Possession

Gr 9 Up—In this installment, Laetitia's lifestyle blog takes a more negative tone after a series of disturbing events follow the loss of her singing voice. She wakes from visions of torture to find bruises on her arms, and artifacts from her dreams are left as souvenirs around her room. The episodes intensify—she has visions and fits at school and starts vomiting up strange objects. Her mother is convinced that she is dealing with a demon and involves Miss Pierre, a fellow churchgoer who specializes in the darker side of spirituality, to help locate the source of Laetitia's behavior. Meanwhile, a local African American boy is caught on video being shot and killed by police officers while sitting on his stoop, and the jury comes back with a verdict of not guilty. The responsive protests that start up blocks from Laetitia's home are increasingly compelling. The titular possession, which seems clearly demonic, shifts after a particularly violent episode, landing the teen in a psychiatric institution where she realizes that some of her visions are tied to the stories of the saints. She returns home, focusing her energies on helping the protesters, which ultimately brings her peace. Laetitia's switch from growling demon to ballad-writing saint seems like a quick-fix ending. The story is told entirely in blog posts, but despite the dramatic plot and opportunity for personal revelation, it reads as flat and unemotional, and the prickles of fear one expects from the genre fail to arise.