Tori's Review: The Gathering by Kelley Armstrong

Hardcover - 368 pages
Price: $17.99
ISBN 13: 978-0061797026
Released: April 12, 2011

Kelley's Website
Buy it via the Publisher
Buy it via Amazon

Obtained: ARC Tours
Genre: Young Adult 
Series: Darkness Rising Trilogy
1. The Gathering

Strange things are happening in Maya's tiny Vancouver Island town. First, her friend Serena, the captain of the swim team, drowns mysteriously in the middle of a calm lake. Then, one year later, mountain lions are spotted rather frequently around Maya's home—and her reactions to them are somewhat . . . unexpected. Her best friend, Daniel, has also been experiencing unexplainable premonitions about certain people and situations.

It doesn't help that the new bad boy in town, Rafe, has a dangerous secret, and he's interested in one special part of Maya's anatomy—her paw-print birthmark.

My Rating:

My Opinion:
I actually have a couple of ratings for this book, so I think I'll take a different angle regarding my review.

Story 4/5
I thought that the premise of this story (much like Kelley's other YA--the Darkest Powers series) was both strong and interesting. There's lots of information I learned about in this one, and I enjoyed it all while it happened. We also learned about a not-so-explored culture and background, which is always good.


Characters 3/5
*Diversity: Wowza. Everyone always complains about how books don't explore other races and how they're always about white people. To be honest, I don't usually give a shit because I picture my own version of each character anyway. Point is, diversity is great, but it's not a deal-breaker in a book for me if all the characters are white, black, yellow, magenta, or rainbow. I think I'd enjoy the book more if the characters were rainbow, actually.

I kind of got off track though... You won't have that problem in THE GATHERING, friends. The heroine, and her love interest, are not white.

*Characterization: All the characters did appear believable, and I have to commend Kelley on individualizing each teen. I thought Maya was interesting and well fleshed out, yet despite that, I had some issues with her behavior. Maybe it's because I didn't really know any teens who behaved like she does. Maybe it's me taking issue with Kelley's characters, because I noticed I had the same problem while reading her Darkest Powers series.

*Dialogue: Sometimes it worked, sometimes I wished there were less speeches. Will go into this in more detail in the romance section.


Antagonist(s) 2/5
Note: If you do not want to read ANYTHING spoilery, then please skip this section.

This is where things get a bit unclear for me. We're left on this wild goose chase wondering if a cougar killed someone, or if someone else (someone you will find out for yourself while reading) had something to do with it. Then when the ending comes, we're introduced to these random dudes in suits with guns trolling around the forests--which are currently burning down thanks to them--and then the book just ends. We don't know anything more, we don't know who the real bad guy is, and we don't know what happened to another character. Perhaps this was intentional, since this is a series, but like a few other reviewers, I am unsure of the story arc's direction from here and on.

Romance 3/5
Despite my criticisms, I enjoyed the blossoming romance in this, and was cheering for Maya and her love interest. I took issue with her "first" real interaction with the boy because he ended up going into huge speeches about his past and what went wrong and this and that. I didn't find it realistic--maybe because even the most forthcoming of guys I knew would never open up that fully (and so easily)--and I actually rolled my eyes at some points regarding certain repeated statements. I'm not sure if this was supposed to make me sympathize with his character, and if so, it didn't work too much for me.

Also, I think I'm a pervert because I only started really liking him after he made out with Maya.


Would I suggest you pre-ordering this right away, or rushing to the stores to buy? ...Not really. Much like the Darkest Powers series, it was an interesting read and kept me engaged while checking it out, but once I closed the book, it was a lot less memorable. I do, however, suggest everyone reads this story, though. I think that THE GATHERING is setting the scene for future installments, and I anticipate the next book to be a lot more memorable.