Nyx in the House of Night

characters’ sense of helplessness and isolation during dire events and hampers their ability to move, building dramatic tension. Tulsa’s loss of electricity due to the storm leaves the city paralyzed in darkness, appropriately symbolizing how Neferet and her new partner, the immortal Kalona, have unleashed evil on the town in their bid for personal power. P.C. noted in her blog that she and her daughter modeled their descriptions on the real ice storm that crippled Tulsa in December 2007. I doubt the storm would have seemed as authentic or eerie if the Casts hadn’t drawn on their firsthand memories of the event, and I can imagine that Tulsan readers of the House of Night series relived their own struggles with the storm while reading about the plight of Zoey and her friends.
    The Casts also tap into the power of local history. One of the most memorable examples of this, to my mind, occurs in the second book of the series, Betrayed . When Zoey tries to explain her plan for involving the fledglings of the Dark Daughters and Sons in charity work in the local community, the House of Night’s High Priestess Neferet reminds her of the power of human fear and hatred toward vampyres. To explain the danger of prejudice Neferet might easily have called upon trite illustrations made bland by time, distance, and overuse. Instead, she refers to an event that is all too recent and painful in Tulsa memory: the Greenwood riots, also known as the Tulsa race riots.
    From May 31 to June 1, 1921, a group of white Tulsans burned nearly thirty-five city blocks in Greenwood, the African-American section of town, utterly destroying the prosperous area known as “Black Wall Street.” This left approximately 10,000 black Tulsans homeless and an unknown number dead. According to Scott Ellsworth’s lauded history Death in a Promised Land: The Tulsa Race Riot of 1921 , the Greenwood riots represent one of the single most devastating moments of racial violence in a century of U.S. history. Today Tulsans of all races continue to consider and wrestle with the legacy of this tragedy. Thus when Neferet says, “Those African-American humans were part of Tulsa, and Tulsa destroyed them,” her words resonate deeply, because they refer to a very real and violent example from Tulsans’ very own backyard.
    Fortunately, as Zoey points out, “it’s not 1920 anymore.” However, the Casts make it clear that prejudice is not simply a problem of the past. Tension between the human and vampyre populations boils just beneath the surface of their reimagined Tulsa, threatening to spill over violently at any moment. Perhaps more to the point, this prejudice represents a tool that can be used by unscrupulous leaders of both populations. Neferet herself later plays upon vampyres’ and humans’ hatred toward each other as she builds her own base of power, illustrating how a people’s prejudices can make them easily led—and misled. The insight and seriousness with which the authors deal with the ongoing issues of fear and hatred suggest that they keep the lessons of Tulsa’s history close to heart as they craft their novels.
    NOTABLE LANDMARKS
    By incorporating recent weather and local history into their fiction, the Casts create a firm setting for the House of Night series, a Tulsa that feels three-dimensional, well grounded, and authentic. Then they take their literary game to yet another level by anchoring their stories to specific, real-world Tulsa landmarks. These locations come ready-made with their own mystique and folklore attached. In true Gothic style, the Casts enlist the city’s most remarkable places in the cause of their fiction, constructing new stories upon the mysteries and legends retold and refined by generations of Tulsans. The Casts’ mythologized Tulsa is so compelling, I would argue, because it springs from such deep-rooted sources. Obviously you don’t have to know the ins and outs of Tulsa firsthand in order to enjoy the House of Night series, but you can gain a greater appreciation of the Casts’ artistry if you consider the creative ways in which they employ the city’s notable sites.
    Cascia Hall
    Of course many of the settings featured in the novels, from the friendly Street Cats rescue to the tranquil Mary’s Grotto, do exist in Tulsa today. But the Casts reserve their most fantastic and intense action for some of Tulsa’s most atmospheric spots. One of these is Cascia Hall, the elite Catholic college preparatory