| The Summoning | |
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Cover of The Summoning |
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| Author(s) | Kelley Armstrong |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | Darkest Powers |
| Genre(s) | Paranormal Horror Paranormal Romance Urban Fantasy |
| Publisher | HarperTeen |
| Publication date | July 1, 2008 |
| Media type | Print (Softcover) |
| Pages | 390 pp |
| ISBN | 9780061662690 |
| Followed by | The Awakening |
The Summoning is a novel by Kelley Armstrong, and is the first book in the Darkest Powers series. It was released July 1, 2008.
Chloe is fifteen and going to a Fine Arts school. Her father is working as a contractor in Berlin, Germany and she is taken care of by her aunt, Lauren Fellows, a nurse. At school, she is asked out to the dance by a boy named Nate Bozian, and has her first period. The effect of this, however, causes Chloe to ultimately see a ghost, with his face almost completely melted off, and begins screaming, running, and attacking a teacher accidentally, culminating in her being removed from school and locked up in Lyle House, a group home for "troubled teens."
She is introduced to the nurses, Mrs. Talbot, Mrs. Wang, and Miss Van Dop. Chloe meets her roommate after waking up and seeing Liz look through her clothes, Liz is a sixteen-year old, who introduces her to the others, Tori is fifteen and in ninth grade while Rae, Liz, Derek and Simon are in tenth grade (Simon and Rae are both still fifteen) and Peter, an eighth grader. Derek, Chloe soon learns that he is extremely quiet, often frightening her, and Tori (who has an unrequited crush on Simon) does not get along with Rae very well, although she and Liz are best friends. Each teen is assigned chores and does their regular schoolwork independently, so while doing laundry one day, Chloe encounters another ghost. After her first day, Chloe visits the psychiatrist Dr. Gill, who diagnoses her with schizophrenia.
Liz is later accused of throwing a pencil at Ms. Wang, who threatens to have her transferred, and quit teaching the children in the house. Rae and Chloe talk more, and she learns that Rae supposedly is a pyromaniac; the two quickly become friends. That night, Chloe is woken by a fearful Liz, who believes that she has a poltergeist and convinces her to help with a seance to ward it off. However, it goes horribly wrong, with a a bottle full of gel crashing down on Chloe and the nurses discovering. Liz is transferred that day, but Chloe sees her that night, with Liz apparently unaware of her transfer. Chloe passes her hand through her, and begins to suspect that Liz's ghost appeared to her, meaning that she would be dead. Tori, stricken, stays in her room, while taking her meds (she is known to be the med queen) . While surfing the Internet with the intention of contacting her friends, Chloe researches necromancy at Derek's suggestion, learning that necromancers raise ghosts from the dead. Beginning to suspect she might be one, she realizes that the medication given to her might be hindering her from seeing ghosts (as the ghosts she saw only spoke bit by bit English) and resolves to stop talking to them. She also receives a note from Simon asking to talk with her in the basement.
Upon entering the basement, she discovers that it was Derek who wrote the note, and he asks her what she thinks about necromancy. Thinking he is trying to frighten her, Chloe tries to get away, but unintentionally Derek throws her across the room with his enormous strength, leaving marks on her arm. Chloe sees another ghost, but forces it away, and sees Liz, who remembers the last thing as being the seance. Rae confronts her about not telling her. M. Talbot catches Chloe talking to ghosts in the attic and convinces Chloe that she is not as cured as she thought. She visits Dr. Gill again, who begins having her urine tested to make sure Chloe is taking her medication, and Derek asks to meet her again- this time in his room. Rae and Chloe make up, and they visit the basement where Chloe has been seeing the ghost, breaking in, but noting. She goes to speak with Derek, who takes a shower, while Simon explains that he and his foster brother are supernaturals, and their father, Christopher Bae (who is known as Kit), searched for specific types. He is a sorcerer, they suspect Liz was a shaman who could astral project, Chloe is a necromancer, and Derek is indeterminate. After learning about her meds, Derek and Simon decide that she needs to be off them to see ghosts, and have her put her urine in a glass jar, so that she will not have to get rid of them and arouse suspicion.
After asking to visit Liz, Chloe is refused, further arousing her suspicions that she was killed. Tori's mother, Mrs. Enright, visits Lyle House, and commands Tori to stop hanging out with Simon and to start getting better. Tori, distraught and angry, visits Chloe while the others (except Derek) are out swimming, and declares a truce, claiming to know of something she might want to see. The girls go down to the basement crawl space, and Tori knocks Chloe out with a broken brick, ties her up, and gags her. After waking up, Chloe discovers her plight, and unexpectedly raises the ghosts from the graves there. Frightened, she tries to escape, and is found by Derek, who helps her put the dead to rest again. Dr. Gill discovers them covered in dirt, and Aunt Lauren later learns about it; they assume that the two had gotten together alone because they like each other, and Davidoff puts them both on notice. Rae hears her version of the story, and she talks with Simon about her aspirations to become a movie director. Simon explains about Derek's previous incident, and they make plans to escape with Derek's help. She confronts Derek about it, explaining that the only reason she is escaping is because someone needs to help Simon out, and he will not. On a favor, she asks Derek's help to summon the dead again; she summons the ghost but cannot understand him and so summons the ghost of a witch, who explains that Samuel Lyle, who built the house, was a sorcerer and experimented on her and her companion because of their powers, before murdering them.
