Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

Seventeen-year-old Lenzi is pretty sure the disembodied voices she’s been hearing lately mean that she has inherited her father’s schizophrenia, so when a beautiful guy shows up telling her that is not, in fact, the case, she’s open to his ideas. Alden informs her that as a reincarnated Speaker, Lenzi is entrusted with resolving the lingering concerns of Hindered spirits and that he, as her Protector, is there to make sure the more malevolent spirits don’t take permanent hold of her body. They’ve been doing this for lifetimes now, but for some reason, the current incarnation of Lenzi has no memory of her past and her powers to resolve the ghosts are slow to emerge, a situation that becomes problematic when the pair is forced to confront a wicked shade with a grudge against Lenzi for wrongs committed in another life. [End Page 262] The author creates a rich mythology involving not only of Speakers and Protectors but an all powerful Intercessor Council and an elaborate systems of rules and points that has each pairing of Speaker and Protector vying for more power; the ghosts Lenzi finds herself up against are just as compelling, particularly the ultimate baddie whose attempts to force his way into the material world are terrifically frightening. Unfortunately, the other humans in the story are not nearly as well drawn, and the push-and-pull romance between Lenzi and Alden never rises avove the predictably typical for the genre. Nonetheless, for teens who simply don’t want to stop seeing dead people anytime soon, this may be a satisfactory choice.