007a: 20, 50; 2007b: 96]
• Dolce & Gabbana [2009a: 263]
• Armani [2008b: 14; 2010b: 161]
• Neiman Marcus [2007a: 66]
• Saks Fifth Avenue [2007a: 66; 2007b: 161; 2008b: 195; 2009a: 186, 263; 2018: 183; 2019: 214]
• Nordstrom [2010b: 198; 2017: 31; 2018: 184, 243; 2020: 73]
• Miss Jackson’s [2009a: 253; 2010b: 158; 2011: 91, 158, 164; 2017: 31; 2018: 184]

This is just to name a few. Character’s will similarly boast about the price tag of certain items, such as $2000 boots, [2018: 177] or simply describe things as expensive. [2007a: 82, 100, 163; 2007b: 11, 48, 56; 2008a: 20, 67, 93; 2008b: 59, 172; 2009b: 270; 2010b: 29; 2014: 47; 2017: 48, 184, 261; 2018: 172]

The end result is that this series pushes the idea that poverty is not only shameful or worthy of mockery, but dirty, disgusting, and — in extreme cases — renders a person subhuman.

Cast and Cast 2007b: 111

Islamophobia and Antisemitism

A subplot in Betrayed involves Zoey calling in a fake bomb threat. The specifics of why and how this is done don’t matter for our purposes right now; what matters is that they decide the name for the fake terrorist group should be Nature’s Jihad, [2007b: 109, 110, 111, 113, 122] leaning into the harmful association between Islam and terrorism. Similarly, when discussing the ways people are reborn to learn lessons in Nyxism, Shaunee, Aphrodite, and Zoey all agree that “a wife beater” would get “reborn as a woman […] in a burka in Afghanistan[.]” [2011: 235] This reinforces rhetoric that Islam and religious head coverings worn by Muslim women are inherently oppressive.

But it’s not just Islam that suffers harmful representation. Judaism is subject to stigmatizing and trivializing representation, as well. For one thing, Aphrodite makes a flippant comment assuming a rabbi is “asking [Kalona] all sorts of crazy Torah questions.” [2014: 110] He is the only person assumed to engage in this kind of religious questioning, despite there also being a group of Benedictine nuns and a representative of the local Unitarian Universalist Church present. There’s also an off-hand joke about how a Barbra Streisand doll should come with a fake nose, [2010a: 128] playing off of a history of insulting the actress for looking “too Jewish”, [TOI Staff 2016] which also perpetuates antisemitic caricatures of Jewish people having giant noses. [Wikipedia Contributors 2021]

In Loved, Aphrodite’s mother, Frances LaFont, is talking with reporters in a park as part of her campaign to become the next mayor of Tulsa. When Frances announces her plans to rescind the lease on the House of Night and force vampyres out of the city, Aphrodite steps up with a question. She sarcastically suggests that her mother “bring back marking undesirables with a yellow star,” [2017: 34] which is a reference to how Jewish people were marked in Nazi Germany. But one woman’s bigotry toward vampyres in a municipal election is in no way comparable to the nation-wide, systemic campaign of violence levelled against Jewish people during the Holocaust.

This is especially true because vampyre society is incredibly wealthy and socially powerful. Early in the series, Zoey notes that vampyres “[have] so much money” because they’re “the most successful actors and actresses in the world” and “also dancers and musicians, authors and singers.” [2007a: 57] It’s directly stated that “every House of Night is independently wealthy,” [2013: 61] which is also evidenced in the fact that the school has its own private jet [2007b: 90; 2009b: 202] and a “fortune in jewels and gold” hidden in the basement of one of the campus buildings. [2013: 61]. Vampyres are also politically autonomous, having their own legal system, governing councils, and often making conscious choices to avoid involving themselves in human affairs, or involving humans in their affairs. [2009b: 243; 2010a: 56, 70, 74, 83, 179; 2010b: 124, 197; 2011: 172, 178; 2012: 59, 84, 128; 2013: 61, 98, 218] Fledglings are even legally emancipated as soon as they are Marked and enrolled at a House of Night. [2007b: 84; 2008a: 93; 2009b: 202; 2013: 36] This is all explicitly stated in the foreword of Loved, the first novel in the Other World spinoff, where the authors explain the worldbuilding and characters from the original series as a refresher for readers. Specifically, this section states:

All House of Night schools are autonomous and matriarchal. They have their own society that exists apart from the country in which it is located, and their own religion. Once a student is Marked and becomes a fledgling vampyre, he or she is legally emancipated from their human families and can choose a new name and future. [2017: 4]

Comparing empty threats against a society that is rich, powerful, and legally and politically autonomous to the very real systemic oppression and genocide Jewish people suffered under the Holocaust is bafflingly ignorant and insensitive. But no one ever criticizes Aphrodite for this comparison, and instead praise her for sounding so smart and level-headed.

