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    The Gathering
    The Gathering
    The Gathering
    Audiobook10 hours

    The Gathering

    Written by Anne Enright

    Narrated by Terry Donnelly

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    Regarded as one of her country's foremost voices, Irish author Anne Enright makes a fresh mark on a rich literary tradition. "The Gathering" is a deeply insightful family saga, steeped in secrets and intrigue, unfolding over three generations. "Enright's hypnotic prose turns . desperation into something fierce and beautiful."-Booklist, starred review
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateMar 3, 2008
    ISBN9781436116862

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    Reviews for The Gathering

    4/5

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    • 1/5
      The book might’ve been OK but the narrator was so slow with a long pause after each comma and period. I listen to a lot of audiobooks and rarely quit partway but I just could not handle the slowness and felt like I was going to fall asleep. I guess I will have to read the regular book.
    • 4/5
      Somehow my rating and review for this book was lost, so it won't be as detailed as before.

      This is another book series for Kelley Armstrong and another one that I loved reading. I think I like this one more, but only a little bit.

      I loved the main character Maya, she is strong, level-headed and a natural leader. The beginning is building the world up and getting to know the characters. The main action doesn't start til close to the end and will continue on into the next book.

      I didn't mind that about this book, since I loved getting to know the characters and Maya is not annoying to read from her POV.

      I would recommend this book and the series to anybody. I read them all quickly and enjoyed them very much.
    • 5/5
      I really liked this and couldn't believe it was over when I was reading the last page. It seemed too short to me but am really looking forward to book 2.
    • 3/5
      I love Kelley Armstrong and even if I don’t get her books as soon as they come out, I still make sure to grab them when I can. She is a favorite of mine. So when I was finally able to pick up The Gathering, I was super excited and started reading it almost immediately.As always the writing and story were fantastic. Easy to read and addictive. You want to keep reading. However, I just didn’t connect with the characters. I liked Daniel and Maya was alright but other than that I just didn’t care about them. I didn’t life Rafe at all. There were only one or two tiny parts where I smiled because of him.I honestly think The Gathering would have gotten at least four stars instead of three if I felt more connected to the characters, because other than that, this was a great book and I can’t wait to read book two, The Calling.
    • 5/5
      Kelley Armstrong is one of my fav authors.
      I have been so excited to read this series and just kept putting it off because I wanted all three in my hands before I started.

      I read her other series, The Darkest Powers and I loved it. I love how both these stories are connected and yet they are so different.

      It makes me happy that I recognize names and places. (:

      I can't wait to get through the series and see how everything ties in together.

      LOVE IT!!!!
    • 5/5
      I hoped I would like this one since I've been having a paranormal book slump, well I didn't, I loved it. What or who helped was Maya, I so love me some strong willed heroine. Maya might not have been a bad ass chick but no one messes with her, especially with best bud Daniel beside her.

      So, the short version of Maya's life goes like this, Maya lives in a small town or hamlet known as Salmon Creek which also resides on an island. This island is a planned drug research community, the people of Salmon Creek aren't privy to what goes on in the facility and at the moment they seem fine with that. Maya lives a normal life with her parents except cougars(or mountain lions) seem to follow her around. That's doesn't seem too strange until things get even stranger. When a woman shows up on the island claiming to be a reporter doing a story on the minuscule size of the population in the town and asking questions about the young people who reside there, Maya and Daniel start to wonder about the strange death of their friend Serena a year earlier. Then Maya has a run-in with a woman claiming to know what Maya is and it doesn't sound good at all. Then Rafe, one of the most recent residents of Salmon Creek starts to show renewed interests in Maya and knows more about her than she herself does. And the strange doesn't stop there, Maya was on information overload about who she is and more mysteries keep popping up.

      Speaking of mystery, this book has a butt-load of them. Suspense and mystery are the secondary themes of this story, you get a lot of supernatural and a pinch of mystery and adventure to go along with it. I was thinking what the heck, something else to figure out what the hell is going on, but it was all good, it just made the story more exciting. I could tell that there was something fishy going on in that town, I mean hamlet, the drug research facility thing seems kinda shady. One of the questions on my mind was, who is actually working there, is it the people that live on the island? That would explain if how secretive things are.

