UNBREAKABLE

In a fast-paced series opener, Kennedy Waters encounters a ghost, loses her mother and meets a love interest—all in the first few pages.

Until a grave-jumping “vengeance spirit” inhabits her cat, Kennedy’s worst problem is that her dad abandoned her family. After twins Lukas and Jared arrive, saving her life with ghost-squelching liquid salt, Kennedy’s world rapidly turns surreal. Now she must use her special talent (an eidetic memory) to work with other gifted teens, members of an ancient Legion trying to assemble the Shift, a tool required to destroy the demon Andras. Collecting the Shift’s five pieces prompts encounters with blood-chilling ghosts fiercely guarding their parts of the puzzle in abandoned mansions and wells. Garcia excels at cinematic, gripping ghost scenes and generating suspense (will Kennedy and Jared connect? Is Kennedy the final, fifth member of the Legion?). Though characters are quite plucky and engaging when wraith-fighting, occasionally their too-human teen concerns (If you really knew me, would you love me? Will Jared leave me like Dad did?) ring melodramatic, especially when placed amid scenes of mortal danger. Just as readers settle into what seems a predictable plotline (find piece of Shift leading to whereabouts of next piece, extinguish ghost guarding it, repeat), Garcia shakes it up with an ending that will leave readers reaching for the next book.

This vivid, thoroughly imagined paranormal world will draw readers into its icy realm.