Possess by Gretchen McNeil

From the summary: Fifteen-year-old Bridget Liu just wants to be left alone: by her mom, by the cute son of a local police sergeant, and by the eerie voices she can suddenly and inexplicably hear. Unfortunately for Bridget, it turns out the voices are demons – and Bridget has the rare ability to banish them back to whatever hell they came from. 

Terrified to tell people about her new power, Bridget confides in a local priest who enlists her help in increasingly dangerous cases of demonic possession. But just as she is starting to come to terms with her new power, Bridget receives a startling message from one of the demons. Now Bridget must unlock the secret to the demons’ plan before someone close to her winds up dead – or worse, the human vessel of a demon king.

Christina:  So let me start out by saying that this book scared the hell out of me. But in a totally awesome creeptastic way.

**Warning: Spoilers and creepy giffage ahead.**

Bridget attends St. Michael’s, a Catholic school in San Francisco.  Since the gruesome death of her dad a year ago, she’s heard voices – demon voices – and has been learning how to send them back to wherever it is they came from.

This book had everything: creep factor, mystery, humor, and of course, a touch of romance. We’ll get back to the romance later because Matt Quinn = sweet adorable swoony boy.

Bridget is snarky and awesome (a bit sarcastic at times but very realistic for a 15-year-old), and a total badass in the making. Though she starts out harboring some resentment toward her new-found abilities, it was really fun watching her character evolve and kick some demon king ass.

Matt Quinn is just… sigh. He’s sweet and adorable and always watching out for Bridge and her entire family. I mean COME ON, he plays baseball with her little brother just to help him fit in. And of course, first kiss swoons:

When his lips touched hers, she was afraid to move. She’d never kissed a guy before and she was terrified that she’d do it wrong. But Matt’s lips were surprisingly soft, his touch light and calm. And when he finally broke away from her, he looked nervous, as if he’d been afraid he would break her.

Awwwwwwww. Plus, the writing is AMAZING. The descriptions were so rich that the settings became as much a part of the story as the characters.

A great example:

Bridget kept the corroded metal railing in a death grip as she plodded up the stairs. The fog was everywhere: in her eyes, in her mouth, seeping into her tights and the deep pleats of her uniform skirt. She felt heavy, weighted, like the fog was trying to pull her down the stairs, away from the house, away from what lay inside.

And then we have the doll store.

Bridget froze just inside the doorway. Facing her was a display case populated by old, withered dolls. They were bald, sort of, hair painted on their freaky little wooden skulls. They wore varieties of period clothes – some kind of Old West-y, some more turn of the century – all with a similar look on their faces: painted eyes staring straight ahead, lips puckered and slightly flared like they were cooing. Most of them were chipped, the flesh-colored paint flaking of their faces, and they sat at odd angles, leaning on one another for support like an infant leper colony.

There are murders, creepy ghosts, a scratching coming from inside her closet omg (did I mention KISSING *in* said closet????), and a strong enough story to keep you reading long into the night. This book is part of a series (next one Fall 2013), but the ending is wrapped up nicely. And rather than leaving you all HULKSMASH!MEWANTRESOLUTIONNOW, you’re left marking your calendar and quietly fangirling away for her next book. (*cough*TEN*cough*)

I give this:
Badass Chick on Board
Swoony Boy Alert
And: I Will Reswoon Soon

About the author: Gretchen McNeil is a former coloratura soprano, the voice of Mary on G4’s Code Monkeys and she currently sings with the LA-based circus troupe Cirque Berzerk. She is a founding member of vlog group theYARebels where she can be seen as “Monday,” and she is an active member of both The Enchanted Inkpot, a group blog of YA and middle grade fantasy writers, and The Apocalypsies, a group blog of 2012 children’s debut authors.

Go, go, GO! read this one, we’ll hold your hand.