Trance (review)

Following the car accident that killed her mother, Ashlyn struggles to put her life back in order in the face of her father's emotional distance and the disappearance of her older sister, Kyra. Ashlyn and Kyra have always shared premonitory "trances," visions of images and numbers that they can only decipher in concert, a skill that their religious parents have always regarded with unease. As Ashlyn searches for Kyra and sorts through her guilt over her mother's death, a new co-worker (who happens to be a numerology aficionado) gives Ashlyn the tools she needs to finally decipher her trances. The inherent mysteries of this setup—how did the visions fail to predict Ashlyn's mother's death? Where is Kyra? What does the latest vision mean?—drive the plot, but they are less interesting than the conflict between the girls' powers and the sense of stigma they've internalized from their parents and the world around them. Gerber convincingly portrays a family stretched thin by extraordinary circumstances, and the small ways in which Ashlyn attempts to connect to her father (in the present) and mother (in flashbacks) add depth to her character. Unfortunately, the narrative skims over the details of her grief and self-blame, focusing instead on the strain her secrecy places on a nascent romantic relationship and on her attempts at solo interpretation of a new vision which points its peril uncomfortably close to home. Still, the bait-and-switch ending neatly ties up numerous threads in a satisfyingly suspenseful resolution, and fans of secret-power fantasies will find fresh ideas throughout.