I would give The Calling by Louise G. White a 7 out of 10.
A feral young girl, Carolyn, finds herself irresistibly drawn to gateways that open up in her world, and take her to other worlds filled with demons who kidnap humans to use for their own wicked purposes. She has this calling because she witnessed a group of demons suck her mother and brother into one of these gateways. Now she is constantly looking for her loved ones while saving other humans from a similar fate. She lives this animalistic existence, avoiding the “suits” and killing demons, until one day when she “anchored” to a demon. This releases dormant hormones within her, forcing her to have a irresistible attraction to her new demon friend.
Louise does a great job creating fantastic creatures and wonderful worlds to explore. She wraps this all up in an action adventure that engages the reader at numerous occasions. Adding to the flavor of this adventure, she creates a love triangle centered around a strong willed girl as she explores what the true meaning of love is. The author does a wonderful job of making the reader see this struggle with this powerful emotion in a way that most teenagers would see it. It makes you wonder if what Carolyn is really experiencing is true love, or just an effect of the new hormones rushing through her body.
The book, however, does lag a little in the middle. This is not something that is unusual for larger fantasy pieces because the author does need to establish the world that they have created and introduce the reader to all of the characters needed in order to fully tell the tale. Louise G. White does a good job of keeping the reader entertained while developing this aspect of the story even though there are a couple of occasions where I wondered if what she added was actually necessary to the story.
The one major complaint I had about the book was the ending. This is my own personal taste, but I believe that the first part of any series should be able to stand on its own as a book. Of course, the author should leave the reader with some questions to get them excited for the next installment, but I believe that there should be enough closure in the book to allow the reader to feel satisfied without having a burning desire to have those questions answered. There is a huge cliff-hanger at the end of this book, and even though I do have a desire to find out what happens next, I feel like it is part of marketing ploy to get me to buy the next installment. Of course, I probably will, but I still like that sense of closure that wasn’t a part of this book.
Otherwise, the story that Louise G. White has created is a lot of fun and if you are willing to go on the full adventure, I would recommend picking up The Calling.
John Collings 