      I love Maya's spirit and strength, how she doesn't make the scary things in her life get her down. I love Daniel's scary guy, good guy image and his spidey senses. I love Rafe's determinedness to do what he needs to do to help his sister. Thrilled with myself for finally reading this book after sitting on my to-read shelf for ever. Can't wait to see what happens next.
    • 3/5
      Maya is a 16 yr old girl living with her family in a corporate-established village on Vancouver Island. An adopted girl who knows she has Native roots but little else about her birth parents, Maya enjoys good friends, miles of woods to explore, and a loving family. The first chapter provides the underlying grief - her best friend Serena's dying at a local lake, in spite of Maya's attempts to save her. But strange things begin to happen: local cougars keep showing up to - mysteriously ?- protect her, a newcomer, Rafe, begins to take a deeper interest in her, and visitors to their tiny community are looking for them. Convoluted plot, much too much "telling" as opposed to just letting the story play out in parts, definitely has the elements of the supernatural, mysterious deaths, NW setting, and lots of interplay between characters. Maya's affinity for taking care of animals in the wild, her ability to climb, her enjoyment of the outdoors does provide a strong female protagonist. Over 300 pages so for readers who can be patient for Maya to find answers. Definitely cliff hanger ending.
    • 3/5
      The Gathering is the first of a series of three books. I had some trouble with this book because I kept wondering when I was going to get to the real story. By the time I finally got to the meat of the story, the book abruptly ended in the middle of a forest fire of unexplained origin. The beginning of the book was about the mysterious death of one teenager who was captain of her swim team and yet drowned in a lake. The other teenager who survives becomes the protagonist. The rest of the story mildly unfolds. A young teenage girl in a small Canadian town who tries to deal with her parents and figure out her relationships with friends is a pretty familiar plot line and doesn't change until the middle of the book when we finally get clues about the possibility of the young girl being a skin-walker. Though we see signs throughout the rest of the book that this might be true, there is also a murder and several unsolved mysteries that the author leaves hanging at the end of the book. The book does attempt to grab the readers' emotions at several points in the story, it just doesn't grab hard enough. I'm not yet sure if I want to take the time to read the other two books in the Darkness Rising series.
    • 3/5
      READ IN DUTCH

      I actually got to pre-read the Dutch translation of this first book of the newest series by Kelley Armstrong.

      As I had never read anything by her before, I didn't really know what to expect. It turned out to be an interesting story about some Native American folklore, something I don't know anything about.

