Review: A Great Start to the Series
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 11 18, 2013
Kaylee Cavanaugh suffers a panic attack while shopping at the mall with her best friend, Emma. Her panic attack starts like any other but she has this overwhelming desire to scream, and screams a loud, unearthly scream from the back of her throat until she passes out. When she wakes up she is in a mental hospital and note sure how she got there. She learns that she started scratching at her throat and they want her to stay there to figure out what mental illness she has. Kaylee knows she’s not crazy and doesn’t belong there, but why does she scream like that and what are the dark shadows she sees? A fellow patient, Lydia, may hold the answers, as she seems to have special abilities also.This series came strongly recommended to me many years ago and it got lost in the shuffle oh my other books. This is the prequel to the series and I opted to listen to it on audio.I like paranormal teen books and at first glance it seems like this is going to be a series that I’m going to love. The book is short (the audio is less than two hours) but it does give us a peek into Kaylee’s abilities and the battle she has trying to keep her screams under control. It seems that she screams when a person is close to death and sees shadows. We don’t learn much more than that but I’m going to have to pick up “My Soul to Take” to find out all about it, as I’m really interested now.I like Amanda Ronconi’s narration. She has a good voice for YA fiction and she kept me interested in the story. The narration is neither silly nor over-the-top mature and as such I think she depicts Kaylee’s voice very well.This was a fun prequel and I intend to read the rest of the series.