Poltergeeks

Author:  Sean Cummings

Publisher: Strange Chemistry

Source:  NetGalley

Publication Date:  October 2, 2012

Pages:  384

15 year old Julie Richardson is a witch - or a witch-in-training at least - and she's determined to prove to her mother that she's capable and doesn't need her mom's constant meddling and over-protectiveness. So, when Julie and her best friend, Marcus, come across an elderly lady that's been kicked out of her house, Julie's convinced that she can handle this simple poltergeist and show her mom her skills. But things aren't as simple as Julie thinks and it turns out that it's much, much more than a simple poltergeist. Instead, there's a much stronger force at work with an agenda of it's own. When Julie's mother rushes to her defense at Julie's high school, her soul is stolen by dark magic and it's up to Julie and Marcus to figure out what's going on and save her mother before she dies. 

This book felt a little bit younger than what I usually read but it was enjoyable. It was kind of like Nancy Drew meets Veronica Mars. Cummings had some really good dialogue and humor in the story. Plus, there were some geeky references thrown in that had me laughing. I liked Julie and Marcus a lot and thought that they seemed like normal teenagers. I would like to see how the characters grow in future books (which I assume there's going to be more). I'm also really digging the relationship between Julie and her mother. You can tell that there's going to be more there. I liked that she's an actual mother to Julie and tries to protect her instead of be Julie's best friend. And Julie really wants her mother's approval. That desire to please her mother is what got Julie involved in the mess in this book to begin with. 

Cummings has a lot of room to grow with this series and the potential for character and world development is there. This is a good building block for what could become a great series.