Cast and Cast 2008b: 112

Mental Illness

Crazy and nut are fairly ubiquitous parts of casual speech and, despite their stigmatizing nature, most people don’t make much of a fuss about hearing that language used. I’m used to hearing it in conversation. I’m used to seeing it in books.

But there’s everyday, casual usage of problematic language, and then there’s 400 uses of cray, crazy, or crazed across 16 books. That’s an average of 25 uses per book (which are typically just over 300 pages long), with over 150 instances specifically used to describe mental state. Nuts is used somewhat less liberally, with a total of 12 uses of nut, nutty, and nutjob across all 16 books. Here are just a few examples of this language in action:

The instant I closed the thick wooden door of the rec hall behind me I ran like a crazy blind person. [2007a: 136]

[…] while Erin nodded so vigorously in agreement that her long blond hair bounced around, making her look like a crazed cheerleader. [2008a: 58]

Was she nuts? Was that what was going on? Could the “darkness” Nyx warned me about be the darkness inside Neferet’s crazy mind? [2008b: 75]

“Outside, watching over the nerd herd so that some street crazy doesn’t stagger into, say, Queen Damien and cause him to shriek, drop his candle, and fuck everything up,” Aphrodite said. [2012: 203]

Aphrodite didn’t yell. She didn’t do anything except stand up to her bat-shit-crazy mom.[2017: 94]

This, however, is not the only way mental health is discussed or portrayed in the series.

Another oft-used favourite of the authors is psycho, coming in at 22 uses across the 12 books of the original series. One of its most common uses is by Zoey when she criticizes her own behaviour. This includes not wanting Neferet to think she’s psycho if she reports sighting what seems to be the ghost of a recently deceased classmate, [2007a: 164], worrying that she’s “babbling like [a] desperate psycho”, [2008a: 47] wondering what caused her to “[change] from Regular Zoey to Psycho Killer Vampyre Zoey” after she uses her magic to throw two unarmed black men into oncoming traffic and presumably kills them, [2008a: 148] and agreeing with Stevie Rae’s assessment that she “went all psycho on” one of their friends. [2014: 111] She also frequently makes comments about going crazy or losing her mind. [2007b: 129, 185; 2008b: 9; 2009b: 71, 221; 2010a: 261; 2010b: 19, 128; 2011: 81, 140; 2012: 99, 108; 2014: 227; 2017: 195, 224; 2018: 157; 2020: 254]

Aside from Zoey, another common target for jokes or insults based on mental health is Aphrodite. She starts the series as an antagonist, but eventually comes to occupy the trope of “lovable bitch” among Zoey’s friends. As such, several characters (especially Shaunee and Erin, AKA the Twins) make a point to routinely insult and antagonize her. Zoey describes her behaviour as “psycho hatefulness”, [2007a: 84] Erin calls her a “psycho bitch from hell,” [2007b: 54] Zoey asks Aphrodite if she has a personality disorder, [2008b: 59] the Twins similarly remark the Aphrodite must have a personality disorder or split personality and hope that she’ll be institutionalized, [2008b: 112] and Shaylin calls her a “total nutjob”. [2012: 168] Aphrodite is also just plainly called crazy a lot. [2009a: 51; 2010a: 88; 2012: 141; 2013: 53, 131, 201]

Neferet is the other prime target. In Untamed, Zoey’s friends note that Neferet removed a magical alarm on campus because the return of students from break and arrival of so many Sons of Erebus Warriors would have the alarm constantly going off, which “would make Neferet go more insane than she already is[.]” [2008b: 34] Similarly, Zoey later muses that “there’s more going on with Neferet than just her normal craziness.” [2008b: 133] She’s called “a crazy-assed ex-High Priestess”, [2009a: 269] “completely batshit crazy,” [2009b: 62] “crazy times ten,” [2011: 43] “evil and crazy,” [2011: 123] “crazier than a rat in a tin shithouse,” [2012: 60] and just generally labelled batshit crazy or insane. [2009b: 209; 2011: 20; 2014: 55, 63, 64, 79, 91, 100, 115, 127, 164, 227, 245; 2017: 26; 2018: 15, 121, 269, 299, 305; 2019: 102, 109, 260; 2020: 51, 87, 88, 125, 132, 147, 157, 185, 190, 275, 290, 308, 334] Her mental health is specifically linked to her being evil multiple times as well, as seen with the “evil and crazy” comment and the line about “the darkness inside Neferet’s crazy mind” that I included in my examples above.

