Title: Shadowed SummerAuthor: Saundra Mitchell
Age Group: Teens
# of Pages: 192
My Rating: 3/5
Iris is bored this summer. Like she is every summer. Her best friend, Colette, and herself pretend there are magic and evil just to kill time and occupy themselves.
While lying on a grave, Iris catches someone saying, "Where y'at Iris?" Completely spooked, she discovers that the ghost who spoke to her was none other than Elijah Landry. He is a boy who disappeared many years ago and no one knows how and why. But he didn't just up and vanished, he died. And now he is haunting Iris.
Why Iris? Can she solve this mystery before it gets out of control?
Shadowed Summer was indeed a chilly read. But for the most part, wasn't so exciting for the majority of the time. It only got good when Elijah came around. Other than that, Iris would be trying to figure out why he was still lingering around, which was not exactly thrilling.
I was not particularly fond with the accent the author had going for the characters (ex. ya'll). Even though I should have gotten used to it as I progressed through the story, I still didn't when it ended. I guess it gave a bit of a flare to the characters.
I actually thought in the beginning that this novel would be heavy on the romance. You know, normal girl and ghost boy fall in love. But to my surprise, there was none of that. Except for Elijah creepily popping up here and there to scare the hell out of Iris. So I was glad that the cliche was avoided in this situation.
Shadowed Summer is a short but haunting story for those who want to get away from those fun, beach reads of the hot season.
Won ARC copy from Brooke Taylor Books.