      Unfortunately, there were quite a few flaws in the story. Mostly I thought there were illogical connections between parts, and overall things were going quite easy for the main characters. Still, it was nice to read. Sometimes you don't want a very complicated book, and then this is perfect.
    • 3/5
      Yee Naaldlooshii means literally, “with it, he goes on all fours”, in Navajo language. I liked the story but I didn't love it, The Darkest Powers series is much better. In some ways, I predicted how the story will go because I read the first series prior. Though Rafe is cute, I got to admit I prefer Daniel and I have a feeling that he loves Maya more than a friend should. I hope they'll end up together. Let's see how the story will evolve in The Calling.
    • 4/5
      I didn't think I was going to like this book. In fact, I didn't think I was even going to finish it. Now, I'm a fan of Kelley Armstrong's Darkest Powers trilogy, i really liked those. So, I was a bit bewildered when I started this book and the intro and set up were just bad.
      Never fear, though, it does get better and it would that it's worth slogging through the first few bad chapters. What makes the first few chapters sketchy is just the set up is some bad writing. I mean, it may be my natural dislike for first person, but in the first few chapters, Maya came off as one of those typical perfect YA characters. Oh, you're a track star? how surprising. You love animals. Wow, you should get an award. It was like that for a few chapters, but all with the weird overtones of her best friend's death as well. So, I was confused...
      However, it does get better. Around when Maya goes to town to get a tattoo and the tattooists grandmother basically calls her a witch. That's when the fun begins.
      Maya actually isn't a bad YA heroine. She just kind of comes across as one in the first few chapters... No, but when she's faced with the issue of the 'player' at school, Rafe, chasing after her, I like how she handles herself. I actually ended up just really liking her in general, she handles every situation that's thrown at her with some measure of grace and when the 'big plot point' gets thrown at her she takes it and runs with it.
      I wasn't as impressed with Rafe... Is he really the romantic interest of the book? Because I wasn't feeling him... He annoyed me from the first half and just bothered me from the second. He had some great moments, especially when he was taking care of his sister, but then he had moments where he just didn't do it for me. Sometimes I think YA authors are trying to push the 'sexy bad boy' thing way too hard. This came across as trying a little bit too hard in Rafe's case...
      Daniel though, Daniel was great. Daniel and Maya's relationship was perfect (which means if he somehow turns into potential love triangle OTHER love interest, I will be seriously upset). I loved how he and Maya had a friendship that was just that, it was just friendship. I really hope it stays like that because it was great.
      I think it was the premise of the story that did it for me. I really liked the fact that Maya was a Native (or part Native?) and her attachment to animals and nature. I really liked that it's about Shifters into animals that aren't werewolves. That's great. Also the whole suspicious drug testing/genetic engineering plot was great when it was introduced even though it was left totally hanging.
      3.5 stars is a little more of an accurate rating for me... Overall a rocky start in the beginning but turned out to be a really enjoyable read all together.
    • 3/5
      Maya is a sixteen and living in the small town on Vancouver Island. One year ago her best friend drowned despite the fact that she was a champion swimmer. The loss never quite left Maya and she threw herself into her work of taking care of injured wild animals. She notices that she has an unusual knack for healing. Other strange things are happening in Salmon Creek not the least of which is the arrival of “bad boy” Rafe.

