** spoiler alert ** The Initiation is the first novel of L. J. Smith’s Secret Circle trilogy that is currently being produced by Kevin Williams for the CW network. The Initiation follows a teenager named Cassie whose mother moves them back to the town, where her grandmother lives. Cassie is not happy with starting a new school and the forbidding house of her grandmother. Within days of starting school she gets on the bad side of Faith and her underlings, Suzan and Deborah. They begin a campaign of intimidation and harassment that ends with fire play in an abandoned building on the school campus. Cassie is rescued by the beautiful Diana and cousin of Faiths. Diana puts Cassie under her protection and they develop a close sisterly bond. Diana brings Cassie into the popular group, which includes a mixed bag of characters including Faith and her minions. One of the things we discover is that the group is preparing to initiate another girl into the group and Cassie is jealous because she knows she will always be on the fringe of the group. When the girl is killed, Cassie is initiated in her place and the truth comes out that the group are actually witches. Diana’s boyfriend returns from a search for the “Master Tools” which are a set of witch tools that the original coven used to work powerful magic. The boyfriend, Adam, returns with one of the tools, a crystal skull, that some of the coven want to use to discover who has murdered their friend. When they use it, some type of black power surges from the skull and escapes out into the world. Cassie also discovers that Adam is the boy she met once during the summer with and had an amazing connection with which might be love. Cassie is horrified by what she sees as a betrayal of Diana’s friendship and vows to never let her know of how she feels. At the end of the book, Cassie and Adam share a kiss and promise that it is the end of it. Unfortunately, Faith has witnessed the interaction and uses it to blackmail Cassie into doing her bidding.
My views of the book:
This book is a decent addition to any library and especially so for those that enjoy young adult fiction. However the first book is clearly a first book in a series as it is long on exposition and short on character development. Many of the characters are very stereotypical with the bad girl, bad boy, aloof boy, biker chick, creepy dude, and perfect couple. The first time I read this book was when I was a teenager and I enjoyed it both then and now. I feel that Cassie is a relatable character because of her shyness and need to belong. She feel s out of place and sees the Circle as somewhere that she can belong. One of her biggest faults however, is that she is so desperate to now “rock the boat” that she allows herself to fall under the power of Faith. Of course, if honesty was a viable option we wouldn’t have drama which is what makes books and television enjoyable. I cannot wait to see how the Secret Circle adapts to television and with the minds behind the Vampire Diaries on board, I am eager to see it.