Literary Crack

I've finished all 8 of the House of Night books (Marked, Betrayed, Chosen, Untamed, Hunted, Tempted, Burned, Awakened) by mother daughter duo P.C and Kristin Cast.
After reading all 8 (#9 is I believe set to be released in the fall), I'm more than a little undecided on my feelings for this series (yes, there are degrees to Undecided-ness just as there are degrees of wrong-ness as anyone who watches Big Bang Theory knows).
So here in a simplified Pro-Con list are my thoughts:

Cons: 

• My least favorite thing about this series is the fact that 8 books in, its the same story.  Normally in a series, I expect each book to have some type of conclusion to the story line.  Maybe there is an over-arching villain that we build up to, but each book addresses a smaller villain or problem and solves or addresses it.  That does NOT happen in this series.  The same bad guys exist from book one through book 8.  Just Kill the Bad Guy Already!  I'm begging you.  Kill him off and create another freaky threat to the world. 
• Going along with that point- You can't read just one of these books.  They suck you in, and then end with a cliff hanger.  I was always hoping that maybe in the next book there were would be some kind of resolution instead of a constant climax.  I knew it was futile. Its like wishing for Manolo Blahniks to go on clearance or finding a pair of jeans that fit on the first try.  Not. Gonna. Happen.  Maybe you can get through the first couple of books with out getting hooked- maybe.  But after the 3rd or 4th, you're doomed. 
• I mentioned this in my starter post, but it totally bugs me that these books are written for Teens and yet there is Graphic adult material (s-e-x).  I'm a bit of a priss, but I'm going to go ahead and say it- there's a Blow Job about 30 pages into the first book.  Phew, can't believe I just typed that...my mom might read this...geez.  Anyway, maybe its just that I grew up in a different time, but it wasn't that long ago that I was a teenager, we're not talking about Happy Days here, more like Home Improvement.  Although, in the interest of full disclosure, I was the kid more likely to be found reading for fun and hanging out with my fellow band nerds, so maybe stuff was more 90210 than I thought it was.  I'm sure a 16 or 17 year old would read nothing that they didn't already know.  But I always read above my grade level, so my concern is more for the 13year old picking this up.  Bottom line, read the series (the complete series) before giving it to a teenager.  Unless of course you already allow that teenager to watch Gossip Girl, in which case, the ship has already sailed. 

Pros:

• I think I already made this point as well, but the Cast duo does an exceptional job of making the books sound authentic.  By that I mean, the teenagers sound like teenagers.  As opposed to adults in teenagers bodies.  Judging from the acknowledgments, this was primarily Kristen cast's contribution to the book, and she did an extraordinary job, Glee references and all. 
• The books read Fast.  This is a good thing since you're going to need to read one after the other in rapid succession thanks to the cliffhangers.
• The stories are exciting and the characters are well developed.  That's a very short and small bullet point, but I don't have anything to add to it.

All in All, I think my friend Lisa said it best when she said the books are good, but emotionally draining.  I'm rather exhausted just typing this.  I don't think I'll be continuing with the series when the next book comes out. And now I need to go cleanse my pallet with some Literary Oreos (that would be Janet Evanovich).