      I am a Kelley Armstrong fan so despite this being another YA entry I enjoyed it. Ms. Armstrong always amazes me in the way she changes her writing voice for YA fiction. The fact that this book draws in some of characters and institutions from both the Darkest Powers series and her mainstream adult books (one more to go in the Women of the Underworld series before she puts those characters away for a bit) was enjoyable for a long time fan.
    • 5/5
      Contemporary, Young AdultMaya is a sixteen-year-old that has been an ordinary teen that is from a small ordinary town. She doesn’t know much about her background other than she is adopted and has a paw-print birthmark on her hip. She never thought much about her who her birth parents are or how she ended up with her adopted parents. She just knows her adopted family lives in a tiny medical-research community on Vancouver Island.Things are happening that are making her wonder just what is going on in her small community. Strange things that don’t have any explanations. Like the fact that the mountain lions around the town are approaching Maya and her best friend’s hidden talent about “feeling” out situations and people. There is also the new sexy bad boy that makes Maya feel different than she has ever felt before. Now there are unexplained deaths around town and a mystery that seems to involve Maya’s biological parents. It is starting to look like their small town has a few skeletons in the closet. This is a trilogy that is starting out fast and if the other two books live up to the beginning this is going to be one trilogy that will be very hard to see end. While some of the questions get answers in the first book there are still enough to make readers want to get the other books just to see what will happen next and just what is going one and who knows what. The story takes some great twists and turns that has the plot moving along at a fast pace that keeps everything intriguing while not losing the reader in process. The characters are interesting and seems like anyone reader might know and yet with some paranormal elements that makes it different and fun. This is one for the keeper shelves.
    • 4/5
      Huh. Just had a weird moment as a book blogger. I have wanted to read The Gathering because I totally loved Darkest Powers series. But then I went to search for my reviews... and it was before I was blogging. It's hard to believe that moment of searching and remembering that this hasn't been an amazing part of my life for as long as I even thought. So. Here's a plug for an older series that is amazing. Derek was smoking hot and I loved the story line and I was pretty sad when it ended and I knew my time with the characters was coming to an end. So here I am three years late discovering the series and my love for her writing and characters that are easy to like. Maya has an affinity for the animals and she has a bordering on weird relationship with the bob cats in the area. And she really begins to wonder when she's called a witch by an old lady at a tattoo parlor when she went in to get work done on her birthmark, shaped like a cat's paw. I enjoyed the exploration into her abilities as well as the mystery with the rest of the town. The medical research, the focus on the teens, the death of Maya's best friend the summer before. I feel like it did take a bit to get set up in the paranormal aspect of the plot, but I didn't mind at all because I liked Maya as a character. The cast of secondary characters was great as well. Daniel, her best friend was great to read about. I loved the easy time they spent together and their natural sweet friendship. They were so open with each other and he is such a good guy, protective and strong that I was still half rooting for a relationship between the two. But as the synopsis suggests, the bad boy sexy new guy makes an appearance. Just like Maya since Rafe has done the catch and release with so many other girls, I was so weary of him and his advances on Maya. But the fact that he lets down his guard and his relationship with his sister I can't help but give him a chance. Plus the chemistry between him and Maya is pretty undeniable. I will definitely be continuing this series, but the ending to the first book didn't really give me a whole ton of closure. It felt like it stopped too soon with climax and not answering enough questions while still raising even more. But that aside, it was an enjoyable and quick read. Bottom Line: Fun paranormal set-up, lots of bad boy chemistry.
    • 5/5
      This book was much better than I expected. I loved the characters and the plot. The characters are very well developed. The plot was very well thought out. I cannot wait to read the next book. The only things that I did not like about this book was a few cuss words and a few sexual innuendos.
      I loved the characters of Maya, Daniel and especially Rafe. I also hope that I get to know more about Annie and I hope that she got away from the fire. I love the romantic tension between Maya and Rafe.
    • 4/5
