The Summoning, Kelley Armstrong

Book: The Summoning
Author: Kelley Armstrong Her Site
Series: The Darkest Powers Trilogy (#1)
Genre: Fantasy/YA Fiction
Rating: 5/5
Moral: 4/5

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.

Deliciously interesting, and fresh.

Kelley Armstrong's THE SUMMONING put a new twist on supernaturals. 

The Plot:

Hipper, fresh and irresistible are all words I would use to explain the plot. I loved the way the story was so smooth, with perfectly timed twists and an amazing story line. First of all, the idea that the main character, Chloe, got sent to a madhouse was brilliant. It made me wonder why more fictional characters are all so sure they are sane.

The Characters:

Chloe had to choose what she believed for herself, and that's whats important. I think in real life, we get caught up on what others say or think and we stop looking at what we believe. Chloe made a great representation of that. Another character, Derek, is this giant boy. He seems scary, but really he is just misunderstood. There really were a lot of amazing, independent characters in the summoning. Simon is the character of supposed romance. I think he is an idiot. At points he can be nice, but most of the time he is over protective, demanding and just plain boring.

The Setting:

So I said a little about the madhouse earlier, but I am going to exaggerate on that. The mad house was designed really well. It had a 'too happy' feeling, which Chloe actually hated. It was bright and everyone seemed so nice. Underneath, you could see glimpses of what was really going on. You have the locked basement door, the secret tantrums and a whole bunch of other stuff that really adds to the mystery. 

The Standout:

There is a point when Chloe is out in the back yard of the mad house, she looks out and sees this girl  in an old fashioned dress. Beecause of her powers of necromancy, it's obvious that the little girl is a ghost. Chloe sits down and starts chatting with the girl. Abruptly, a woman in modern clothes comes out of the house. She tells the little girl to get away from the fence and that she isn' supposed to talk to the kids from the mental home. I just sat there and thouht, "Why cant more books have this creative style?" In The Summoning there was a complete new set of rules for magic, and the rules had perfect flaws that made it dangerous.

The Moral:
No snap judging. I think Chloe really learned her lesson about snap judging. It obviously didn't work out for her, and it wont work out for you either. Also, no sex or swearing. Brilliant, absolutely brilliant!