Marked Family Quotes

When Zoey's mom plays the but-what-will-your-father-say card, Zoey gets mad. Her biological father hasn't been in her life for years, and she resents the implication that her stepfather is somehow filling that same role. At the same time, her mom's total loyalty to her stepfather feels wrong to Zoey, because she can see through his "nice guy" act to the control freak underneath. In short, Zoey's got a lot of family issues.

Zoey is asking her mom to, well, be a mom and help her out in a time of crisis. Because even though Zoey's already sixteen, being Marked and having to move to the House of Night is big/scary enough that she wants her mom's help navigating that change. It's kind of like how some parents help their eighteen-year-olds move away to college: That's just what you do for your kids, even when your kids are practically grown up. Except apparently that doesn't apply in Zoey's family, though.

Now if you'll excuse us for a moment, we need to call our moms.

Frustrated by her mom's unwillingness to help her figure out what to do after she's been Marked, Zoey lets loose. Normally Zoey would back down in an argument with her mom, but now she decides to rant about how her siblings have been lying about being happy in order to get away with stuffs. At the same time, Zoey is honest about how she doesn't pretend that they're a perfect family, and for that she always gets in trouble. Well, no more.

When Zoey runs away from home after being Marked, she has this amazing revelation: She no longer has to live under her parents' rules. Seeing as her stepdad mostly cares about stupid stuff like pretending they're a perfect family, Zoey is especially thrilled that she won't have to keep playing that game.

Zoey's grandma is more on the same page with Zoey than with her own daughter (a.k.a. Zoey's mom). Zoey's grandma also thinks that Zoey's mom married a loser, and that their home life is not so good. We also that Zoey's grandma actually cares about Zoey's welfare, because she's brought Zoey to the House of Night to be healed, rather than keeping her confined at home in order to have strangers come pray over her. Ugh.

Zoey's grandma has some interesting thoughts about their family bloodline. Apparently her side of the family has a tradition of magical stuff going on, and since in this world, vampyres are pretty darn magical, it makes sense that the two would intersect at some point.

Here we get to learn a little about Stevie Rae's family, and how they reacted to her being Marked. Her mom was chill about it, largely because it helped get Stevie Rae out of their tiny town. Her dad wasn't as cool about it… but we're guessing it can be hard for a parent to accept that their kid has been chosen for a life of magical immortality that involves drinking blood. Just a hunch.

Stevie Rae gives Zoey the scoop on Damien's family situation: They had trouble accepting their son because he was gay. And because of that, having him out of the picture due to being Marked was actually pretty okay with them. Some families (including Zoey's) seem to have trouble accepting their kids for who they are.

Whoa, Nefret, way to drop your trauma on the table. Her family situation sounds even worse than Zoey's, because Zoey's trouble is rooted more in emotional neglect and less in physical abuse. But there are parallels, too, because Nyx Marked each of them, thus getting them out of a bad situation. Maybe Nyx has a soft spot for girls stuck in dysfunctional families?

Bonus points to Grandma Redbird for making Zoey feel loved and accepted no matter what. It seems to us that this is one of the important things that family members should do for each other: support and love one another. Zoey is freaking out about her vampyre bloodlust manifesting early, and Grandma Redbird reassures her that it's normal, and she'll love Zoey no matter what. Yay.