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bonnybonnybooks 's review for:
The Summoning
by Kelley Armstrong
I had very low expectations going into this book, because I thought it would be an overhyped and underwritten YA book. But I now understand that it deserved all the love it received. This is a compulsively readable, propulsive novel. It has many of the classic YA paranormal tropes, but it makes them fun.
Chloe Saunders is a normal 15-year-old-girl who is diagnosed as schizophrenic after she sees a ghost at school. She is sent to a special residential treatment center for troubled teens, Lyle House. She plans to pretend to be normal - denying any c0nversations with people who are not there - so she can leave Lyle House and go back to her regular life. She just has to play along, not antagonize the jealous and vicious Tori and stay out of the way of hulking, antisocial Derek. But then Chloe's roommate Liz is kicked out of the house not to be heard from again and there seems to be something off about the program. Maybe Chloe isn't schizophrenic. Maybe she and the other teens are special in a different way...
This has a brother love triangle (cute & sweet Simon and his adopted brother, the hulking, brusque Derek), a jealous mean girl (Tori), and a super special heroine (Chloe). But none of these tropes annoyed me. I liked that the main love interest (Derek) is not initially described as the Hottest Guy Chloe Has Ever Seen - she actually finds him unattractive to begin with. And he's never mean - he's gruff but kind, and he has a reason for trying to avoid contact with everyone but his brother. This book was just fun and I now get the Kelley Armstrong love in the urban fantasy world (it felt like she was one of the authors that dominated paranormal fantasy in the 00's).
Chloe Saunders is a normal 15-year-old-girl who is diagnosed as schizophrenic after she sees a ghost at school. She is sent to a special residential treatment center for troubled teens, Lyle House. She plans to pretend to be normal - denying any c0nversations with people who are not there - so she can leave Lyle House and go back to her regular life. She just has to play along, not antagonize the jealous and vicious Tori and stay out of the way of hulking, antisocial Derek. But then Chloe's roommate Liz is kicked out of the house not to be heard from again and there seems to be something off about the program. Maybe Chloe isn't schizophrenic. Maybe she and the other teens are special in a different way...
This has a brother love triangle (cute & sweet Simon and his adopted brother, the hulking, brusque Derek), a jealous mean girl (Tori), and a super special heroine (Chloe). But none of these tropes annoyed me. I liked that the main love interest (Derek) is not initially described as the Hottest Guy Chloe Has Ever Seen - she actually finds him unattractive to begin with. And he's never mean - he's gruff but kind, and he has a reason for trying to avoid contact with everyone but his brother. This book was just fun and I now get the Kelley Armstrong love in the urban fantasy world (it felt like she was one of the authors that dominated paranormal fantasy in the 00's).