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House of Night Other World #3
Forgotten
Before he was freed by Neferet, Kalona was imprisoned within the earth for centuries because of the Darkness in his heart. But what happened to the Other World’s Kalona? It’s as though he’s been forgotten, or maybe he never existed at all …
In the present, Other Neferet may have left her House of Night, but she has far from given up her goal of immortality and world domination. As she operates in secret to gain access to Old Magick, the new High Priestess, Anastasia Langford, works toward peace and acceptance for the vampyres of the Other World. But just as Other Kevin’s broken heart will take time to heal, peace in that world will also take time and work—and not all of the Other World vampyres want peace. After all, why should they return to being shunned by humans, especially when they’ve had a taste of how it feels to be in power?
Meanwhile, Zoey is desperate to help rid the Other World of Neferet once and for all, and not knowing what’s going on over there is eating away at her. But, as the Nerd Herd warns, it’s far too dangerous to call on Old Magick time and again. As a distraction, she throws herself into her work and attempts to bring the humans and vampyres of Tulsa closer together with the first human-vampyre swim meet in history! It’s too bad that something always seems to go wrong whenever the stakes are high.
What happens when worlds clash and powers that should be left alone are awakened? Can Other Kevin and his world heal from the wounds Neferet continues to inflict? Can Old Magick ever truly be harnessed and used for good? Or will Darkness extinguish Light and leave our heroes broken, hopeless, and as forgotten as Kalona of the Silver Wings? Don’t miss this second to last volume in the House of Night Other World saga!
In the present, Other Neferet may have left her House of Night, but she has far from given up her goal of immortality and world domination. As she operates in secret to gain access to Old Magick, the new High Priestess, Anastasia Langford, works toward peace and acceptance for the vampyres of the Other World. But just as Other Kevin’s broken heart will take time to heal, peace in that world will also take time and work—and not all of the Other World vampyres want peace. After all, why should they return to being shunned by humans, especially when they’ve had a taste of how it feels to be in power?
Meanwhile, Zoey is desperate to help rid the Other World of Neferet once and for all, and not knowing what’s going on over there is eating away at her. But, as the Nerd Herd warns, it’s far too dangerous to call on Old Magick time and again. As a distraction, she throws herself into her work and attempts to bring the humans and vampyres of Tulsa closer together with the first human-vampyre swim meet in history! It’s too bad that something always seems to go wrong whenever the stakes are high.
What happens when worlds clash and powers that should be left alone are awakened? Can Other Kevin and his world heal from the wounds Neferet continues to inflict? Can Old Magick ever truly be harnessed and used for good? Or will Darkness extinguish Light and leave our heroes broken, hopeless, and as forgotten as Kalona of the Silver Wings? Don’t miss this second to last volume in the House of Night Other World saga!
280 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 29, 2019
489 people are currently reading
10038 people want to read
About the author
P.C. Cast
163 books28.2k followersPC was born in the Midwest, and grew up being shuttled back-and-forth between Illinois and Oklahoma, which is where she fell in love with Quarter Horses and mythology (at about the same time). After high school, she joined the United States Air Force and began public speaking and writing. After her tour in the USAF, she taught high school for 15 years before retiring to write full time. PC is a #1 New York Times and #1 USA Today Best-Selling author and a member of the Oklahoma Writers Hall of Fame. Her novels have been awarded the prestigious: Oklahoma Book Award, YALSA Quick Pick for Reluctant Readers, Romantic Times Reviewers’ Choice Award, the Prism, Holt Medallion, Daphne du Maurier, Booksellers’ Best, and the Laurel Wreath. PC is an experienced teacher and talented speaker. Ms. Cast lives in Oregon near her fabulous daughter, her adorable pack of dogs, her crazy Maine Coon, and a bunch of horses. House of Night Other World, book 4, FOUND, releases July 7th, 2020. More info to come soon about the HoN TV series!
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January 31, 2023
2.5 Stars
November 29, 2019
I’m really not sure what to make of this book. It was certainly different from other installments in the series. But I don’t think that’s really a good thing.
In Forgotten, we open with a prologue about the creation of the realms – the first four pages of which is nearly identical to the opening of Kalona’s Fall. As a writer, I can’t wrap my head around literally copy-pasting a huge section of a book like that. It comes off as lazy, unprofessional, and is kind of a slap in the face to readers who followed every book as they came out. They’re gonna know they’ve read this scene before; you’re not even trying to hide that it’s the same.
Anyway, the book opens with several chapters focused on Other Kalona, Other Erebus, and Other Nyx, which seems really strange to me from a world-building perspective. These extra-planar, divine or semi-divine beings have Other World versions of themselves, too? But they oversee multiple realms – Nyx, in particular. Why can’t they see these mirror realms, too? Are they aware of their Other counterparts? And is Mother Earth an Other in this book, too, or is she one of the few entities that’s aware of the various realms and has full effect over all of them? I would assume so, since she was involved in their creation. And what about the Sun and the Moon? Do they have Others? They’re divine beings.
Setting aside the confusing world-building, the purpose of this opening is to establish that Other Kalona doesn’t fall, but also he does. It seems kind of stupid? Or at least lazy. I know I’ve already accused the beginning of this book of laziness, but I’m serious – on top of copy-pasting a significant amount of text from Kalona’s Fall into this book, the author also takes fifty pages to write out any potential problems with Kalona being risen in the Other World, clearly so that she can neatly evade writing another redemption plot for him. The problem is that nothing meaningful changes as a result of this. Kalona still ends up entombed in the earth by the Cherokee (who explicitly worship the Earth Mother, which is not part of Cherokee culture! I’m continually infuriated by this series’ insistence on conflating Cherokee spirituality and culture with Wicca/pagan practices). And because Kalona still ends up trapped in the earth, vampyres still regard Erebus as Nyx’s Consort, hence Warriors being called Sons of Erebus and not Sons of Kalona.
Well, whatever. Surely this fifty-page digression into the backstory of the world serves some sort of vital purpose to the plot and plays into a major twist. Right?
Ha. No. It’s referenced once after this and promptly forgotten for the rest of the book.
Side note: I’m wondering if that’s the theme for the book title. Maybe the author is giving a nod to all the plot points that have been brought up in this book (and the past books), only to be unceremoniously abandoned or straight up forgotten. Here’s looking at you, weapons cache in the school basement.
We end up spending most of this book with Other Neferet and Other Lynette, as well as three women they employ at a B&B in Scotland. Other Neferet is recovering from being usurped by Zoey and the Resistance, and she uses the power of Darkness to kill an entire bar for… reasons. Honestly, it doesn’t particularly matter, and the only thing I remember from that scene is the blatant fat shaming. The white bull shows up, she flirts with him because “all men are the same” (never mind that I’m pretty sure the bulls were established as masculine but genderless), and he promises her power. She doesn’t want to be subservient to him, though. She says she wants to prove herself worthy of him, so he gives her a task – woo the sprites into granting her access to the Isle of Skye, and there she can harness Old Magick to become immortal. This results in Neferet taking a private jet to Scotland, which is how she ends up enlisting Lynette’s help.
Lynette is… I can tell she’s supposed to be shrewd and no-nonsense in a way that female readers should root for and find, like, “empowering”. But she’s kind of insufferable. She brags about how her intelligence and resourcefulness are what kept her alive and in good standing when the vampyre-human war turned everything to hell, but she was a well-off white woman with lots of assets to liquidate – enough that she was able to reinvent her life and career without having to sell her expensive house or Mercedes Benz. It’s also stated that she was poor prior to this and pulled herself out of poverty with hard work and good sense, which only makes the whole situation more infuriating, especially as someone who has studied inequality. Poverty is complex and involves numerous forms of systemic oppression, from racism to sexism to ableism and everything in between. Presenting escaping poverty as a matter of “Work hard! Be smart!” is classist.
The insufferableness of Lynette’s monologue on this particular topic is not helped by the fact that Lynette is also a huge snob and sticks her nose up at anything that isn’t fine, expensive, or otherwise indicative of being high class and high status.
Mostly, though, Lynette is boring and flat.
Anyway, after a long scene where the author demonstrates a complete failure to understand how planes work, Lynette and Neferet end up at a B&B in Scotland, where the owner and two staff are sworn to secrecy under threat of death. This is where they spend most of the book. Neferet goes out onto the loch every night to leave offerings for the sprites in hopes of attaining access to Skye, and eventually the sprites appear before her and agree to fulfill her command in exchange for payment. The payment, of course, requires Neferet to solve a riddle – she must kill her past and her future – and it is also communicated through the requisite terrible poetry this series loves.
There’s a few scenes that I can tell are supposed to be touching or moments of bonding between Neferet and Lynette, but they’re both so stilted and robotic in their characterization that it’s really hard to feel anything from their scenes. It doesn’t help that the author is kind of a one-trick pony when it comes to antagonistic female characters. Other Neferet has a different backstory than the Neferet from the original series – but she’s still a rape victim, and that’s still her motive for turning to Darkness and hating humans. Lynette is also a rape victim, and she also hates men as a result. This is what she and Neferet bond over. And despite the scene clearly being intended as a bonding moment, nothing really happens - they confide in each other, and then promptly go back to discussing business. It’s completely baffling and unnecessary. There are better, subtler scenes elsewhere in the book where I can tell they get along well and care for each other without the book boldly declaring, “LOOK! SEE? THEY HAVE SO MUCH IN COMMON!”
