Conjured
by
Sarah Beth Durst
Edition
Hardcover edition
Publisher
Bloomsbury Publishing
Imprint
Walker
ISBN
9780802734587
Awards and Honors
2013 Cybils Awards, Speculative Fiction, Young Adult, Finalist
POTENTIALLY SENSITIVE AREAS
Violence: Mild Violence, Sexual Content: Strong Sexual Content/Themes
Eve, in a witness protection program, remembers her magical past only in dreams. But she must recall the details of her case before the killer she has seen comes after her.
POTENTIALLY SENSITIVE AREAS
Violence: Mild Violence, Sexual Content: Strong Sexual Content/Themes
Details
Format
Page Count
304
Trim Size
5 1/2" x 8 1/4"
Dewey
F
AR
4.5: points 13
Lexile
610L
Genre
Fiction
Scholastic Reading Counts
21
JLG Release
Dec 2013
Book Genres
Topics
Fantasy. Amnesia. Witness protection. Magic. Serial killers. Supernatural powers.
Standard MARC Records
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Cover Art
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Praise & Reviews
Starred or favorable reviews have been received from these periodicals:
Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books, The Horn Book Magazine, Kirkus Reviews, School Library Journal, Voice of Youth Advocates (VOYA)
Praise & Reviews
School Library Journal
Suffering from severe memory loss, Eve is taken to a safe house and told she’s in a witness protection program, but that fact and many others are called into question when she meets other “witnesses” who believe that the agents will eventually kill her. With no information about the crime she witnessed, the teen has no idea who to trust. She’s also haunted by chilling visions that immediately follow when she uses her various powers to do things like making the birds on her wallpaper fly or walking through walls. Eventually, she is able to remember enough to go traveling through many magical worlds on a hunt for “the Magician,” only to find out that she herself was created as a way for him to store power from young magical beings by the inference of their dying breaths. Only her nonmagical boyfriend’s belief in her newfound humanity is able to convince Eve that she doesn’t have to be defined by her past. This is an urban fantasy without a solid sense of time or place. It’s contemporary in tone, but there are no distinct regional flairs or cultural references. Due to Eve’s memory loss and the story being told entirely from her perspective, readers learn things in fits and starts with memories slowly taking shape and reality constantly being questioned. The narrative progresses slowly and can seem disjointed at times, but the action does pick up and leads to a satisfying, if slightly creepy, ending.—Sunnie Lovelace, Wallingford Public Library, CT
Horn Book
Eve has peculiar memory problems. Not only is she unable to remember her former life, but every time she uses magic—purposely or inadvertently—she blacks out and awakens with even her short-term memories erased. The U.S. Marshals of the witness protection program, WitSec, are determined to make Eve remember in any way they can: they’re sure she has vital information on a teen-murdering, interworld criminal—information that is embedded in Eve’s nightmarish visions of a sinister carnival and its magic show. In her new, puzzling, and forgetful life, Eve doesn’t know whom to trust: Malcolm, the marshal who watches over her; the three magic-wielding teenagers WitSec lets loose on her; or Zach, the garrulous, sweet-souled fellow volunteer at her library job. Durst combines the particular terrors of memory loss and icy bureaucracy with the colorful horrors of carnivalesque murder, killer sleight-of-hand, and a creepy, terrible truth about Eve’s very being. Disorientation, curiosity, and fear course through the story, offering tight suspense and satisfying mystification even up to the last pages. An unusual blend of magical worlds, psychological thriller, and teen romance. DEIRDRE F. BAKER
Grades 9-12
Fantasy/Science Fiction High Plus
For Grades 9-12
Tales of unique and mysterious powers, strange new worlds, alternate realities, and dark fantasies await your high-school readers. They'll discover a new world monthly with the 12 books in this category.
14 books per Year
$302.40 per Year
Interests
Fiction,High Interest/Reluctant Reader,Thriller/Horror/Mystery,Novels
Grades 9-12
Fantasy/Science Fiction High Plus
14 books per Year
$302.40 per Year