This is only further emphasized by the final book in the Other World spinoff, Found. To keep it short, there are two versions of Neferet in Other World, as is the case with many characters: Original and Other. Other Neferet frees Original Neferet from her magical imprisonment, and Original Neferet is soon on a quest for vengeance against Zoey. Because of the confusion of talking about two versions of Neferet simultaneously, Zoey and her friends come up with a nickname to clarify when they’re talking about Original Neferet. And they decide to call her Batshit. She is called this 57 times in a single book. Several times, characters emphasize how accurate this description is. [2020: 195, 216, 255, 264, 310] One of the only characters who refuses to call Original Neferet by this name is Other Neferet, who agrees with it as a descriptor but thinks it’s “too vulgar” and instead “call[s] her the Monstress, as she is truly twisted and unimaginably monstrous.” [2020: 309] This, once again, links Neferet’s villainous nature with her mental health.

It’s notable that a direct comparison is drawn between Zoey and Neferet in this regard. When Zoey has problems losing her temper and violently lashing out at friends because of the influence of the Old Magick in her Seer Stone, she says she “can’t wield [the stone] until [she’s] figured out how not to turn into another Neferet.” [2014: 227] But her friend Kramisha is firm that this will not happen, because “Neferet’s broke. You ain’t.” [2014: 227] Neferet’s so-called insanity is not only the thing that makes her evil, it’s also a sign of personal failing that Zoey can avoid just by being a good person.

The series is also full of casually stigmatizing language. Someone who’s neurotic about organizing is called OCD, [2009b: 170] a spoiled dog is called schizophrenic and used as a point of comparison to insult someone’s intelligence, [2010a: 87] and even the wind is called psycho. [2011: 209]

And there are so many other moments where mental health is plainly presented as some sort of choice or personal failing. When Zoey is wallowing in despair after her grandmother is captured by Neferet, Nyx appears before her and tells her she needs to “grow up” and “be a woman, a High Priestess, […] not a child.” [2012: 190–191] She goes on to say that “a child sits, weeps, and dissolves into self-pity and depression. A High Priestess takes action. Which way will you choose, Zoey Redbird?” [2012: 191] Thus, depression is not only childish, but a choice someone makes.

Similarly, in Loved, readers learn that Damien has struggled with depression for most of his life, despite it never being discussed, shown, or hinted at in any of the preceding 12 books. Grandma Redbird quickly notices this problem due to her Cherokee wisdom (which I have a whole other essay about), and she sits him down for a heart-to-heart about his depression. It goes thusly:

“Do you want to heal? Do you want to live embracing joy and all the messiness it brings with it?” […] “Do not answer by rote. Many people do not want to embrace joy — not in this lifetime. If you are one of those people, have the courage to speak your life path in truth. I will not judge you — that I swear.”

“Why would someone not want to embrace joy?”

“Because a life filled with depression — sadness and stress and the tumult and drama that comes with such a life — can be addicting. After you live with it long enough, you only feel normal if you are mired in darkness. […] I mean darkness that is the absence of joy, of lightness of spirit, of happiness. Depression is an abyss — a pit from which it is difficult to emerge. You must truly want everything that the absence of sadness brings with it — all the victories and defeats of a life lived open to the endless possibilities of love and light and laughter.”[2017: 145]

She then walks him through a healing ritual to ease his pain. This, combined with the return of his dead boyfriend in the form of Other Jack, allows Damien to no longer be depressed. His mental illness is never mentioned again.

To put it bluntly, I think this is a deeply stigmatizing, victim blaming sort of perspective on mental illness. While caring for yourself, seeking help, and making an effort to live the best life you can manage are all certainly important, and these things can help ease depression or make depressive episodes less intense, they’re not cures. And certainly, someone struggling with depression — and someone unable to do these things because of their depression — is not choosing to live a life of misery because they are afraid of joy. Depression, anxiety, and other mental health problems can be caused by such a wide array of factors (such as the abuse and oppression Damien faces as a gay man, or poverty, or chronic health problems, or literal chemical imbalances in the body) that there is no simple or one-size-fits-all approach to coping. Presenting Damien’s depression as a choice and something that can seemingly be cured is stigmatizing and casts shame on readers who struggle with mental health, even if the text presents it as holistic and loving.

Conclusion

It’s hard to really sum up everything troubling in this series. Even with what I’ve covered — queer representation; black representation; indigenous representation; internalized misogyny and rape culture; ableism; trivializing and demonizing addiction, eating disorders, and mental illness; normalizing and glorifying abuse; classism; ephebophilia and student-teacher romances; and religious intolerance — I still haven’t covered everything.