Neferet’s plan to kill her past requires her to kill Loren, her former lover. Loren is a character I have always hated, but even I can acknowledge that his character is completely bastardized in this book and he is turned into a caricature. Loren was smarmy and creepy because he was suave and self-assured; he had a charm that a young girl like Zoey would eagerly fall for, and he knew how to approach the situation with subtly to avoid suspicion from Zoey’s friends and other staff at the HoN. Other Loren is a vapid, self-absorbed idiot who couldn’t fool anyone into anything. The author wants you to hate him so you can cheer Neferet on when she kills him. This murder is not supposed to vilify her – it’s supposed to be a sympathetic moment.
Killing her future is… Honestly? I have no idea what the hell it’s supposed to be. She basically just declares to the sprites that she’s no longer High Priestess and has abandoned that path, and Oak is like, “Seems legit.” That’s it. It requires nothing of her, it risks nothing, and it isn’t even interesting.
But when Loren met with Neferet, he spilled a bunch of information about Zoey and the Otherworld that he learned from the few Council Meetings he attended after Neferet was ousted. So, after all the work Neferet puts into wooing the sprites, working toward gaining access to Skye, conspiring to kill Sgiach… It’s pointless. None of that matters. She didn’t need to spend days wooing the sprites because she’s not acting against Sgiach anymore or asking to be granted access to the one place where sprites are still revered and remembered. She wants access to Zoey’s world, so she could just call on the sprites the same way Zoey or Kevin did. As long as she has a powerful or interesting enough payment, they’ll agree.
The sprites demand new payment for this changed plan, telling Neferet to kill her first and only true friend, Lynette. Neferet says no and literally everyone speaks in rhyme for a couple pages, which is as obnoxious and ridiculous as it sounds, and one of the girls from the B&B, Denise, offers herself as sacrifice instead. Except it’s not really a sacrifice because she doesn’t die or have anything horrible happen to her. She turns into a water sprite – which, as someone who still believed in fey and was in awe of Neferet’s magick, seems like a reward more than anything.
So everything Neferet’s section built to was ultimately pointless and she doesn’t have to sacrifice anything. The only thing that changes is she doesn’t universally hate humans now because Lynette and the women at the B&B are nice.
Kevin has a section in this book. Nothing important happens, though. He’s drowning in despair over Aphrodite’s death and will remind readers of it roughly every three pages, despite only knowing her for three days. There’s some conversation about Other Kalona, wherein Grandma Redbird is summoned by someone uttering the phrase “tribal lands” and there’s a lot of historical inaccuracies and racist stereotypes, par for the course. Kevin has a brief scene with Dallas, Erin, and Shaunee, where Dallas is pro-war against humans, Erin is slut shamed with her every word and action, and Shaunee apologizes for being rude to Kevin that one time. Then they find out about Loren’s death and Neferet’s plans to go to Skye – somehow, Loren was able to write “Skye” in his own blood on the carpet, even though Neferet was in the room for a fair amount of time while he bled out. Thus, Stark and Kevin prepare to go to Skye.
Now on to Zoey, our main character. Our central protagonist. The only person in this entire series whose chapters are told in first person.
…
There are two full chapters and two sections of other chapters told from Zoey’s perspective. Those are the only chapters we get in Zoey’s world. That seems like a really bad choice, given that a lot of readers are coming to this series because they were fans of the original – they want to see the original characters.
Anyway, Zoey has arranged for an interscholastic swim meet with human schools, which is supposed to be an impressive demonstration of her work as High Priestess. So far, the things she has accomplished as a High Priestess can be divided into two categories: a) it’s fun or glamourous, and b) she can throw money at it.
Zoey and co. chat for a bit before they go to the swim meet, mostly about how teachers should be allowed to show favoritism. This is something that if I find horrifying as someone who was exposed to a lot of deeply harmful and mental-illness-generating favoritism and special treatment in school, particularly because I know the author, P.C. Cast, is a former public school teacher. It isn’t helped that at least half the characters’ motives for giving students special treatment is, “Well, they’re pretty and can afford designer clothes, so I like them.”
They get to the swim meet, a character we just met (Kacie) rejects the Change while in the pool, and there’s a lot of drama and controversy. But, hey! Aphrodite has her fancy blue and red tattoo and at some point in an earlier scene she accidentally gifted a second chance to Kacie. I dunno how the hell that works, but sure. Kacie gets to resurrect, but instead of awakening as a red fledgling, she skips instantly to red vampyre. She also has an affinity for fire and water, which is established in the most ridiculous fashion possible and is used for a really dumb metaphor.
Kacie doesn’t appear in this book again after that.
Many, many, many pages later we get another section from Zoey’s perspective, 90% of which is just her and her friends goofng around at a park and getting ready to watch fireworks. The park and its late-night fireworks display is, incidentally, an example of “Things Zoey Can Throw Money At” in her list of High Priestess accomplishments. Eventually, the merriment is ruined when Aphrodite has a vision. Zoey’s last section involves Aphrodite recounting her vision to everyone while recovering in her suite at the HoN, and then everyone theorizing about what they need to do to prevent it from happening.
And that’s it. That’s all Zoey does in this book.
If the plot sounds dull and directionless, that’s because it is. None of this is helped by the fact that the editing in this book is terrible, giving us such gems as “I decided to enlist to help of the red vampyres”, “Lynette’s gaze didn’t waiver”, and “staring at me like I’d soddenly kicked Nala”. This is to say nothing of punctuation errors, run-on sentences (one of which is 57-words long), continuity errors, and even more spelling errors. The bonus content section about coping with grief has a particularly hilarious formatting error that resulted in every step of the ritual outlined being labelled “1”.
Overall, this book is a mess and an absolute slog. There’s no tension or intrigue. A huge part of the problem is that the book focuses mainly on Other Neferet and Other Lynette, who spend as much time discussing what outfits they’ll wear and what wine they’ll drink as they do actually working toward their goals. The ending of the book also leaves no suspense. Aphrodite’s vision showed that Darkness would overtake the world if Neferet kills one specific human. She doesn’t know who it is, but readers can tell it’s Lynette. Readers also know that Neferet has already refused to kill Lynette when explicitly told to do so by the sprites, so there’s no reason to be concerned that this will happen in Found. It’s nothing book with a nothing plot and a no-consequence conclusion.
In Forgotten, we open with a prologue about the creation of the realms – the first four pages of which is nearly identical to the opening of Kalona’s Fall. As a writer, I can’t wrap my head around literally copy-pasting a huge section of a book like that. It comes off as lazy, unprofessional, and is kind of a slap in the face to readers who followed every book as they came out. They’re gonna know they’ve read this scene before; you’re not even trying to hide that it’s the same.
Anyway, the book opens with several chapters focused on Other Kalona, Other Erebus, and Other Nyx, which seems really strange to me from a world-building perspective. These extra-planar, divine or semi-divine beings have Other World versions of themselves, too? But they oversee multiple realms – Nyx, in particular. Why can’t they see these mirror realms, too? Are they aware of their Other counterparts? And is Mother Earth an Other in this book, too, or is she one of the few entities that’s aware of the various realms and has full effect over all of them? I would assume so, since she was involved in their creation. And what about the Sun and the Moon? Do they have Others? They’re divine beings.
Setting aside the confusing world-building, the purpose of this opening is to establish that Other Kalona doesn’t fall, but also he does. It seems kind of stupid? Or at least lazy. I know I’ve already accused the beginning of this book of laziness, but I’m serious – on top of copy-pasting a significant amount of text from Kalona’s Fall into this book, the author also takes fifty pages to write out any potential problems with Kalona being risen in the Other World, clearly so that she can neatly evade writing another redemption plot for him. The problem is that nothing meaningful changes as a result of this. Kalona still ends up entombed in the earth by the Cherokee (who explicitly worship the Earth Mother, which is not part of Cherokee culture! I’m continually infuriated by this series’ insistence on conflating Cherokee spirituality and culture with Wicca/pagan practices). And because Kalona still ends up trapped in the earth, vampyres still regard Erebus as Nyx’s Consort, hence Warriors being called Sons of Erebus and not Sons of Kalona.
Well, whatever. Surely this fifty-page digression into the backstory of the world serves some sort of vital purpose to the plot and plays into a major twist. Right?
Ha. No. It’s referenced once after this and promptly forgotten for the rest of the book.
Side note: I’m wondering if that’s the theme for the book title. Maybe the author is giving a nod to all the plot points that have been brought up in this book (and the past books), only to be unceremoniously abandoned or straight up forgotten. Here’s looking at you, weapons cache in the school basement.
We end up spending most of this book with Other Neferet and Other Lynette, as well as three women they employ at a B&B in Scotland. Other Neferet is recovering from being usurped by Zoey and the Resistance, and she uses the power of Darkness to kill an entire bar for… reasons. Honestly, it doesn’t particularly matter, and the only thing I remember from that scene is the blatant fat shaming. The white bull shows up, she flirts with him because “all men are the same” (never mind that I’m pretty sure the bulls were established as masculine but genderless), and he promises her power. She doesn’t want to be subservient to him, though. She says she wants to prove herself worthy of him, so he gives her a task – woo the sprites into granting her access to the Isle of Skye, and there she can harness Old Magick to become immortal. This results in Neferet taking a private jet to Scotland, which is how she ends up enlisting Lynette’s help.
