The Summoning (Darkest Powers Series #1) by Kelley Armstrong

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.

PD July 2008 | 390pp | 01.03.13 | A-

Paranormal/Fantasy/12-17 years

REVIEW

It took me a while to finally read this book since I have a thing with pretty covers (which does not do justice to any plot/story, btw) but reading the plot reminded me a lot of the movie 'The Sixth Sense'.

When I finally started reading this, one forth through the book gave me the bumps since 'The Sixth Sense' kept jumping on me and in fairness to Armstrong, the first few chapters really came out strong (gripping strong that I have to put it down, I got scared).  But this supposedly strong book went to a drudging plateau when Chloe entered the Lyle House and that atmosphere stayed there until the book ended (and I was expecting a climax) and sadly, the book ended hanging.  I think series do that a lot - to write more series.  That is where in-betweens come in, to expound what's left out in the book. 'Tis a good thing this is a trilogy.

I rated this a good book for potential since I've yet to see how Chloe expound her supernatural powers, what Simon's role really and how Derek and Rae evolves in the series. 

Then again, this scene keeps playing in my mind - 'I can see dead people, and some of them do not know they're dead'.  When you read the book, you'll see what I mean.