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 

 

Buy the book

|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.

Interview with Merrie Destefano

Please welcome Merrie Destefano to Short & Sweet Reviews. Merrie Destefano is the author of Afterlife, Feast, and Waiting for Midnight (SS). Merrie’s new YA Fathom, an e-book just released earlier this month available wherever e-books are sold. 

Hi Merrie! Welcome to Short & Sweet Reviews blog, thanks for being here today! 

Can you give readers the elevator pitch for Fathom?

I am horrible at elevator pitches. Eeek. Partly because I hate elevators and partly because I freeze up when I think the pressure is on. Oh, eeek! My pitch:

All of her life, Kira Callahan has struggled with the fact that her mother killed herself and Kira’s sister. But when Kira turns 16, she discovers that nothing is as it seems, not the mysterious deaths of her sister and mother, not her heritage, not even her best friend. And everything seems to hinge on the ancient Celtic legends that her mother used to tell her as a child.

Where did you get the inspiration/idea for Fathom? 

Believe it or not, the whole story evolved from an exercise where you had to write about a specific place. I chose a tree house and in the beginning I was thinking of a tree house from my childhood. All of my older brothers and sisters could get up there, but I never could. So I wanted a story where the main character could get in the tree house and had happy memories being up there. This became a pivotal scene where the mother is spending time with the daughters, telling them the legends from their homeland, Ireland. Even though I ended up cutting that scene from the book, it was still the genesis of the project.

What made you decide to write a Young Adult novel?

I’ve loved and have been reading young adult books for years. But it surprised me when I sat down to write my next book and it came out as a young adult novel! I put the beginning of Fathom aside to finish Feast, then later came back to it because I loved the main character and her story so much.

What made you want to self-publish? What is the process like?

It’s a little bit of a long story, but my agent shopped the book for a few months last year. One editor liked it quite a bit, but in the end didn’t buy it because that house already had something similar. Time passed, my agent and I parted ways, and then in September other books similar to mine started to come out. I thought, well, if Fathom had been purchased by a publisher, the book would be releasing right about now, when all these other books about sea creatures are coming out. So, I decided to self-publish. I knew the book itself was ready. It had been extensively edited and polished. Self-publishing is a lot different that publishing with a traditional house, though, and I’m still trying to figure everything out. I’ve worked in publishing for more than 20 years, but it’s still a bit overwhelming to take on a project like this by yourself. However, I don’t define myself by who publishes me. I define myself by the quality of my work. I’d love to be traditionally published again, and hope to be one day, but in the meantime I won’t stop writing, waiting for the phone to ring.

Tell us three interesting things about yourself that can’t be found in your biography section.

Let’s see. How about things that relate to me as a teenager, since my new book is YA…

1. Much like the main character in Fathom, I felt like an outsider in junior high and high school.

2. I ran way from home when I was 16.

3. When I returned home, I had to go to summer school and night school to make up the semester I missed, so I could graduate with my class.

If you had magical powers, which would it be?

As a young girl, I loved Superman, so my answer is—I want to fly!

Have you ever experienced anything ‘paranormal’ in your life?

Not sure if it’s paranormal, probably more supernatural, but sometimes I “know” things before they happen. Really bizarre things. Like when I was interviewing people for an assistant, I met one girl and thought, oh, wow, she’d make a great wife for _ _ _ _ (someone in our company.) So, I hired her. And sure enough, a while later, they fell in love and got married.

Do you see yourself going back to write a sequel for Afterlife or Feast?

Not right now, but maybe someday in the future.

What other projects can we look forward to reading from you in the future?

I have another completed YA novel named Valiant that I’m shopping to agents. This one is sci-fi, with lots of action, and an amazing main character named Sara. I’d love to see that book find a home with a traditional publisher.

Do you have any advice to aspiring writers?

Study the craft. Become the best writer you can be—then write, a lot. Join a writer’s group and let people critique your work. Read your work out loud. Don’t compare yourself to other writers or worry about what contracts, agents, book deals your friends get. Writing is a journey and, if you work hard and don’t give up, you will end up where you are supposed to be. But most importantly, DON’T GIVE UP!

Finish this statement: You’ll enjoy Fathom if you like…

Romance, paranormal creatures, mystery, and ghost stories.

**Lighting Questions**

Facebook or Twitter?

Yikes! Both!!

Favorite Ice cream flavor?

Vanilla, but I like frozen yogurt better than ice cream.

Coke or Pepsi?

COKE!!

Favorite Paranormal Creature?

Right now, Selkies!

E-reader or physical book?

Lately, e-reader. I use an iPad.

Skydiving or bungee-jumping?

OMG! So funny. My husband loves skydiving and I went up in the plane with him once. Anyone who’s ever done that knows it’s way scarier than jumping. Easy answer—I’m staying on the ground!

Thanks for being here Merrie! 

Thank you for inviting me, Van! 

|Author's Bio| 

|WEBSITE|TWITTER|FACEBOOK|

 

With twenty years’ experience in publishing, Merrie Destefano left a 9-to-5 desk job as the editor of Victorian Homes magazine to become a full-time novelist. Her first two novels, Afterlife: The Resurrection Chronicles and Feast: Harvest of Dreams were published by HarperVoyager. Fathom is both her first YA novel and her first indie published novel. When not writing, she loves to camp in the mountains, walk on the beach, watch old movies and listen to 

alternative music—although rarely all at the same time. Born in the Midwest, she now lives in Southern California with her husband, their two German shepherds and a Siamese cat. 

