Out of the Blue

It's been a year since the events narrated in Blue is for Nightmares. Stacey Brown is a senior at Hillcrest boarding school, and shares a room with her friends Drea and Amber. Stacey is dating Drea's ex-boyfriend Chad, and everything is all right. However, weird things start happening again. Stacey has dreams about Maura, the little girl whom she was babysitting and who was killed, and Veronica Leeman, the girl who was murdered last year by Drea's stalker.

Then Stacey meets Jacob, a new boy at school. He claims he has nightmares, just as Stacey does, but they revolve around her; someone is going to strangle her in less than a week. As Stacey tries to find out who's after her, her mother comes forward with surprising revelations, and it looks like Chad and Drea have something going on. Will Stacey manage to save herself?

This was a good second book, less predictable than the first in the series, in some way. There's some sort of love triangle (or maybe it should be called a love square?), but things are easily resolved by the end of the book, and it's not such an important element in the plot, anyway.

After a girl was killed in Blue is for Nightmares, many parents decided to retire their kids from the school. Other students arrived, however, especially those with a morbid fascination with ghosts and violent deaths. There's a group of those in the book, who claim they are having seances and talking to Veronica Leeman's spirit.

The friendship between Stacey, Drea, and Amber seems stronger in this book; they stick together more. Also, Drea is able to be completely honest with Stacey about Chad. I found that to be a turnign point in their friendship. Chad keeps being very bland and not really remarkable. I guess he's more suited to Drea after all.

Jacob was probably the most interesting character in the book. He's a witch, too, in spite of being male; but then again, natiral magic doesn't choose a sex over the other. He can do spells, too, and at a certain point he and Stacey perform a spell together. This requires them to compeltely trust one another, despite the short time they have known each other.

I imagine the next two books in the series will not take place at Hillcrest, since Stacey and her friends seem to be close to graduation in this book.