Review: The Summoning by Kelley Armstrong

Title: The Summoning
Author: Kelley Armstrong
Release Date: !st July 2008
Publisher: HarperCollins
Find on: Amazon, Goodreads

Quick Review: 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.

Detailed Review: Great job, Kelley. You did a great job there. And it's your DEBUT novel. Wow. I was just amazed.

That's what I was thinking the whole time after I read The Summoning. It's too good to be a debut novel but let's just say, the author is talented.

The Summoning is told from Chloe Saunder's POV. (How fitting, my co-blogger is also named Chloe) And I'm happy that it's told from her point of view. Because I know if it's told from the other characters' point of view, I. Would. Die. Of. Boredom. Full stop.

It's the way she tells her story that intrigues me so much. The way she portrays everything as a movie to get over some of her fears and solve problems. How many people do that? None.

When you say this book is paranormal, it totally hit that mark where it says PARANORMAL in big block letters. I'm not adding romance in it because there's none. Sorry, romance lovers.

The other characters in the book were very interesting too. Armstrong has managed to vary all of them so you wouldn't get bored.

So the story?

You see ghosts, people think you're crazy, you get sent to a group home for teenagers with mental illnesses, and then you discover that you ACTUALLY see ghosts and can also raise the dead. And then you find out that the other teens in the house are not normal too. One of them's a werewolf. One of them's a sorcerer. One of them is a poltergeist.

And then you discover a secret you're not meant to know. And then...

I was happy for once after reading a book with a cliffhanger. Yup you heard me right. You know how much I hate cliffhangers and to say that I'm ok with it? Impossible. But I'm making an exception. The cliffhanger provided does make you a squirm with a degree of desperation but does not make you go too over. So the cliffhanger was perfect.

Brief Review: So what can I say? It's just AMAZING. The author topped it off so well that I'm giving her a clap right now at this moment. If she can even make me have nightmares and do silent screams, then you will find yourself doing the same thing.



Final Rating: 5/5 'Totally Amazing'

QUOTE:

Just to honour Chloe (not the blogging one, the character in the book), 

No ghost was every seen by two pair of eyes---- Thomas Carlyle

Your Reviewer: