The Summoning

Darkest Powers, Book 1

By: Kelley Armstrong

Narrated by: Cassandra Morris

Length: 8 hrs and 34 mins

Publisher's summary

"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."

©2008 KLA Fricke, Inc. (P)2008 HarperCollins Publishers

So interesting!

It really has the surprise element going for it. I'm honestly just intrigued by the characters themselves. I like Derek for Chloe better, so I hope they become a thing. It's a really good and fun series, spooky too!

Good for a kid

I like the premise of the story, but the narrator sounds like a small child so it makes it hard to take the book seriously. I get that Chloe is supposed to be “petite and young” but she doesn’t have to be infantilized further with the narrator. It’s weird…

narrator

great book. but the narrator has a very baby girl voice. throws it off a bit. especially the male voices she just can't pull those off.

Loved it

The narrator's voice is exactly how I envisioned Chloe's voice to sound like. Great story

Good start

Since I love Kelley's "woman of the otherworld" series, I have been interested in this book, her new YA novel. I decided to try it in Audio books before reading it. Sometimes I found the narrator annoying, but that is because she DOES sound like what I imagine a teenager might sound like. Thus the main character's fear and confusion in finding out her supernatural talents sounded more genuine.
If you like supernatural YA novel but want a book without overly girly romanticism, you will enjoy the series. I wish I had series like this when I was in junior high!

For young girls

Is there anything you would change about this book?

I would add some maturity to the main character and have a better ending.

What do you think the narrator could have done better?

I think she sounded way too young.

Was The Summoning worth the listening time?

I guess so, but the ending was pretty terrible

Good Stuff!

So, Chloe can see dead people. This power of hers comes on pretty suddenly, thus earning her a one-way ticket to Lyle House and a quick diagnosis of schizophrenia. She meets several teens who seem fairly normal if maybe mentally troubled. But as you already know, dear reader, all is not as it seems at Lyle House and Chloe needs to get to the bottom of things pretty fast or else...

Ok, I have to keep remembering that Chloe is fourteen-going-on-fifteen so that I don't get frustrated with her poor decisions and inability to listen to reason or logic or her instincts. You guys know I'm a fan of a Kick-Ass Heroine and Chloe is not one of those, by far (but maybe soon...).

Overall, I do like her, however, she has a rabid love of movies (as do I, and I love the references). She's funny, fairly smart, concerned for others and an overall good-girl. The cast of characters surrounding her are intriguing. Tori is the token bad girl with secrets yet to be revealed. Simon is the token love interest who is smart, nice and funny. Liz is the sweet roommate who shows Chloe the ropes and would do anything for her. Rae is the street-smart wise-cracker and Derek (Simon's brother) is a grouchy, dark and brooding mystery.

A note on Derek: I know Simon is the evident love interest for Chloe, but I really hope Armstrong takes Chloe is an unexpected direction and hooks her up with Derek. (Although, sometimes, I don't think Chloe deserves him.) Derek is crazy-smart, super-tall and strong, harboring a dark secret and constantly bailing Chloe out of jams. On the downside, he has been hit with a "puberty smackdown" and has horrible acne and smells gross despite taking two showers a day. He has all of the makings of a hottie-in-training and I really hope he grows to be one.

As usual in YA the adults are peripheral characters (for now, I think) and simply represent mistrust, neglect, non-understanding or downright danger.

I feel like Armstrong does a pretty good job of not underestimating her target audience and while some mysteries have obvious answers, many were well-concealed. Overall, a great start to what I am sure is going to be an excellent series.

Perfect!

This was an amazing story to listen to! I am excited to listen to the next 2 books! The writing was great and it was easy to picture everything as the author did a great job covering all the details! The narrator took some time to get used because her voice sounds more child like than teenage, but it didn't bother me as much as some other narrators, and she did great voices for the other characters. I highly recommend this book and consequently the series!

Amazing

I have been re reading these books for years. I never grow tired of them and love every moment. My only wish is to see where they all end up in the end ❤️

Great

Trilogy and time for two. Go on through the wonderful world of the supernatural. Read on.