Before You Press Play
- Performance: Caitlin Davies carries Zoey's first-person voice through both ordinary teen drama and genuinely dark murder-mystery stakes within the same scenes.
- What it covers: found family among vampyre fledglings, power and its cost, a serial killer inside a boarding school
- Feel: Dark and urgent, more violent than its genre tag suggests
- Our call: House of Night fans get a solid second entry here, though its children's-audiobook classification undersells how dark the content actually gets.
One reviewer field on this Betrayed audiobook listing is not a person's name at all but a stray line about drugstore cosmetics, "Love this mascara. It's the best!", sitting where a name should be. It is a small, almost funny reminder that these review columns get pulled straight off a retail page without much cleanup, and it says nothing about the second House of Night novel itself, P. C. Cast and Kristin Cast's story of fledgling vampyre Zoey Redbird navigating both new power and a string of murders. Ten and a half hours is a fairly standard length for a mid-series young adult entry, long enough to build out a school's worth of suspects without dragging.
Is Betrayed Worth Your Time?
Zoey Redbird gets to feel settled for approximately one paragraph of this synopsis before humans start dying around the House of Night, and Cast and Cast keep the central tension exactly where the first book left it: how much power costs, and who ends up paying for it. The synopsis promises the "magick that set her apart" is what puts everyone Zoey loves in danger, a fairly direct throughline for a second book that has to escalate stakes without simply repeating the first novel's setup. Zoey's new position as leader of the Dark Daughters adds a layer of school-politics pressure on top of the murder plot, which keeps the book from reading as pure horror even as the body count climbs. That balance between social hierarchy drama and genuine threat is close to the series' whole appeal, judging by how many of these five reviewers frame their comments around the series overall rather than this book specifically.
A single review, from paranormal junkie, dated October 2009, sits eight years before this particular audiobook's own 2017 release, almost certainly describing an earlier print or ebook edition of a novel that first reached readers years before that. That reviewer also delivers the most specific critique in the column: "the book started out kind of slow," with the first stretch feeling like a slower build before the plot's true direction becomes clear. It is a useful counterweight to the four other reviews, all rating the book four or five stars without much elaboration, though the review itself cuts off mid-sentence just as the reviewer's own assessment was taking shape, so its final verdict is not actually on record.
The Best Parts of Betrayed
Caitlin Davies narrates this audiobook, tasked with carrying Zoey's first-person voice through a story that mixes typical teen social dynamics, the Dark Daughters clique, tests of loyalty, growing power, with genuinely dark stakes: a serial killer working through the school dressed in vampyre mythology. A first-person teen narrator carrying both school-drama beats and murder-mystery dread asks more of a performer than either mode alone would, since the tonal register has to shift within single scenes rather than settling into one mood for the whole book.
Credited to P. C. Cast alone on this listing, the House of Night series is actually co-written; the synopsis itself names Kristin Cast as a full second author, "bestselling authors P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast," even though the byline above the description carries only one name. Reviewers mostly skip past authorship to talk about the world itself: Amy E Hanson calls it "a fun easy read" set in "Tulsa Oklahoma," a real, specific setting that grounds the vampyre mythology in an ordinary city rather than an invented one. That grounding in a real place, rather than a generic invented metropolis, is part of what several reviewers seem to mean when they describe the series as easy to sink into quickly.
Before You Commit to Betrayed
Reading through the review column, that mascara comment sitting in the reviewer-name slot is the clearest sign this data was pulled wholesale from a retail page rather than checked line by line before publishing. It does not affect the substance of the review attached to it, "Betrayed was exciting and suspenseful to read," but it is worth knowing the review data on this particular listing has at least one visible seam. Separately, this is the second House of Night book, and jumping in without the first means missing the setup for Zoey's power, her friend group, and the danger the series' own title outright warns about.
Four votes are on record for this listing, yet five separate people left written reviews, a mismatch this data does not explain. Every one of those five visible opinions still lands positive regardless, four and five star ratings only, so the discrepancy looks like a tallying quirk rather than evidence of hidden negative reviews sitting somewhere out of view. Anyone cross-checking the numbers before buying should treat the written reviews, not the vote counter, as the more reliable signal on this particular page.
Should You Listen to Betrayed?
Young adult listeners already committed to the House of Night world, or new listeners specifically looking for a vampyre series with real teeth, serial killers, power struggles, loyalty tests, are the clear audience, and Andrew Griffith's one-line "Captivating!" take along with Carin's simple "great novel" suggest the series holds up for readers who stick with it. The listing's own genre placement under children's audiobooks reads like a cataloging default rather than a considered fit; parents browsing by that label should know Betrayed deals with murder investigation and body-count stakes well beyond typical children's-audiobook territory.
Parents specifically shopping by the children's-audiobook tag alone, without checking the content first, should read a synopsis or two before handing this to a younger listener. Young adult paranormal fans looking for actual stakes will be satisfied here, in a series reviewers keep returning to for its world rather than its prose polish, mascara-related data glitch notwithstanding.
Common Questions
Is one of the reviewer names on the Betrayed audiobook listing really about mascara?
Yes. One of the five listed reviewers for this audiobook is not a name at all but a stray line reading "Love this mascara. It's the best!", clearly misplaced from an unrelated product page. The review text attached to that slot is genuine and positive; only the reviewer's name field is corrupted.
Is the Betrayed audiobook appropriate for young children despite being tagged a children's audiobook?
Not really. Despite the children's-audiobook category on this listing, Betrayed is a young adult novel built around a serial killer targeting a school, alongside typical House of Night themes of power and loyalty. It reads as young adult content, not material aimed at young children.
Should I listen to the first House of Night audiobook before Betrayed?
Yes. Betrayed picks up right where the first House of Night book leaves off, continuing the power dynamics, friendships, and danger already established there. Starting here means missing the setup for why the title's own threat feels earned by the time it arrives.
Why is one Betrayed audiobook review dated years before this edition's 2017 release?
Reviewer paranormal junkie's review is dated October 2009, roughly eight years before this Macmillan Audio edition came out, so it almost certainly describes an earlier print or ebook release of the same novel. It remains useful for its unusually detailed take on the book's pacing.
