The Darkest Powers Series
by Kelly Armstrong1. The Summoning
2. The Awakening
3. The Reckoning (due in 2010)
The Gist: Muy muy interesante.
The Recommendation: For fans of paranormal YA fiction.
Chloe Saunders is a sort-of-normal 15-year-old. She lost her mother when she was young and her father travels a lot for work, so she is left alone with minimal supervision from nannies, housekeepers, and her Aunt Lauren. Despite this lack of supervision, Chloe is a good kid, she obeys rules, works hard at school, has interests in film. But one day, Chloe starts seeing ghosts. She sees them and they see her. Chloe has a breakdown at school, after being chased by burned-up janitor, and is sent to a group home, the Lyle house, for treatment and recovery from schizophrenia.
Once at the Lyle house, Chloe begins to realize that things are not what they seem. The other kids also show signs of supernatural powers, and Derek, a diagnosed antisocial, prods Chloe into realizing her true nature, a necromancer.
That's the basis for this series. The big plot arc revolves around the group running the Lyle house and the kids' struggle against them. The Summoning is the escape; The Awakening is the chase. My guess is that The Reckoning will be the confrontation, a fight to the death (gotta love those).
I would definitely say that most of The Summoning was world-building/set-up. But, I didn't find it to be boring at all. I flew through it, reading it in one day without even realizing it. I had one major issue with the book (J. Kaye had the
same issue) and that was the cliffhanger ending. That's really doing it more justice. The book simply ended mid-scene. I find this SO ANNOYING. "I have to tell you something." The End. I kept flipping the last page back and forth thinking my copy was messed up. Authors, end your books please. Even though it's a series. BECAUSE it's a series. They ARE separate books, are they not? Cliffhangers like this one are bordering on insult. It's a gimmick. I feel a rant post coming on.
I also agreed with J. Kaye, that Chloe didn't seem to try very hard to find out about herself. Maybe the author intended her simply to be reluctant, as she was clearly a timid teenager, but she came off as naive. I may be jaded, or out of the loop, but the "timid teen" persona is hard to pull off in the world of Google and internet. The FIRST thing I would have done was to google "seeing ghosts" or something.
I gave The Summoning 4 out of 5 despite these annoyances. I simply enjoyed reading this book. It's really easy to go on and on about the things that bothered me, but there were more things that I liked. I thought the book was well-paced, the characters were developed, and the plot had me guessing (there was one point when I was convinced that Derek was a ghost--I was wrong). Even though plenty of questions went unanswered, plenty were. I wasn't in the position I was in
Bones of Faerie where all the important questions went unanswered or unsatisfactorily answered.
I also gave the The Awakening 4 out of 5. Despite my annoyance over the cliffhanger, I was out the next morning purchasing a copy of this book. I guess the cliffhanger served it's purpose, even though it pisses me off to admit that. (I've got problems, I know this.) This book was on par with the first. Most of the book was spent escaping from the Edison Group stronghold and running to the home of a friend of Simon and Derek's father. I've never been a teen on the run, so I don't know the realities of that, but it just seemed too easy for them. The last bit reminded me a little bit of the Hunger Games, with the tree climbing. Thankfully, this book had an actual ending.
I'm excited for the next book. There aren't any details available on her website (that I could find) but I'll definitely be keeping an eye out for it.
Then about a week later I saw NO DOUBT in concert. OMG! I've been waiting to see them since I was like SIXTEEN!
Here's Gwen and the man that inspired the song Don't Speak
