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Marked Sex Quotes

How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)

Quote #1

"Did you know that your oldest daughter has turned into a sneaky, spoiled slut who's screwed half of the football team?" (2.77)

Ouch. Here Zoey drops a bomb on her mother during the why the heck won't you support me now that I've been Marked conversation. How Zoey knows that her sister's been sleeping around we have no clue, but it sure serves as ammo in a serious talk with their mother.

Quote #2

Actually, instead of being afraid it was more like I was an observer, as if none of this could really touch me. (Kinda like those girls who have sex with everyone and think that they're not going to get pregnant or a really nasty STD that eats your brains and stuff. Well, we'll see in ten years, won't we?) (5.27)

Well hey there, Miss Judgey-pants. Zoey apparently doesn't think very highly of girls who have multiple sexual partners. Notice how she didn't include guys in that sentence? Yeah, there are definitely consequences for having sex, like pregnancy and STD transmission, but in Zoey's brain this kind of risky behavior reflects especially poorly on the girls who engage in it, without saying anything about their partners, some of whom may be male.

Quote #3

"You like it—you know you like it. Just like you know you still want me."

Her voice was all husky and trying to be sexy, but I could also hear the whine in it. She sounded almost desperate. (7.64-65)

In Zoey's moment of accidental voyeurism, she sees Aphrodite trying to seduce Erik (though she doesn't know who they are yet). And sadly, Aphrodite just sounds kind of pathetic. It's like she's trying to say the right sexy come-on lines, but totally failing.

Quote #4

Yes, I was aware of the whole oral sex thing. I doubt if there's a teenager alive in America today who isn't aware that most of the adult public thinks we're giving guys blow jobs like they used to give guys gum […] Those of us with functioning brains know that it is not cool to be used like that. (7.81)

Okay, so Zoey is pretty shocked that she accidentally walked in on an attempted blowjob (we're pretty surprised too—this ain't your mama's YA fiction). But what we see in her thoughts on the topic actually reveals a lot about her beliefs about sex. Apparently a girl giving a guy a blowjob can only be about his pleasure, and not about hers; it's a use-or-be-used scenario. And we're not saying that doesn't happen, just that sexual encounters are probably a tad more multifaceted than Zoey knows about at this early stage in her life.

Quote #5

"My three brothers thought it was awesome and wanted to know if I could help them get vampyre chicks." She rolled her eyes. "Stupid boys." (8.66)

Stevie Rae is telling Zoey about her family's reaction when she got Marked. Her parents handled it in their own way, while her brothers immediately thought about how sexy vampyre chicks are. Are there specific ways to pick up vampyre chicks? As of now we have no idea.

Quote #6

This time I leaned into him and touched my tongue to his lip, taking the drop of blood into my mouth where it exploded—heat, sensation, and a rush of pleasure I'd never known. (17.112)

When Zoey leans in to lick the drop of Heath's blood off his lips, the result is an explosive sensation that's totally new to her. Although in theory Zoey is feeding like a mature vampyre would, we can't help but notice how sexual the description is. It brings to mind other, ahem, explosive sensations. But we're getting the impression that Zoey hasn't experimented enough to have much experience with those.

Quote #7

The kiss deepened, and my arms went up around his shoulders. I felt, more than heard, him moan and as he kissed me long and hard it was like he flipped a switch somewhere deep inside me, and hot, sweet, electric desire flashed through me. It was crazy and amazing, and more than anyone's kisses had ever made me feel. (24.74)

Now Zoey is kissing (or being kissed by) Erik, and the sensation is way more intense than she was expecting. Like, she's kissed people before, and it was okay… but this is amazing. It seems like feeling so much desire all at once is pretty new to her, which makes us wonder whether her previous partners were bad kissers, or what.

Quote #8

As my sense started to return to me I realized that I was totally smushed against him and that I'd been standing there in front of the dorm making out like a slut. (24.74)

Zoey, Zoey, Zoey… enough with the slut shaming, okay? Repeat after us: Enjoying sexual activity does not make you a slut. So long as it's consensual, then you're not doing anything wrong. Then again, we can only imagine what kinds of crummy, sex-negative messages Zoey gets from her conservative family, so she's probably internalized a bunch of this stuff. Which would explain why she feels guilty for enjoying a simple kiss.

Quote #9

Aphrodite's laugh was way too sexual to be appropriate, and I swear she touched herself. Right there in front of everyone. Jeesh, she was nasty. (27.12)

Okay, we were ready to give Zoey another lecture about how it's not cool to slut-shame… but she may have a point here. Aphrodite is not just hypersexual, she's bringing sexuality into the public realm in a way that's kind of inappropriate. Like, do what you want in the privacy of your own room, but keep things clean when you're around people who don't necessarily want to see that stuff.

Quote #10

Like our eyes were magnets to her freaky attraction, Heath, Erik, and I (and, for that matter, the rest of the Dark Daughters and Sons) stared up at her…She flipped back her hair and ran one hand down her body like a nasty stripper, cupping her breast and then moving down to rub between her legs. (28.19)

So, yeah, it looks like Aphrodite's being possessed by some ghosts who just want to lure the only human present closer so they can feed on him. Totally normal, right? But because we're seeing this through the lens of Zoey's perspective, it gets filtered through her hang-ups about sex (such as how she says "nasty stripper" instead of just "stripper"). Maybe Zoey will take a less black-and-white view of sex as she continues to mature.