the gathering

Kelley Armstrong’s new trilogy Darkness Rising begins The Gathering.  We start the story with Maya Delaney living in a tiny medical research community on Vancouver Island.  After witnessing the death of her best friend Maya is plagued with nightmares and questions about what really happened that day on the lake.  When a reporter comes to their small town and begins asking questions about Maya and the details surrounding Serena’s death Maya begins to believe that the St. Cloud medical research group might have something to do with it.

But that’s not all.  Strange things start happening around Maya and the animals that inhabit the forest surrounding her home and a strange encounter with an old woman plants a seed of a crazy idea in Maya’s head about where she really comes from and who she is.

This one was a slow starter.  Good writing and storytelling, but it took so long to set the story up and get to the good parts.  Then, just as the good parts begin the story ends on quite the cliffhanger.  Thinking back to the Darkest Powers trilogy I remember Armstrong has an affinity for leaving readers on the edge.  I noticed mention of Dr. Davidoff who was the mad scientist in the Darkest Powers books and with the way that trilogy ended I wonder if we’ve actually seen the last of Chloe, Tori, Derek & Simon.

The book was good, but she refers to the size of her town so many times in the first several chapters it becomes annoying.  There were no surprises in the book.  You could see what was coming chapters ahead.  The only thing that seems out of place is Serena’s death and the circumstances surrounding it.  I’m not sure where she’s going with that storyline, but hopefully more answers will be revealed in the next book.

Quick read, interesting though not very original.  Then again, what is nowadays?