JusticeReads & Writes: Sparked by Helena Echlin and Malena Watrous

Goodreads Summary:

Fifteen-year-old Laurel Goodwin wakes up to find her older sister Ivy missing from their Airstream trailer in the Oregon redwoods. A recurring nightmare convinces her that Ivy was abducted, but no one takes her dream seriously, including her mom. Laurel, a loner, has to learn to ask for help, and Jasper Blake, a mysterious new kid who shares her love of old books, quickly becomes her ally. Together they find their quiet town holds a deep secret and is the epicenter of a dark prophecy.
Laurel soon learns that her worst enemies, mean girls Peyton Andersen and Mei Rosen, are developing powers that she needs to find and save Ivy. With time running out, Laurel realizes that power doesn't always take the form that you expect. And once she learns to look beyond her snap judgments, she develops an unexpected gift of her own.

My Take:

This was a very paranormal young adult read and I liked it! I immediately liked Laurel. I felt the missing sister story line has been played a lot, but Echlin and Watrous did a nice job in making this story its own. I think any book that has the words ancient prophecy in it, speaks for itself. I definitely wished I could've read this before October as I feel it has a nice creepy vibe to it and I like those types of books at certain times of year. I felt that Laurel was a complex character who shows originality and true versions of being a teenager, making her very easy to relate and connect to. Jasper was a nice love interest in that he, himself, has a backstory that is quite unique. I didn't really care for Mei or Peyton, but I do think that was the objective. You can plainly see that everyone is struggling with real life teenage feelings and emotions and insecurities.

I truly enjoyed Laurel's dreams that told so much of the story and her journey into finding out what happened to her sister Ivy. I would probably give this story 3 stars for being a creepy, paranormal, sibling bonded, teenage journey to finding ones true self.

Dream Cast Was so much fun to make!!!

Laurel ~ Chloe Moretz

Ivy ~ Veronika Bonell

Jasper ~ Ansel Elgort

Sky ~ Skai Jackson

Peyton ~ Aurora Perrineau

Mei ~ Nikki Soohoo

Simone ~ Bailee Madison

Favorite Quotes

"But it was only a nightmare, I told myself. It couldn’t mean anything."

"I felt like she’d taken the billowing black mass of the nightmare and folded it over and over, until it became a tiny square, small enough for me to put away and forget about."

"Ancient magic sang in their veins, while the most ordinary blood trickled through mine."

“As the date approaches, the natural order will begin to fall apart, and the lower beings will be seen to rise from the dead.”

About the Authors

Hello! We are both novelists, but if you've ever tried to write anything, you know that writing can be a lonely, angst-filled business. So one night over a cocktail or two, we came up with a solution: write our next book together. Malena already had an idea: a girl's sister is kidnapped and she has to rely on mean girls with superpowers to get her sister back. We couldn't resist seeing where that story would take us – a wild ride that includes a loner girl who wants to be a writer and a gorgeous boy who can shoot fire from his eyes but also loves to talk about books. And an ancient Zoroastrian prophecy. And pie shakes. (OK, so maybe we got a little carried away.)

We've both published solo novels (check them out here and here) and had no idea how co-writing would work out, but we pounded out the first draft in a white-hot frenzy of inspiration we called "the Vortex." One of us would write a scene and send it to the other with a note: "My apartment is a pigsty and I haven't eaten all day. #inthevortex." We wrote the book we wanted to read as teenagers: a supernatural thriller with healthy doses of horror and humor. Oh, and of course there's romance. You have to wait a long time for the only kiss in the book, but isn't that the case with all the best kisses in books?