REVIEW: The Gathering (Darkness Rising #1) by Kelley Armstrong

Author: Kelley Armstrong

Pages: 359

Genre: YA - Paranormal

Publisher: Harper Collins

AMAZON: The Gathering (Darkness Rising, Book 1)

Synopsis. (Goodreads)

Sixteen-year-old Maya is just an ordinary teen in an ordinary town. Sure, she doesn't know much about her background - the only thing she really has to cling to is an odd paw-print birthmark on her hip - but she never really put much thought into who her parents were or how she ended up with her adopted parents in this tiny medical-research community on Vancouver Island.

Until now.

Strange things have been happening in this claustrophobic town - from the mountain lions that have been approaching Maya to her best friend's hidden talent for "feeling" out people and situations, to the sexy new bad boy who makes Maya feel . . . . different. Combine that with a few unexplained deaths and a mystery involving Maya's biological parents and it's easy to suspect that this town might have more than its share of skeletons in its closet.

In The Gathering, New York Times best-selling author Kelley Armstrong brings all the supernatural thrills from her wildly successful Darkest Powers series to Darkness Rising, her scorching hot new trilogy.

Cover Art by Carrie Schechter.

REVIEW: 3.5 out of 5 stars

The Gathering is the first installment in the Darkness Rising series by Kelley Armstrong.

Maya Delaney is a 16year-old adopted native who resides on Vancouver Island, a small medical research town which inhabits less than 200 people. Living within a National Park, she has a real love of nature, rescuing wild animals and helping to nurse them back to health, something that comes naturally to her. 

When strange occurrences start to happen around town, Maya begins to question what is going on; it all began when her best friend, Serena drowned in the local lake under questionable circumstances, there have also been an increased number of encounters with the cougars, a few mysterious deaths, a rapidly spreading fire and her heritage is unknown and a topic she is keen to investigate. The town and its purpose was certainly mysterious which I found intriguing as were the natives stories and myths of the supernatural beings.

I loved Maya as a heroine, she is caring, strong, intelligent and dependable and I adored the relationship she has with her parents! In the past few YA novels I have read, parent’s haven’t been a part of their child’s life either through death or abandonment so it was a nice change and I loved their interactions, Maya’s affectionate teasing of her father was sweet, they have a wonderful family dynamic.

I was quite curious about Maya and her Native background, we find out more as the story progresses and it is definitely not what she expected to learn - the only thing she really had to cling to is an odd paw-print birthmark on her hip which proved to be something much more than what it was.

I also enjoyed the friendship between Maya and her best friend Daniel; he was like a protective big brother but I also wanted him as her main love interest but as the YA cliché goes, Maya has captured the interest of the new ‘hot bad boy’ in town, Rafe; he is quite the mystery and knows more than he lets on, he comes across as distant and anti-social but he really longs for acceptance and answers so lets his guard down with Maya sharing many of his secrets but to suit his own agenda. I think it is definitely a love triangle in the making.

All of the characters had depth and were likeable, from the beginning you could tell there was something suspicious going on; each of the students just happened to have some sort of talent or were great athletes with strength and agility and on one sporting team or another, I look forward to finding out more about them as they begin to learn about themselves and grow into their abilities and powers.

The setting was idyllic; I can just imagine the location in my mind and get a vivid detailed picture, the National Park and its surroundings - the lake, cliff tops etc. sounded beautiful; Ms Armstrong really bought it to life.

The dialogue was smart and witty, it is well written and entertaining and although I found the first part of the book rather slow paced it started to pick up when there was more action.

A lot of questions are raised in ‘The Gathering’ but answers aren’t readily given leaving many openings for future installments, I am hoping more is covered in the next book because at the moment I feel there wasn’t a complete resolution and we are left with a cliffhanger.

All in all a nice start to this new series, I enjoyed my foray into Ms Armstrong’s paranormal world and writing. Book 2, ‘The Calling’ has an expected release date of April 2012.