Conjured

by Sarah Beth Durst

Eve has a new home, a new face, and a new name—but no memories of her past. She’s been told that she's in a witness protection program. That she escaped a dangerous magic-wielding serial killer who still hunts her. The only thing she knows for sure is that there is something horrifying in her memories the people hiding her want to access—and there is nothing they won’t say—or do—to her to get her to remember.

At night she dreams of a tattered carnival tent and buttons being sewn into her skin. But during the day, she shelves books at the local library, trying to not let anyone know that she can do things—things like change the color of her eyes or walk through walls. When she does use her strange powers, she blacks out and is drawn into terrifying visions, returning to find that days or weeks have passed—and she’s lost all short-term memories. Eve must find out who and what she really is before the killer finds her—but the truth may be more dangerous than anyone could have ever imagined.

• ISBN10: 0802737498
• ISBN13: 9780802737496
• Publish Date: 16 September 2014 (first published 3 September 2013)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 31 August 2021
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Walker & Co
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 384
• Language: English

Reviews

[Kelly]

http://www.divabooknerd.com/2014/10/conjured-by-sarah-beth-durst.html
Conjured was a blend of mystery and fantasy, with contemporary elements and eerie flashbacks. I enjoyed the darker side of Conjured, but overall I struggled to really immerse myself within the storyline. Eve is as whimsical as she is magical, and although readers may struggle to connect to her character, her thoughts are among the loveliest, not to mention eerie, that I've had the pleasure of reading.

It's the memory flashbacks that Eve experiences that lured me into the storyline. A dark and magical carnival, where she recalls thoughts of a children's Storyteller that cared for her seemingly like a mother figure. There is a killer targeting children and teens that puts Eve in the line of danger. But when a group of magic infused teens try to recruit her to their cause, and that's where I begun to lose interest. I needed more creepy carnival and less teen romance. The introduction of Victoria, Aidan and Topher who are involved within the Agency, seemed awkward and unnecessary. Perhaps to create conflict or an alternative love interest I'm assuming. What I absolutely adored was the flashbacks.

Eve struggles to maintain memories and can't remember where she originated. The figments she begins to remember are incredibly poetic, I absolutely adored the deliciously dark carnival setting, but sadly the glimpses we see throughout the storyline were too few and far between. Overall, I felt as though the synopsis promised a delicious and dark suspense, but sadly delivered more of a contemporary teen romance with fantasy elements. Lovers of magic realism will enjoy this one.

[Stephanie]

I will read anything Sarah Beth Durst writes. I love her books. With that said, I enjoyed Conjured, but it wasn't my favorite of hers.

Conjured is a very strange book. I could not figure out what was going on and why Eve was so special and had to be in this Witness Protection Program. And then there were people with magic and Eve could magically make wallpaper come to life and change her eye color. It was all so strange and all this magical stuff happened like it was normal.

The book starts off right away with the weirdness. Eve has visions of being at a carnival and watching magical kids getting killed in some magical way and being shrunk to fit inside this very small box that keeps you from doing magic and dead bodies being cut up to fit inside these very small boxes and DOLLS THAT YOU CAN HEAR BREATHING. I mean, what is going on?! Who thinks of this kind of stuff?!

I never knew who to trust. There's Malcolm, who watches over Eve and makes sure she's safe and is pretty much a big teddy bear. I loved him. Then there's Aunt Nicki, who absolutely hates Eve, but is assigned to stay in the house with Eve and act like her guardian. And then there were these 3 kids who had some type of magic, like Eve. I didn't trust them at all because they were the ones telling Eve not to trust Malcolm or the program.

One thing that kind of threw me off from the story was the relationship between Eve and Zach. Zach, who is a normal human being, was so weird. The first time we meet him, he tells Eve he wanted to kiss her. That's just a little too assertive for me. Their relationship happened just a little too fast, and I never really got on board with it.

Eve has amnesia, she only knows what she see's in her visions, and she doesn't even know if those are memories or dreams. She had to be taught how to read and talk and everything, which means she doesn't really have a personality. A lot of the book is her trying to figure out this world she is in, and why she's in it. So a lot of it is her absorbing everything and trying to figure out who she can trust. This is another reason why I never liked the idea of her and Zach. She doesn't know anything, but yet she knows enough to be in a relationship.

I really enjoyed all the weird magical stuff that was happening and trying to figure out what was going on. There were some things that kept me from the story, like Eve's lack of personality, but the strangeness of it all kept me entertained.

[Angie]

I received an ARC through NetGalley.

This was one of my most anticipated titles of the year, since I've really enjoyed the other two books I've read by this author. Unfortunately, Conjured didn't work for me. From the very first page it was weird. I like weird, but only if it's also interesting. Conjured was boring for the most part. I could not connect to Eve, I was confused about what was going on for the longest time, and nothing happens until the very end. Eve has been placed in Witness Protection, but she has absolutely no memories. She has no clue who she is, where she is, where she's from, what the case she's a witness for is. Nothing. She does know that she can do magic though, and each time she does, she blacks out, has a vision, and losing her short term memories.

My first problem with Conjured was the writing. It's written in third-person, and combined with Eve's lack of knowledge about anything, it comes across as very juvenile. If it wasn't for the fact that we know about Eve's memory loss, I would have thought she was a small child. She doesn't know how to use a seat belt, what orange juice is, or even what books are. It was very hard for me to get into the story because of this. However, her "visions" are quite interesting. Those are told in first person and they have a much darker and twisted tone than the main story. I really liked these glimpses into her past and her magical world. Then at around the 80% mark, the writing starts to flip-flop between first and third without the visions. It was confusing at first, but I understand what the author was trying to convey. It was still annoying though.

I also found the romance to be disappointing and even unnecessary. There is a love triangle in Conjured and I have no idea how it got there. Eve loses her memories a few times throughout the story, and a big chunk of that was how her relationships with Zach and Aidan developed. One day she goes to work and learns that she's dating Aidan but prefers kissing Zach at the library. She just goes along with it all, and I had to roll my eyes. There is an explanation at the end for the Aidan situation, which makes sense, but was unsatisfying. I did want more from Zach though. What we do see of him, he's adorable, but that's it. The best way to describe how I felt about him was that he was convenient for Eve, which is never good.

What I did love about Conjured was the ending when Eve travels to an alternate world and we finally learn what/who she is. This part is fantastic! I was completely bored with the story up until that point. Nothing was happening, and then we're bombarded with awesomeness. I love this author because her books are so different and imaginative, and the last part of the Conjured definitely fits that. The twist of Eve's identity was utterly unexpected and it really is something I have never read before. It's kind of eerie, but it's very cool. I wish the whole book had been like that, then it may have been another 5 star read!

In the end, Conjured was disappointing. It got off to a rough start and never really picked up. The parts set in the magical world were extremely well done and captivating, but it unfortunately couldn't make up for the rest of the book. I feel like there needed to be more world-building, other than the "this is the only world without magic" simple explanation, and Eve and Zach needed more personality so I could connect with them. Fans of unique and super odd fantasy-hybrid novels will probably love this, since it does have some great elements to it. It just didn't fully grab at me like I had hoped.

Read more of my reviews at Pinkindle Reads & Reviews.