From Barnes & Noble
Chloe Saunders thinks of herself as a living science experiment; other people regard her as more than a little crazy. Within a few weeks, she has been transformed from an average teenage girl into a sometimes out-of-control necromancer running for her life. When not seeing ghosts or raising the dead, Chloe is plotting strategies with her three closest associates, all supernatural: a werewolf, a witch, and a sorcerer. The middle volume set in the realm of Kelley Armstrong's Women of the Otherworld.
Children's Literature - Jeanna Sciarrotta
The second book of Kelley Armstrong's new series, "The Darkest Powers," will not disappoint her readers in the least. As the story begins, Chloe Saunders is being contained by the Edison group after her failed attempted escape from Lyle house, in the last novel. As in the first book, she is still struggling to deal with her power as a necromancer. With a little help from the ghost of Liz, she is quick to obtain some new information that leads to a second escape with enemy-turned-ally Tori Enright. The girls soon meet up with fellow Lyle House escapees Derek and Simon and the story quickly picks up as they struggle to elude their would be captors. The Awakening is a captivating second book in this up-and-coming series. The characters are believable and well developed with the one weak point of the overly alluded to but under-explained relationship between Chloe and Simon and later between Chloe and Derek. Hopefully, book three will give some answers about the romantic aspects of these superhuman teenagers. Reviewer: Jeanna Sciarrotta
Melanie Hundley
The Awakening, the second book in Armstrong's Darkest Power series, begins with Chloe, Derek, Simon, and Tori on the run after their escape from the sinister Edison Group. The four teens each possess a power that the Edison Group wants to control. Chloe talks to ghosts, Derek is a werewolf, and Simon and Tori are sorcerers. In addition to dealing with their powers, the four teens also deal with the usual teen issues—Chloe likes Simon but she also likes Derek. Tori has a crush on Simon and Simon has a crush on Chloe. Derek is oddly protective of Chloe but struggles to show how much he cares. Compounding Derek's teen angst are his developing werewolf powers. The Edison Group tracks the teens to their hiding place, so they split up to escape. After they regroup, they leave the city, heading for an adult who may be able to help. Reviewer: Melanie Hundley
School Library Journal
Gr 9 Up—When Chloe Saunders escapes from a group home for troubled teens, she has no idea that she'll be dealing with a treacherous aunt; a nascent werewolf; a prissy witch; guns, guards, and ghosts; and the harsh everyday realities of being a teen on the run. She'd come to terms with the fact that the home was obviously not your run-of-the-mill state facility, or she wouldn't have discovered her powers as a necromancer or found the witch, Tori; the warlock, Simon; and the werewolf, Derek, also in residence. Now the four of them and the ghost of the recently deceased telekinetic Liz, are trying to find the one adult who can help them. Things are complicated by Simon's diabetes, Derek's imminent transformation, and Tori, who, despite her magical powers, is best described by a different word, which rhymes with witch. Armstrong does an admirable job of walking the fine line between making things too easy for the group and putting unnecessary obstacles in their path. Separating them from the adults, she delves into character and relationships among the teens, giving this title a depth that some supernatural fare lacks. It is easy to read out of sequence, and even surpasses its predecessor, The Summoning (HarperCollins, 2008). If you buy it, teens will read it.—Cara von Wrangel Kinsey, formerly at New York Public Library
Kirkus Reviews
A small group of supernatural teens escapes The Edison House, a malevolent scientific organization bent on their destruction, and embarks on a desperate journey to find the one man who might help them. The second installment of the Darkest Powers series hits the ground running, leaving readers tripping, stumbling and racing to keep up. Armstrong's vermiculate plot will exhilarate even readers new to the series, although they will miss the crucial character development found in The Summoning (2008). Chloe, the narrating necromancer, shares the agonies of life with scary, uncontrollable powers. Derek, a brutally earnest werewolf, suffers terribly during his changes. Bratty Tori and sweet Simon harness their magic in erratic fits and starts. Teens grappling with their own transformations and alienating individuality will certainly follow these characters to the book's final pages and into the next volume. Dark alleys, undead bodies and bountiful blood will cause shivers, while Chloe's chemistry with both boys will raise readers' pulses. (Supernatural thriller. 12 & up)
ALA Booklist
"Armstrong has some fun toying with supernatural teen thriller conventions, and the taut pacing should please fans of the exploding genre."
Voice of Youth Advocates (VOYA)
“A page-turner. Readers will anticipate the book to follow.”
