I’ve been a long-time fan of Robin McKinley, so I requested this new one through my Online Library and was excited when it became available days later. It is nice to know that the library requests can work and I wasn’t disappointed by the effort.
I hadn’t even heard about Shadows and since McKinley doesn’t often do sequels, you never really know what you are going to get. Unlike many of her books, Shadows doesn’t have a fairy-tale land setting. It is more like our present-day world, but after the invasion of magic and the resulting technology to deal with that magic.
Maggie is a 17 year old, in Newworld, where magic is now illegal. Her widowed mother meets and marries a new man, who creeps Maggie out. There is something wrong when she looks at him – extra shadows that seem to have a life of their own. Maggie’s world is soon turned on end as the truth of things is slowly revealed to her.
Read the rest of my review at Loopy Ker’s Life.
Oooh, I can’t wait to read! I didn’t know she had a new one out. (I’ve only been reading and re-reading her books since 1985…)
It is indicated better on my blog, that this was “new” over a year ago, when read it and wrote the review. I just didn’t get around to posting the review then. I also reread most of her books regularly.
Me too! I love her, and her books remain my sick-day go-to comfort books. Not just Hero and the Crown and The Blue Sword, but also her re-telling of Beauty, and my all-time favorite, her rare foray into non-YA lit, Sunshine. Man, I love that book. Can’t wait to read this one!
I was just talking with a friend about Shadows last night! We agreed that because the book is a homage to Diana Wynne Jones and her and Robin McKinley’s senses of humor don’t always look line up, that caused a few problems. I did think all the stuff with Maggie’s step father was a lovely tribute to DWJ, though. And the dog was a perfect combination of the styles of the two authors.
I haven’t read her yet, so have no opinion about that angle, but it is nice to know. I only recently discovered that my online library has a total of 4 of DWJ’s books. Better than nothing I suppose. It was only recently that they got any of McKinley’s books too since they weren’t available in ebooks for so long.
I just couldn’t with this book. I love Robin McKinley, and this book and it’s made up teen speak drove me nuts. I don’t even think I got a third of the way through it, before I had to quit reading, so I didn’t end up hating McKinley forever.