Untamed: A House of Night Novel (House of Night, #4)

by Kristin Cast and P.C. Cast

A week ago Zoey had a group of special friends, three boyfriends and a (kinda) clear conscience. Now she has none of the above. Luckily ice-queen Aphrodite is showing signs of melting and ex-roomie Stevie Rae isn't as dead as she'd thought. Though Stevie's now hanging out in tunnels with freaks - gross. If she can get them to listen, Zoey will need all her friends as events take a frightening turn at the House of Night school for vampyres. Shocking true intentions are about to come to light, loyalties will be tested and an ancient evil is about to rise again. Some days being special just doesn't seem all that ...- Not suitable for younger readers -

• ISBN10: 0312596308
• ISBN13: 9780312596309
• Publish Date: 29 September 2009 (first published 1 September 2008)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: St. Martin's Press
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 352
• Language: English

Reviews

[Rach Wood]

When I was younger, I was a huge fan of the House of Night series. That's why I decided to re-read them. Unfortunately, neither of the books has aged well so far. There's a lot of misogynistic, racist and weird/awkward comments on homosexuality.

The general storyline is good and entertaining (that's why I gave it two stars and not one), but the writing is not only bad but also redundant. The author describes everyone and everything over and over again. Plus the condescending tone and a lot of judgemental stereotypes.

To make things worse, most characters are terrible, especially the protagonist. Zoey is a mess and slut-shames a lot, which is ironic since she's the one who sustains multiple romantic relationships at once without being honest with any of them.

[FranJessca @ A Book Lovin' Mama's Blog]

Untamed is the fourth book to the House of Night series by P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast. If you hadn’t read the first three books, then I would recommend reading them in order. This book picks up where Chosen ended.

My Thoughts: Zoey is dealing with what happened in the last book. If you were frustrated with Zoey in the previous book, don’t worry. It will get a little better. Her friends, though, are ignoring her because they didn’t like how she couldn’t trust them. She no longer has any boyfriends, which is a perfect thing for her. She doesn’t need any boys at the moment. She’s not the only one dealing with what happened in Chosen, too. Both Aphrodite and Stevie Rae have changed in different ways. Both of these characters are growing on me. I love how Aphrodite is there for Zoey and how she’s become a good friend to her. I also love Stevie Rae because she’s evolved into something else entirely. She’s adapting to the changes. 

Of course, there is drama in this book with not only the friends but with Erik and Neferet, too. Erik is a full vampire, now and he is a teacher at the House of Night. There’s going to be awkwardness with Zoey and Erik now. Don’t even get me started with the craziness of Neferet. I did like her first, no longer. She is one wicked villain. Zoey will not only have to deal with Neferet but something or someone else that is awakening. It’s not going to be easy for Zoey and friends. I thought last book’s cliffhanger was tough, but this one was a big one that left me aching for more.

Standalone or Part of Series: Part of Series.

Cliffhanger: Yes, big time on this one!

Would I recommend this book? Yes. If you are a fan of P.C. and Kristin Cast’s books and enjoy Young Adult Fantasy, you’ll enjoy this book/series. If you are a reader like me in her thirties, then you may get annoyed by Zoey. Zoey needs to listen to grandmother and Goddess Nyx more. Hopefully, she’ll lean more on her friends even more in the next book. I’ll need to take a break from catching up on this series to tackle some other books, but I’ll be back.

[Baroness Book Trove]

CAUTION! THIS REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS! READ AT YOUR OWN RISK IF YOU HAVEN'T READ THE BOOK ALREADY!!!!!!!

Okay so here is the fourth book in the House of Night book series. The last two books in my mind were just like little filler books to keep the plot of the whole series going through our heads as we awaited to see what Zoey and her group of friends well do. I only say that the second and third books are fillers because we don't really see all that much going on. I mean yeah we find out that Zoey is a slut, even though that is the wrong use of the word, for having three boyfriends and for keeping Stevie Rae's return from the dead a secret from her "the nerd herd" as Aphrodite calls them. Along with how we are able to see Neferet grow more and more into her roll as the villain of the story.

In this book we are able to really clearly see that in this novel and it has made me want to read them some more and make this book into a five star one. Though it does have some spelling errors but I am quite glad to see that it is still going. But for some reason I think that this book would have done well if the Casts made some of the books into one big one for the third former year at the House and so forth but I guess they didn't think about that.

Oh well. But then again I guess writing about being a vampyre fledgling is different than say writing about a young wizard going to Hogwarts every year and has to deal with whatever is thrown at him from Voldemort. And yes I realized that I made a Harry Potter reference but it was the only one I can think of. Anyways this book in my mind is awesome and I don't wanna give a whole lot of it away though as I am looking at what I have wrote I am not spoiling anything but oh well. This book is a good one and one that made me rethink the series....well again. Yeah I already read most of them but I don't remember much.

Though this book was originally a zero because of it being so slow in the beginning but as I got farther in the book gradually got a higher rating. I mean at least Zoey isn't saying bad stuff about Catholicism anymore thanks to a certain group of nuns And that is all I am willing to tell you. Hope this review has helped you and if so then I am glad. Merry Meet, Merry Part, and Merry Part. Along with Blessed Be.

[angelarenea9]

After loosing all three of her boyfriends, and for a time her friends, this book is about Zoey coming into her own and becoming a high priestess. After winning her friends back with the help of Aphrodite, who we are now to forgive and forget that she was 'evil', Zoey meets yet another boy who has a dog (GASP!). Who she promptly falls for and declares her soul mate after a whooping 3 conversations and death scene kiss. This books is the first book that seems to be transitioning the characters into adulthood, we see Cherokee legends, Grandma Redbird, some nuns, and an ancient Vampyre leader.

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And on to book four.

The explanations of the events that happened in the previous book were once again dragged out and told as if we were stupid. That really annoyed me. But I continued reading. Even though I found it pretty hard.

I found it hard to finish this book. I think it had to do with a lot of the conversations because they were meaningless chatter about nothing in particular. It was hard to stay focussed on reading. Then there’s the fact that there was another ‘insta-love’ as everyone calls it with a new character. Seriously, Zoey had known the guy for literally an hour and bam she was already kissing him and hating her self for liking him. She barely knew the guy! Seriously! How unrealistic!

I also hated the time period. But at least all the books are sticking to it. Two days, four days max. This just annoys me.

Then there was Erik, he is way too good for Zoey. He deserves better. Yet I hate how he can act so immature sometimes.

It seems the more books I read of this series the angrier I feel…

Although the ending was a cliff hanger. And of course I’m interested to know what happens next. But I need a break from Zoey and her somewhat irritating friends.

Although I have said all of this I still think this series is very clever.

Miss J
xx

[Linda]

Again, excellent! I love the humour, the myths and the friendship. Totally awesome!

[mitabird]

This book was just not as good as the first three. The time line of the book really got to me. I find it hard to believe that all of the things Zoey and her friends went through happened in two measly months! The other thing that annoyed me was Zoey's flip-flopping between all of her "boyfriends". Her hormones definitely needed toning down and I just didn't want to read about it anymore. The plot was interesting, but I'm getting to the point where I don't care about what is happening. I'm not as anxious to read the next book as I was previously. 3.5 stars