Book: The Summoning by Kelley Armstrong
Genre: Teen Paranormal
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date: 2008
Pages: 390

Source: Purchased

Summary:The Summoning is the first book in a Young Adult series called Darkest Powers. In the introduction, Chloe, a small child, has a creepy encounter with a ghost, Mrs. Hobb:

Mrs. Hobb’s skin rippled and squirmed. Then it went black and shiny, crackling like twigs in a campfire. Big chunks fell off, plopping onto the floor. Her hair sizzled and burned away. And then there was nothing left but a skull dotted with scraps of blackened flesh. The jaws opened, the teeth still glittering.

“Welcome back, Chloe.”

Fast forward twelve years, twelve ghost-free years, and Chloe is a young adolescent in a normal world. Normal, until the day of her first period when she again sees ghosts. Now, these creepy encounters make her appear crazy to her teachers and family. She ends up in a group home for young people with mental health problems. Maybe she is crazy, or maybe there is more to Lyle House than she and her fellow teen residents can know.

Thoughts: Kelley Armstrong is the author of an adult series that I really enjoy, Women of the Otherworld that began with Bitten about a reluctant female werewolf, the only female werewolf known to exist in this world. The most recent paperback in that series, Waking the Witch, is on my To Be Read stack and Spell Bound is on the list but I’ll probably wait for it to come out in paperback.

I knew this author can make a magical world come to life for me so I looked forward to reading this YA series and I was not disappointed. Lyle House and its residents are splendid company for a spooky story about teens dealing with one heck of a adolescent transition.

Unlike the adult series, which, while more fun to read in order, are definitely stand alone titles, this book ends on a cliff-hanger, so I need to get my hands on the next book in the series, The Awakening.

Appeal: A great book for teens and adults who like their paranormal just a small shift away from our normal. With a girl and a jewel on the cover this is obviously being marketed to female readers but a patient guy will appreciate the last half of the book where the male characters get a lot of action.

Challenges: This is Book 8 for my Buy One Book and Read It Challenge and, finally, Book 1 for my Book Blogger Recommendation Challenge.

Reviews: Lots of people reviewed this book when it first came out including Steph Su who also liked this book: Review: The Summoning by Kelley Armstrong. Kathy Martin read it earlier this summer and has a terrific first person description of the book: Review: The Summoning by Kelley Armstrong.

Have you read this book? What did you think?