THE NINE LIVES OF CHLOE KING

This sci-fi thriller with a dose of high-school angst is the first in a series. Chloe King is just turning 16. She’s a nice girl and a good student with two pals, Amy and Paul. The three climb to the top of San Francisco’s Coit Tower, where Chloe falls 200 feet to the pavement below. Not only does she not die, she finds that she’s barely hurt. But her life won’t ever be the same. She’s jealous when Amy and Paul begin a romance together, and then finds she has suddenly developed enormous sexual urges. Not only that, she’s growing claws and the ability to run and leap fantastic distances. Chloe has become a cat person, and there’s a secret society dedicated to murdering all of her kind. Better written than the usual teen thriller fare, the series promises to hook readers with suspense, action, and adolescent romance. (Fiction. YA)