The Gathering

The Gathering by Kelley Armstrong, HarperTeen 2011

     A year ago life was perfect for Maya Delaney in small town Salmon Creek: she and her two best friends were inseparable and enjoying summertime on Vancouver Island as always. But this year things are different. Serena, captain of the swim team, drowned last summer and neither Maya nor Daniel have gotten over what happened. Their small town still mourns her, until other things, strange things, start happening.
     First Daniel begins to get vibes about people and places, that prove to be right. Then cougars keep showing up around Maya's house, and won't go away. Then Rafe shows up. He starts dating around, breaking one girl's heart after another in their small town. But he's looking for one thing--Maya's strange paw-print birthmark.
     After he convinces her to date him, Rafe explains to Maya that she was part of an experiment; the birthmark on her hip is the sign of a shape-shifter and the St. Cloud company (the company which owns Salmon Creek) conducted experiments to activate the genes which allowed her to shift. He then introduces Maya to Annie, his older sister and another shape-shifter. Annie has mastered her ability to become a cougar, but as she transitions she loses her higher functioning. Annie was becoming the cougar she turned into and Rafe searched for Maya hoping she and the St. Clouds could help Annie.
     One night Annie shifts and escapes into the forests surrounding Salmon Creek. Rafe is worried for his sister, but becomes terrified when the forests catch fire. Maya, Daniel, and Rafe search for Annie, but encounter a group of men who claim to have set the fire as a distraction to search the St. Cloud laboratories in town. After nearly being captured, Maya, Rafe, Daniel and several other teens from Salmon Creek escape  both the fire and the men who set it in an evacuation helicopter.
     The originally well-adjusted Maya is thrown into chaos when Rafe drops the news on her that her birth mother abandoned her because of her shape-shifting abilities. He also tells Maya that her mother kept her twin brother when Maya was put up for adoption, furthering her confusion. Maya's adopted parents loved her as their own and until Rafe she never wanted to know about that other life she could have lived. Her other shock is that Serena was murdered--though Maya is not as surprised as others in town. The sleepy town they once thought they lived in turns out to be a hotbed of lies and the teens of Salmon Creek must come to grips with their rapidly changing lives.
     Like every teen, the students of Salmon Creek are changing and learning how to cope with those changes. They deal with peer pressure, the pressure to perform both academically and in extra-curricular activities, and with growing up. Armstrong's novel chronicles the beginning for Maya and her friends and is followed by The Calling and The Rising. The books follow her previous trilogy to form The Darkest Powers Series and are appropriate for high school readers and anyone experiencing the transitions from one life-stage to another.