Shadows
Books | Young Adult Fiction / Fantasy / General
3.5
(55)
Robin McKinley
A compelling and inventive novel set in a world where science and magic are at odds, by Robin McKinley, the Newbery-winning author of The Hero and the Crown and The Blue Sword, as well as the classic fantasy titles Beauty, Chalice, Spindle’s End, Pegasus and Sunshine Maggie knows something’s off about Val, her mom’s new husband. Val is from Oldworld, where they still use magic, and he won’t have any tech in his office-shed behind the house. But—more importantly—what are the huge, horrible, jagged, jumpy shadows following him around? Magic is illegal in Newworld, which is all about science. The magic-carrying gene was disabled two generations ago, back when Maggie’s great-grandmother was a notable magician. But that was a long time ago. Then Maggie meets Casimir, the most beautiful boy she has ever seen. He’s from Oldworld too—and he’s heard of Maggie’s stepfather, and has a guess about Val’s shadows. Maggie doesn’t want to know . . . until earth-shattering events force her to depend on Val and his shadows. And perhaps on her own heritage. In this dangerously unstable world, neither science nor magic has the necessary answers, but a truce between them is impossible. And although the two are supposed to be incompatible, Maggie’s discovering the world will need both to survive.“A delightful read.”—Publishers Weekly “Bound to appeal.”—Kirkus Reviews
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Author
Robin McKinley
Pages
384
Publisher
Penguin
Published Date
2013-09-26
ISBN
0698135377 9780698135376
Community ReviewsSee all
"One of the worst books I've ever read. Initially, the stream-of-consciousness type of narration seemed really cool, but it ended up being confusing and nonsensical with a ton of random flashbacks and backstory that drag you out of the present to attempt to add character development? Or something? The lack of proper sentences at any point was so clunky, and the (clearly Google translated to anyone who speaks it) Japanese was SO annoying, which the author must've thought too since she completely stopped writing it in for about the middle 2/3 of the book.
In action scenes, paragraphs are spent on unneeded details, and the actual "action" is confusing and vague, which is wild because the entire book seems to be based on the "tell, not show" principle. Multiple times, I had to go back multiple pages and read them again, thinking I must have missed somethimg and that's why I was confused, when really I didn't miss anything and the book was just *like* that.
The logic of the world doesn't make sense - the military apparently has science that can sniff out magicians and the MC is only protected from them finding out by some rare creatures, but somehow the book ends with "there are so many of us wizards they didn't catch"? The major conflict was unmotivated and the "actually everyone is a wizard this whole time and we all naturally know how to use our super convenient powers", as well as what the ACTUAL resolution was for, was contrived. Like, we were just talking about reality breaks destroying a whole town, but you got your step-dad (who you need to keep reminding us you hate-or-maybe-not, as if the first 40 pages didn't drill that into us) out of jail and the town disintegrating doesn't matter anymore?
This book tried to be too many things - sci-fi world building, plot-driven, character-driven, teen romance, family drama - and failed at every single one of them. "
Darya 🖤