SOLVED. YA fantasy - Girl renounces self and becomes a unicorn [s]

[Andre]

I remember very little of this book except for one scene fairly clearly. I don't remember why, but the girl that's the main character of the book has to become a unicorn in order to have the power or ability to save the world, or whatever.

She has a mentor who guides her through the ceremony/procedure, which starts by having the girl gather a large number of stones and set them in a ring around herself. Then she must go around the circle and for each stone, name something and give it up verbally. She must renounce everything that makes her herself, all her belongings, all her gifts and flaws. Each time she names something, she touches the stone and it begins to glow. The last few stones are the hardest. After she is surrounded by a ring of glowing stones, then she transforms.

Any ideas?

[Jessica]

I haven't read this part, specifically, but could it part of Bruce Coville's Unicorn series? I've read the first two, and the girl's grandmother used to be a unicorn.

[Andre]

I don't think so...I never read more than the first book I think. I kept waiting for him to write more, but I lost track of the series before he continued it. I understand there are four books now. But the thing about her grandmother is probably a spoiler, because I didn't know it. And anyway that transformation must have gone the other way, from unicorn to human. Cara, the main character, doesn't become a unicorn as far as I can tell.

[Lisa]

How about Acorna's World by Anne McCaffrey?

[Sevastian]

Old thread, but this is The Magic of the Unicorn, an old Choose Your Own Adventure book. The ending really stuck with me when I was a kid.

[Andre]

Sevastian wrote: "Old thread, but this is The Magic of the Unicorn, an old Choose Your Own Adventure book."

That must be it! I used to read a lot of those old CYOA books. Thanks!

Score one for leaving old threads open.