Most good stories start with a fundamental list of ingredients: the initial situation, conflict, complication, climax, suspense, denouement, and conclusion. Great writers sometimes shake up the recipe and add some spice.
Exposition
Who's That Girl?
At the beginning of the book, we get a bit of backstory on Gemma, our leading lady. She lives in a small town with her mean grandparents and doesn't know anything about her parents or her past. Perhaps strangest of all, though, is the fact that she used to not feel any emotions, but in the past few months her feelings have been cropping up along with some creepy nightmares about ice demons chasing her through the woods. As if this weren't enough to deal with, a cute boy named Alex shows up at her school—and appears to hate her guts for no reason.
Rising Action
A World in Trouble
Things heat up when Gemma learns that Alex and his sister, Aislin, are sent from an organization called the Keepers to protect her because she's harboring the energy of a fallen star inside of her—and this star is the only thing that can keep the Death Walkers (the ice demons from her dreams) from bringing about the apocalypse. Yeah, things escalate pretty quickly.
The trio is attacked by Death Walkers and ends up transporting to Las Vegas, where they meet up with a former Keeper-turned-vampire named Laylen. At this point, Gemma is completely pulled into a world of supernatural beings and scary ice demons—something she definitely didn't choose for herself, but that she absolutely has to survive. Or else, you know, the apocalypse happens.
Climax
Through the Crystal Ball
Things get completely out of control when Gemma accidentally touches a crystal ball and finds herself sucked into a vision. In her vision, she sees a mother and a daughter—and then a man with a scar on his face comes along and forces the woman into the lake while she and the little kid scream. It's disturbing, to say the least, and after Gemma sees it, she doesn't know what to make of it. When she asks Alex about it, he gets all cagey and won't tell her everything. Eventually, they go back to a cabin somewhere to hide out while they're being attacked by Death Walkers.
After this, Gemma is on a quest to learn as much as she can. As the story comes close to its exciting close, she learns that the woman in the vision is her mother and that she's the little girl. Gemma also learns that because she can see visions, she's technically a Foreseer—someone who can make prophecies.
If this seems a little anticlimactic for such an action-packed book, consider this: Gemma is equipped with knowledge about herself and her life that creates her own investment in all this super natural chaos. Before she has this vision and understands that it's of her and her mother, Gemma is pretty much just following other characters' interests and investments. Now she is finally on a Gemma-driven mission, plus she steps into her power as a Foreseer. There's no going back at this point.
Falling Action
Running From the Truth
There isn't a whole lot of falling action in this book since the ending largely sets up the next installment in the series. Still, close to the end of the book, Gemma learns something horrible: The man who forced her mother into the lake is none other than Stephan, the leader of the Keepers and Alex's father. She tries desperately to convince Alex that his father is evil and working with the Death Walkers, but he refuses to believe her.
Sometimes in the falling action things start to come together, but in this case, Gemma's friendship with Alex instead seems like it might fall apart.
Resolution
The Great Unknown
At the very end, Stephan shows up with the Death Walkers and Gemma tries to make a run for it. He catches her, though, and says that he's going to take away her emotions by removing her soul and completely wiping her mind so that she won't be able to function anymore. Oh uh-uh… Gemma watches in horror as he takes out a magical smoking rock, and then she falls into blackness. And that's the very last scene.
Not feeling like a very resolved resolution? We agree—but the stage is officially set for the next installment in this series, which is often how resolutions roll when it comes to books in series.