Voices told Lucas Darby to run. Voices no one else can hear. He's warned his sister not to look for him, but Rayne refuses to let her troubled brother vanish. On her desperate search, she meets Gabriel Stewart, a runaway with mysterious powers and far too many secrets. Rayne can't explain her crazy need to trust the strange yet compelling boy - even though he scares her.
They discover Lucas is running from the Believers, a fanatical church secretly hunting psychic kids - gifted Indigo teens feared to be the next evolution of mankind. Now Rayne's only hope is Gabe, who is haunted by an awakening power - a force darker than either of them imagine - that could doom them all.
"I was really excited to read this book once I heard about it. The concept of the Indigo children, or kids who have evolved mentally to a higher level than most people, was always discussed at home because my grandfather thought it was an interesting concept and it is part of my generation. This was the first fiction novel I have seen on the topic, since most books about it are new age. The book is about Rayne, an emancipated minor who goes on a search for her missing younger brother. Her brother, Lucas, has always been different or odd, but when their parents died, their older sister Mia had Lucas put into a mental institute run by her overpowering church. One night, even while drugged up, Lucas was able to escape. This action set off a chain of events, from Lucas being on the streets hearing voices as the drugs left his system, to Rayne searching all locations from their past for him, to Mia following Rayne who she believes is hiding Lucas. Meanwhile, the church has ulterior motives for wanting Lucas, which is to experiment of this rare type of evolved being, so they dispatch mercenaries to find and retrieve Lucas no matter what. While on her search, Rayne faces trouble from gang members and is saved by the mysterious Gabe who lives at the zoo and draws people when he dreams. Gabe reluctantly teams up with Rayne after she sees a drawing he did of Lucas, but Gabe has lot of secrets and good reasons for staying off the grid. I really liked the concept of the book, which is why I gave it 4 stars, but there were some issues I had with things. For example, Rayne is an emancipated minor, yet her older sisters controls pretty much all aspects of her life with no input from Rayne. It made me really confused, like the author did not really think the independence aspect through. Also, the book was told from so many points of view: Rayne (who I thought was the main character but not really, just a character), Gabe, Lucas, Rafe and Kendrick (other runaways), the leader of the church, Mia the sister, O'Dell( the leader of the Mercenaries), as well as the therapist who wanted to study Lucas. There was so much going on that it was hard to get very invested in a specific character, someone to root for. I found myself starting to skim the parts in the perspective of the characters I just did not care about. I would have loved this book if it had been told from just Rayne's view, or maybe Rayne and Gabe, but all the others just lost my interest. There was a case of insta-love (or in this case maybe more like insta-connection/love) between Rayne and Gabe, which I am ok with, but it was not developed since we only got flashes of them together or their emotions. Half the time it seemed like Rayne was using Gabe to find Lucas, and then the rest of the time she was fatalistic about what she thought would happen between them. Yet Gabe's brief views were sweet and sentimental, purely selfless in his actions. Sigh. I liked Gabe, he was an interesting character. Hopefully in the next book there can be more of them and less of everyone else. I will most likely read the next book in the series to see where they story line goes, but if it stays the same as this book with character development then my attention my dwindle off. Oh and the ending was predictable to me with the church connection, I just assumed it would be stretched out for at least another book. We shall see. I would say pick up the book for a fast paced urban adventure set in L.A about a unique topic, especially if you like multiple points of view. I received this book from the publishers in exchange for my honest review."
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Katherine (4 out of 5 stars)