Shade book review

Author (Last name first): Smith-Ready, Jeri
Title of the Book: Shade
Publisher: Simon Pulse Date of Publication: May 2010 ISBN# 978-1-4169-9406-0
Price: $17.99 Grade Level: S VOYA Rating: 4Q4P

Recommended

I was hooked after the first few paragraphs. We are introduced to Logan and Aura and their budding high school relationship. Logan is in a band, they have the performance of a lifetime while representatives from several record labels are watching. After the gig, the band members go to a party, Logan ends up overdosing on cocaine and alcohol and the rest of the story deals with the fallout of his death. The supernatural portion of this book deals with an event called the “shift”. Aura can see and talk to ghosts. She attributes her ability on the fact that she was the first baby born after the shift. Then Zachary walks into Aura’s life. He also just happens to be the last baby born just before the shift. Fate seems to have brought them together.

The author captures the tragic reality of a young and talented person losing their life to drugs. Apart from the supernatural elements woven throughout the story, the emotions of the characters at the funeral are written in a very realistic way.

I enjoyed the writer’s sense of detail to the music. References to Flogging Molly and the Pogues really brought a sense of the type of music the band played in the story. Celtic names like Siobhan, Eowyn and Connor tied together the Irish flavor of the setting. Aura has an interest in the stones of Newgrange because she feels there are some answers for her there. In pursuit of some of these answers, government agents begin to follow Aura and Zachary eventually leading to some courtroom drama. Fortunately, the bonds of friendship stay strong, relationship building and re-building keeps readers hooked.

The book contains some scenes of sexual experimentation and may not be suitable for younger teens. A trip to Victoria’s Secret for sexy lingerie, contraception and having sex for the first time were all discussed. I would recommend this book to more mature high school students. Teens who are into the vampire or other supernatural stories, will definitely be open to exploring the ghost aspect of this story. It also sends a pretty realistic message about the dangers of drug and alcohol abuse. Overall, the book was hard to put down. It was an enjoyable read with likeable characters and a new twist to the supernatural.

I even found a book trailer for this one. It makes me want to read the book again ;) Oh, and the authors site is pretty good. http://jerismithready.com/ The sequel to this book will be out May 2011.