CYBILS GRAPHIC NOVEL NOMINEE (YA): The Harrowing by Kristen Kiesling & Rye Hickman
ABOUT THE BOOK
Rowan Sterling should be worrying about normal teenage things like attending college and whether her best friend, Lucas, is maybe more than a friend. . . . Instead, she’s having terrifying visions of blood and violence. As the premonitions increase in number and intensity, Rowan seeks her father’s help, but instead finds herself drugged, kidnapped, and sent to a mysterious facility called Rosewood. It isn’t long before Rowan discovers Rosewood isn’t a boarding school or an it’s a training center for teens with special abilities who are known as Harrows.
Harrows can view the actions of would-be murderers before they commit crimes, and the scientists at Rosewood believe it is their duty to use the Harrows’ powers to make the world a safer place. Rowan is immediately drawn to Rosewood’s mission; after all, she lost her mother to a random act of violence two years prior. Empowered by the skills she’s acquired and ready to change the world, Rowan returns home, but when a series of visions lead the Harrows to pursue Lucas, Rowan starts questioning everything she learned at Rosewood—and sets out to protect him at all costs.
REVIEW
This rather gruesome tale presents a rather powerful ethical dilemma wrapped up in a girl who sees visions. Rowan discovers her ability to see visions after touching a customer one day at the diner where she works with her best friend. An awkward almost kiss makes it difficult to turn to Lucas for help so she runs to her father. This leads to her being drugged and carried off to Rosewood. At Rosewood, Rowan learns what her visions are about and how she can use her abilities to prevent murders. At first being a Harrow seems like a great thing, until she loses a friend and discovers there is a much darker purpose being served. Things take a turn for the worse after she sees a vision of Lucas killing someone. She just can't believe that he deserves to be treated the way they are treating the other imcrims (imminent criminals) and decides to flee. The visions seen by the Harrows are just that, harrowing and bloody, and not for the faint of heart. It's not surprising that Rowan is so shaken after seeing just a couple of these awfully graphic crime scenes. The book is also not for the fainthearted. While I found the storyline a fascinating and thought-provoking one, I had a hard time with the amount of graphic violence. For readers who can handle the violence, the ethical questions are certainly ones worth pondering. Not a story easily forgotten in it's powerful presentation and questions.
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