C.I.N.

This is a really interesting science fiction/teenage romance type of novel. The main character is seventeen-year-old Lisa who has a highly dysfunctional mother who leaves Lisa with her Aunt Millie, who happens to be the dead of an elite boarding school.

Her aunt has a house near the school, and there's another house near there. In the second house two other students are staying, Alex and Lynn. There's also a dog named Pig, and a cat named Rat, which gives the reader an idea that something rather strange is going to happen.

And it does. Both Alex and Lynn seem to be cruel to Lisa. There's an odd rule about not touching either the dog or the cat, although the dog becomes instant friends with Lisa. There's strange weather, a lot of lightning, and the history of the school itself. Some of the story even involves events back in the 1600's, the Salem witch trails, and the rather intelligent explanation of the role of ergot in the hallucinations the girls had.

The most interesting thing, in my opinion, is trying to figure out what just what type of beings Alex and Lynn are. One can run through a variety of possibilities, including shapeshifters, a sorcerer and a sorceress, vampires, maybe even some form of life from another planet. Part of the fun of the book is trying to figure out what they are and then comparing that to what they ultimately are shown to be.

The romance aspect is also done well, a lot along the Japanese style with the two main characters involved seeming to hate each other at first, reminding me of Ranma and Akane from Ranma ½.

It's a very enjoyable book.


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