Chloe Saunders is a fifteen-year-old girl who aspires to become a film director and goes to an art school. She is diagnosed as a schizophrenic. Although she is given a choice, the options make it clear that Lyle House was forced upon her for an expedient recovery. She is actually a necromancer, someone who is able to see and raise ghosts from the dead. She is taken to Lyle House after seeing a ghost and reacting violently. Chloe comes to realize the others' powers, and that they were all placed in Lyle House specifically. She gets along particularly well with Rae and Simon, developing some feelings for them later. Not sure for her feelings for Derek however. She is contacted several times by her former roommate, Liz, who was transferred, and derives her suspicion from the fact that Liz would have to be a ghost, and therefore dead, for her to speak with Chloe. She escapes Lyle House after learning of its true nature from its ghosts, despite being drugged and taken to a hospital afterward. She is shown to have some control of her abilities by the end of the book, which she uses to contact Liz's ghost to help her escape. She is described as small (about five feet), often mistaken for a child and having blue eyes with blond hair that she streaks red to make her look older.
Derek Souza is a sixteen-year-old who is described as extremely tall, having black hair, green eyes, and having acne problems. He often frightens Chloe because he is so strong, but this is later attributed to the fact that he is a werewolf, capable of extreme strength, speed, hearing, and sight. Derek and his foster brother, Simon, share a close bond, and Derek at first wants to stay behind while the others make their escape. He thinks that he is dangerous and that Lyle House is where he belongs. Despite hesitance on both sides, he and Chloe become better friends through trying to escape and his helping her with her necromancer problems, and after she witnesses him shapeshifting. He is diagnosed as antisocial at Lyle House, and he is there because of an incident years ago caused by his protecting Simon against a racially motivated attack.
Rachelle "Rae" Rogers is another fifteen-year-old who is a half-demon, able to produce and project fire from her skin, a skill which she demonstrates early on by burning Tori, one of the other girls who she does not get along with. She is revealed as a half-demon only after she has been diagnosed as a pyromaniac at Lyle House. Rae's powers only manifest when she is especially angry. Rae develops a close friendship with Chloe, being the first she confides in, becoming her roommate after Liz leaves, and is suggested by her to escape with them. She is captured along with Chloe after going to her Aunt Lauren for help. She is described as having copper skin and copper curls.
Simon Bae is a sorcerer of Korean and Swedish descent who can cast spells, such as levitation and mist projection. He is also fifteen-years-old. His father, a lawyer named Kit Bae, worked for the Edison Group, eventually adopting Simon's foster brother, Derek, with whom he shares a close bond. Simon is shown to be very easygoing, as opposed to Derek's tense nature, and has a diabetic problem. He develops feelings for Chloe, agreeing to help her escape. He will do anything for his brother, which influences Derek's decision to stay after choosing to distract Davidoff for the girls to escape. He has not been diagnosed; he is at Lyle House because Derek was taken there and their father is missing.
Victoria "Tori" Enright is a sixteen-year-old who is best friends with Liz. She is shown to have a crush on Simon, who does not return the feelings. She views Chloe and him always hanging out as Chloe "stealing" him. She also does not get along with Rae, confronting her several times. Liz was her only close friend at Lyle House. It is speculated that Tori has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder. She is described as tall with short spiky black hair.
Elizabeth "Liz" Delaney is a sixteen-year-old who is Chloe's roommate before she left Lyle House, and is best friends with Tori. It is thought that she is a shaman and can unknowingly use astral projection , which results in her transfer after she unwittingly throws a pencil at one of the nurses. (In later books, it is discovered that Liz is really a telekinetic half-demon.) Liz is transferred, and as Chloe later learns, killed, due to her powers getting out of hand. Her ghost appears to Chloe several times unaware of her being dead, and she is summoned by Chloe after she is taken captive again. She is described as having long blond hair and being very talkative.
Dr. Lauren Fellows is Chloe's aunt, who is very protective of her. She is the woman Chloe trusts most in the world, and who she goes to after escaping from Lyle House with a wounded arm. However, Aunt Lauren betrays her to Dr. Davidoff, drugging her and taking her to a hospital.
Dr. Marcel Davidoff is the head of Lyle House, a scientist who oversees all patients and reports on their progress from time to time. He helps capture Chloe and Rae, and is shown to have influence over what the doctors can and cannot do.
Diane Enright is Tori's mother. She is a financier who donates much money to Lyle House, shown in the excerpt to have influence over even Davidoff.
Critical reception was mostly positive, with The Voice of Teen Advocates calling it "Suspenseful, well-written and engaging". Melissa Marr, author of the New York Times bestseller Wicked Lovely, gives the novel a positive review, saying, "You'll be desperate for a sequel." "Teen readers might scream loud enough to raise the dead" says Kirkus Reviews, who gave the novel a starred review. The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books calls The Summoning "splendidly haunting". It was a New York Times bestseller.
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