Title:  Possess
Author:  Gretchen McNeil
Release date:  August 23, 2011
Publisher:  Balzer & Bray
Pages:  384
Source:  Publisher

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.

Possess is an absolutely fantastic debut novel.  It’s creepy, funny, suspenseful, and just plain awesome!  Gretchen McNeil is another debut author to add to your list of must read authors.

Bridget is an amazing main character.  She is snarky, sarcastic, kind of shut off from people, and possibly going insane.  That, or the voices she hears could be demons.  I’m not sure which would be worse.  I think Bridget is the main reason I liked this book so much.  She lightened the mood and she made me laugh when I normally would have wanted to scream.  She was also so sweet with her little brother, Sammy.  I loved him.  Another great guy was Matt Quinn, the possible love interest.  He was sweet, funny, and a little overprotective.  I really grew to like him throughout the book.

The plot was very gripping!  From the first page I was hooked and I had no idea how everything would play out.  I was amazed at how perfectly everything tied together in the end but left me with just enough questions to hope for a sequel.  Oh and beware, there are some seriously creepy scenes in this book.  One involves dolls (my personal worst nightmare.)

Overall, Possess is a unique story that really grabbed me and did not let go until the very last sentence.  I cna’t wait for more from Gretchen McNeil.

First line:  Bridget stared at the clock on the wall and cursed its painfully slow progress towards three fifteen.

Rating:  A

Cover:  A++