      Not as good as The Summoning as a start of a trilogy but it was ok. Took me a while to get into it but I do like the way Kelley Armstrong writes. The book will grip you and you will want more and more. Maya is a strong female lead. Love interests Daniel and Rafe are great male characters. Daniel -strong silent type and Rafe sexy broody bad boy that's not so bad! 1st book ended on a good note, looking forward to the next one...
    • 5/5
      This book was absolutely amazing. I did not set my expectations too high because of how amazing the darkest powers series was. But it exceeded my expectations. I absolutely love how it was written and I can't wait to read the second book in the series :)
    • 5/5
      I will start by saying that although this is the first book in the series, it does follow on from the darkest powers series, three books with a different set of characters but which do tie in at the end. Although you could read this set on its own and follow the story, the characters from the first set do come into the picture later on, so I would suggest reading all 6, starting with the summoning. After reading the darkest powers series I was unbearably excited to get going with this set and find out how things end for the characters in darkest powers. This book has a new narrator and set of characters, all just as well developed as I have come to expect from Kelley Armstrong. Maya is strong, determined and a great lead. As you follow her through the confusing shifts in her life and find out more you will start to notice links to the other three books, this is where reading the other books first can be really helpful, it offers more of an incite into what is going on and lets you make some more educated guesses as to Maya's future. Overall I loved this book just as much, if not more than I thought I would. It didn't start off quite as fast paced as the summoning did but gives some time it picked up and left me unable to put it down.
    • 5/5
      I love Kelley Armstrong. This book did not disappoint. I was better than I was expecting. This series looks to be better than the previous teen series. This books is fast paced and has great characters. I can't way to seemwhere Maya, Daniel and Rafe. Let's not forget Annie. I will warn everyone though, this book does have a cliffhanger ending. The next book cannot come out fast enough.
    • 5/5
      Highly Recommended Tragedy strikes in the first chapter of this book, which shapes Maya Delaney’s future. Maya and her best friend, Daniel, spend a lot of time together. They live in a very tight knit community of about 200 people on Vancouver Island. The community is owned by St. Cloud Corporation and the adults all work for the medical research company. Because the kids live in such an isolated community, the St. Cloud company feels responsible in getting the best of everything; the best schooling, the best medical care, top notch coaches, etc. Maya has noticed a change within herself that when she is outside and can sense the energy of the forest. She spends a lot of time rehabilitating animals found hurt in the park and rock climbing. As the story goes on, Maya begins to notice things that seem strange, but she does not tell anyone. A new boy shows up in town and Maya is interested in him after he opens up to her. The action begins to build once a forest fire starts to spread towards Salmon Creek that appears as though it was deliberately set. The book ends with a scene in a helicopter leaving the reader wanting more.This is the first book of the trilogy and I have to agree with one of the reviews that said this book is the first part of a really long novel. The scene and the characters are still being developed. The reader sees early on the link between Maya and a were-shifter of some kind, but that only starts to be addressed towards the end of the book. Given that this is for a YA audience, it is probably a good thing that the book was split into 3 parts. I was pretty glad that I had the second book, so that I could continue the story.I would definitely recommend this book to high school students. It would make a good addition to any school or public library and I think it will be enjoyed by those who like the paranormal genre. Readers will learn a little bit about Vancouver Island and its largest city, Nanaimo. This book would be good in a paranormal book display. The characters are likable, it has romantic triangle, the action is good and the mystery is just enough to keep the reader wanting more. The first book definitely kept me wanting to read and I am looking forward to the next two books.
    • 4/5
      Why do I feel so unsatisfied? I know, it's because Ms. Armstrong does not finish her YA books. This book rocked- great characters, burgeoning plot excitement, possible love triangle.... Then it ends, no resolution- nada. Where have I seen this before? Oh, yeah. The Darkest Powers series. But when I discovered Darkest Powers all three were out, so it was a little less annoying when it ended halfway through the story.
      Oh, well. Worth the read, but I'd suggest waiting until the next book releases, next year so you don't hurt your foot kicking it against the wall when this book ends.
    • 5/5
      I had to wait for spring break to read this one, because I knew I wasn't going to want to put it down once I started. As a fan of Kelley Armstrong, I'm glad to say that her newest effort doesn't disappoint.

