The Summoning
2008
- fiction
- ghost stories
- ghosts
- group homes
- horror
- juvenile fiction
- supernatural
- paranormal fiction
- canadian fantasy fiction
- nyt:chapter-books=2008-08-03
The story
My name is Chloe Saunders and my life will never be the same again. All I wanted was to make friends, meet boys, and keep on being ordinary. I don't even know what that means anymore. It all started on the day that I saw my first ghost—and the ghost saw me. Now there are ghosts everywhere and they won't leave me alone. To top it all off, I somehow got myself locked up in Lyle House, a "special home" for troubled teens. Yet the home isn't what it seems. Don't tell anyone, but I think there might be more to my housemates than meets the eye. The question is, whose side are they on? It's up to me to figure out the dangerous secrets behind Lyle House...before its skeletons come back to haunt me.
What it’s like
Cool, flat, institutional settings carry most of this book's mood: a remote group home with locked doors, shared bedrooms, and grey routine, pierced by ghosts that appear in ordinary corners. The narration is a first-person teenage voice, chatty and wry, quick to undercut its own fear with sarcasm, so the unease comes in sharp bursts rather than long build-ups. Vibe: creepy-funny, slightly unsettled, a little claustrophobic. It suits a rainy afternoon, a long train ride, or a late-night read when you want to be spooked without being overwhelmed. Pacing is brisk and chapter-driven, with short scenes and frequent cliffhangers. The emotional arc follows a girl who feels out of place and slowly learns who she can trust among the housemates and staff. Intensity is low to moderate: ghostly encounters with eerie, sometimes startling imagery, a few tense confrontations, and some bullying and rough-edged teen dynamics, but no gore and no sexual content. It is for young adult readers, and for adults who like accessible supernatural mysteries with a strong narrator.
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