The Summoning | Kelley Armstrong

I never wanted to read The Summoning. I didn't think it would be my sort of thing, so I never picked it up - until a few days ago. Halfway through the book, at the skeloton's appearance, all of that changed.

Chloe has been sent to a group home. After an incident at school, many think she's going crazy, or has some sort of mental problem, to put it nicely. All of a sudden, she can see ghosts and they can see her. Or can she? The doctors say she has schizoprenia, and if they're right, this is all part of her illness. None of it being real. But what about the other teenagers at the group home? Are they crazy, or do they just have uncontrollable special abilities? Chloe doesn't uncover the secrets about what she is and the group home by herself, she makes friends along the way, as well as enemies, kicking off Kelley Armstrong's Darkest Powers series.

The beginning of this book didn't float my boat. However, unlike a lot of YA books, the beginning was interesting. Things were always happening. What I didn't like was that I couldn't relate to Chloe and I didn't care for the bland writing style. I wasn't fascinated.

But after the half point, it kept getting better and better! Many scenes from this book had suspense and kept me intrigued. Sometimes, it was all I could do to put it down! I found the other charecters to be really interesting with their odd idiosyncrasies and powers, which helped me a lot in this novel, because Chloe just isn't my type of charecter for whatever reason.

Like I mentioned, The Summoning is a lot different than most YA novels. But do you know what I love most? There's little to no romance. Talk about something different for a change! But, there are a couple of guys in here that I'm thinking maybe Chloe will end up with. And I'm happy with that, because honestly (and I can't believe I'm saying this after wanting a non-romance book), I wish there were more sparks flying between Chloe and Derek. You know why? Because I like Derek. He's my favorite charecter of the whole thing. I think she should be with him because he's not Pretty Boy, Bad Boy like all the other YA guys. He's not hot, okay? He has some serious acne and a bit of a BO problem. He's not very nice either; he's grouchy 24/7. So, I'm hoping for romance, but different.

Whether or not you're looking for a Young Adult novel that's different than most (but still paranormal) and suspensful, The Summoning is the book for you. It's the first in its series, and you'll be begging for more after the last page.

4/5 stars