Part of the reason that Dark Visions (and L.J.

When you’re young, breaking up with someone can feel like the end of the world, but it’s definitely not. Which, duh…but still, I think it’s a nice lesson to impart, especially for teen readers. I had sort of forgotten this until I re-read it (and this may be a bit of a spoiler, but these books are 30-years-old…), but it does come with the lesson that your first love won’t necessarily be your last, or only, love – and that you can love people in different ways. In Dark Visions, we of course have the Rob-Kait-Gabriel love triangle, with both guys appealing to different sides of Kait. Her books also tend to feature a central love triangle, between the main heroine, a well-liked golden boy (who is not without his own flaws), and a Broody McBroodypants. Smith has always done misunderstood, broody antihero very well. Okay, maybe I just like these books because of Gabriel? L.J. Unfortunately, she – and basically everybody, lol – butts heads with Gabriel, the bad boy of the bunch who may or may not have murdered someone. For the first time, she feels like she has real friends, and even falls in love for the first time, with psychic healer Rob. The first book in the trilogy focuses on Kait’s time at the institute and getting to know the other psychics. Zetes, has recruited them for more nefarious purposes. It becomes quickly apparent, though, that nothing is as it initially seems at the institute, and its enigmatic leader, Mr. Because of her spooky powers, she feels out of place in her small town and is sort of viewed as the town “witch.” Then, destiny comes knocking when she’s recruited to an institute for psychics in San Francisco, where she joins four other teen psychics (Rob, Gabriel, Anna, and Lewis) to learn to hone her abilities. But it’s still one of my favorite comfort reads.ĭark Visions is a trilogy (the three books are often found together now in an omnibus edition) following Kaitlyn Fairchild, a teen artist whose drawings are often prophetic. Smith’s writing style, I can’t lie that the characters in Dark Visions sound like something out of a 1950s movie. It was an older book even when I read it for the first time (it’s nearly as old as me). I’m not saying Dark Visions is perfect or anything.

Dark visions by lj smith