Lynette is… I can tell she’s supposed to be shrewd and no-nonsense in a way that female readers should root for and find, like, “empowering”. But she’s kind of insufferable. She brags about how her intelligence and resourcefulness are what kept her alive and in good standing when the vampyre-human war turned everything to hell, but she was a well-off white woman with lots of assets to liquidate – enough that she was able to reinvent her life and career without having to sell her expensive house or Mercedes Benz. It’s also stated that she was poor prior to this and pulled herself out of poverty with hard work and good sense, which only makes the whole situation more infuriating, especially as someone who has studied inequality. Poverty is complex and involves numerous forms of systemic oppression, from racism to sexism to ableism and everything in between. Presenting escaping poverty as a matter of “Work hard! Be smart!” is classist.
The insufferableness of Lynette’s monologue on this particular topic is not helped by the fact that Lynette is also a huge snob and sticks her nose up at anything that isn’t fine, expensive, or otherwise indicative of being high class and high status.
Mostly, though, Lynette is boring and flat.
Anyway, after a long scene where the author demonstrates a complete failure to understand how planes work, Lynette and Neferet end up at a B&B in Scotland, where the owner and two staff are sworn to secrecy under threat of death. This is where they spend most of the book. Neferet goes out onto the loch every night to leave offerings for the sprites in hopes of attaining access to Skye, and eventually the sprites appear before her and agree to fulfill her command in exchange for payment. The payment, of course, requires Neferet to solve a riddle – she must kill her past and her future – and it is also communicated through the requisite terrible poetry this series loves.
There’s a few scenes that I can tell are supposed to be touching or moments of bonding between Neferet and Lynette, but they’re both so stilted and robotic in their characterization that it’s really hard to feel anything from their scenes. It doesn’t help that the author is kind of a one-trick pony when it comes to antagonistic female characters. Other Neferet has a different backstory than the Neferet from the original series – but she’s still a rape victim, and that’s still her motive for turning to Darkness and hating humans. Lynette is also a rape victim, and she also hates men as a result. This is what she and Neferet bond over. And despite the scene clearly being intended as a bonding moment, nothing really happens - they confide in each other, and then promptly go back to discussing business. It’s completely baffling and unnecessary. There are better, subtler scenes elsewhere in the book where I can tell they get along well and care for each other without the book boldly declaring, “LOOK! SEE? THEY HAVE SO MUCH IN COMMON!”
Neferet’s plan to kill her past requires her to kill Loren, her former lover. Loren is a character I have always hated, but even I can acknowledge that his character is completely bastardized in this book and he is turned into a caricature. Loren was smarmy and creepy because he was suave and self-assured; he had a charm that a young girl like Zoey would eagerly fall for, and he knew how to approach the situation with subtly to avoid suspicion from Zoey’s friends and other staff at the HoN. Other Loren is a vapid, self-absorbed idiot who couldn’t fool anyone into anything. The author wants you to hate him so you can cheer Neferet on when she kills him. This murder is not supposed to vilify her – it’s supposed to be a sympathetic moment.
Killing her future is… Honestly? I have no idea what the hell it’s supposed to be. She basically just declares to the sprites that she’s no longer High Priestess and has abandoned that path, and Oak is like, “Seems legit.” That’s it. It requires nothing of her, it risks nothing, and it isn’t even interesting.
But when Loren met with Neferet, he spilled a bunch of information about Zoey and the Otherworld that he learned from the few Council Meetings he attended after Neferet was ousted. So, after all the work Neferet puts into wooing the sprites, working toward gaining access to Skye, conspiring to kill Sgiach… It’s pointless. None of that matters. She didn’t need to spend days wooing the sprites because she’s not acting against Sgiach anymore or asking to be granted access to the one place where sprites are still revered and remembered. She wants access to Zoey’s world, so she could just call on the sprites the same way Zoey or Kevin did. As long as she has a powerful or interesting enough payment, they’ll agree.
The sprites demand new payment for this changed plan, telling Neferet to kill her first and only true friend, Lynette. Neferet says no and literally everyone speaks in rhyme for a couple pages, which is as obnoxious and ridiculous as it sounds, and one of the girls from the B&B, Denise, offers herself as sacrifice instead. Except it’s not really a sacrifice because she doesn’t die or have anything horrible happen to her. She turns into a water sprite – which, as someone who still believed in fey and was in awe of Neferet’s magick, seems like a reward more than anything.
So everything Neferet’s section built to was ultimately pointless and she doesn’t have to sacrifice anything. The only thing that changes is she doesn’t universally hate humans now because Lynette and the women at the B&B are nice.
Kevin has a section in this book. Nothing important happens, though. He’s drowning in despair over Aphrodite’s death and will remind readers of it roughly every three pages, despite only knowing her for three days. There’s some conversation about Other Kalona, wherein Grandma Redbird is summoned by someone uttering the phrase “tribal lands” and there’s a lot of historical inaccuracies and racist stereotypes, par for the course. Kevin has a brief scene with Dallas, Erin, and Shaunee, where Dallas is pro-war against humans, Erin is slut shamed with her every word and action, and Shaunee apologizes for being rude to Kevin that one time. Then they find out about Loren’s death and Neferet’s plans to go to Skye – somehow, Loren was able to write “Skye” in his own blood on the carpet, even though Neferet was in the room for a fair amount of time while he bled out. Thus, Stark and Kevin prepare to go to Skye.
Now on to Zoey, our main character. Our central protagonist. The only person in this entire series whose chapters are told in first person.
…
There are two full chapters and two sections of other chapters told from Zoey’s perspective. Those are the only chapters we get in Zoey’s world. That seems like a really bad choice, given that a lot of readers are coming to this series because they were fans of the original – they want to see the original characters.
Anyway, Zoey has arranged for an interscholastic swim meet with human schools, which is supposed to be an impressive demonstration of her work as High Priestess. So far, the things she has accomplished as a High Priestess can be divided into two categories: a) it’s fun or glamourous, and b) she can throw money at it.
Zoey and co. chat for a bit before they go to the swim meet, mostly about how teachers should be allowed to show favoritism. This is something that if I find horrifying as someone who was exposed to a lot of deeply harmful and mental-illness-generating favoritism and special treatment in school, particularly because I know the author, P.C. Cast, is a former public school teacher. It isn’t helped that at least half the characters’ motives for giving students special treatment is, “Well, they’re pretty and can afford designer clothes, so I like them.”
They get to the swim meet, a character we just met (Kacie) rejects the Change while in the pool, and there’s a lot of drama and controversy. But, hey! Aphrodite has her fancy blue and red tattoo and at some point in an earlier scene she accidentally gifted a second chance to Kacie. I dunno how the hell that works, but sure. Kacie gets to resurrect, but instead of awakening as a red fledgling, she skips instantly to red vampyre. She also has an affinity for fire and water, which is established in the most ridiculous fashion possible and is used for a really dumb metaphor.
Kacie doesn’t appear in this book again after that.
Many, many, many pages later we get another section from Zoey’s perspective, 90% of which is just her and her friends goofng around at a park and getting ready to watch fireworks. The park and its late-night fireworks display is, incidentally, an example of “Things Zoey Can Throw Money At” in her list of High Priestess accomplishments. Eventually, the merriment is ruined when Aphrodite has a vision. Zoey’s last section involves Aphrodite recounting her vision to everyone while recovering in her suite at the HoN, and then everyone theorizing about what they need to do to prevent it from happening.
And that’s it. That’s all Zoey does in this book.
If the plot sounds dull and directionless, that’s because it is. None of this is helped by the fact that the editing in this book is terrible, giving us such gems as “I decided to enlist to help of the red vampyres”, “Lynette’s gaze didn’t waiver”, and “staring at me like I’d soddenly kicked Nala”. This is to say nothing of punctuation errors, run-on sentences (one of which is 57-words long), continuity errors, and even more spelling errors. The bonus content section about coping with grief has a particularly hilarious formatting error that resulted in every step of the ritual outlined being labelled “1”.
Overall, this book is a mess and an absolute slog. There’s no tension or intrigue. A huge part of the problem is that the book focuses mainly on Other Neferet and Other Lynette, who spend as much time discussing what outfits they’ll wear and what wine they’ll drink as they do actually working toward their goals. The ending of the book also leaves no suspense. Aphrodite’s vision showed that Darkness would overtake the world if Neferet kills one specific human. She doesn’t know who it is, but readers can tell it’s Lynette. Readers also know that Neferet has already refused to kill Lynette when explicitly told to do so by the sprites, so there’s no reason to be concerned that this will happen in Found. It’s nothing book with a nothing plot and a no-consequence conclusion.
July 17, 2020
3 Stars
RTC.
A little boring til the end tbh. Will read the next one to see how it ends.
04/01/2019: I am so excited for this book. That cover is stunning!
RTC.
A little boring til the end tbh. Will read the next one to see how it ends.
