Armstrong, Kelley. 2011. The Gathering. ISBN: 9780061797026
Grades9 – 12
Could Maya be a genetic experiment that seeks to bring forth a recessive gene for skinwalking? According to gorgeous Rafeal, she is. At first Maya is dubious about this ...news until she begins realize that her talents for healing wild animals is more than average. Skinwalking is the ability to change into animal form and supposedly Maya is beginning to come into her abilities. Adopted as a baby, Maya is fully aware of her Native American heritage and sports a birthmark of a cat’s paw on her hip. It is this birthmark that indicates her future as a Skinwalker and ties her to Rafael and his sister Annie.
In a novel fraught with murder, intrigue, and teen relationships, the story is slow to evolve with plenty of opportunities to accurately predict what is coming due to concepts used in other novels. Set in a small company town on Vancover Island with a population of less than 200, Maya is a feisty yet level headed character that seems to live an idyllic life. The town, land, park, and even some of the people are owned by the St. Cloud Corporation who supposedly deals with secretive medical research. Uh huh. This reviewer has run into this concept several times before. The fairly competent reader will quickly see the writing on the wall in this story but will have to wait for the next book in this series to see the accuracy of their predictions.
While I am attracted to the setting in this novel, the rest is fairly shallow, which is unusual for this best selling author who is responsible for the New York Times bestselling Darkest Power trilogy. Some young adults will enjoy this novel but it does lack depth and complexity.
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