Until recently, Zoey Redbird was an average high-school student worrying about grades, boys, and breakouts. But priorities have a way of changing when you are marked as a vampyre, enroll in the vampyre academy House of Night, and have to figure out a whole new social hierarchy, affinities for elemental magic, and physiological changes that make you crave blood.
With as big a following as it has, it's not a surprise to see a comic adaptation of the House of Night mythos. The opening issue here has its positives and negatives but overall left me wanting to read more and hoping for a bit more fleshing out. Zoey's origin story is covered in a kind of awkward way but it's dealt with as well as getting a feel for the basic social problems she faces. It doesn't deal with just the high school age stuff though but also works through a story from the past as we see Freya's movement in Norway back in the 1270′s where she intends to bring a House of Night there. There's a good bit of fun to be had with this book and if the series pans out well enough, it may even be enough for me to jump into the novels to get the rest of the story. Read Full Review
What I would say to readers who are on the fence about this book is just go and pick it up. After finishing the first issue I can surmise that it was a fun story that surprised me after an initially slow start. Read Full Review
I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this book. It definitely has themes geared towards a younger audience, but the addition of historical events gives the teen vampire take something new and different. Frankly I kind of forgot that it was a vampire book until someone within the story brought it up. Also I think this was a great book to adapt in comic form as it has the potential to bring new readers to comics, particularly women and show them that comics are not all spandex, bondage and reboots. Read Full Review
I'm counting the seconds before a HON fan pipes in with slings and barbs about writing a review over a book I know nothing about, and to them I say, that just proves the point. Dark Horse wants more people to read comics, and I'm sure there are a number of Buffy the Vampire Slayer fans who will pick up this book out of sheer interest. Likewise, the publishers of the prose book probably want to create new fans and have done the deal with Dark Horse in hopes of bringing in new readers. Unfortunately, by dropping the reader into the middle of the story from the second book in the series, it is going to be hard for the book to gain traction with new readers. That's not to say there aren't any positive points. The quest Zoey has started, coupled with the wonderful art, has me wanting to stick around for another issue or two. Maybe more of the backstory will be explained in future issue, but until then, I give House of Night #1 3.5 out of 5 Stars. Read Full Review
The property can be summed up as Harry Potter meets Twilight meets Mean Girls, so its design to appeal to a mass-market audience always makes its presence known. The story-within-a-story approach here, which I assume will be a recurring motif throughout this comic series, works pretty well and builds up the mythology of this kinder, gentler interpretation of vampires. Jones' art suits the property well, as she conveys the teen vampires' youth quite adeptly (though she fails to make the "Nerd Herd" look the part as compared to the nasty popular girls). Kerschl's artwork for the flashback/legend sequence was something of a surprise, as it doesn't look like the super-hero genre work we've seen from him. The anime influence is much more apparent than usual, but he does an excellent job of capturing a mythic look. Read Full Review
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