      A solid start to Armstrong's "new" YA series, The Gathering introduces new characters--Maya, Daniel, Rafe, Annie, Nicole, and Sam, among others--more teens involved in her previous series' Project Genesis. Other characters, places, and situations from the first trilogy, Darkest Powers, are mentioned and hinted at: the "disaster" in Buffalo, Dr. Davidoff, the St. Cloud cabal...even a mysterious reference to Elizabeth "Liz" Delaney, who, interestingly enough, shares a last name with the Maya of this book. At one point, Maya mentions a statue of "some guy called Samuel Lyle" that stands in her town, though she has no idea who he is, let alone that a bright yellow house that shares his name exists on the other side of the continent. At some point the characters from both YA series' lives will intersect, though it appears to be very much in the future. For much of this book, Maya and her friends have no idea that their lives are not at all what they seem, and even by the end most of the characters appear to still be in the dark.

      Readers familiar with Chloe's story will sense the impending mystery on the horizon much sooner than Maya does. Since I know what the St. Cloud Corporation really are and what Davidoff and his group are involved in, I was constantly waiting for the other shoe to drop, so to speak. It takes a while for this book to get there, though, and once it does it's almost over. I was okay with that, however, since it means there's more to come. We see a lot more of Maya's "normal" life than we did of Chloe's, which really helps to underscore the idea that these teens have grown up in this world and don't have a clue that there is anything strange going on in it. Chloe's early life really was pretty much a normal one (once she got the pendant from her mother, anyway--and what happened before that could easily be explained away as overactive childish imaginings), but Maya only thinks hers is. As readers begin to get an idea of why Maya would be a part of Project Genesis ("Better Supernatural Living Through Science", I kept thinking back to Armstrong's short story set in this universe, "Kat", where the main character's guardian assured her that there were no such things as werecats. Maybe not, but....

      My only real complaint with this book is that we have to wait another year for book two. Cruel, that's what that is. :-)
    • 4/5
      Last year, I read and really enjoyed Armstrong's teen series that begins with The Summoning. Later, I tried her Women of the Otherworld series and was not impressed, but I am planning to at least start book two before giving up on her adult fiction entirely. This new series is set in the same world as the previous, but does not have too much crossover, at least not that I've noticed (and my memory's not great, so I might have missed something). Davidoff is the only character name I recognized from before.

