The Summoning

This is a book review for the book The Summoning, by Kelley Armstrong. I really finished this book the day before Halloween (the 30th), but I didn't really have enough time to write a review for it then, so I just put it off till today. Hell, I didn't even get to start a new book when I was done with the last one. But I'll get to start a new one today, which will be fun. So anyway, here we go...

Warning: spoiler alert!

So the story starts off with a girl named Chloe Saunders. She is just a little girl in the beginning, and she sees people in her basement, and they scare her. Her mom said that she wouldn't have to go in the basement anymore, but when she hears her babysitter calling her into the basement, she knows she has to go. So she reluctantly goes into the basement to find her babysitter, only to find out that it was not her babysitter who was calling her down there. It was an evil spirit that she is terrified of. The story trails off into the next chapter here, and she's fifteen, in her bed, and that had all been a nightmare. She shakes it off and goes to school, only things are different, weird. On the way to school she sees a man go in the middle of the street, only the man who was driving her to school didn't see anything. When she gets to school, she thinks this is just another day, but is very surprised when she finally and unexpectedly hits puberty (she starts her period, if you must know). While she's in the bathroom, she hears things: a girl crying in the next stall. But there is no one there. When she exits the bathroom, a man in a custodian's uniform calls her to him. But his face is all wrong, burned looking and gruesome. The man chases her around the school, shouting that he just wants to talk, but she's scared and keeps running, even when she hears a teacher yelling at her to stop. She finds herself at a dead end, with nowhere else to go. She opens a window, but realizes that she is too high up to jump out. Just then the principal catches up to her and sees her by the window. He thinks she is going to jump, and a teacher decides to tackle her down, so she can't jump. She squirms and lashes out at the teacher, because the man with the burnt face is there, in her face, yelling that he just wants to talk, and the teacher holds her down until an ambulance arrives and sedates her. She wakes up in the hospital, where her aunt is waiting for her to wake. Her mother died when she was little, so her aunt was like a mother to her. Her aunt proceeds to tell her that the school has ordered her to get help, and that she will be staying at Lyle House, a group home for troubled teens, for two weeks. Once there, the Psychiatrist who is a evaluating her decides that she is Schizophrenic, and needs to take medication to treat it. But weird things are happening at Lyle House: her roommate thinks she has a poltergeist, and when Chloe tries to tell her that she can't really see ghosts (Liz wanted her to get rid of her poltergeist for her), she gets angry and things start falling and being thrown all around her, without Liz even moving a muscle. Liz gets "transferred" that night, because the nurse in the home caught her "throwing" things. But her roommate Liz isn't the only weird thing going on in Lyle House: there are two brothers who aren't blood related, one was there because of a violent incident in which he protected his brother, and the other didn't even have a file, was only there to be with his brother. There was a girl named Tori who had dangerous mood-swings and tries to kill Chloe, and also a girl named Rae who claimed the ability to burn people with her bare hands. Chloe at first is convinced that she is Schizophrenic, but Derek (the brother with the violent background) lets her in on the supernatural world, and she learns that she is a Necromancer, someone who can communicate with, and raise the dead. Simon (the other brother) wants to run away to find his missing father, but doesn't want to leave his brother Derek alone, and Chloe convinces him that she and Rae would run away with him, and Derek would join them later if he were to be in danger, so they scout-out a plan to escape. But something is wrong with Derek: he wasn't there when the big escape arrives. So Chloe instructs Simon and Rae to go without her, and that she would meet up with them once she finds Derek and makes sure he's alright. But when she finds him, he's squirming on the ground and changing in ways she thought not possible. He is a werewolf. They finally make their escape, but things get even weirder: the nurses from Lyle House are after them, and shooting at them with tranquilizer guns. Chloe from then-on-out is separated from the brothers, betrayed by someone she loved, and captured by the strange people of Lyle House, and has to call the help of a friend she hoped she was wrong about: her old roommate Liz, who is dead. The story ends there, the perfect cliff-hanger. What I want to know, is how did Liz die exactly? Or better-yet, why was she killed? What happened to Derek and Simon? What is Tori's supernatural "power"? Is Rae really supernatural at all? Why were the people of Lyle House collecting supernatural kids and how were they getting away with it? And most importantly, how was Chloe going to escape and find her new friends? Guess I'll just have to wait till I can get my hands on the second book, The Awakening...
This book is good for young-adults and up, and a pretty good scary-story. I can't really compare this book to anything I've read so far, for it is a pretty unique read. I give this book five stars for the quality of writing, five for the originality of the story-line, and two for the number of days it took me to read it. Overall it was a four star read.
Blog ya later, Miss Eccentric.