The Awakening

The Awakening by Kelley Armstrong

Darkest Powers 

ISBN# 978-0-06-166276-8

Available April 28

Published by HarperCollins

Format: trade pbk., 358 pages

Genres: YA, fiction, urban fantasy

The Awakening picks up almost exactly where the first book, The Summoning, left off.  If you love Armstrong's Women of the Otherworld series you will quickly be sucked into the Darkest Powers trilogy almost from the first page.  Both are set in the same world, where half-demons, sorcerers, witches, werewolves, etc. exist secretly, but in this trilogy most of the teens are not aware that Supernaturals exist at all. 

 In the first book Chloe exhibited powers, but the school convinced her father she was a troubled teens so she ended up in a group home called Lyle House.  She knows she isn't crazy and once she gets to know the other kids she doubts most of them are either, so what's really going on?  Derek and Simon seem to know a lot more than anyone else, but when they start talking about necromancers and sorcerers Chloe thinks they might just belong at the home after all.  With Tori trying to kill her and Liz's mysterious disappearance the book ends with Chloe, Derek, Simon, and Rae making a run for it.

This book starts with Chloe and Rae as "guests" once again of the Edison Group, the real face of Lyle House.  Derek and Simon are still on the run and the doctors quickly try to use Simon's diabetes to make the girls tell them where they're hiding.  Chloe knows that nothing good is planned for her being in a lab, surrounded by doctors.  This becomes even more clear when she meets yet another teenage ghost, this time a boy, who was staying at Lyle House.  Rae wants to stay so when Chloe tries her cover story of not remembering exactly where she was to meet the boys, but she's sure she'll recognize it if she sees it it's Tori that backs her up by saying she needs a shopping trip anyway.  Once at the factory complex it takes a great deal more than Chloe thought it would to escape their keepers, but then they still have to wait for the boys to find them.  Now that the gang is all together the boys decide they should leave town and head for their father's friend Andrew's place who, hopefully, has more answers than they do at the moment.  Is there finally one safe place for these teens or is yet another betrayal waiting for them?

I read a lot of YA these days and maybe it's because most YA these days have main characters that seem very adult most of the time.  While this may be a good thing for me and other adults I sometimes wonder if it's such a good thing for the teens the book is supposed to be aimed at.  Kelley Armstrong manages to write a story both adults and teens will like while keeping her teenage characters still recognizable as teens.  They may have "super powers", but they also have self image issues and are very obviously still figuring out their individual identities.  Chloe is our smart, quick thinking heroine, but all she sees of herself is her baby fine hair and a body that looks far too much like a boy's.  Derek is strong, protects his friends, and will eventually be able to turn into a werewolf, but puberty has him very sensitive about his severe acne and overactive sweat glands.  I love these books so far along with the characters.  I can't wait to see where the final book will take us.  Highly recommended no matter how old you are, as long as you're an urban fantasy fan of course.

Zhye