      The plot holds few surprises, and those, generally, were not the big ones. Her relationship choices were inevitable, and future relationship drama is emerging along clearly defined lines. The emergence of the fantasy elements of the story was wholly expected as well. If you like to be completely caught off guard by your book, then Armstrong might not be for you. Remember that Armstrong has a strong basis in paranormal romance, so there are certain elements that are just going to happen a certain way.

      That does not change the fact that her YA novels are compulsively readable. They go down quick and easy, and leave you wanting more. Her romances, if the previous series is something I can go by, are very cute, take a long time to come to fruition and may involve some missteps along the way (like dating the wrong guy and then realizing your feelings lie elsewhere). Although it would be repetitive, I hope for the latter yet again, as Rafe's little bad guy routine did nothing to make me like him. Bad boys are good only in certain circumstances, as better detailed in my previous post. I am fully rooting for Daniel. Normally, I would not ship her with the best friend, but I really liked him for some reason and think he has some awesomeness hiding beneath the surface.

      If you're looking for something fun to read this spring/summer, you can't go wrong with The Gathering.
    • 4/5
      I can't remember when I actually read this - sometime in the spring or early summer, I think, but I must have forgotten to note it here. As usual for Kelley Armstrong this was lots of fun. It's definitely one story told across three books though so as soon as I finished I wanted to pick up the next one.
    • 4/5
      Very good. Gets very exciting at the end. Started the next book already...
    • 4/5
      Review courtesy of Dark Faerie TalesQuick & Dirty: While the novel lacks its own plot arc (Armstrong writes her trilogies as a single story) the characters are strong and memorable, and the Native Canadian mythology the series is based on is awesome. Opening Sentence: Serena stood on the rock ledge twenty feet above the lake, singing in a voice known to bring tears to the eyes of everyone who heard it. The Review: Set in an isolated research community, called Salmon Creek, inside a national park on Vancouver Island, The Gathering has a setting that immediately comes to life. At the beginning of the story, Maya’s recovering from the questionable death of a friend and begins to investigate with the help of her dead friend’s boyfriend Daniel. As they dig deeper they begin to find less answers and more questions about their tiny, classified town. When Maya, whose affinity for animals has led her to helping the injured in the park, learns that there’s more to her birthmark than she could’ve imagined, the story takes off fast. I love the fact that this series is based off of Native Canadian (First Nation) mythology. It added more depth to the paranormal side of the story, knotting the shapeshifters in with folk lore. The concepts Armstrong explores had a lot of potential and she does a great job of planting intriguing seeds in this first installment. Unfortunately, she didn’t stop there. Bringing in an Italian sect of secret hunters was a plot blunder, in my opinion, because they completely pulled me from the story. What were they doing in Vancouver Island? What did they have to do with native legends? But so far the Benandanti haven’t been instrumentally involved and I’ve been able to let them slide. She uses the myth of Skin-walkers to add atmosphere to the already wild setting of Salmon Creek, building a community and characters that I loved to read about. I’m a big fan of Rafe, Maya’s sexy love-interest, because he isn’t a stalker or some broody, over-protective hero. Maya’s a strong woman who deals with her own problems — she doesn’t need Rafe to save her. They have a close, but healthy, relationship. And Rafe’s younger, metally-disabled sister Annie helped deepen the way readers will perceive him. There were a lot of characters beyond Maya and Rafe that I grew attached to. Her parent’s had some great, banter-filled scenes and I loved that Armstrong included them in the story. (Not enough parents in YA, in my honest opinion. They always get left out or stereotyped somehow.) Daniel is her protective best friend and Sam, characterized by her quick temper, is a lot more than meets the eye. The ending was rough. While I appreciate cliffhangers as much as the next bibliophile, The Gathering doesn’t have a complete plot arc. If you’ve read any of Kelley Armstrong’s other series, you’ll see this is something of a pattern. Her stories tend to be cut into three books, with one big, long plot between them. She has a great, image-evoking writing style that’s fun to read, but it didn’t stop me from being frustrated at the end of this novel. Upside, the sequel’s out! So you won’t have hang off a cliff for long. Notable Scene: “Pop goes the weasel!” a boy yelled. Another guy laughed. Footsteps pounded the dry earth so loud they sounded like an oncoming locomotive. A single thought filled my head. Escape. I pulled myself along, dragging my injured leg over a carpet of dead needles— “Maya!” A warm hand grabbed my chin. “Come on, Maya.” I gasped and blinked. I was sitting on the floor. In Daniel’s lap. I bolted to my feel so fast, I elbows him in the stomach. “Thanks,” he wheezed. “Next time I’ll let you hit the floor.” “What happened?” “You fainted.” The corners of his mouth twitched. “I believe swooned is the correct term. It’s not nearly as romantic as it sounds, you know. More like a deadweight collapse. With drool.”FTC Advisory: Harper Teen provided me with a copy of The Gathering. No goody bags, sponsorships, “material connections,” or bribes were exchanged for my review.
    • 4/5
      I decided to reread this before reading The Calling (bk 2 in the Darkness Rising series), and since the book was checked out of the library, I grabbed the audiobook instead. It is fun and exciting, with a teeny bit of relationship/interest in it, but, as with the others, it cuts off just as it's gotten good. Glad I listened to this before starting the next!
    • 4/5
