I really enjoy Kelley Armstrong books, and to have one in YA is a special treat. This is the first in her Darkest Powers trilogy. In this book we r introduced to the characters and main plot points. Chloe is a fifteen year old girl who at the start of puberty starts seeing ghosts. Grown ups, including her beloved aunt Lauren, call crazy and she is diagnosed schizophrenic and moved to a special group home for kids with mental disorders.
At Lyle House, she meets her roommate Liz (who thinks she has a poltergeist haunting her), Rae (who wants to be special and has a penchant for fire), Tory (the daughter of a board member and at Lyle House the longest for her moody outbursts), Simon (the blond Korean kid with artistic flair and easy going personality...and no file), and Derek (the genius child-man who puberty gave a "smack down" to).
Basically sooner rather than later Chloe starts finding out something isn't right and maybe she isn't so much a schizo as a necromancer. Lyle House has it's secrets and each kid has his own story. The boys r brothers and something happened to their dad and CPS dumped them at Lyle House after "an accident" in which Derek left a kid unable to walk (we later find out some punks were harassing Simon for his ethnic background and pulled a knife on him so he flung the kid off to protect his brother). He is violent and grumpy and hiding his own super power from Chloe. The boys know about supernatural races and r the ones who tell Chloe what she is. After a series of events and mounting unrest they decide to run away w Chloe to try and find their dad.
On the night of the planned escape, a lot goes wrong. Chloe learns what Derek really is, she learns what Lyle House is really about, and is betrayed left and right.
I don't know that the book is good as a stand alone. It prob won't b something I read over and over for it's own merit, but it does it's job in establishing the story and characters. My only real complaint is Chloe's character being a weak little rich girl, but then again, she is a little rich girl w no real life experience and she has to have somewhere to grow from and develop as a character. She is into films and will talk herself up to something or thru something by framing it as a script or scene for a movie and that was a bit distracting, but along w Chloe, as the reader, first u r ignorant and safe in what u believe is the normal world around you, until u start digging a little deeper and start to question and grow and make ur own decisions about what is real or possible and who is really on ur side and what u need to do to survive. Still love it and recommend to any fan of YA, Kelley Armstrong, or Supernatural YA/romance.
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