04/01/2019: I am so excited for this book. That cover is stunning!
November 7, 2019
The Casts' are back with another installment in a series that could have ended on a high note with Redeemed.
This book features their patented brand of wokeness hilariously paired with blatant racism, sexism, and homophobia. If you read the original series, you don't need to read Other World because this is the exact same series down to the poems, scenes, and conversations - word for word. Then there's the atrocious grasp on geography and history. I'm not sure how a single book in this series was published, given that an editor should have caught the seven hundred overtly offensive things included in every line of text.
Further, they have not bothered to keep up with their own lore, so don't worry about remembering anything because none of it matters.
This book features their patented brand of wokeness hilariously paired with blatant racism, sexism, and homophobia. If you read the original series, you don't need to read Other World because this is the exact same series down to the poems, scenes, and conversations - word for word. Then there's the atrocious grasp on geography and history. I'm not sure how a single book in this series was published, given that an editor should have caught the seven hundred overtly offensive things included in every line of text.
Further, they have not bothered to keep up with their own lore, so don't worry about remembering anything because none of it matters.
June 8, 2022
The ending to this was rather abrupt and sets up Found as more Forgotten part 2 than it's own distinct novel.
Forgotten follows Kalona, Kevin Redbird, Zoey Redbird and Neferet. Everyone except Zoey is from the otherworld where Kevin is alive instead of Zoey. In the otherworld, we see the story of Kalona if he didn't fall but instead sacrificed himself for his brother. Meanwhile, in the present day, they've barely outsmarted Neferet and she's determined to find a way to become immortal.
I did enjoy this continuation, but not as much as the previous installments or the original series. This one was weird because it felt super different from the rest of the series in how it was set up. Rather than one fluid story, it felt like several separate stories that will eventually interact, but we didn't really see any of that in this book. Everything felt so distinct from the other that it was jarring to suddenly switch POVs, since now you need to remember a whole different set of circumstances.
For the most part, we get most of one character's story before moving onto the other one, except the novel isn't really divided into parts. The next chapter will just switch narrators. They do tell you who is narrating, but the way this was structured felt so jarring and weird. Then there was the ending which was rude. There have been cliffhangers before in this series, but it didn't feel like a real ending. We don't see a resolution, the book just ends.
This book also introduces a new character, a human named Lynette. She was an assistant to Neferet in the original series, before she was killed off by other Neferet (or Bat Shit as the nerd herd calls her eventually). I really enjoyed Lynette and the relationship that begins to develop between her and Neferet. It is completely platonic and I loved that they bonded so strongly with another. I can't wait to see how this will develop. If Neferet can be saved, Lynette is going to be key to that.
There was definitely the least amount of Zoey in this book, which worked for the story but I was still a little sad because I love her! She's one of my faves and I wish we saw more of her in this one. Overall, I did enjoy this one though the structure felt very different.
The interview at the end of the audiobook was excellent and I really enjoyed seeing Kristin and PC's thoughts.
Rep: Half Cherokee half white cishet female MC, Half Cherokee half white cishet male MC, cishet male MC (deity/angel), achillean cis male side character (deity/angel), Cherokee cis female side character, various white cishet side characters, white gay cis male side characters, Black cis side characters, Black biracial cis female side character.
CWs: Blood, murder, death, gore, kidnapping (sorta), violence, fire, injury/injury detail. Minor: body shaming, fatphobia, mentions of past rape.
Forgotten follows Kalona, Kevin Redbird, Zoey Redbird and Neferet. Everyone except Zoey is from the otherworld where Kevin is alive instead of Zoey. In the otherworld, we see the story of Kalona if he didn't fall but instead sacrificed himself for his brother. Meanwhile, in the present day, they've barely outsmarted Neferet and she's determined to find a way to become immortal.
I did enjoy this continuation, but not as much as the previous installments or the original series. This one was weird because it felt super different from the rest of the series in how it was set up. Rather than one fluid story, it felt like several separate stories that will eventually interact, but we didn't really see any of that in this book. Everything felt so distinct from the other that it was jarring to suddenly switch POVs, since now you need to remember a whole different set of circumstances.
For the most part, we get most of one character's story before moving onto the other one, except the novel isn't really divided into parts. The next chapter will just switch narrators. They do tell you who is narrating, but the way this was structured felt so jarring and weird. Then there was the ending which was rude. There have been cliffhangers before in this series, but it didn't feel like a real ending. We don't see a resolution, the book just ends.
This book also introduces a new character, a human named Lynette. She was an assistant to Neferet in the original series, before she was killed off by other Neferet (or Bat Shit as the nerd herd calls her eventually). I really enjoyed Lynette and the relationship that begins to develop between her and Neferet. It is completely platonic and I loved that they bonded so strongly with another. I can't wait to see how this will develop. If Neferet can be saved, Lynette is going to be key to that.
There was definitely the least amount of Zoey in this book, which worked for the story but I was still a little sad because I love her! She's one of my faves and I wish we saw more of her in this one. Overall, I did enjoy this one though the structure felt very different.
The interview at the end of the audiobook was excellent and I really enjoyed seeing Kristin and PC's thoughts.
Rep: Half Cherokee half white cishet female MC, Half Cherokee half white cishet male MC, cishet male MC (deity/angel), achillean cis male side character (deity/angel), Cherokee cis female side character, various white cishet side characters, white gay cis male side characters, Black cis side characters, Black biracial cis female side character.
CWs: Blood, murder, death, gore, kidnapping (sorta), violence, fire, injury/injury detail. Minor: body shaming, fatphobia, mentions of past rape.
January 3, 2023
Of course Kalona is different.
Is it weird I prefer the evil Kalona?
Is it weird I prefer the evil Kalona?
November 11, 2019
This one was a bit meh…for me. Part of it was that sometimes it was hard to follow the switch between worlds and the characters, part of it was I feel like Nefert has been defeated, why can’t she stay that way. I did like the bit between Kalona and Arebus and how they became closer as brothers by sacrificing what they did. I also enjoyed the question and answer at the end of the book with PC and Kristen.
April 5, 2025
Rating: 3.5/5
Review to come!
Review to come!
October 26, 2019
House of Night Other World:
Loved: ★★★★☆ (4.5)
Lost: ★★★★★
Forgotten: ★★★★★
(Original) House of Night Series :
Marked: ★★☆☆☆ (2.5)
Betrayed: ★★★☆☆ (3.5)
Chosen: ★★★☆☆ (3.5)
Untamed: ★★★★☆
Hunted: ★★★☆☆ (3.5)
Tempted: ★★★★☆
Burned: ★★★☆☆ (3.5)
Awakened: ★★★☆☆ (3.5)
Destined: ★★★★☆
Hidden: ★★★★☆
Revealed: ★★★★☆
Redeemed: ★★★☆☆ (3.5)
Blog | Twitter | Instagram | Full review also found here at Booked J.
"Joy isn't easy or inherent. It is a choice, and not always an easy one--not at first."
As always, a copy of this book was provided by the publisher or author in exchange for my honest review. This does not effect my opinion in any way.
P.C., Kristin, you have my whole heart! Dang. This was fantastic. Another knock-out that left me in a heap of heart-pounding emotion. Just when I think they could no longer surprise me, they do and I'm 100% under their spell. If you aren't reading the House of Night Other World series, yet, you are truly missing out--this is the most fun I've had all year.
Forgotten was incredibly delectable and proof that these two only gets better with time. End review. (If only I could end my review with that and an emoji, I don't know, throwing a book at your feet.)
It goes without saying that it takes a specific brand of super-author to continue writing books set within an established world/series and making sure that they feel familiar, yet brand new. House of Night is better than ever. Every page of it feels brand spanking new but nostalgic for us oldies. I've been with this series since high school and have, quite literally, grown up with these characters.
Forgotten is proof of what I've said since reading and reviewing Loved: the House of Night Other World is the Cast's best series yet. In all its familiarity, there's this achingly intense feeling of newness that keeps us turning the pages. Tension, hope, romance, action and prophecies galore. Not a single moment is wasted. And from the very minute you open its pages, and lose yourself in a new world, you are devoted to only this book.
Not only does it honor the original series, heart and soul, full of mythology and enthralling dramatics, it builds itself a new arch of mythology, fear, hope, love and more. Captivating as it is intense and, at its strongest points, unsettling (to think of what Other Neferet could do!), there is no doubt in my mind that Forgotten is one of the best installments yet. As Aphrodite would say, "The Nerd Herd rides again!"
(Although, the narrative is split into various parts and our world has less page-time.)
Picking up almost immediately in the past, Forgotten first explores the origins of the Other World's Kalona, Nyx and Erebus. Which is something I absolutely never knew I needed. Readers will see instantly how the relationship between two brothers, one full of joy and the other jealousy, varies from our world vs. this one. It all starts in such a familiar way--but the path that this version of characters walk is, in the end, drastically different.
I loved noting all of the differences that came with this new exploration of brothers, because it absolutely changes EVERYTHING--which is the entire point of House of Night Other World: one choice can lead us down a separate path and change the entire landscape. With all of these changes, it sets up something unique for the upcoming novel, and definitely gives us a new tone to read by.
