Book Jacket:
Strange things are happening in Maya’s tiny Vancouver Island town. First, her friend Serena, the captain of the swim team, drowns mysteriously in the middle of a calm lake. Then, one year later, mountain lions are spotted rather frequently around Maya’s home—and her reactions to them are somewhat . . . unexpected. Her best friend, Daniel, has also been experiencing unexplainable premonitions about certain people and situations.
It doesn’t help that the new bad boy in town, Rafe, has a dangerous secret, and he’s interested in one special part of Maya’s anatomy—her paw-print birthmark.
You can read an excerpt here.
Review:
I would put The Gathering firmly on par with the first trilogy in Kelley Armstrong’s Darkest Powers series (The Summoning, The Awakening, and The Reckoning). If you’re a fan of the first three books, I think you’ll be happy with this latest addition – and if you’re a first timer, never fear, this trilogy features an all new cast of characters and makes for an easy entree into Armstrong’s Otherworld. As for me, I found this book to be a pleasant, easy read – but I ultimately found it to be lacking in plot, which is exactly what I thought of first three. So while there’s enough to these books to keep me reading – the characters are always likable enough, and the stories have a fun, sinister air – I just am never entirely satisfied with this series.
Still, there is an alluring X-Files like atmosphere to this book, from the Vancouver wilderness (The X-Files was shot in Vancouver for years and years), to the remote, isolated nature of the town, to the secretive corporation that runs the island and the mysterious abilities the teenagers begin to develop – this book oozes X-Files style conspiracy, which I am powerless to resist. And yes, it’s not shockingly original – evil corporation, teen powers – but it’s still fun.
The teen protagonists are all perfectly sympathetic, and I particularly enjoyed the friendship between Maya and Daniel – it’s so refreshing to see an honest, slightly awkward but rock solid boy/girl friendship. I also really liked the practical and intelligent way the teens dealt with the discovery of their abilities – it was wonderfully pragmatic, and a nice mix of kids being smart but still making perfectly natural mistakes. I’ll admit, Maya and Rafe’s the relationship did irk me – the dark, bad boy from out of town who is tamed by the good girl is such a ridiculously overused trope – but I liked how Maya resisted him at first, and called him on his BS. I didn’t completely buy in to the evolution of their relationship – the attraction hovered near insta-love territory – but overall I appreciated Maya’s self respect. Still, I’ll freely admit I’m rooting for Maya to get together with Daniel in the end.
The murder at the beginning of this story sets the stage for an interesting mystery, and there were fun hints at the conspiracy going on behind the scenes, but nothing ever really materializes in this book – honestly, I’m now four books into this series and I still have yet to feel satisfied by the overarching plot. This book was very much a setting of the stage – it worked well for introducing everyone and filling in their back stories, and there was a nice bit of action towards the end, but it really wasn’t a fully formed plot. The murder is left completely hanging, and nothing truly substantive is revealed – and what what was revealed was pretty obvious. Still, Armstrong is contracted for 9 books in this series, so there are two more to go in this trilogy, and then a final three books that will bring together the characters from both sets, so there is plenty more to come. I’m genuinely hopeful that Armstrong will bring it all together in the end, and I’m willing to stick around to find out.
So The Gathering is an light, pleasant read – but I really can’t say it’s more than that.
Byrt Grade: B+
As Levar Burton used to say – you don’t have to take my word for it…
This one had a really slow start for me and I found myself struggling to get into the story. I stuck with it and by found myself enchanted by the whole group of characters and now I can’t wait to read the next one to see what happens next. There are so many unanswered questions I have after finishing this one up.
This is not a novel; this is the first third of a novel. This is only the exposition of a novel. Almost everything in this book is a set-up for the next two in the trilogy. The cliffhanger isn’t even really a cliffhanger as much as it is a “turn the page to find out” only to find out there’s nothing on the next page.
My reaction, upon reaching the last page of this book, was to shout “Noooooooooo!” and immediately wish that it wasn’t a hideously long ten months until 2012. So, um, I guess you could say that I loved it…If you’ve read the Darkest Powers books, you know that the set up in Salmon Falls is hinky. But you’re still able to grasp why it seems so normal to Maya, her friends and her family. The sinister undertone flavors the entire novel and it’s delicious.
OMG i love your book
it quite a bit.
One thing about this book, though, is that it was too rushed, without many answers. She presents a problem, or gives you a mystery, but does not solve it or give you many very good clues. I think she just has way too much stuff going on in this book. If you’ll take a look at the other series, you could see that she did a very good job of spacing stuff out. I liked both of these series’ !!!!!!!