THE SUMMONING

Author: Kelley Armstrong ISBN: 9780061450549 4/2009 YOUNG ADULT/PARANORMAL Publisher: HARPER TEEN

My name is Chloe Saunders and my life will never be the same again. All I wanted was to make friends, meet boys, and keep on being ordinary. I don't even know what that means anymore. It all started on the day that I saw my first ghost—and the ghost saw me. Now there are ghosts everywhere and they won't leave me alone. To top it all off, I somehow got myself locked up in Lyle House, a "special home" for troubled teens. Yet the home isn't what it seems. Don't tell anyone, but I think there might be more to my housemates than meets the eye. The question is, whose side are they on? It's up to me to figure out the dangerous secrets behind Lyle House . . . before its skeletons come back to haunt me.

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

Surprisingly, I found myself enthralled by THE SUMMONING, the first in Kelley Armstrong’s young adult paranormal trilogy, the Darkest Powers. I say ‘surprisingly’ because I have never really gotten into her Otherworld books; I’ve read them, but they’re not insta-buys for me like other series.

THE SUMMONING (and sequels) are set within her Otherworld universe, and supposedly that would be recognizable to any Otherworld fan. Armstrong makes a point on her website to say that she didn't dumb down THE SUMMONING just because it was for a younger audience—she merely removed sexual situations and the more gruesome violent elements of the adult Otherworld books.

Chloe is your average teenager—in both her concerns and reactions. I wouldn’t call her vain, but she has normal concerns about her self-image versus that of her peers. I worried over her friends at first, or one in particular, but once the paranormal part of the plot catches speed that’s not an issue. That’s another thing—this is a paranormal series, but for a good portion of it there’s enough doubt to make me wonder if Chloe isn’t so much seeing ghosts as having a mental breakdown.

I enjoyed the interactions once she reached Lyle House. Characters, at first, play to stereotype (Victoria the snobby Queen Bee, Simon the nerdy asian kid, Liz the flighty airhead and such), but as things progress, facades are torn away and reality sets in.

The most interesting part for me was when Chloe would ‘see’ things from the perspective of a director shooting a film (her main ambition in life). When things became too weird or tense or horrifying, she would take a step back and say something like ‘What would the heroine in a horror movie do now?’ and gauge her reaction based on that. Perhaps not the most full proof method, but it does help her keep calm in some otherwise terrifying situations.

The second book, THE AWAKENING, is due out soon, with a third book already underway. I am looking forward to seeing more of what happens to Chloe and her friends and learning the secrets that Lyle House has been hiding.

Alexandra Cenni