As for the rest of the Other World, we pick up pretty quickly after the events of Lost. Other Kevin is still grappling with the loss of Other Aphrodite, and the characters work to conceal the fact that there is a mirror world from Other Neferet. Their next step? Protecting themselves from her allies that remain, and trying to prevent the now-disgraced High Priestess from obtaining immortality.
They work diligently, too, to clean up the messes that Neferet left at the House of Night; attempting to mend relationships between vampyres and humans, as well as easing the growing tension amongst vampyres.
Neferet, of course, works tirelessly on her path to immortality. She is a BOSS. An evil genius. An always wonderfully dynamic villainess that leaves us with a series of complexities. We are treated with a surprisingly different Neferet, as she seeks out answers to the mysterious arrival of "Ghost Zoey Redbird" in Lost, forms her own following, and sets on a quest for domination.
As always, I loved seeing the different versions of familiar friends and foes (Kevin, Stark, Grandma, Anastasia, Dragon, Erin, Dallas, Shaunee, Neferet, Lynette and more) interact, work and spent a great deal of time comparing them to their counterparts from our world. Forgotten gives us new chapters in each of these variation and I really appreciate the development we get to see--I really, really loved knowing that we don't know everything about that world, because it is not our own.
(I'M SORRY, I'M TRASH FOR AU WORLDS, OKAY? Blame Doctor Who.)
Meanwhile, in our world, life must continue on after the traveling between worlds. Zoey, Stevie Rae and Rephaim learned, and went through a lot, in their time spent in the Other World. Now, they must get back to business as usual as well as deal with new threats that might arise.
Changes are-a-coming. Zoey, in all her High Priestess glory, must work to strengthen the relationship between humans and vampyres. In doing so, she opens up new opportunities for her students (and in the process, one student stands out) and Tulsa in general. This, of course, is more complicated than one might expect. Can she work to fix things? Or is it too late?
Aphrodite, too, has a new path to walk. Knowing that her Other World counterpart sacrificed her life, and lost it in the process, is weighing heavily on her. Mostly, she worries for Other Kevin and the loss he must be facing. Still, her duties as Prophetess never rest--and neither does she.
Ultimately, the story of two worlds expands beautifully and leaves readers in a fit of questions. It is a whirlwind of action, mystery, intrigue and romance. One thing is certain: we will all be anticipating the next, and possibly final, installment to the House of Night Other World series. I can honestly say that this series is superior to the original and has left me breathless every step of the way.
No matter the world it is set within, at its core, this series is all about connection. Connection to our family, friends and lovers. Connection to our world, and its elements. Forgotten doesn't forget this and benefits deeply from that.
Loved: ★★★★☆ (4.5)
Lost: ★★★★★
Forgotten: ★★★★★
(Original) House of Night Series :
Marked: ★★☆☆☆ (2.5)
Betrayed: ★★★☆☆ (3.5)
Chosen: ★★★☆☆ (3.5)
Untamed: ★★★★☆
Hunted: ★★★☆☆ (3.5)
Tempted: ★★★★☆
Burned: ★★★☆☆ (3.5)
Awakened: ★★★☆☆ (3.5)
Destined: ★★★★☆
Hidden: ★★★★☆
Revealed: ★★★★☆
Redeemed: ★★★☆☆ (3.5)
Blog | Twitter | Instagram | Full review also found here at Booked J.
"Joy isn't easy or inherent. It is a choice, and not always an easy one--not at first."
As always, a copy of this book was provided by the publisher or author in exchange for my honest review. This does not effect my opinion in any way.
P.C., Kristin, you have my whole heart! Dang. This was fantastic. Another knock-out that left me in a heap of heart-pounding emotion. Just when I think they could no longer surprise me, they do and I'm 100% under their spell. If you aren't reading the House of Night Other World series, yet, you are truly missing out--this is the most fun I've had all year.
Forgotten was incredibly delectable and proof that these two only gets better with time. End review. (If only I could end my review with that and an emoji, I don't know, throwing a book at your feet.)
It goes without saying that it takes a specific brand of super-author to continue writing books set within an established world/series and making sure that they feel familiar, yet brand new. House of Night is better than ever. Every page of it feels brand spanking new but nostalgic for us oldies. I've been with this series since high school and have, quite literally, grown up with these characters.
Forgotten is proof of what I've said since reading and reviewing Loved: the House of Night Other World is the Cast's best series yet. In all its familiarity, there's this achingly intense feeling of newness that keeps us turning the pages. Tension, hope, romance, action and prophecies galore. Not a single moment is wasted. And from the very minute you open its pages, and lose yourself in a new world, you are devoted to only this book.
Not only does it honor the original series, heart and soul, full of mythology and enthralling dramatics, it builds itself a new arch of mythology, fear, hope, love and more. Captivating as it is intense and, at its strongest points, unsettling (to think of what Other Neferet could do!), there is no doubt in my mind that Forgotten is one of the best installments yet. As Aphrodite would say, "The Nerd Herd rides again!"
(Although, the narrative is split into various parts and our world has less page-time.)
Picking up almost immediately in the past, Forgotten first explores the origins of the Other World's Kalona, Nyx and Erebus. Which is something I absolutely never knew I needed. Readers will see instantly how the relationship between two brothers, one full of joy and the other jealousy, varies from our world vs. this one. It all starts in such a familiar way--but the path that this version of characters walk is, in the end, drastically different.
I loved noting all of the differences that came with this new exploration of brothers, because it absolutely changes EVERYTHING--which is the entire point of House of Night Other World: one choice can lead us down a separate path and change the entire landscape. With all of these changes, it sets up something unique for the upcoming novel, and definitely gives us a new tone to read by.
As for the rest of the Other World, we pick up pretty quickly after the events of Lost. Other Kevin is still grappling with the loss of Other Aphrodite, and the characters work to conceal the fact that there is a mirror world from Other Neferet. Their next step? Protecting themselves from her allies that remain, and trying to prevent the now-disgraced High Priestess from obtaining immortality.
They work diligently, too, to clean up the messes that Neferet left at the House of Night; attempting to mend relationships between vampyres and humans, as well as easing the growing tension amongst vampyres.
Neferet, of course, works tirelessly on her path to immortality. She is a BOSS. An evil genius. An always wonderfully dynamic villainess that leaves us with a series of complexities. We are treated with a surprisingly different Neferet, as she seeks out answers to the mysterious arrival of "Ghost Zoey Redbird" in Lost, forms her own following, and sets on a quest for domination.
As always, I loved seeing the different versions of familiar friends and foes (Kevin, Stark, Grandma, Anastasia, Dragon, Erin, Dallas, Shaunee, Neferet, Lynette and more) interact, work and spent a great deal of time comparing them to their counterparts from our world. Forgotten gives us new chapters in each of these variation and I really appreciate the development we get to see--I really, really loved knowing that we don't know everything about that world, because it is not our own.
(I'M SORRY, I'M TRASH FOR AU WORLDS, OKAY? Blame Doctor Who.)
Meanwhile, in our world, life must continue on after the traveling between worlds. Zoey, Stevie Rae and Rephaim learned, and went through a lot, in their time spent in the Other World. Now, they must get back to business as usual as well as deal with new threats that might arise.
Changes are-a-coming. Zoey, in all her High Priestess glory, must work to strengthen the relationship between humans and vampyres. In doing so, she opens up new opportunities for her students (and in the process, one student stands out) and Tulsa in general. This, of course, is more complicated than one might expect. Can she work to fix things? Or is it too late?
Aphrodite, too, has a new path to walk. Knowing that her Other World counterpart sacrificed her life, and lost it in the process, is weighing heavily on her. Mostly, she worries for Other Kevin and the loss he must be facing. Still, her duties as Prophetess never rest--and neither does she.
Ultimately, the story of two worlds expands beautifully and leaves readers in a fit of questions. It is a whirlwind of action, mystery, intrigue and romance. One thing is certain: we will all be anticipating the next, and possibly final, installment to the House of Night Other World series. I can honestly say that this series is superior to the original and has left me breathless every step of the way.
No matter the world it is set within, at its core, this series is all about connection. Connection to our family, friends and lovers. Connection to our world, and its elements. Forgotten doesn't forget this and benefits deeply from that.
December 7, 2022
9-6-2020
6/5 ⭐️
😍🥰😍🥰😍😍😍😍💛💛💛👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻⭐️⭐️⭐️🥰🥰😍😍💛💛💛😍😍😍
5-14-2020
6/5 ⭐️
😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍
6/5 ⭐️
😍🥰😍🥰😍😍😍😍💛💛💛👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻⭐️⭐️⭐️🥰🥰😍😍💛💛💛😍😍😍
5-14-2020
6/5 ⭐️
😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍
Read
October 24, 2019The entire series was an off shoot of House of Night set in the Other World.
The story was about what would happen if Kalona had been given Eerbus's joy to fight against the darkness and if he had never fallen? In this book, Kalona made the biggest sacrifice asked by Mother Earth for Erebus, and the Other Neferet became darker and more evil than before. Other Kevin took charge and Other Zoey and Nerd Herd had to join forces fight her once and for all.
Having read the House of Night series by the authors P. C. Cast and Kristin Cast, I was quite eager to read this off-shoot series. The winding road and plot twists were good. Neferet and her consort Lynette took the spotlight. Zoey and her team brought my nostalgia for this group back. It was fun to reconnect with them.
