Premonitions by Jude Watson

“It fills my vision. Sound fades. Hands are at the cabin window, beating against it. First the palms slapping, then fists. Trying to get out. Have to get out."

Premonitions, by Jude Watson, is a great mystery and a suspenseful story that will have readers glued to the book and waiting in anticipation on every page to see what crazy events occur next. Premonitions is about a teenage girl named Gracie who suffers from the death of her mother throughout the entire novel. At the beginning, Gracie is sent from her grandmother’s house in Maryland to live with her Aunt Shay and cousin Diego on Beewick Island in Seattle. Even though a year and a half has already passed since her mother’s accident, Gracie still has trouble coping with her grief, is constantly acting mad towards her surroundings as if she is blaming the world, feels that it will never be possible to live a normal life again, and attempts to escape from her sorrow by filling up her empty head with the same songs over and over again. Unkind and silent all the time, Gracie is considered a “friend” to only one teenage girl named Emily. Like Gracie, Emily suffers from misery as well, but her pain is because of her parent’s disastrous divorce and continuous yelling. Although Gracie never shows a likeness or friendliness towards Emily, the time soon comes where Gracie realizes that she is the only one who can save Emily’s life, and the time must come for her to burst out of her shell.

The story begins on a stifling, summer day in June when Emily and Gracie lie in the sun, and Gracie wants to go into town to the library or get an ice cream. After Gracie rejects Emily’s request, Emily proceeds to ask Gracie if she is her friend. With Emily looking up into Gracie’s eyes and waiting for a response, Gracie experiences her first encounter with her psychic abilities when the world slowly begins to fade and she sees fear rippling off of Emily’s body and hears someone’s heavy breathing. Hurt and upset, Emily walks away and that night Gracie receives a phone call from Emily’s parents telling her that Emily never returned home. The rest of the story deals with Gracie’s attempt to rescue Emily. Always hating her psychic abilities, Gracie has numerous premonitions throughout the story that are triggered by significant objects or people pertaining to Emily’s mysterious disappearance. Although Gracie doesn’t know whether she is viewing the past, present, or future, she can easily sense the danger and uses this gift to her advantage in finding out about Emily’s whereabouts before it’s too late. Gracie’s journey allows her to move on from the secluded life in which she was living, to develop closer relationships with her Aunt and cousin, and to view life in a completely different and more positive perspective.

Reading about Gracie’s psychic abilities made me wonder what it would be like to know about the secret lives of the people around me and how it would feel to be the only one who knew about scary incidents that were about to occur. This mystery kept my heart racing and made me look forward to reading each chapter. I really enjoyed this book, and I strongly recommend it to anyone because it isn’t too predictable, is fun and easy to read, and the unexpected turns and twists only add to its adventure and excitement.