The Vision

Gr 8 Up—Cassie Renfield's story continues in this sequel to The Mark (Bloomsbury, 2010). She wants to better understand death, and because she knows that the halos she sees surrounding people mean that they will die sometime that day, she begins working at a morgue. Since her deceased grandmother never spoke about her mother and the mysterious tie the women in her family have to Greek deities, the teen also tries desperately to connect with her roots by seeking out other Greeks. She meets Zander and quickly falls for his charming ways. When she accepts an invitation to dinner at his house, she begins to realize that he may not be what he seems. She learns that he is also a descendant of the Greek gods, and that his purpose is to "carry" people over to death. Now she faces a serious dilemma: Should she tell those who bear the mark and try to save them, even if it means that someone else somewhere will die instead, or should she help Zander find those that are marked so he can complete their demise? At the end, Cassie is closer to making a decision, but there still is room for another book in this series. Nadol has written a compelling psychological thriller with just the right amount of romance and mystery. Cassie is a fully fleshed-out character who, despite her extraordinary ability and goddess ancestry, has real-world questions and problems. Recommend this book to those who enjoyed The Mark, as it does not quite work as a stand-alone, and to those who liked Lisa McMann's Wake (S & S, 2008) and Rachel Ward's Numbers (Scholastic, 2010).—Lauren Newman, Northern Burlington County Regional Middle School, Columbus, NJ