Paranormal and supernatural books are the ones I struggle with the most. I have a hard time with some fantasy titles, too. For me, falling into a completely different worlds — ones with rules that don’t work likes ours — is hard. I like my fiction quite real, maybe even a little magical, and the paranormal/supernatural world is hard for me to connect with. But for many readers, as we know, this is ideal reading: slipping away from our world is what they crave, and I have to say, I’m a little envious of that!
Manifest, by Artist Arthur, is a the first in a new Harlequin Teen paranormal series. Krystal Bentley is new in town: after a bitter divorce between her mom and dad, she was ripped from her home in New York City and forced to move to boring Lincoln, Connecticut. She’s angry and frustrated, and she has a lot of pent up frustration toward her mother and soon-to-be stepfather. But that’s not all that causes her to be angry and frustrated. Quite the contrary — it’s the fact that she’s perhaps found the ideal guy to be with. . . but he’s not real. No, he’s a voice she hears in her head and a voice that asks her to avenge his death since he cannot do it himself.
But why Krystal? What does she have that sets her apart from those who have lived in Lincoln forever and know the back story of Ricky’s death? It’s the glowing array of freckles that form an “M” on her neck, and it’s not long before she discovers two others at Lincoln with this distinguishable marking, too: Sasha and Jake. But they don’t hear voices like she does. Sasha can make herself disappear and Jake can move things with a little mental concentration. And when they come together, things happen. Strange things, that is.
Manifest begins with an interesting premise, and while I think that further volumes in this series will give the readers more to work with, I felt a little let down as a reader. I never got to know what brought these three together as well as I’d like to, beyond a chilling message from Jake’s senile grandfather that mentioned the mutual births of the trio’s mothers during a rough storm. Krystal tries to unravel the mystery but never quite does so in this volume.
Further, I was left wanting to know a heck of a lot more about Ricky and why he sought out Krystal. We never get a resolution (as we wouldn’t in the first novel of a series) but I felt like I didn’t get enough back story to fall completely into the book.
Krystal, as annoying as she is, is a memorable character. She has a lot of bitterness and resentment — sometimes justifiable and sometimes not — but it makes her believable and real to teenagers, I think. She won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, but she will be the perfect manifestation of feelings and actions for many readers. Likewise, Krystal is of mixed race, which added flavor to the story, too, and again, this will resonate with many readers. I don’t think there are enough non-white leads in teen books as it is and even less-so in paranormal titles…especially playing the good role!
Although Manifest didn’t live up to my expectations, this is a good book to hand to your readers of the other titles in Harlequin Teen’s paranormal lines (Rachel Vincent’s “Soul Screamers” series or Gena Showalter’s “Intertwined” series). I think as this series progresses, it’ll draw in more readers as we learn the back stories of not only Krystal, but her kindred spirits in Jake and Sasha. Oh, and that pesky ghost Ricky. This is a fast read, as readers are plunked into the story immediately and we find strange things happening right away.