The Summoning by Kelley Armstrong

The Summoning by Kelley Armstrong

This was taken from goodreads.com/jess_readerwriter, I wrote the review freely and I apologize if the reviews are not written in a professional manner.

Synopsis:  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 rating: 5 stars of 5
Characters were believable
Plot was different and well thought out
This book doesn't get nearly as much credit as it should. This is one of my favorite series, another reread, but I had forgotten about it. When I had finally gotten the third book, I decided to reread the whole series again and man, I'm glad I did. There wasn't a dull moment in this story.



Chloe Saunders is motherless with an always out-of-town father. Shes short, skinny, and quite boring. Then one day, she wakes up from a terrifying nightmare about seeing ghosts in a basement when she was younger. When she gets to school, she calls to tell her Aunt about the dream and her Aunt tells her she needs to talk. On her way to the bathroom, Chloe starts her period and puberty is slammed into her when all of a sudden, she leaves the bathroom, a custodian with a burned face starts chasing her down and she realizes it's a ghost. Obviously, no one else can see it so she is sent to a group home and diagnosed with schizophrenia. Excluding herself, others in the home have "special" powers and Chloe is left with questions and in need of answers when a ghost at the home is trying to get in contact with her about the past of the Lyle House.



I loved this story, I finished it in two days. I could NOT put it down. Chloe is a believable character. Thank God that she is a skinny, tiny little strawberry blonde and not some curvy, long black haired busty girl who hit puberty way before she should have, like in other books. The story just keeps rolling, there isn't a spot where you want to put it down. I took the book into the bathroom with me 'cause I couldn't put it down. Armstrong had a story to tell and told it beautifully. Now I have the next book and I'm ready to see what Chloe and her friends are up to. I highly reccomend this book to the 14 and up age group. Some scenes scared me a teensy bit but, that could just be because I am a scaredy cat. But who knows.