PERSISTENCE OF MEMORY

Perfectly pedestrian storytelling marks this newest from the former teen phenom. Erin has spent most of her life institutionalized for schizophrenia. After years of therapy and medication, she has stabilized enough that she can attend classes at the public high school, where she develops a friendship with Marissa, her spunky classmate. But the 16-year-old must doubt her hard-fought sanity as things go awry. She starts having nightmares in which she wakes up as Shevaun, a powerful vampire living in France with her witch lover, Adjila. Erin recognizes and loathes Shevaun as her violent alter ego from her years in the hospital, but she is powerless to sever the connection. When she sees Marissa transform into a tiger in the woods, Erin is sure she’s having another psychotic break. Erin needs the help of Marissa, Adjila and her fellow mental patient/boyfriend Sassy in order to keep Shevaun from destroying her. Awkward phrasing weighs down the muddled story line and the characters are too thinly developed to be very sympathetic, but this fast-paced narrative will be a quick read for devotees of the genre. (Horror. 11-14)