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The Summoning: Darkest Powers, Book 1 (Unabridged) | 
 enlarge | Author: Kelley Armstrong
Publisher: audible.com
Category: Book
List Price: $29.95
Buy New: $15.73
You Save: $14.22 (47%)
Avg. Customer Rating:  38 reviews
Media: Audio Download
ASIN: B001DVZU0A
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Product Description
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.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 33 more reviews...
 Armstrong does YA November 29, 2008
The Summoning (Book One of the Darkest Powers series), by Kelley Armstrong
What It's About: Chloe, a surprisingly not-spoiled rich kid, starts seeing dead people, and they start seeing her. After a terrifying encounter with one insistent spirit, she's locked away in Lyle House, a group home for troubled teens, where all is not as it seems.
Why I Picked It Up: I realized I'd read and liked her adult stuff, and I'm a sucker for YA.
What I Liked: Very tangly-twisty storyline, but just enough to keep me interested and not lose me. And the twist at the end caught me unawares, which is difficult to do.
What I Didn't: Big print. Really big print. Like, children's picture book big print. Highly distracting. And for some reason, just as we came to the climax...I can't exactly put my finger on it, but the story seemed to lose steam, somehow. The last five pages hooked me again, though.
What Was Different: A rather interesting love triangle--will Chloe end up with handsome Simon, or will she gravitate toward the slightly gruesome Derek, who totes along a veritable duffel bag of personal demons?
Overall: A nicely entertaining book. See you in May for The Awakening, Armstrong. Four Cheez-Its out of five.
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 Excellent November 21, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
The summoning is a teen novel by bestselling author Kelley Armstrong. I listened to the unabridged audio edition of this book and thought it was excellent.
The plot? Chloe Saunders nearly loses it at school when she sees the ghost of a dead janitor. Believing she is mentally ill, she is sent to a group care facility for troubled teens, where she tries to learn to deal with her problems. But is she really mentally ill or does she have a secret power?
What can I say? this story was excellent. Chloe is a breath of fresh air, especially after ditzy Lucille ballesque Jaime. Ghosties and the necromancer shtick isn't really my bag but I thought it worked. Chloe doesn't have Jaime's callousness or knowledge, but she has a good heart and she is more sympathetic than Jaime. I also really liked her relationship with the other characters such as Derek, Tori, and the other girls at the academy. I liked the little references to Chloe's screenplay writing , I also liked the `isolated' feel in this book. Like these teens were apart from the supernatural world. One of the things I dislike about her recent books is that she makes the supernatural too commonplace, and the characters too `aware' of each other. I liked the isolation of this story, and I was glad she refrained from adding cameos from her other characters to the mix.
The narration of this book was excellent. The narrator really captures Chloe's youthfulness, Derek's reticence as well as the other characters.
I would highly recommend this for mature teens and adults. I can't wait for the sequel.
Great book! November 14, 2008
This book was amazing. I didn't expect to like it so much, but once i started it i could not put it down. The only thing that sucks is that i have to wait for the next book. uggh!
 If You Like Supernatural Suspense & Romance... November 10, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
A likely bet for fans of Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series. Armstrong's teenage characters seem weak on reasoning and planning skills--but that's not an altogether unheard of pubescent condition. Or is the book just weak on motivation and plot? Well, perhaps. The strongest element of this YA novel is probably its depiction of various relationship tensions between the inmates of Lyle House's rehabilitation program for mentally disturbed teens. One certainly senses the nascent love triangle between Chloe, the main character, and the brothers Simon (a super-cute sorcerer) and Derek (a self-hating werewolf). Then again, Armstrong has crafted a real page-turner here, complete with an unsuspected plot twist and cliffhanger ending. Her greatest achievement in the novel might be in creating an audience eager--desperate even--to read the next installment of the planned trilogy.
If you enjoyed The Summoning or Twilight, I highly recommend Margaret Mahy's The Changeover, one of the best, most enjoyable books I've ever read. (Yes, Ever.)
An amazing read for my day! November 4, 2008
Reviewed by Avni Gupta (age 15) for Reader Views (11/08)
When I got "the Summoning" in the mail, I was extremely excited about reading it. I had already read some reviews about it and it looked like an amazing book. When I opened the package that it was in, I was amazed at how pretty and intricate the cover was. I was really excited about starting it then.
At first, before Chloe is put in the group home for troubled teens, the book was really boring, and I didn't see much of a significance of what was happening. Later on however, everything came together and I understood it so much better. In this book, Chloe Saunders can see ghosts. Because of this, she almost jumps out of a window! In light of this fact her aunt sends her to the Lyle house for mentally unstable kids. There, Chloe is told that she has schizophrenia.
Later in the book, Chloe finds out that there is something weird going on in the Lyle house. All of the kids there have some sort of magical power. Now Chloe must figure out a way to get out of there before they take away her ability to see ghosts and help them forever!
I really thought that this was an amazing book! I feel like if anybody ever needs a book to read, they should go ahead and pick this one because it was awesome! The only part that I didn't really enjoy is the fact that it ends really abruptly. I know that there's going to be a sequel, but still, the author could have given us a little more to go with at the ending. Everything else about the book was amazing.
Even if you do not like fantasy or sci-fi books, you should like this one. It is more about figuring out who you are than it is about their powers.
Another thing that I loved about this book was how the writing flowed. There weren't any awkward pauses or scenes in the book. They all went together very well, in turn making "The Summoning" by Kelley Armstrong really interesting.
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