Review: The Summoning by Kelley Armstrong

The Story:

After years of frequent moves following her mother’s death, Chloe Saunders’s life is finally settling down. She is attending art school, pursuing her dreams of becoming a director, making friends, meeting boys. Her biggest concern is that she’s not developing as fast as her friends are. But when puberty does hit, it brings more than hormone surges. Chloe starts seeing ghosts–everywhere, demanding her attention. After she suffers a breakdown, her devoted aunt Lauren gets her into a highly recommended group home.

At first, Lyle House seems a pretty okay place, except for Chloe’s small problem of fearing she might be facing a lifetime of mental illness. But as she gradually gets to know the other kids at the home–charming Simon and his ominous, unsmiling brother Derek, obnoxious Tori, and Rae, who has a “thing” for fire–Chloe begins to realize that there is something that binds them all together, and it isn’t your usual “problem kid” behaviour. And together they discover that Lyle House is not your usual group home either…

My Thoughts:

I'm not sure if it's something in the water, but I seem to be stumbling across quite a few books that I feel start off really strongly and then for some reason just descend into the mediocre arena. I finished this book out of sheer determination (and writing procrastination) because by the time I got halfway, I felt the plot had started to drag and couldn't get excited about it again.
           The strongest feeling I got out of this book would definitely be disappointment. I decided to read The Summoning despite the ghostly premise because the first few chapters were interesting and Chloe's voice was quite likeable. By the time she is placed in the group home, what I thought was going to be a novel about cool super powers turned into what I felt could have been a prequel book. 
          There's a part of me that acknowledges that the way Chloe acted in this book is probably the most accurate representation of how a teenager would rationalise their powers if this really did happen in real life. The super action/plot twist fan in me became very apathetic to the whole story after it took almost half of the book for Chloe to come to terms with her ability to see and communicate to ghosts.
          Once again, my biggest let down in this one was the characters. I didn't feel that they were distinct in any way so I found it difficult to separate the two female sidekicks. The only person with any real personality was Tori, the obligatory mean girl. 
          I'm glad I read this book to find out what all the hype was about, but it didn't hold my attention enough for me to feel compelled to read the rest of the series. 

The Rating:

6/10