Betrayed by P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast

“Often those who aren’t the easiest to love are the ones who need it the most.”

You probably have heard this quote before. I know I did, but when reading the book “Betrayed,” by P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast it finally made sense. In other words, there are some people in the world who are hard-headed, stubborn, and just a plain old bully. This quote explains that people who may come across as this type of person are people who are affected by their past, well, most of the time. In this book, we can see why the antagonist, Aphrodite acts the way she does. Aphrodite was never loved by her parents so she acts cold hearted and cruel towards the main character Zoey.

        Furthermore, Aphrodite and Zoey are teenagers who live in dorms of a vampire school. They aren't fully vampires but are currently transitioning, being the same age, 16 and going to the same school are the only things these girls have in common. After a quarrel over who get to be the leader of The Dark Daughters (a group of spiritual students), Zoey find Aphrodite outside of the school gates arguing with her parents. Zoey notices that Aphrodite’s parents are abusive and merciless people. The mother slapped Aphrodite for not getting the title of being as leader in spiritual group and her father stood there complaining about how useless she is. They even go to the extent to tell Aphrodite to lie to her mentor to be the leader, and they also demand her to “…get the new girl [Zoey] out of the way”. Zoey watches the whole thing and feel pity for Aphrodite. Zoey states “Much as I hated to admit it, what I saw tonight made me understand why Aphrodite acted like she did.”

        As you can see, even though someone may be mean you shouldn't judge them. Perhaps, someone or something happened to them and that’s why they act the way they do. Instead, you should talk to them or try to be their friend. Like Aphrodite, she never felt loved in her life, if Zoey does become her friend maybe she’ll have the support she needs in order to be a better person.