The Summoning by Kelly Armstrong

Genre: Paranormal Mix

Hardcover: 390 Pages

Published: July 1, 2008

Series: Darkest Powers

            1. The Summoning

            2. The Awakening

            3. The Reckoning

Rating: ★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

My name is Chloe Saunders and my life will never be the same again.

All I wanted was to make friends, meet boys, and keep on being ordinary. I don't even know what that means anymore. It all started on the day that I saw my first ghost - and the ghost saw me.

Now there are ghosts everywhere and they won't leave me alone. To top it all off, I somehow got myself locked up in Lyle House, a "special home" for troubled teens. Yet the home isn't what it seems. Don't tell anyone, but I think there might be more to my housemates than meets the eye. The question is, whose side are they on? it's up to me to figure out the dangerous secrets behind Lyle House...before its skeletons come back to haunt me.

My Review:

Since I have read a few books by Armstrong I thought why not give this one a try. And I gotta admit I loved it. It takes place at Lyle House (a nut house) where Chloe is being forced to stay at. She has been seeing ghosts and they wont leave her alone. But this House doesn't seem like a place for nut jobs. As Chloe discovers some creepy secrets about her new house mates, she learns there is an even bigger threat that controls Lyle House.

Something is definitely up with the kids at Lyle House. And Chloe is determined to find out why everyone is acting so creepy. Especially Derek and his brother Simon who happen to know a lot more then they are letting on. Then things get even more crazy when the doctors diagnose Chloe as a schizophrenic, and that seems impossible because she is still seeing ghosts. What can Chloe do besides go along with the doctors diagnosis and find a way to get out. But when Chloe and three of her house mates find a way out the company threatens their lives. Now on the run, Chloe and her friends must try to stay alive and find a way to contact someone who can help them. Or else they will be captured, harvested and terminated if deemed defective. 

This book is a fine example of pill pushing. The kids seem to be acting out of character so the parents decide they have a mental illness and send them to a nut house. Umm... How about talking to the kids? That would work better then to just taking action and not hearing what the kids have to say. Plus the characters are well developed it just blew my mind. They seem like adults yet they manage to come off as teenagers, extremely realistic. Just brilliant.  Speaking of characters...lets talk about Derek. Yes the total hot, badass romantic lead. He is described as being ugly and scary but the way his character plays out is super sexy. I found his character to be funny and intense at the same time. Kinda weird but it just made him that much more realistic. The other characters also have a very solid foundation which made this book a great read. I was excited about all of the characters and felt like I connected with each one at different times.