Chloe and her other friends with magical powers escape a sinister research experiment center, discover how to control their magical powers, and join forces with a resistance group set against sabotaging the research center. Chloe Saunders is a teenage girl who is on the run from scientists with intentions to do experiments on her and her magical ability to communicate with the dead. She and her friend, Rae, are previous members of a youth group at a place called Lyle House - a place where teens with mental illnesses are sent to be treated. In the previous book of the trilogy, The Summoning, the girls along with two other boys, Simon and Derek, discover that they may have been kept at Lyle House for observation and that Dr. Davidoff, the head of Lyle House, may have more sinister reasons for keeping the teens in “captivity”. They almost succeed in escaping Lyle House and Dr. Davidoff; however, Chloe goes to her Aunt for help and finds out that her Aunt was part of Dr. Davidoff's program. Now, Dr. Davidoff has recaptured Chloe and Rae and he wants Chloe to tell him where Simon and Derek have gone, since the two boys managed to escape his grasp once again. Chloe realizes she's not exactly in a position to refuse, so she makes up fake rendezvous points to keep Dr. Davidoff and her Aunt busy while she figures out a way to escape the hospital. Chloe, uses her necromantic power to try to get help from the ghost of a former friend, Liz.
Click here to see the rest of this review...
When she tries to summon Liz, she instead summons the ghost of another previous Lyle house tenant, Brady. Brady tells her that they are all products of Dr. Davidoff's experiments. Suddenly, Brady's spirit is controlled by another person – a mysterious woman. But, before Chloe can figure out more, the spirit leaves. Later, Dr. Davidoff explains to Chloe that he is part of an organization called the Edison Group, based around Thomas Edison, who believed in the afterlife and wanted to communicate with it through science. He explains that the Edison Group was founded by “supernaturals” – other beings with powers – and it is dedicated to bettering the lives of supernaturals. Finally, he explains that oftentimes, the powers of supernaturals manifest in adolescence very strongly, and that he put them in Lyle House so that they wouldn't harm each other or a normal human. Chloe doesn't believe Dr. Davidoff is telling her the whole truth as she wonders what happened to Brady and Liz. Though Chloe doesn't want to believe Dr. Davidoff's propaganda, Rae does, putting a wedge in Chloe and Rae's friendship.
Chloe discovers that Tori, another teen who had treated her really badly back at Lyle House, are also at the hospital. Chloe and Tori somewhat form a truce, with Tori revealing that she is a witch. Tori inadvertently sends lightning bolts of power at Chloe who is saved when Liz appears and pushes her aside. Later on, Chloe tries to talk to Liz but again Liz's spirit is taken over by a stronger spirit who explains that she has been trapped by Dr. Davidoff for centuries, her energy being used to power the hospital and research facilities. The spirit asks Chloe to free her and in exchange it will help her escape. Chloe is wary and doesn't take up the offer.
Later, Chloe discovers that Dr. Davidoff is running an experiment to allow supernaturals to better control their powers and not suffer from the side-effects of magic. She finds out that she, Rae, Tori, Simon and Derek are the subjects of the experiment. A few days later, Dr. Davidoff takes Chloe, Tori and Rae out to find Simon and Derek, who are still loose. They go to a rendezvous point that Chloe chose. Dr. Davidoff, Tori's mom and Chloe's Aunt all put themselves in a “blur” spell which allows them to be invisible and they split up to search for the boys, with Tori's mom accompanying Chloe. At the last moment, Liz appears to distract everyone, then Tori also appears and uses her powers to subdue her mom so that Chloe and Tori can escape. They are almost caught again however Chloe's Aunt Lauren helps them escape as this time, she truly believes that Dr. Davidoff may not be a good man like he sells himself to be. Just as Chloe and Tori get away, Tori's mom appears and knocks out Chloe's Aunt.
Tori and Chloe reunite with Simon and Derek but Simon and Derek don't trust Tori. Eventually, because of Chloe's refusal to leave without Tori, they agree to let the girl come along on their escape. They decide to get as far away from the Edison group as possible. Naturally, with Tori's irascible attitude, there is lots of tension in the group. One day, Chloe and Tori go off to find a place to sleep and run into a gang of girls. Tori has to use her magic to knock the girls out so that they can get away. One of the gang members catches up with Chloe and corners her. Derek comes to her rescue but Chloe has to restrain him from doing any permanent damage he might regret. Though the experience was frightening, the teens slowly learn how to control their magical powers. The teens disguise themselves by dying their hair and getting new clothes. They get tickets for a bus to take them out of the city.
At a truck stop, Derek suddenly feels the Changing coming over him. Derek's supernatural power is that he is a werewolf. Chloe is the only one who is around when Derek changes, a frightening experience for both Chloe and Derek. Somehow, it brings them closer together, though. After changing into a wolf and back to human again, Derek and Chloe realize the bus has already left. They try to get new tickets but they can't afford the fare so they end up having to walk. One day, they are intercepted by another gang of men – this time they are a gang of werewolf men. The gang think that Derek is part of a rival werewolf gang and that he killed a member of their own gang. Derek and Chloe barely escape, but they know that they're leaving a trail of scent that will make it easy for the werewolves to follow.
Derek and Chloe reunite with Simon and Tori in a house way out of town – a house that belongs to someone Simon and Derek trust, a man named Andrew, who is a sorcerer like Simon. They need to come up with a new plan as to what to do next. One day, Derek, using his werewolf senses, hears noises in the distance and he and Chloe follow the noises through the woods. Someone sees them and tries to shoot them – Chloe hopes it's only a hunter. Much to their dismay, it is the Edison Group, again, who have somehow followed their trail. The Edison Group almost catch them again, however, Andrew appears and helps them escape. During the escape, Chloe thought she saw her Aunt, however no one else saw her so she has a bad feeling that her Aunt was killed and she saw her ghost.
Andrew explains that he's part of a supernaturals group that is against what the Edison Group is doing. The story ends with Andrew taking them to his safe house.
Best part of story, including ending:
I like that Chloe and Derek become a lot closer in this story as Derek is one of those personalities that is very introverted and doesn't trust others easily. Despite his "bad boy" exterior, however, he is a nice guy and I'm glad that in this segment of the trilogy, Chloe gets to know the better side of him - not the violent, constantly-on-edge side of him she had to experience in the first book of the trilogy.
Best scene in story:
My favorite scene was when Chloe has to experience Derek changing into a werewolf. I like this scene because it showed Derek at his most vulnerable as he is still getting used to his new-found powers and he is afraid that once he changes, he won't be able to control what he does. With Chloe's help, however, he is able to calmly change into a wolf and back. This moment brings Chloe and Derek closer together.
Opinion about the main character:
I like that Chloe is not one to hold grudges as even though Tori treated her very badly in the first book of the trilogy, she ends up being good friends with Tori and in fact, being the only one in their vagabond group who actually has empathy for Tori's messed up family (Tori's mom is a slightly crazy woman who believes in The Edison Group and will even kill Tori in order to get what she wants).
