Summary from GoodReads:

Seventeen-year-old Dylan Kennedy always knew something was different about him, but until his mother abandoned him in the middle of Oregon with grandparents he’s never met, he had no idea what.
When Dylan sees a girl in white in the woods behind his grandparents’ farm, he knows he’s seen her before…in his dreams. He’s felt her fear. Heard her insistence that only he can save her world from an evil lord who uses magic and fear to feed his greed for power.
Unable to shake the unearthly pull to Kera, Dylan takes her hand. Either he’s completely insane or he’s about to have the adventure of his life, because where they’re going is full of creatures he’s only read about in horror stories. Worse, the human blood in his veins has Dylan marked for death…

My Review:

The Marked Son is an action-packed story focused around 17 year old Dylan and the “ghost”, Kera, who inhabits his dreams.  Dylan struggles, coping with a mother who will not stay in the same place long and goes through men like crazy and, eventually, ends up dumped into the lap of relatives he never knew existed.

Then things get crazy.

What I loved about this book was how much fun it was to finally be seeing things through the eyes of a male – and not just any male, a strong, decisive male who wasn’t wanting to shy away from things and was out to figure things out.  I enjoyed the humor contained in the brief interactions he had with friends and I loved the passion Dylan exhibited when faced with some insurmountable odds.

The Marked Son is fast-paced and filled with all sorts of fights and a nicely-paced story, however there were some things that seemed to be a bit glossed over and made for a bit of clunky going, especially as the end drew near.  I had a hard time accepting that Dylan was so capable right off the bad of channeling his powers, that he and Kera developed an “all-or-nothing” relationship that fast, and I was really confused as to what exactly went on in Kera’s world.   So I guess mostly my issues were on the world and magic building in the book.

There didn’t seem to be any clear-cut explanation of the powers Dylan (and the others in Kera’s world) possessed.  Nor was there really an explanation of how the world worked, what people used their powers for, etc.  Just that there was a big, bad guy and he was going to take over.  I understood that he was bad, but I didn’t really understand why.  That’s what made me struggle with this story.

I’m sure I’ll check out the next one when it’s released, because it was interesting – just had issues with what I’ve mentioned.  I did appreciate that the book was given a solid ending without a major cliffhanger as trilogy books are wont to have these days.

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