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Spectacular New Series Jul 2, 2008 (23 of 26 found this helpful)
Chloe Saunders is your average teenage girl. She lives in Buffalo, with her aunt and attends an art school. She spends time with her friends, talks to boys, that kind of thing. Then she meets a ghost. This ghost is terrifying and grotesque. The interaction sends her into a breakdown, which gets her sent to a group home, Lyle House.
Lyle House is for mentally-ill teens who must work through their problems, or at least that is what it is advertised to be. Bizarre situations are occurring at this house, not only with herself, but also with other residents of the house. And no matter how much she tries not to believe it, Chloe sees more ghosts. Through strange events, the secrets everyone is hiding spills out, connections are made, and soon nothing is as it was thought to be. But with secrets.... there are always people who want to keep them quiet.
The Summoning was unlike anything I had expected. Kelley Armstrong has managed to mix a supernatural drama with a dash of teenage angst and a whole lot of conspiracy. This novel had an underlying sense of eeriness throughout it, waiting to burst. The middle of the story did drag a little, I will admit, but the end was thoroughly exhilarating. This book was amazing and the ending left it completely open for what is sure to be a fantastic trilogy.
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Soap Opera style Jul 13, 2008 (19 of 21 found this helpful)
When Chloe was a toddler, she lived in a house that had ghosts in the basement. One of the ghosts was a hanged man. Another liked to scare her. Chloe's mom talked her dad into moving them to another place and Chloe forgot all about the experience and now doesn't believe in ghosts. Her mother died when she was 8 and she's been raised mostly by housekeepers as her dad travels for his job.
A late bloomer, she doesn't get her period until she's turned 15. On that day she wakes up dreaming about her last experience in that basement, still not recalling that she ever lived there. Later that day, the ghost of a custodian at school who had obviously been in a fire, notices Chloe and won't leave her alone, wanting to talk to her. Chloe is totally freaked and runs from him screaming. The school staff has to tackle Chloe, sedate her and she's taken by ambulance to a hospital before being transferred to Lyle House, a group home for kids with mental issues.
Like all of the other kids there, she's put on drugs and for her daily therapy session with the doctor, acts like she's accepted her schizophrenic diagnosis in order to get out of there sooner.
At first this seems to be a story about someone with unique abilities (she's a necromancer) who is labeled with mental problems and drugged because the establishment doesn't understand or believe that there could be a perfectly healthy reason for what the person experiences. But it comes to light that other teens in the home have their own abilities and something bigger is going on.
Unlike the author's other series, this one appears to be one continuing story by the viewpoint of the same character. The biggest difference is that when the book ends, you don't feel like a story has completed; like the book ended in the middle. There is no feeling of conclusion to the drama that had taken place near the end of the book. Everything is left hanging.
The story itself and the characters are good, although for me (an adult who does like to read YA), it was getting kind of boring at times, at least until we get to the point of realizing that something bigger is going on. But it's that ending that has me downgrading the rating to 3 stars.
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Still a K Armstrong novel Jul 10, 2008 (18 of 20 found this helpful)
I read all of KA's other books so when I saw this in the young adult section - I bought it out of curiosity. I'm glad I did. It is about young high school age children but it's still her slow build writing that holds the readers interest without losing any of the detail of the world she creates. It's her adult supernatural universe focused on some children who are lost in it and their too strong abilities.
I like the style and if she writes this series the way she writes her adult books they won't all be left on cliffhangers and some could be stand-alones with some character crossovers. The only fault I could find - and it's purely because I'm an adult now I would assume -is that I really couldn't lose myself in the character as I can typically with most of her stories. I found the lead character's desire to storyboard everything distracting... and yet I remember doing something similar at that age -so it still comes across realistic. Hopefully a sequel will come out soon...
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Not a stand alone story Jul 2, 2008 (10 of 14 found this helpful)
This book does a good job of introducing all the principals and whetting your appetite for what's to come, but anyone considering reading it should be forewarned that it is not a stand alone story and that it ends cliffhanger style. Having said that though, the author did a good job of setting up each character and making this introductory story readable. I found the characters likable and believable. The story moves along at a nice pace and the setting is well utilized. I would have preferred the story stand alone, but I will probably be back just the same for the next one to see what happens next. FWIW though, a much better series in the same genre, teen supernaturals, is Richelle Mead's "Vampire Academy" series. Thanks for listening. Happy reading!
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An Exciting New Novel Jul 1, 2008 (8 of 9 found this helpful)
From when Chloe Saunders was just a little girl, she saw ghosts. Of course then, she thought they were only nightmarish imaginary friends. And her life seemed to become almost normal when they moved out of that haunted house and after her mom died. But when Chloe hits puberty, she starts seeing the ghosts again. Now she's forced to stay in Lyle House so she can learn to cope with her "schizophrenia." But the other kids at Lyle House have also been incorrectly diagnosed with mental problems. There's a reason certain doors remain locked and there special kids are gathered in this institution. As Chloe works to uncover these sinister secrets, she starts to question everything around her, from her "schizophrenia," to what happened to her roommate who was taken away, and even to her mother's death.
My first reaction after finishing this novel was WOW. Kelley Armstrong does an amazing job of connecting Chloe's past with her present and weaving the other characters' stories in as well. the story was highly suspenseful and action-packed and the exciting twists and turns kept me guessing. The novel focuses mainly on plot, so there isn't much characterization, but the suspense, secrets, and action were more than enough to hold my interest.
I most definitely recommend this novel, especially to fans of the Maximum Ride series by James Patterson or the Uglies and Midnighters series by Scott Westerfeld. The Summoning will be part of a trilogy, which I am very excited about.