Eerie

A teenager gets caught in a dangerous supernatural conflict in McCoy’s promising but overstuffed paranormal romance. Hailey Hartley’s dreams about a mysterious boy become much more vivid after her older sister is murdered. Soon after, Hailey meets him in the flesh: he’s an “Envoy” named Asher, responsible for ferrying life energy—released when someone dies—across dimensional planes. The Envoys have become trapped on Earth, Hailey could be the key to freeing them, and her life is in danger as a result. But first she’s off to Bear Towne University in remote Alaska to study “ParaScience,” though she isn’t necessarily safe there, given such hazards as invisible interdimensional portals and carnivorous splinters from man-eating trees. McCoy has fun fleshing out the details of Hailey’s life at Bear Towne, though it isn’t entirely clear how the many supernatural aspects of the novel fit together. Characters don’t always react in believable ways (at one point Hailey accepts a dinner invitation with the Envoy who killed her sister without argument), though readers who invest in Hailey’s story may be intrigued by a cliffhanger ending that sets up a sequel. Ages 14–up. (BookLife)