I haven’t covered Aphrodite making jokes about her mother’s view that “dependable illegals are really hard to find” [2008a: 131] and “good illegals are really hard to find.” [2008b: 47] Nor have I mentioned when Zoey spoke to Aphrodite “slowly, pretending she was an English-as-a-second-language learner.” [2010b: 35] I haven’t touched on Aphrodite calling Erin and Shaunee “Dorkamese Twins” [2008a: 196; 2008b: 17, 51, 112, 183, 190, 195; 2009a: 32; 2010a: 76; 2012: 140] in a clear play on the term Siamese twin, which is outdated and widely regarded as derogatory. I haven’t even attempted to address the frequent fear of aging and disgust shown toward wrinkles. [2007a: 154; 2007b: 212; 2008b: 69, 87; 2009b: 272; 2010b: 70; 2011: 148; 2012: 166, 220; 2013: 87; 2020: 93]

It’s hard to grasp just how broadly and consistently the content in this series is harmful. These books are absolutely plagued with harmful content, problematic language, and acceptable target mentality. Antagonistic characters frequently have their villainous nature foreshadowed or emphasized by irrelevant characteristics, such as fatness, not being conventionally attractive, sexual promiscuity, revealing outfits, or struggling with mental health conditions. These traits are also consistently the butt of the joke throughout the series, with much of the humour relying on demeaning or demonizing vulnerable populations — which also extends to mocking and insulting queerness, blackness, poverty, old age, addiction, disabilities, etc. And when these books aren’t degrading or trivializing these demographics, they’re praising characters for harmful or outright horrifying behaviour. Female characters are presented as empowered role models when they threaten or enact violence against male partners, teachers are glorified for publicly humiliating or deliberately terrorizing their students, and wildly inappropriate age gaps or student-teacher relationships are shown as romantic and desirable.

But these books don’t just involve a broad array of problematic topics. The publication timeline also spans more than a decade, from 2007 to 2020. And even with everything I’ve written — four full-length essays and eight mini essays — I still haven’t fully encompassed everything. For that, I need to take a step back and look at context from outside the series, as well as the authors’ other works.

Next up: Aging Poorly vs. Being Harmful: A Final Look at ‘House of Night’ and the Works of P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast.

References

Cast, P.C. 2011. “Awesome photo shoot!” PC Cast’s Blog. Retrieved November 16, 2021 (http://pccast.blogspot.com/2011/04/awesome-photo-shoot.html#comment-2457757096306993148).

Cast, P.C., and Kristin Cast. 2007a. Marked. New York, NY: St. Martin’s Press.

Cast, P.C., and Kristin Cast. 2007b. Betrayed. New York, NY: St. Martin’s Press.

Cast, P.C., and Kristin Cast. 2008a. Chosen. New York, NY: St. Martin’s Press.

Cast, P.C., and Kristin Cast. 2008b. Untamed. New York, NY: St. Martin’s Press.

Cast, P.C., and Kristin Cast. 2009a. Hunted. New York, NY: St. Martin’s Press.

Cast, P.C., and Kristin Cast. 2009b. Tempted. New York, NY: St. Martin’s Press.

Cast, P.C., and Kristin Cast. 2010a. Burned. New York, NY: St. Martin’s Press.

Cast, P.C., and Kristin Cast. 2010b. Awakened. New York, NY: St. Martin’s Press.

Cast, P.C., and Kristin Cast. 2011. Destined. New York, NY: St. Martin’s Press.

Cast, P.C., and Kristin Cast. 2012. Hidden. New York, NY: St. Martin’s Press.

Cast, P.C., and Kristin Cast. 2013. Revealed. New York, NY: St. Martin’s Press.

Cast, P.C., and Kristin Cast. 2014. Redeemed. New York, NY: St. Martin’s Press.

Cast, P.C., and Kristin Cast. 2017. Loved. Ashland, OR: Blackstone Publishing.

Cast, P.C., and Kristin Cast. 2018. Lost. Ashland, OR: Blackstone Publishing.

Cast, P.C., and Kristin Cast. 2019. Forgotten. Ashland, OR: Blackstone Publishing.

Cast, P.C., and Kristin Cast. 2020. Found. Ashland, OR: Blackstone Publishing.

Fricot, Olivia. 2019. “Q&A with Kristin and P.C. Cast, Authors of The Dysasters.” Booktopia. Retrieved November 19, 2020 (https://www.booktopia.com.au/blog/2019/05/24/qa-kristen-pc-cast-the-dysasters/).

Nijkamp, Marieke. 2014. “The Trope of Curing Disability.” Disability in KidLit. Retrieved November 20, 2021 (https://disabilityinkidlit.com/2014/03/07/marieke-nijkamp-the-trope-of-curing-disability/).

Rought, Karen. 2020. “P.C. and Kristin Cast Announce New Series, Sisters of Salem (Exclusive).” Hypable. Retrieved November 19, 2020 (https://www.hypable.com/pc-kristin-cast-sisters-of-salem/).

TOI Staff. 2016. “How Streisand Turned Looking ‘Too Jewish’ Into Stardom.” Times of Israel. Retrieved December 25, 2021 (https://www.timesofisrael.com/barbra-streisand-harnessed-ridicule-of-looking-too-jewish-into-superstardom/).

Wikipedia Contributors. 2021. “Jewish Nose.” Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved December 25, 2021 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_nose).