Interview with Diana P. Francis

I would like everyone to give a big warm welcome to Diana Francis, author of the Horngate Witches series! The first three books in the series are currently available wherever books are sold, and the fourth book, BLOOD WINTER will be hitting stores and online December 26, 2012. 

Hi Diana! Thank you for joining us today, can you give a short description of the Horngate Witches series for those who haven’t read the series yet? 

Short, eh? I’m lousy at short. But let’s see . . .  In general, the Horngate books take places during and after the magical apocalypse, when magic returns to the world in a flood and all the magical creatures from fairy tales and legend wake up/return/are revitalized. These stories surround Horngate, a covenstead in Montana run by a ruthless witch named Giselle who has created a number of warriors called Sunspears and Shadowblade—the Spears can only come out in the day and the Blades can only come out at night, as their superhuman powers are tied to the light and the dark. Max is the central character. She was forced into becoming a Shadowblade and is angry and bitter. Giselle was her friend and she feel betrayed. But at the same time, she is desperate to protect her friends and the covenstead as the world falls apart.  Alexander enters the picture as a prisoner and then as an ally, and he asks things of Max that she has no answers for. But she starts to find them, and then things really start to fall apart.

Where did you get the inspiration/idea for this series?

You know, I love books like Robin Mckinley’s Sunshine and Ilona Andrews’ Kate Daniels books, and Wen Spencer’s Tinker books. But they always start after the magical apocalypse. I wondered how the apocalypse came about and I wondered how people would survive. And then I had had this image of Max, trapped by her best friend and struggling with becoming someone/something new and liking her strength and abilities, but hating how she came to get them and how she is still enslaved. Those two things came together and the Horngate series was born.

Max is a bad-ass and one of my favorite urban fantasy heroines. Who are some of your favorite urban fantasy heroines? 

Kate Daniels, for one. Love her. Jennifer Estep’s Spider is another. Both are tough and yet snarky yet flawed and vulnerable too. And I like a good ensemble cast. 

I see many adult authors branching into the Young Adult genre; do you see yourself writing a YA series in the future?

You know, I’m not sure I can capture the voice. I’ve read a lot of YA and some are written with a younger voice and others an older voice. If I could do the latter, I might. I have some ideas I’d love to explore. I just read Robin LeFeveres’ Grave Mercy and was blown away by how good it was. 

What actors would you choose to play Max, Alexander and Giselle?

Alexander is easy. I had Cliff Simon in my head when I was writing him. For Giselle, I think Tricia Helfers would rock her. Or, weirdly enough, Mary-Kate Olson (one of the Olson Twins). I saw her in Beastly and she was amazing. As for Max, I think Katie Sackoff would do great. Though she’s stopped aging at 21 (she’s 50 years old) and so a younger actress with a really tough and spiny exterior might work better. I don’t know—anybody got any ideas for that sort of actrees?

How many books are planned for the Horngate Witches series?

At this point, four. The next one is probably the last for awhile. 

Tell us three interesting things about yourself that can’t be found in your biography section.

Wow. You know I think I’m the least interesting person on the planet, don’t you? I have a morbid sense of humor. Really.  I have three large dragon tattoos—large meaning they took about six or more hours each to do. I know how to castrate sheep, pigs, and calves. I have personal experience.

If you were shipwrecked on a desert island, what 3 books would you want with you?

That’s a terrible question. I can’t imagine only three books. I’m going to cheat a little. The collected works of Jane Austen (yeah, you can get it in one volume, trust me). The Riverside Shakespeare (all his plays). And for the last one, not a book, but piles of paper and plenty of pencils/pens to write my own. 

What are you currently reading right now or what are some books in your TBR pile?

I am reading Ironskin at the moment. But I have a ton of books in my TBR pile that are demanding attention, including a couple of ARCs by some great writers that I need to read quickly.

What other projects can we look forward to reading from you in the future?

I’m working on a couple of things that I'm hoping will see the light of day. One is a southern backwoods sort of urban fantasy that I absolutely love. And the other is an epic fantasy that is hugely complex and I love it a lot too. I’m hoping I can do both of them justice and make the stories work the way I’ve planned.

Do you have any advice to aspiring writers?

Keep writing. Learn all you can about writing and keep working your craft. Don’t give up. 

Finish this statement: You’ll enjoy the Horngate Witches series if you like… 

Adventure, tough women, romance, fun snarky dialog, and violence. 

**Lighting Questions**

Facebook or Twitter? Twitter.

Favorite comfort food? Hawaiian pizza.

Coke or Pepsi? Coke

Favorite Paranormal Creature? Dragons.

Comedy or Horror? Comedy.

E-reader or physical book? Yes. Both.

Favorite season? Spring

Thanks for being here Diana! 

 

|Author's Bio|

Diana Pharaoh Francis has written several fantasy series, including The Horngate Witches series, The Crosspointe Chronicles, and The Path trilogy. Bitter Night has been nomintated for the Romantic Times Reviewers Choice for Best Urban Fantasy of 2009, and Crimson Wind was nominated in 2011 for the best urban fantasy Heroine. Diana teaches in the English Department at the University of Montana Western, and is a lover of chocolate, Victoriana and sparkly things.  For a lot more information about her and her books, visit www.dianapfrancis.com. She can also be found on twitter as @dianapfrancis.