Joelene Reviews: Paula Weston's - "Shadows"

The anniversary of the death of Gaby’s twin brother is drawing near. Despite living in a new town, sunny Pandanus Beach, and having her house-mate, Maggie’s friendship and support, Gaby isn’t healing. Every night she has increasingly violent dreams of fighting hell-beasts. During the day everything reminds her of her brother, Jude.

Then Rafa shows up, achingly familiar, and knowing more about Jude and Gaby than she does and Gaby begins to question everything she remembers.

Having read quite a few young adult novels dealing with angel mythology, I was worried that Paula Weston’s Shadows wouldn’t be able to break away from its predecessors. Angels have been done beautifully in Halo, tragically in Fallen and quirkily in Hush, Hush. What more could Shadows have to offer?

The answer, I’m pleased to say, is plenty. Unlike many Young Adult novels out there, Shadows doesn’t get bogged down in backstory. It moves along at a good pace, throwing some big revelations out in just the first few chapters while leaving others up its sleeve for later.

It quickly becomes apparent that Gaby’s memories aren’t real. She’s as lost in this new world of angels and demons as the reader, and going along on the book’s journey, making all of the discoveries alongside her is one of Shadows’ pleasures. I found myself measuring my reaction against Gaby’s every time a new piece of information fell into her lap, finding it amusing when our world views measured up and thinking she was wrong when they didn’t. Despite the fact that every protagonist makes discoveries with their readers, this is one of the few books where I really felt like I was there for it.

The supporting characters made Shadows for me. Gaby had her morals in the right place, but I couldn’t warm up to her. There were suggestions that she was an incredibly strong fighter, but I felt she lacked that strength in her character. The events in Shadows unfold because of Gaby but she is not behind any of the decisions necessary to drive this book. The one major decision she does make does nothing towards helping her meet her goals. There’s a lot of room for her character development and I’ll definitely be looking for that in the next book, but for this book, the characters around her propelled the story along. One thing that I loved about Shadows is that Weston wrote in some amazing female friendships around Gaby, making them complicated and real rather than something to force the story forward.

While this book is aimed at young adults, it is certainly not for the tweens and young teens. The characters in Shadows fall into the legal-age demographic and the writing reflects it. Swearing is used sparsely and there are more sexual references than an average teen novel. For an adult who likes YA, this was refreshing. It adds maturity to the actions and ideas in Shadows without jumping straight into the adult reading pool.

With a steady pace and an entirely new approach to fallen angel mythology, Shadows is a great new read with a conclusion that will leave you hungry for more. Given the way it is written and the overall atmosphere, I’d recommend it to any Cassandra Clare enthusiast out there.

Shadows – Paula Weston

Text Publishing (July 2, 2012)

ISBN: 9781921922503

N.B. Marianne’s launched Paula’s book at Riverbend bookshop recently. It was a wonderful evening and Paula sold bucket loads of books. Paula will be appearing at the Logan Library SciFi finale day on a panel with Marianne, Cory Daniells, Trent Jamieon, Louise Cusack and Kev Webb. Come along an meet this exciting new author.