The Darkest Powers

title: The Darkest Powers trilogy (The Summoning, The Awakening, The Reckoning)
author: Kelley Armstrong
how I read it: all bundled up nicely in one thick book. Since I read it as one book, I’m going to review it as one book! But I’ll only summarize the very first bit, so as not to spoil the story for anyone wanting to read it.

15-year-old Chloe is frightened and confused by the visions that have been plaguing her. She sees people and things that aren’t there, people and things that terrify her but that nobody else can see. Quickly labeled as mentally ill and shipped off to a live-in youth centre, Chloe is determined to prove that she doesn’t belong there. As she learns more about the centre and the other young teens who live there, she starts to understand that there is something far more dangerous and sinister going on beneath the surface than she thought at first.

The ideas behind this book are not new. Supernatural powers show up in adolescence, kids are misunderstood and sent away, people want to control them and their powers, and there’s a classic battle of good against evil (or at least power-hungry). Youth going up against an unfair adult system is a recurring theme in young adult fantasy and science fiction, and this book is no different. But that doesn’t make it any less enjoyable! Sometimes the same themes show up in books time and time again because they’re entertaining, they’re exciting or they make us think. This is, first and foremost, a story about struggling to find yourself in a world that you don’t quite fit into. It’s about fighting against an unfair adult organization that is much stronger than you are.

The Darkest Powers has an obligatory teenage angst love triangle. I don’t have anything against love triangles, so long as they aren’t forced and unbelievable. This one was refreshingly believable and it wasn’t quite so obvious who Chloe would choose in the end. I found myself rooting for all of the three main characters in the book; no one is perfect, but they are all likeable. The love triangle in the book is important and yet almost peripheral to the story, which made it all the more enjoyable.

This is a light, fun read. There are some dark bits, but this wasn’t a book that made me squirm. The pacing is great and the writing flows smoothly. This trilogy won’t change the way that you look at the world, but you’ll have a lot of fun reading it!

This book made me want to: learn to draw comics.

Verdict: a fun read, perfect for summer vacation.

Sequels: the three books can be purchased individually or bound together. I know that Armstrong wrote some other books in the same universe, so I'll be looking for them.