The Calling, by Kelley Armstrong (Darkness Rising #2)

Maya and her friends--all of whom have supernatural powers--have been kidnapped after fleeing from a forest fire they suspect was deliberately set, and after a terrifying helicopter crash they find themselves pursued by evildoers in the Vancouver Island wilderness.

The Calling begins in a rush of action, with Maya and her friends on a helicopter heading away from their home. However, instead of heading to safety like they assumed, the pilot went a little bit off course (meaning he planned on kidnapping them) and they ended up crashing the helicopter on an island. What followed were hundreds of pages of teenagers with superpowers trying to find their way home, or at least away from the said kidnappers (also known as the St. Clouds). Through these adventures the group shrunk and grew, with some of them supposedly dying or sacrificing themselves for the sake of the group. Truths were revealed and superpowers unearthed, but for the most part, I felt as lost as the characters were as to where the book was headed. As I was reading I felt like screaming at the teenagers that it is impossible for them to ever go home and that they should just take new names and enter the Witness Protection Program. They should have listened to me.

Unlike The Gathering, the pace of The Calling was steady, not slow for most of it and then rushed. The steady action and alertness made for a fast read because every couple of pages Maya discovered something new about herself or her friends. Nothing that solved all their problems and explained everything, just something that left her (and me) with even more questions.

The character who touched me the most, despite her absence for a large part of the book, was Hayley. In The Gathering she was the typical mean popular girl. In The Calling, the girl who everyone labeled as superficial and shallow turned out to be (in my head) one of the most reliable characters, and the one who cares most about her friends. She was selfless and modest, the complete antithesis of who everyone considered her to be. Underneath her pretty blonde exterior was a girl stronger than anyone would have thought, including herself.

What really annoyed me was Rafe. I didn't like him in The Gathering, because he got in the way of Maya being with Daniel, and when he supposedly died in the first chapter, I was ecstatic because I figured that once Maya finished with her mourning, she would end up with Daniel. But then he reappeared. WHY? He is bad news, and although I knew Maya's probably going to end up with him, I am rooting for the sweet reliable best friend and not the mysterious dark stranger.

4.7 stars. I'm starting to get bored with the whole "teens running around on their own for their lives" premise.