      Kelly Armstrong is one of my favorite authors. I especially love her strong women characters, and her unerring ear for realistic dialogue. She’s also great at romance. The only catch – for some of you anyway – would be that most of her books stray into the paranormal zone. Sixteen-year-old Maya Delaney was adopted shortly after birth, and believes she is Navajo but not sure. She and her architect mom and park ranger dad live in a secluded area of wilderness on Vancouver Island called Salmon Creek. Salmon Creek is a company town, erected by a pharmaceuticals firm doing secret research. Almost everyone in the town of 200 works for the company, St. Cloud, with Maya’s dad being one of the few exceptions. Maya’s best friend, Daniel Bianchi, lives alone with his dad who is a violent alcoholic. So Daniel spends a lot of time at Maya’s place. Formerly, Daniel dated Maya’s good friend Serena, but Serena died in a freak swimming accident, which was especially puzzling because Serena was captain of the school’s swimming team.So first of all, there are a couple of mysteries going on here. What is St. Cloud up to, and how did Serena actually die? But there’s more…Daniel helps Maya take care of stray wild animals brought to her dad, but everyone knows that the animals heal fastest under Maya’s care. There is something about her… And for that matter, there’s something about Daniel….Meanwhile, Maya is being pursued by Rafeal “Rafe” Martinez, who, like Maya, looks Native. He and his older sister Annie live alone in one of the few houses in the area not owned by St. Cloud. At first Maya resists Rafe, considering him to be a “player,” but before long, she falls under his spell. She thinks that, unlike the other girls he has chased, he really likes her, until a big reveal shows that nothing and nobody in Salmon Creek is who they seem to be.Discussion: Daniel and Maya have a wonderful dynamic between them. It's like a fierce family love and loyalty, plus care exercised by each to make sure they don't let stray hormones interfere inappropriately. I also love the relationship between Maya and her parents. The three of them are respectful of each other, but also teasing and loving and trusting. It makes you feel warm just "being around" them. This is one of my favorite passages, when Maya's dad explains why he prefers Daniel to Rafe:"'I just... I understand you might want to start dating more seriously, and that means dating someone from town. But if you're going to do that...' This time he took a long drink of coffee, and the mug was still at his lips when he said, 'I like Daniel. He takes care of you.'I blinked. 'Oh my God. Did you really just say that? He takes care of me?'Dad flushed. 'I didn't mean it like ---''Takes care of me? Did I go to sleep and wake up in the nineteenth century?' I looked down at my jeans and T-shirt. 'Ack! I can't go to school like this. Where's my corset? My bonnet?'Dad sighed as Mom walked in with her empty teacup.'What did I miss?' she said.'Dad's trying to marry me off to Daniel.' I looked at him. 'You know, if you offer him a new truck for a dowry, he might go for it.''Apparently, I said the wrong thing,' Dad told Mom."Evaluation: If you totally hate paranormal of the shape-shifter variety, you probably won’t like Kelley Armstrong. But if you only like it when it’s good, she’s good! Many reviewers feel this isn’t her best, but I zoomed right through it; I just like the way she writes!
    • 5/5
      I will preface this review by admitting that I am a huge fan of Kelley Armstrong’s, and I have read all of her books (though not many anthologies) which have so far been published in the UK. I was introduced to her through reading her book Bitten – the first book of her Women of the Otherworld Series which is aimed at an adult readership.The Gathering is the first book in Kelley Armstrong’s new Young Adult (YA) series The Darkness Rising. This is Armstrong’s second foray into the YA market, the first being her The Darkest Powers Trilogy. Like her previous works, The Gathering is set in a world similar to our own but with some vital differences – how it differs is only hinted at in this book, but if you’ve read any of her other works then you’ll have a pretty good idea. If you’ve not read any of her books before then don’t worry, as this series works as a stand-alone (based on the evidence of this book).The main character of this book is Maya Delaney, a teen with Native American heritage but who was adopted when she was a baby. She is a very likeable and well-rounded character. In fact, although this is never really explicitly mentioned in the book, she is rather popular. This may be because there are only sixty-eight children in her school, and the population of Salmon Creek is only 200, but it is hinted that this is not why. She certainly seems to be well liked on the whole by her peers and by the adults of the community. Maya has a strong like for the outdoors and for wildlife which percolates throughout the book – she looks after injured wildlife and then releases it back into the wild once it is well. Her friendship with Daniel is a strong and deep one, despite the slight distance between the characters – there doesn’t seem to be many secrets between them, and their lives seem very closely entwined – and there is no sense of romance between them. They are just two good friends – Maya seems to be the only girl of her peers who isn’t attracted to Daniel.The book opens with a bang, which won’t be much of a surprise for readers as the first nine chapter is available online (just visit her website to have a taste of this book). At first everything seems very ordinary, and then things fast go downhill. This event sets up the whole book (and quite possibly the whole series). It certainly changes a lot of things for both Maya and Daniel. The next chapter takes place nearly a year after this event, showing both how things have changed and how things have remained the same. There is a sense of deep community ties within the book, as everyone seems to know what is going on with everyone else and Maya is very much a part of this. There is also the feeling that you are either part of the community or you are not, as the kids are taught how to handle people who ask questions about Salmon Creek – this is most definitely a reflection of the fact that Salmon Creek supports a medical-research lab. The lab in question seems to be very high security, but it provides a lot of benefits for the people of Salmon Creek – however, there is a sense of mystery surrounding it despite its seeming openness.The plot of The Gathering is made up of three main themes: mystery, romance and friendship. Of these, mystery and friendship are the most predominant ones. The romance in the book doesn’t appear until over fourteen chapters in to the story – so if you’re looking for a quick romance story, then this isn’t the book for you. Armstrong handles the romance element of the story with charm and grace. There is enough of it to keep the story interesting, but not so much that if it’s not your kind of thing you find yourself flipping through the pages until you find the end. The mystery and the friendship themes percolate through the book from the opening chapter. There are several mysteries presented as the story progresses, though few of them are answered in this book and the book itself ends on a cliff-hanger – but don’t let this put you off! The mysteries Armstrong presents are both big ones and small ones, and much of the book is a quest for answers – which Maya and Daniel are unable to get due to outside events. As this is the first book in the series the lack of answers is somewhat to be expected – why else would we want to progress to the next book? – and whilst the lack of answers is somewhat frustrating, I find myself eagerly anticipating the next book in the series.If you’re a fan of Urban Fantasy then I think that this is a must read for 2011.
    • 4/5
      Great book, really enjoyed the characters!