Grief and its after effects were heavily touched upon. The theme of good VS evil was upheld in this book too. Writing at times brought out a dark claustrophobic atmosphere in the Neferet chapters and made her a good villain.
My niggles too popped up. The broad themes of the series felt repetitive, and writing needed to be powerful to evoke intense emotions.
Overall, a fun read, well recommended for diehard fans of this series.
The story was about what would happen if Kalona had been given Eerbus's joy to fight against the darkness and if he had never fallen? In this book, Kalona made the biggest sacrifice asked by Mother Earth for Erebus, and the Other Neferet became darker and more evil than before. Other Kevin took charge and Other Zoey and Nerd Herd had to join forces fight her once and for all.
Having read the House of Night series by the authors P. C. Cast and Kristin Cast, I was quite eager to read this off-shoot series. The winding road and plot twists were good. Neferet and her consort Lynette took the spotlight. Zoey and her team brought my nostalgia for this group back. It was fun to reconnect with them.
Grief and its after effects were heavily touched upon. The theme of good VS evil was upheld in this book too. Writing at times brought out a dark claustrophobic atmosphere in the Neferet chapters and made her a good villain.
My niggles too popped up. The broad themes of the series felt repetitive, and writing needed to be powerful to evoke intense emotions.
Overall, a fun read, well recommended for diehard fans of this series.
October 23, 2020
I just can not get into this new series
August 16, 2021
Well it was nice to get a softer side to some of the side characters like with the other Neferet and Kalonia. It's be interesting to see if the two Neferet's get to meet and what will happen then. Like will they fight together or fight each other? I think the relationship between Neferet and Lynette was cool. Can you imagine going through your life never having a friend.
November 2, 2019
**This review contains plot elements with minor, but not major spoilers.**
Spellbinding, heart-pounding, haunting, and mesmerizing are a few words to describe the prose contained within the latest installment of the House of Night Otherworld series’ latest installment “Forgotten” by PC Cast, and Kristin Cast.
This installment rides on the coattails of the epic finale in Lost where we see Neferet defeated once more... Well, or so we thought. This title will reunite with the nerd herd as well as striking new faces that create a sort of juxtaposition in the form of an adult nerd herd with an entirely different motive altogether. This release will delight readers of all ages with a cast of characters that will feel as relatable as life-long friends, and existing fans of the House of Night fans will feel welcomed home once more.
The novel first begins with the origins of the goddess Nyx, her winged warrior and Consort Kalona, and an equally winged friend and confidante Erebus. We have a glimpse into the creation of Earth and the Otherworld as well, and we see the first implications of how one small ripple can create the largest waves with the largest impact. To put it simply and without spoiling the events that take place, it is a great example of the impact of how we treat one another on not only for one another, but how it spreads beyond. We find a resolution that also leaves a door open to many possibilities in the future ahead.
As we continue to move forward we become reunited with Neferet. Neferet finds herself at a crossroads for the path that her journey will take for each decision she makes throughout the novel, and how getting further in touch with her humanity will spark even greater motives with higher stakes. Neferet is also accompanied by new characters such as Lynette who becomes a close confidante, and whose motives add a third dimension to the plans Neferet lays out. Lynette also becomes a huge motivation for Neferet as well as a quick fan. Yes, you heard me. I am shocked myself, but her journey harkens to the likes of Aunt Lydia in Margaret Atwood’s The Testaments; loyalty offered, but with motives we are only beginning to unravel which will spur you on from chapter to chapter eagerly.
Back at the House of Night in the Otherworld, we are are reunited with the new fan-favorite Kevin, Stark, Anastasia Lankford, Dragon Lankford, Grandma Redbird, and the return of one awful Loren Blake. These characters in the Otherworld struggle to repair the damage with relations between humans and vampyres. As they find out, the transition away from the evil clutches of Neferet does not come as swiftly as they might hope, and to top it off are the grieving hearts of Stark, and Kevin. Through their appearances they solidify a tying theme of coping with grief, and the ability to find meaning in life after loss.
All is not quite so simple at the House of Night in the Tulsa of the original world as the Nerd Herd makes attempts to create a sense of community between vampyres and humans. Whatever comes up must come down however, and we are introduced to a new nerd herd member who may become a great asset in the moments to come. As Neferet courts Old Magick in her continuing quest for immortality, both worlds must come together to thwart earth-shattering prophecy once more.
Overall this read was engaging, and very surprising. Despite the tie-in of two parallel worlds, they each act as their own unique character, and translate very effectively to the reader. Unlike the early House of Night books, we see events folding from multiple perspectives, and allowing the reader to see into the thoughts, and motives of characters that breathe fresh life into the series. Though this installment does end on a heart-wrenching cliffhanger showing how the theme of loss ties all the different characters with different motives and worlds together, it really played out in a series of events that felt newly fresh, exciting, and cements the Otherworld series in standing on its own. One final note is that it does take a few chapters to get to the original Nerd Herd, but to create the impact with the new characters, and set up of Kalona’s story in the Othwerworld I do believe this was the most effective choice. I recommend this book to anyone who wants a read that is both empowering, and exciting at every turn.
Spellbinding, heart-pounding, haunting, and mesmerizing are a few words to describe the prose contained within the latest installment of the House of Night Otherworld series’ latest installment “Forgotten” by PC Cast, and Kristin Cast.
This installment rides on the coattails of the epic finale in Lost where we see Neferet defeated once more... Well, or so we thought. This title will reunite with the nerd herd as well as striking new faces that create a sort of juxtaposition in the form of an adult nerd herd with an entirely different motive altogether. This release will delight readers of all ages with a cast of characters that will feel as relatable as life-long friends, and existing fans of the House of Night fans will feel welcomed home once more.
The novel first begins with the origins of the goddess Nyx, her winged warrior and Consort Kalona, and an equally winged friend and confidante Erebus. We have a glimpse into the creation of Earth and the Otherworld as well, and we see the first implications of how one small ripple can create the largest waves with the largest impact. To put it simply and without spoiling the events that take place, it is a great example of the impact of how we treat one another on not only for one another, but how it spreads beyond. We find a resolution that also leaves a door open to many possibilities in the future ahead.
As we continue to move forward we become reunited with Neferet. Neferet finds herself at a crossroads for the path that her journey will take for each decision she makes throughout the novel, and how getting further in touch with her humanity will spark even greater motives with higher stakes. Neferet is also accompanied by new characters such as Lynette who becomes a close confidante, and whose motives add a third dimension to the plans Neferet lays out. Lynette also becomes a huge motivation for Neferet as well as a quick fan. Yes, you heard me. I am shocked myself, but her journey harkens to the likes of Aunt Lydia in Margaret Atwood’s The Testaments; loyalty offered, but with motives we are only beginning to unravel which will spur you on from chapter to chapter eagerly.
Back at the House of Night in the Otherworld, we are are reunited with the new fan-favorite Kevin, Stark, Anastasia Lankford, Dragon Lankford, Grandma Redbird, and the return of one awful Loren Blake. These characters in the Otherworld struggle to repair the damage with relations between humans and vampyres. As they find out, the transition away from the evil clutches of Neferet does not come as swiftly as they might hope, and to top it off are the grieving hearts of Stark, and Kevin. Through their appearances they solidify a tying theme of coping with grief, and the ability to find meaning in life after loss.
All is not quite so simple at the House of Night in the Tulsa of the original world as the Nerd Herd makes attempts to create a sense of community between vampyres and humans. Whatever comes up must come down however, and we are introduced to a new nerd herd member who may become a great asset in the moments to come. As Neferet courts Old Magick in her continuing quest for immortality, both worlds must come together to thwart earth-shattering prophecy once more.
Overall this read was engaging, and very surprising. Despite the tie-in of two parallel worlds, they each act as their own unique character, and translate very effectively to the reader. Unlike the early House of Night books, we see events folding from multiple perspectives, and allowing the reader to see into the thoughts, and motives of characters that breathe fresh life into the series. Though this installment does end on a heart-wrenching cliffhanger showing how the theme of loss ties all the different characters with different motives and worlds together, it really played out in a series of events that felt newly fresh, exciting, and cements the Otherworld series in standing on its own. One final note is that it does take a few chapters to get to the original Nerd Herd, but to create the impact with the new characters, and set up of Kalona’s story in the Othwerworld I do believe this was the most effective choice. I recommend this book to anyone who wants a read that is both empowering, and exciting at every turn.
April 10, 2022
Much better than I expected it too be. I actually really enjoyed Other Neferet's POV, I almost feel sorry for her because I get that she is lonely, she wants to be loved and worshiped because of her past and it makes me sad that she hasn't choose the right path.
Kevin's POV is just depressing but at least something is happening. Trying to get along with humans, moving on after Other Aphrodite's death, going up to Skye, chasing after other Neferet. I'm just sorry that even though his role in the Otherworld is practically being Zoey, actually he's not that important. I don't feel like his role is as important as hers. It's such a shame, because I think he is much more charismatic and capable, stronger and smarter but these books are so feminist that there is no way a man could be in charge. Even though I'm a woman, it bothers me that men and women are not equal.
