The Reckoning by Kelley Armstrong Book Review

The Reckoning by Kelley Armstrong
(HarperCollins, Hardcover, April 2010)
Rating:

In this third volume of Kelley Armstrong's Darkest Powers trilogy, Chloe is finally beginning to control her ability to raise the dead.  The usual cast of characters—Simon, Derek, and Tori—are with her at a safe house and as they began to unravel the mystery of the Edison Group, Chloe also begins to sort out her feelings for Simon and Derek.

I was hooked on this series after reading the first book, The Summoning.  I loved the whole idea of a psychiatric ward for teens being a front for kids with supernatural powers.  Over the course of the series, Chloe has gradually become more comfortable with her necromancy skills, scary as they are.  While the second book in the series, The Awakening, fell a little flat for me as it served only to get Chloe and her friends from Point A to Point B with little character or plot development, this third volume has a lot to offer.  I enjoyed reading about Chloe's developing feelings for Derek and about her growing confidence in her supernatural abilities.

However...and this isn't a flaw at all, just an observation...I felt like there was more to Chloe's story.  The ending was satisfying, action packed, and closed a lot of plot lines, but throughout this third book, several clues were dropped that perhaps this won't be the last book in the series.  For example, Margaret, one of the adults who takes Chloe and her friends in, looks scared when Chloe mentions that the stone in her protective necklace changed colors, but we never find out what the changing colors means.  Also, there are several allusions that the Edison Group isn't the only group that Chloe needs to fear.  Finally, Chloe meets a demon at one point and his parting words made me think that it wasn't the last she would see of him.  I don't mean to imply that this trilogy doesn't feel finished, just that it would be great to extend it into a four or five book series.  One can only wish.  :)

The Summoning by Kelley Armstrong Book Review

The Summoning by Kelley Armstrong
(HarperTeen, Hardcover)
Rating:

When Chloe was a little girl, she heard and saw ghosts. She's managed to forget about it for years until she sees a ghost at school and freaks out. Next thing she knows, she's admitted to the Lyle House, a group home for mentally disturbed teenagers. Chloe tries to fit in and take her medication, hoping that she'll get to go home soon. Then she realizes that the other teenagers all seem to be hiding secrets and that perhaps Lyle House isn't what it seems. Will she be stuck here forever?

When reading this book, I just couldn't get the scene out of my mind from "Sixth Sense". You know, the one where the kid says, "I see dead people." Chloe has managed not to see dead people for 10 years; then she hits puberty and one day she sees them everywhere. She understandably freaks out. When she gets to Lyle House and her new psychiatrist tells her that she has schizophrenia, Chloe doesn't argue. She just shrinks into herself and starts to wonder if she really is going crazy. Meanwhile, she's stuck with a bunch of teenagers who are also supposedly mentally imbalanced. Armstrong uses the idea of a group home to enhance Chloe's feelings of abandonment and being trapped. I really wanted Chloe to come to terms with her necromancy, but she shies away from calling ghosts to her. When she realizes that she is not the only one with super powers, she forms a tenuous relationship with the other teens, cute Simon, bubbly Rachelle, and anti-social Derek. Armstrong writes each character with skill and a dash of deception. Even though I liked Rachelle and Simon, I found myself wondering if I really knew them. Is Rachelle really just happy-go-lucky or is she hiding something? And is Derek as self-centered and bullyish as he seems? I'm excited that this is the first book of a planned trilogy called Darkest Powers. There were several plot lines left open and the ending left me wishing the second book was already on bookshelves.

The Summoning has been nominated for the 2008 Cybils Awards in the Science Fiction/Fantasy category.