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Title: Intertwined

Author: Gena Showalter

Publisher:  Harlequin Teen

ISBN:  9780373210022

May Contain Spoilers

Aden Stone has a few issues to work through.  First, he hears voices in his head, but since four other souls share his body, maybe that’s not so unusual.  No, what really freaks him out is his ability to wake the dead whenever he steps even one foot into a graveyard, courtesy of one of the souls.  The others have the ability to time travel, tell the future, or even take possession of another human.  How they all became trapped in his body is a mystery he’s determined to solve, but with his complicated life that has had him shuffled from one institution to another, he’s walking a very fine line between freedom and being locked up in a mental ward for the rest of his life.  When he meets Mary Ann, he thinks that she might be the key to unlocking the secrets of his past,  because she seems to have some powers of her own.  Whenever he’s with her, the souls within him fall silent and powerless.   Can he solve the puzzle of the souls and set them all free?

Intertwined really packs in a ton of supernatural beings into what becomes an ever more engrossing tale about a troubled young man and his quest for normalcy.  Aden hasn’t known a normal day in his sixteen years, and when he’s given a chance to live at a home for troubled youths, he doesn’t want to rock the boat.  Too bad that he unwittingly wanders into a cemetery and is forced to fight off a horde of corpses who don’t take kindly to him standing near their gravesites.  The book starts off with this battle against rotting, hungry zombies, and doesn’t end until the put-upon Aden has faced off against werewolves, vampires, demons, and witches.  In terms of supernatural creatures, this one offers an encyclopedia for Aden to encounter. 

Aden is not your typical romance hero.  Possessed by four other souls, he hears voices nobody else can, and that’s earned him a free ticket to the mental institution.  Stuck in lockup with a bunch of individuals just as troubled as he is, Aden learned quickly how to defend himself, which earned him a reputation for not only being crazy, but also for being violent.  With his prospects rather dim, he is thrilled to finally be given a chance at D and M Ranch, a home for wayward boys.  Under the strict guidance of Dan, a former football player, the residents are expected to perform chores, stay out of trouble, and not tear up the local graveyard.  When Aden finds himself fighting for his life against a bunch of zombies, he’s afraid that he’ll be packed back up and shipped back to the nearest mental hospital.  This time for good.

When a chance encounter with Mary Ann Gray brings him a sense of peace he’s only dreamed of, he thinks he’s on the track to discovering the secret behind himself and the souls living within him.  Mary Ann is everything that he isn’t; a good student, someone who wouldn’t know how to get into trouble even if she tried.  When she and Aden become friends, a whole new world opens up for both of them, one full of danger and forbidden romance.  When Aden causes a supernatural disturbance that awakens even the lord of the vampires, his prospects for survival start to look bleak.  He’s become the enemy of pretty much everyone, except for a vampire princess, a werewolf, and Mary Ann.  Can the four of them overcome the deadly obstacles placed in their path to learn the truth behind Aden’s past?

Though I thought the book dragged a bit as it neared the end, and then crammed too much activity into too few pages, Intertwined was an engrossing read.   The cast of characters was diverse and interesting, and the mystery behind Aden and Mary Ann kept me turning the pages.  I thought that Mary Ann’s romantic entanglements were far more intriguing than Aden’s, but the emotional turmoil felt by both teens was convincing and compelling.  Mixing in the supernatural elements added a zing of danger, and increased the tension between the characters.

The one thing that I didn’t like was the non-ending.  The story builds and builds and builds, and then it just trickles off at the end.  There are so many major plot points left unresolved that it doesn’t feel like the book has an ending at all.  Hopefully the sequel, Unraveled, is due out in September of 2010, will provide all of the answers Aden is looking for.

Grade: B-

Review copy provided by Harlequin

Author’s website can be found here