This chapter opens with Zoey explaining to us that even though her stepfather looks handsome and charming, she knows it’s all really for fake.  She doesn’t tell us how she knows.  She just “knew” from the very first moment she met him that every single instance of him being nice is “fake.”  Considering what a supremely judgmental brat she’s been until now, I’m not inclined to believe her. 

More than that, though, it’s just plain bad writing.  You should never straight-out tell someone what a character’s personality is like.  We need proofs and examples.  We need to be led to a conclusion that we can make on our own.  I am a parched traveler that needs to be led to water so I can drink.  Shit like this is basically saying “there’s water over there.  You can’t have any, but trust me, it’s over there.”  Even if I believe you, it’s still going to piss me off.

Zoey comes out of her room and finds her mother crying on the couch.

Great. She was going to play Hurt Hysterical Mother. It’s an act she does well.

Uh, her daughter is turning into an undead person, which even Zoey has admitted is ‘monstrous.’  Why is her mother not allowed to be actually distraught over this?

Why isn’t Zoey distraught over this?

“Get thee behind me, Satan!” he quoted in what I like to think of as his sermon voice.

And then John proceeds to have a normal conversation chastising her by saying that this is comeuppance for her bad behavior.  It’s like this quote is just here to scream “HEY, LOOK, HE SAYS BIBLE PASSAGES, LOL, ISN’T HE A LOSER!?!?!?!”  I’m so distracted by how hateful this book is that I can’t even properly hate John.  If he’d just started off by blaming her for getting marked, that would have worked, but this here is so nonsensical and forced that all it does is remind me that I’m supposed to hate myself for being Christian.  No, I don’t want to hate myself.  Fuck you, book.

Turns out that being marked isn’t making Zoey turn into a vampyre.  Vampyrism is a thing that happens to some people completely independently of anyone’s action, so the tracker’s aren’t turning people so much as just finding people who are already in the process.  No one knows why this happens.  I actually like this little bit.  It’s an interesting take.

So John goes on about how changing is all Zoey’s fault while she tries to defend herself.  I really think this is trying to be something, and given all the context…it feels gay.  That whole “I was just made this way and no one knows why” while the Big Bad Christian says “it’s because you’re a horrible person and God hates you”?  Yeah, it feels like vampyrism is trying to stand in for homosexuality.  Now, I would think this an interesting, if poorly handled, track to take if not for one thing.  People are scared shitless of vampyres, but Zoey thinks that’s a good thing that makes her ‘powerful.’  No matter what this book does, that one line will destroy any attempt and connecting the change to victimhood.  There are assholes who claim to be afraid of homosexuals, and do you know what they do with that fear?  They bully, harass, harm, or straight-up murder people.  I really doubt that any gay people are going to feel ’empowered’ by Zoey here saying that it’s awesome to scare people.

Zoey tries to bring up science, and John just keeps going on with “LOL, NOPE, GOD HATES YOU” and I just really, really hate this whole line and how it gets dragged out.

He was an Elder of the People of Faith, a position he was oh, so proud of. It was one of the reasons Mom had been attracted to him,

So, score one point for the idea that her mom was turning more religious already when she met John.

There’s some mumbo-jumbo about how the change is caused by a ‘junk DNA strand.’  I’m not up on all my science knowledge, but I’m pretty sure that sounds suspect.

“I don’t need to have anything explained to me by a sixteen-year-old.”

Well, he was wearing those really bad pants and that awful shirt. Clearly he did need some things explained to him by a teenager, but I didn’t think it was the right time to mention his unfortunate and obvious fashion impairment.

Zoey once again defaults to thinking about fashion while in the middle of a much more important discussion, because apparently fashion is just oh-so-important.

John decides that they are going to ‘put the matter in God’s hands’ and then tells Linda (her mom) to call a psychiatrist, then get a prayer group going to meet at their house. 

Zoey says that all that will do no good, then she starts coughing again.  She points out that she’ll die if she doesn’t get to the House of Night right quick, which just makes it even stranger that there’s no representative from the school around to help out with these things.  To explain to the parents, or to simply take the kid if the parents dig their heels in.

How does Zoey know all of this about vampyres but at the same time doesn’t know whether or not they turn into ’emo’s?

John says she should stay at least for the night.  Zoey realizes that he’s more concerned with what the neighbors will think than with her health, but…eh, if that were really the case, he wouldn’t be keeping her at home.  She’s going to get sicker, and neighbors don’t usually think well of parents who harm their children.  If he were that concerned, he could just tell people that she went to a boarding school.  Possibly a strict, religious one where her ‘bad attitude’ will get straightened out.  Plus, keeping her at home would involve telling people that she’s been monster-marked, which apparently is a thing he should want to keep hidden.

Now, John’s obviously in the wrong here, but it honestly seems more like he’s concerned about Zoey’s eventual fate than he is about what people think.  He’s trying, in his messed up way, to get help for her, just without realizing that his way won’t help for shit.  He’s letting his peers, people whose opinions he should be concerned about, know all about this dreadful thing that happened to his family.  It’s wrong, but it’s more of a mistaken wrong than a “haha, I shall fuck up your life for the lolz” kind of wrong.

Zoey gives no fucks about that, though.  Evil step-dad is evil, and that’s the end of it.  She realizes there’s nothing she can say to change his mind, so she gives up and says she’s going to wait in her room until everyone arrives.  Probably plans to just climb out the window and make a break for it.

I’m going to remember this, I told myself sternly. I’m going to remember how awful they made me feel today. So when I’m scared and alone and whatever else is going to happen to me starts to happen, I’m going to remember that nothing could be as bad as being stuck here. Nothing.

That’s right, kids!  Nothing is worse than having annoying parents!  You might have to starve on the streets, get addicted to drugs, prostitute yourself to eke out a living.  You might develop the uncontrollable urge to drink blood and have to kill people to survive, living a life where your own existence is constantly weighted against the lives of others, and that struggle tears at your very soul until one day you give up and suicide.  But at least you won’t have to deal with some asshole who tries to pray for you!

Run away today and start living the good life!