On the Bookshelf

Title: The Awakening
Author: Kelley Armstrong
Publisher: HarperCollins
Release Date:  May 1st 2009
Source: Library

If you had met me a few weeks ago, you probably would have described me as an average teenage girl—someone normal. Now my life has changed forever and I'm as far away from normal as it gets. A living science experiment—not only can I see ghosts, but I was genetically altered by a sinister organisation called the Edison Group. What does that mean? For starters, I'm a teenage necromancer whose powers are out of control; I raise the dead without even trying. Trust me, that is not a power you want to have. Ever.

Now I'm running for my life with three of my supernatural friends—a charming sorcerer, a cynical werewolf, and a disgruntled witch—and we have to find someone who can help us before the Edison Group finds us first. Or die trying.

I really enjoyed The Summoning, the first book in the Darkest Powers Series. The second book in the series, The Awakening, is just as strong. Kelley Armstrong is such a talented Young Adult author.

I really enjoy Chloe as a narrator. I love how she frames things with how these events would play out if she were a character in a movie. Armstrong enhances Chloe's unique character voice by giving her an interest that plays an active role in her thought and decision making process while at the same time using it to pretty much "hang a lampshade" on what conventions and techniques she plays along with and which ones she breaks away from and why.

I know that Derek has a few fans out there and they will be pleased to hear that he gets plenty of screen time (or should that be page time?) in this instalment. We also get a bit more insight in to the character of Tori but it was perhaps a bit lacking on the Simon front.

Looking back, The Awakening strikes me as a transitional book, setting things up from the major events of The Summoning for the third book in the series, The Reckoning, yet it remained well paced, action packed, and incredibly enjoyable.

The Summoning by Kelley Armstrong

Terra