Zoey's POV make me want to stop reading the book. She is so annoying and predictable. It's funny that I found her stronger in the first couple of books than for example now after everything. She became so dull. And of course she is going to be a star after everything. It is so obvious that she will be the one to defeat Other Neferet. It almost makes me want to cheer for Other Neferet because I can't stand Zoey anymore.
Oh, I must mention one more thing that gets on my nerves a lot. Why always build up some side plots that aren't going to be significant in the future. For instance, why mention Other Kalona and how can he be freed when I don't see how that can be relevant to the rest of the book. Or Other Twins... I don't see them coming to the rescue. Or that girl that resurrected after dying in Zoey's world (I don't even remember her name)...
I didn't want to say this and it can't be good when you say something like I just can't wait to be done with it, but I kind of feel like that. I think there is nothing more that can make me fall in love with the House of Night world again.
Kevin's POV is just depressing but at least something is happening. Trying to get along with humans, moving on after Other Aphrodite's death, going up to Skye, chasing after other Neferet. I'm just sorry that even though his role in the Otherworld is practically being Zoey, actually he's not that important. I don't feel like his role is as important as hers. It's such a shame, because I think he is much more charismatic and capable, stronger and smarter but these books are so feminist that there is no way a man could be in charge. Even though I'm a woman, it bothers me that men and women are not equal.
Zoey's POV make me want to stop reading the book. She is so annoying and predictable. It's funny that I found her stronger in the first couple of books than for example now after everything. She became so dull. And of course she is going to be a star after everything. It is so obvious that she will be the one to defeat Other Neferet. It almost makes me want to cheer for Other Neferet because I can't stand Zoey anymore.
Oh, I must mention one more thing that gets on my nerves a lot. Why always build up some side plots that aren't going to be significant in the future. For instance, why mention Other Kalona and how can he be freed when I don't see how that can be relevant to the rest of the book. Or Other Twins... I don't see them coming to the rescue. Or that girl that resurrected after dying in Zoey's world (I don't even remember her name)...
I didn't want to say this and it can't be good when you say something like I just can't wait to be done with it, but I kind of feel like that. I think there is nothing more that can make me fall in love with the House of Night world again.
January 16, 2020
Well I really love the original series and novellas. Loved the first two Otherworld books but not so much this one. One thing is I just finished it but I can't really remember anything memorable from it. Another thing is this book predominantly features Neferet and she's just not a character I like. As so-so as this book was for me I love the cover and will definitely read the next book.
November 11, 2019
Not nearly as bad as every other HoN book, mainly because Zoey only shows up for like two chapters, but still not good. The Cast’s views come through as being spat out by characters, with very little subtlety. Neferet and Lynette are much more interesting than Kevin, but they still accomplish very little.
August 12, 2021
I loved this book! I love the beginning where we see what happened with Kalona and Nyx and Erebus. I love Kalona in that part and how he was willing to do anything to help his brother. I felt so bad for Kevin in this book because he just suffered the loss of Aphrodite. I'm glad Grandma Redbird was able to help him deal with his grief. I hate that Loren fell for Neferet's charms and went to her only to be killed. I love that Denise became a sprite instead of actually dying. And I hate that Lynette and Neferet figured out how to get into Zoey's world. That sucked and won't be good for Zoey. I'm glad I already have the next book because the ending was such a cliffhanger.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 22, 2021
Finally I'm finished. I honestly can say this was my least favorite book out of any house of night book ever written.
I'd like to begin by saying something good. I love seeing new life from Zoey's world and I enjoy Kevin and his world very much. It's literally reading a new version of an old story, different yet familiar. I do find Kevin's lack of trust in himself and constant reliance in either old magic or Zoey to be quite sad and somewhat unrealistic, if he's supposed to be Otherworld's version of Zoey how is so unable to stand on his own 2 feet?
As for the as yet unfulfilled promise of Heath from advertising for this series, I've grudgingly let him go and I'm not happy about it. But I understand so I'm complaining not criticizing on that regard.
Finally the real bone i have to pick with this book and the reason I will never re-read it.
The constant switch of perspective is enough to make you dizzy. The change to Neferet's (the villain) perspective is as ridiculously shallow, arrogant and annoying as you'd expect from a villain and to make matters worse almost a third of the book is from her perspective. As if that wasn't annoying enough we also get to see the story through Lynette's perspective (the over eager villain lakey who also just so happen to be Neferet's supplicant and... friend? Or whatever passes for it with a villain) this may be my least favorite perspective and that's saying something. This man-hating, self serving, spineless, shallow waste is simply the most annoying perspective to read from
Being in Lynette's mind is the saddest most boring experience I've had reading. At least Denise's devotion was real, I don't fault her for her failure, but Lynette was ridiculous. Want to add insult to that sad injury? Another third of the book is from Lynette's perspective.
Now if you're still with me and doing the math you may have noticed that 2 third of the book have been taken by 2 annoying perspectives, yet at the beginning of this I said the change of POV could make you dizzy, I was not exaggerating. There are 3, yes you read that correctly 3!, other perspectives all sharing the last third of the book. We read from Aphrodite, Zoey, and Other Kevin's perspective. That 5 perspectives in all and 2 of those take the most space and are so annoying. They should have stuck to Zoey and Kevin, 1 per world
I'll even take Aphrodite's for her unique Perspective. But 3 is enough.
The other 2 were too much
As a long-time fan of the House of Night, and a recent fan of the Otherworld House of Night, I can sadly say this was a fail. I'm hoping for redemption in the next book, but the way things are heading... I highly doubt it.
I'd like to begin by saying something good. I love seeing new life from Zoey's world and I enjoy Kevin and his world very much. It's literally reading a new version of an old story, different yet familiar. I do find Kevin's lack of trust in himself and constant reliance in either old magic or Zoey to be quite sad and somewhat unrealistic, if he's supposed to be Otherworld's version of Zoey how is so unable to stand on his own 2 feet?
As for the as yet unfulfilled promise of Heath from advertising for this series, I've grudgingly let him go and I'm not happy about it. But I understand so I'm complaining not criticizing on that regard.
Finally the real bone i have to pick with this book and the reason I will never re-read it.
The constant switch of perspective is enough to make you dizzy. The change to Neferet's (the villain) perspective is as ridiculously shallow, arrogant and annoying as you'd expect from a villain and to make matters worse almost a third of the book is from her perspective. As if that wasn't annoying enough we also get to see the story through Lynette's perspective (the over eager villain lakey who also just so happen to be Neferet's supplicant and... friend? Or whatever passes for it with a villain) this may be my least favorite perspective and that's saying something. This man-hating, self serving, spineless, shallow waste is simply the most annoying perspective to read from
Being in Lynette's mind is the saddest most boring experience I've had reading. At least Denise's devotion was real, I don't fault her for her failure, but Lynette was ridiculous. Want to add insult to that sad injury? Another third of the book is from Lynette's perspective.
Now if you're still with me and doing the math you may have noticed that 2 third of the book have been taken by 2 annoying perspectives, yet at the beginning of this I said the change of POV could make you dizzy, I was not exaggerating. There are 3, yes you read that correctly 3!, other perspectives all sharing the last third of the book. We read from Aphrodite, Zoey, and Other Kevin's perspective. That 5 perspectives in all and 2 of those take the most space and are so annoying. They should have stuck to Zoey and Kevin, 1 per world
I'll even take Aphrodite's for her unique Perspective. But 3 is enough.
The other 2 were too much
As a long-time fan of the House of Night, and a recent fan of the Otherworld House of Night, I can sadly say this was a fail. I'm hoping for redemption in the next book, but the way things are heading... I highly doubt it.
November 23, 2019
I was really disappointed with this book. It took me a long time to get into the story, even though I have read every book in the series. I finally get in to the story and it ends. I love the authors and it breaks my heart to feel that I need to rate this book so low.
March 3, 2024
This books are like half dried jizz on a fresh bedsheet: DISGUSTING.
This books try to talk about social justice issues and fail on a spectacular level, bc the author doesn't fully understand why this issues are a problem.
For example: racial segregation. The Vamps cry about the humans segregating the bloodsuckers for centuries, but this doesn't realy happen: the vamps segregate themselves, bc the young Vamps (called fledglings) need to be around the fully grown up Vampires, else the fledlings die. So if the Worldbuilding makes it impossible for young Vampires to live among humans you can't realy play the racial segregation card.
Example 2: It is stated that humans hate the Vamps because the Vamps have all the powers and the beauty and the near immortal life. And bc of this humans are intolerant. Excuse me, you little dipshit authors, but this is not how opression or intolerance work.
Let me tell you about my personal experience as a queer person. I've been called a fag, an abomination, a selfish sinner and other disgusting stuff (both in real life and on the internet). People told me i am not a "real man" until i stop being sexualy attracted to man and/or that i will suffer an eternity in hell because of my "unnatural lifestyle". Hell, i even got death threats. This didn't happen because i am so special, it happened because i am part of a marginalized group that doesn't have the "privilege" to be seen as normal by society standards.
So please P.C. if you want to talk about intolerance or systematic injustice: do your FUCKING research.
