Books › The Summoning
The Summoning
416 pages
A claustrophobic, supernatural mystery where teenage angst collides with sinister institutional secrets.
What it feels like
Reading this book feels like stepping back into the golden era of YA paranormal thrillers, where every shadow hides a secret and the adults are definitely not to be trusted. The narrative moves at a brisk, suspenseful clip, trapping you inside a claustrophobic group home alongside a cast of supernaturally gifted, highly suspicious teenagers. The mood is distinctly eerie and paranoid, perfectly capturing the terrifying vulnerability of being told you are losing your mind when you know exactly what you saw. It is an accessible, highly bingeable experience driven by conversational prose that keeps the tension high. Fans of sinister institutional settings, slow-burn mysteries, and the classic gifted teens banding together trope will find this an incredibly satisfying, nostalgic, and gripping read.
- Mood
- eerie
- claustrophobic
- tense
- mysterious
- Tone
- earnest
- suspenseful
- paranoid
- relatable
- Pace
- brisk
- Themes
- institutional distrust · coming of age · hidden strength · unlikely alliances · burden of power
- The writing
- Accessible and conversational, anchoring the reader tightly to the protagonist's immediate anxieties and discoveries.
- The arc
- Moves from the terrifying confusion of losing one's grip on reality to a fierce, rebellious determination to survive.
- Who it's for
- Readers who devour classic YA paranormal thrillers featuring gifted teens, sinister authorities, and slow-burn supernatural mysteries.
Content notes
- institutionalization
- gaslighting
- death and ghosts
- medical trauma
About the book
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.
Description from Open Library.
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