The Awakening (Darkest Powers, Book 2) by Kelley Armstrong

Synopsis (from goodreads.com):

If you had met me a few weeks ago, you probably would have described me as an average teenage girl—someone normal. Now my life has changed forever and I'm as far away from normal as it gets. A living science experiment—not only can I see ghosts, but I was genetically altered by a sinister organization called the Edison Group. What does that mean? For starters, I'm a teenage necromancer whose powers are out of control; I raise the dead without even trying. Trust me, that is not a power you want to have. Ever.

Now I'm running for my life with three of my supernatural friends—a charming sorcerer, a cynical werewolf, and a disgruntled witch—and we have to find someone who can help us before the Edison Group finds us first. Or die trying.

Jillian’s Review:

I love this series. It's spooky, has ghosts and genetically altered kids, plenty of action, and some romance. It begins about the next day from where the last book ends, so I expected to be kind of lost since I've read about 90 books between the first book and this one, but Armstrong does a great job of reminding the reader of the important events of book one and jumping us right into this next phase of the adventure.

Each of the characters are realistic, the main character is likeable which is sometimes hard to come by in YA fiction (too often they are selfish brats and unrealistic). I kept have to remind myself that she's only 15 because she seems more like a 17 year old and the cover picture doesn't help. Her two boy allies are great. I'm rooting for Derek and I'm really hopeful that something will finally happen in book three, The Reckoning.

Two negatives were the swearing—there’s not a ton of it, but enough to annoy—and the gory scenes are pretty graphic, but that’s why they’re so chilling. All in all, a great read. I couldn’t put it down.