Example 3: the Vampire society is a matriarchy, were everyone can live their live as they please. At least that is TOLD to the reader. But what is SHOWN speaks another language: if a Vamp doesn't except Nyx as their saviour they get shunned, bc denying Nyx is synonymous with becoming an ally of Evil Forces of darkness.
Then there is the weird gender essentialism. Women become the Priests of Nyx a. k. a. the leaders and men mostly get warriors. Female Vamps have powers that are associated with healing and spiritual stuff, while male Vamps have powers that tend to be physical and aggressive. The casts tell us that every Vamp could chose every path they want but show us only female priests and male warriors.
And the misandry. Oh dear Cuntess, the misandry. There is a part in this book were a High Priestess says something like "and because of this male rage, because of the whole testosterone, Nyx gave us matriarchy". Sorry, you can't go this roud if you are a feminist. The problem with "men" isn't that we are aggressive and selfish by nature, the problem is a society that tell us to "man up" to be a "real man". Again: P. C. do your MOTHERFUCKING research.
I could go on and on with this but i don't want to ruin my day. Peace out suckers.
This books try to talk about social justice issues and fail on a spectacular level, bc the author doesn't fully understand why this issues are a problem.
For example: racial segregation. The Vamps cry about the humans segregating the bloodsuckers for centuries, but this doesn't realy happen: the vamps segregate themselves, bc the young Vamps (called fledglings) need to be around the fully grown up Vampires, else the fledlings die. So if the Worldbuilding makes it impossible for young Vampires to live among humans you can't realy play the racial segregation card.
Example 2: It is stated that humans hate the Vamps because the Vamps have all the powers and the beauty and the near immortal life. And bc of this humans are intolerant. Excuse me, you little dipshit authors, but this is not how opression or intolerance work.
Let me tell you about my personal experience as a queer person. I've been called a fag, an abomination, a selfish sinner and other disgusting stuff (both in real life and on the internet). People told me i am not a "real man" until i stop being sexualy attracted to man and/or that i will suffer an eternity in hell because of my "unnatural lifestyle". Hell, i even got death threats. This didn't happen because i am so special, it happened because i am part of a marginalized group that doesn't have the "privilege" to be seen as normal by society standards.
So please P.C. if you want to talk about intolerance or systematic injustice: do your FUCKING research.
Example 3: the Vampire society is a matriarchy, were everyone can live their live as they please. At least that is TOLD to the reader. But what is SHOWN speaks another language: if a Vamp doesn't except Nyx as their saviour they get shunned, bc denying Nyx is synonymous with becoming an ally of Evil Forces of darkness.
Then there is the weird gender essentialism. Women become the Priests of Nyx a. k. a. the leaders and men mostly get warriors. Female Vamps have powers that are associated with healing and spiritual stuff, while male Vamps have powers that tend to be physical and aggressive. The casts tell us that every Vamp could chose every path they want but show us only female priests and male warriors.
And the misandry. Oh dear Cuntess, the misandry. There is a part in this book were a High Priestess says something like "and because of this male rage, because of the whole testosterone, Nyx gave us matriarchy". Sorry, you can't go this roud if you are a feminist. The problem with "men" isn't that we are aggressive and selfish by nature, the problem is a society that tell us to "man up" to be a "real man". Again: P. C. do your MOTHERFUCKING research.
I could go on and on with this but i don't want to ruin my day. Peace out suckers.
April 19, 2021
I'm mostly still reading these books because of my nostalgic attachments to the characters (esp Aphrodite, don't ask me why as I'm sure if she were a real person she would drag me so hard I'd cry within seconds of meeting her).
My expectations for this book weren't very high going in, especially because I saw about half of this book is in the POV of Other Neferet. In the original HoN series, there was a book mostly focusing on Neferet and it was my least favourite in the series, but Other Neferet pleasantly surprised me. I do adore series that can write vilains in such a way that I have to keep reminding myself not to root for them. That aspect was missing for me in the og HoN series, but I thought it was well done in this book.
In addition to that, while maybe I should be basing my rating on the story only, I have to say the Q&A with the authors at the end of this book (as well as the other books in the Otherworld series) might have added a star. It really gives some good insight into how the story comes to be, what the motivations were for certain events or character choices, stuff like that. It was fun and interesting to read about.
My expectations for this book weren't very high going in, especially because I saw about half of this book is in the POV of Other Neferet. In the original HoN series, there was a book mostly focusing on Neferet and it was my least favourite in the series, but Other Neferet pleasantly surprised me. I do adore series that can write vilains in such a way that I have to keep reminding myself not to root for them. That aspect was missing for me in the og HoN series, but I thought it was well done in this book.
In addition to that, while maybe I should be basing my rating on the story only, I have to say the Q&A with the authors at the end of this book (as well as the other books in the Otherworld series) might have added a star. It really gives some good insight into how the story comes to be, what the motivations were for certain events or character choices, stuff like that. It was fun and interesting to read about.
Read
September 25, 2023The first sixty pages of this was like reading Kalona’s novella again… which bored me to tears the first time, let alone on repeat. I don’t care what happened thousands of years ago, I want to hear what’s happening now. Especially as a two sentence summary would have literally covered everything.
In this world, Erberus gifted Kalona some of his joy in exchange for some of Kalona’s darkness, so Kalona didn’t fall. Instead he’s waiting to be woken after using his energy to gift his brother a companion with the help of Mother Earth.
You may now skip the first sixty pages. You’re welcome.
This then becomes Other Neferet’s book as she becomes besties with Other Lynette and tries to become immortal.
Zoey barely has an appearance in this book (and when she does it’s for a dang swimming carnival), Other Kevin has been forgotten, and after that super boring intro, Kalona and the crew aren’t in here either. What was the point? This should be renamed The First Time Kalona was Awake and Neferet Gets a Secretary. That is this book. Obviously Forgotten refers to the plot we were supposed to be following.
In this world, Erberus gifted Kalona some of his joy in exchange for some of Kalona’s darkness, so Kalona didn’t fall. Instead he’s waiting to be woken after using his energy to gift his brother a companion with the help of Mother Earth.
You may now skip the first sixty pages. You’re welcome.
This then becomes Other Neferet’s book as she becomes besties with Other Lynette and tries to become immortal.
Zoey barely has an appearance in this book (and when she does it’s for a dang swimming carnival), Other Kevin has been forgotten, and after that super boring intro, Kalona and the crew aren’t in here either. What was the point? This should be renamed The First Time Kalona was Awake and Neferet Gets a Secretary. That is this book. Obviously Forgotten refers to the plot we were supposed to be following.
October 27, 2023
This one was better than previous books. I've enjoyed reading about other neferet and her character development she seems more likeable in the otherworld than she was in the original world. I've enjoyed that she has more humanity maybe as the injustice that was done to her as a child wasn't as bad as in the main world so she could develop from it. I didn't enjoy the parts with Zoey and other Kevin but enjoyed every bit of neferets story. Allthough I feel when there could possibly be 2 Starks in this next book could just cause unnecessary drama.
These books have made me realise that grandma redbird lavender cookies are probably the root of all evil and very possibly created vampyres as they are mentioned more times than anything else.
These books have made me realise that grandma redbird lavender cookies are probably the root of all evil and very possibly created vampyres as they are mentioned more times than anything else.
December 27, 2024
“Joy isn’t easy or inherent. It is a choice, and not always an easy one—not at first.”
This book started off so good and then seemed to lag in the middle quite a bit for me. I loved getting to learn about Other Kalona's past and how his story played out in the Otherworld; he is such a remarkable character, and I love him in every universe. I wished we would have gotten more of Zoey and the Nerd Herd, or even more of Other Kevin. There was too much Other Neferet in this book for my liking. Lots of filler but I can't wait to see how the last book plays out.
This book started off so good and then seemed to lag in the middle quite a bit for me. I loved getting to learn about Other Kalona's past and how his story played out in the Otherworld; he is such a remarkable character, and I love him in every universe. I wished we would have gotten more of Zoey and the Nerd Herd, or even more of Other Kevin. There was too much Other Neferet in this book for my liking. Lots of filler but I can't wait to see how the last book plays out.
December 28, 2019
Loved this book and love this series! This story takes place in the Other World. This Other World is a mirrored realm to Zoey's. The main focus is Other Neferet and her devious plan to become immortal. I can't say anything else for those who have not kept up with this series as I fear to give an accidental spoiler.
April 24, 2020
I love this series and I am so glad it came back. These authors are one of my favorites! This book was just as good as the rest. I was a little confused at first but starting with the "other world", I was concerned the book took a weird curve off a mountain. I was wrong! I get it now I just has to read on to see where these great women were taking this book and series. I can't wait for the next book! Awwsome!
February 15, 2020
A great penultimate book in this series! A few new characters that may play important roles in Neferet's never ending battle. I cried with Kevin and G-Ma it was so moving and such a great message that I'm sure many needed to hear. This duo knows how to steal the hearts of their readers and I couldn't be happier about it.
March 25, 2022
Im really disappointed with this series. To be honest I had so high expectations and was looking forward to read them. but when I first started is was so boring and confusing but I kept reading till the end but its just got worst. But I still read the other books but to be honest I just cried and have to put them away. Im just going to stick with The house of night
December 16, 2019
I still loved learning all about the otherworld and I will continue to do so!
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