📖 The Gathering

Located in the isolated medical-research town of Salmon Creek on Vancouver Island, Maya is the adopted daughter of a park ranger of Salmon Creek town and park. On her 16th birthday, she gets ready to celebrate by getting a tattoo on her birthmark, a paw print shape on her hip. At her party, she also invites Rafe, a mysterious boy at her school, and the teens have fun and bet on Maya's new rock wall. After the party, Rafe and Maya start growing close, but one day, Maya has dinner with him and his older sister, Annie, who turns into a cougar when she is attacked by someone seeking revenge on Rafe. Rafe tells her the truth about skinwalkers, people with special abilities who can shift into mountain lions or bears and are able to communicate with other animals, and he explains that Maya, Annie, and himself are all skinwalkers. This allows Maya to make the connection of her paw-shaped birthmark and her enhanced hearing and night vision. He also explains that skinwalkers have been extinct until a recent experiment to bring them back, which explains why Maya's biological mother abandoned her as a baby. Later that night, Annie disappears into her cougar form and runs away into a forest, but when the forest is on fire, Rafe and his sister are extremely concerned, so together they run away from sounds of people and spy on their secret conversation of setting the forest on fire to distract the crown. Then, the suspicious people would break into St. Clouds labs in order to steal secrets. However, the group escapes in a helicopter once hearing the conversation and immediately reports to the town government. Reason for Recommendation: This is a great quick and fun read filled with strong characters, especially a suspenseful rising action that ends with a shocking cliffhanger that will lead to the next book of the supernatural trilogy, "The Darkest Powers." Plus, I loved how the author crafted the setting of a top-secret medical community, which I don't usually see, and how it is mysteriously closed off from the normal world.

玛雅住在温哥华岛偏远的医学研究小镇萨蒙溪,她是萨蒙溪镇公园一位护林员的养女。为了庆祝自己的16岁生日,她打算在自己臀部的胎记(一个爪印形状的图案)上纹身。她还邀请了学校里一个神秘的男孩拉夫来参加生日派对,两个人玩得很开心,还就玛雅新砌的攀岩墙打赌。派对结束后,拉夫和玛雅的关系开始变得亲密起来。但有一天,玛雅和拉夫以及他的姐姐安妮一起吃饭,安妮遭到了袭击,袭击者似乎是为了报复拉夫,而安妮变成了一只美洲狮。 之后,拉夫告诉了玛雅关于"换皮行者"的真相——他们拥有特殊能力,可以变成美洲狮或熊,并能与其他动物交流。他进一步解释说其实玛雅、安妮和他自己都是换皮行者。此时,玛雅明白了自己的爪印形状的胎记和她超强的听觉和夜视能力之间的联系。拉夫还解释说,换皮行者原本已经灭绝,直到最近一项旨在复活他们的实验开始他们才得以重现,这也解释了为什么玛雅的生母在她还是婴儿时就抛弃了她。 当晚,安妮化作美洲狮逃进了森林。然而,当森林燃起大火时,拉夫和安妮非常担心,于是他们一起躲开人群的动静,并偷听到他们关于放火烧林以分散王室注意力的秘密谈话。之后,那些可疑的人会闯入圣克劳德的实验室窃取机密。幸好拉夫一行人在听到谈话后乘坐直升机迅速逃离,并立即向镇政府报告了此事。 推荐理由:这是一部精彩纷呈、节奏明快的佳作,尤其是结尾留下了一个令人震惊的悬念,为超自然三部曲的下一部《最黑暗的力量》埋下了伏笔。此外,我非常喜欢作者对绝密医疗社区的设定,这种设定我平时很少见到,尤其是这个社区与外界隔绝。