The Shadow Society by Marie Rutkoski

Title: The Shadow Society
Author: Marie Rutkoski
Genre: Young-Adult, Paranormal
Series: N/A

Hardcover, 416 pages

Published October 16th 2012 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux 

 

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|AMAZON|BOOK DEPO|

Source: Publisher

|SUMMARY|

 

Darcy Jones doesn’t remember anything before the day she was abandoned as a child outside a Chicago firehouse. She has never really belonged anywhere—but she couldn’t have guessed that she comes from an alternate world where the Great Chicago Fire didn’t happen and deadly creatures called Shades terrorize the human population.

Memories begin to haunt Darcy when a new boy arrives at her high school, and he makes her feel both desire and desired in a way she hadn’t thought possible. But Conn’s interest in her is confusing. It doesn’t line up with the way he first looked at her.

As if she were his enemy.

When Conn betrays Darcy, she realizes that she can’t rely on anything—not herself, not the laws of nature, and certainly not him. Darcy decides to infiltrate the Shadow Society and uncover the Shades’ latest terrorist plot. What she finds out will change her world forever . . .

 

|REVIEW| 

The Shadow Society opened with the YA formula; our main heroine meets a mysterious boy. The mysterious boy super gorgeous, and there’s immediate chemistry/connections between the two. Then it turns out he’s harboring secrets and he’s actually kind of your enemy and you can’t be together. Yup, that’s all within the first couple of chapters.  It’s never great to start a book off on a cliché, makes people don’t want to read the books if it’s starting to sound like every book you’ve already read. 

Darcy, our main heroine been going through life feeling like she doesn’t belong, and she doesn’t…why? Because she’s not even human, Darcy is a Shade. Shades are able to travel in the shadow or jump from people’s shadow to shadow. Having been abandon at the age of five, Darcy been placed in different foster care for most of her 16 years. One day things start to feel different, when the mystifying Conn shows up at Darcy’s school. Darcy and Conn start getting to know each other, and Darcy begins to really like Conn….until he cuffs her and says she’s under arrest! It turns out there’s alternate Chicago, and that’s where Conn from. Darcy begins to learn the truth about herself, The Shadow Society, her family, and this different world that has existed parallel to the world she only known.

This was an okay book, but there wasn’t anything really special or a ‘wow’ factor that blew me away. I like that the author created a new paranormal being featuring shades, it’s original and I never seen it in any other book I read. The entire book moved at a constant pace, there weren’t any action scenes that I can remember and although there was suppose to be a big climax near the end it was solve fairly quickly and easily that required a speech from our main character (talk about anticlimactic). I don’t even know what to really say about Darcy character. She was meh-, I didn’t like her or hate her…she never did anything to really stand out and that should tell you something when she’s the main character. Conn, was like the typical guy character found in most YAs....it’s clear that he likes Darcy when he knows he’s not suppose to but yet he does whatever possible to try not to like her. We all know how these stories end. 

Overall, it’s a good book, very well-written but not for me. The story never truly held my attention, and had bland characters I didn’t care for. The only interesting scenes in the entire book were the flash back scenes with Darcy as a child and her parents. There were a lot of people who enjoyed this, so I’d still give it a try…you might like it. 

 FTC disclaimer:  Farrar, Straus and Giroux /Macmillian provided me with a copy of The Shadow Society, and in return I provide an honest review.