Shadowcry

Shadowcry by Jenna Burtenshaw

To give this book a leg to stand on before I decimate it a bit, I will provide the summary amazon.com gives it. 
"The Night of Souls—when the veil between the living and the dead is thinnest—is only days away.

Albion is at war . . . and losing.

The wardens have descended, kidnapping innocent citizens for their army, but looking for one in particular.

And fifteen-year-old Kate Winters has just raised a blackbird from the dead.

As her home is torn apart by the wardens, Kate's discovery that she is one of the Skilled—the rare people who can cross the veil between life and death—makes her the most hunted person in all of Albion. Only she can unlock the secrets ofWintercraft, the ancient book of dangerous knowledge. Captured and taken to the graveyard city of Fume—with its secret tunnels and underground villages, and where her own parents met their deaths ten years ago—Kate must harness her extraordinary powers to save herself, her country, and the two men she cares for most. And she'll make a pact with a murderer to do it.

Those who wish to see the dark, be ready to pay your price." Amazon link for source.

So, I would like to express some frustrations.

The book has a few main characters in it: Kate (alright), Edgar (Alright), Artemis (Oh, well, uh, I guess that's cool), Silas (Um, did someone just sneeze? What is that?), Kalen (Kinda normal I suppose), and Da'ru (WHAT IS THAT. WHAT IS THAT). The book seemed to play the game of "One of these things does not belong" but with all the character names. There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to the selection and any characters that we come across like Tom or Mina are also very hit and miss. The trend seems to be the younger characters are relatively normal in name, and the older characters are jacked up. Except Kate's parents have vaguely normal names even though they're DEADDDD.

So here's my synopsis: Kate Winters lives in a weird country by the name of Albion which is at war with THE CONTINENT (ooo so original). The reason the country is at war is kept hidden from the readers for well past halfway through the book (because that builds interest and tension and not frustration right? No? Whoops, OH WELL, THERE'S THE ENTIRE BOOK). So Kate lives with her Uncle at their book shop when the town of Marvone (where they live; again jacked up name but at least original??? Don't quote me on that) is under siege from the wardens. The wardens release a giant swarm of black birds on the city that are all poisoned and intent on battering themselves into things. Artemis reveals that this technique is how they find the 'skilled'.

Then a series of weird events happen that spiral everything into weird places.

A lot of things just unsettled me about this book. For example, there seems to be some form of technology in the country as there is a train that runs through every major city of Albion; yet no one owns a gun. No warden owns a gun at least which seems to be the military of the town; everyone just kills each other with swords or daggers. So there's a technology disrupt.

Then there's the name thing, which I went over above, which was just maddening. BLEH.

LET THE ACTUAL SPOILERS BEGIN.

So Edgar has this weirdly complex back story even though he's seventeen that's revealed over the entirety of the book. I don't want to talk about it because it's maddening how long he kept it secret to find out it's not REALLY that big of deal. Edgar didn't come across as a very believable character either. Kate's back story is basically boiled down to her parents died when she was seven and her uncle Artemis ran away and all shame faced returned to raise her. Kate's parents knew they were skilled, but somehow Kate never figured that out or clued into it?

Also, the timeline is jacked up beyond all belief. Like Marvone gets raided ten years ago (so when Kate was seven) and then again when she was seventeen. But the way Kate remembers her parents (foggy at best) makes it seem like she was three or four when they died.

Silas is Snape. I SAID IT. Silas is this oddity that knows all the weird information that it doesn't make sense that he knows it except when he reveals that Du'ra has been tormenting him for the last 12 years ever since she killed him and half-brought-him-back-to-life? Question mark? Silas is explained that he was murdered, and then Du'ra 'ruined' his soul by only bringing half of it back into his body and leaving the rest of it in the Veil or Half-life.

I'm not sure if the Veil and Half-life are the same. No clue.

ALSO, THIS STORY IS ESSENTIALLY ABOUT NECROMANCERS. WHAT. It's like the book is trying to run away from the fact that every 'Skilled' is a Necromancer. They deal with the dead. Therefore, Necromancer.

How lame is the name of 'Skilled'? That's a horrible way to identify people with abilities as people can be skilled at archery but not be 'Skilled'. LAME.

And Kate is this horrible I DON'T KNOW WHAT I AM, BUT I'M GOING TO KEEP DOING THINGS WITH MY POWERS BECAUSE I USED MY WILL??? WHAT? IS THIS ORIGINAL?

I found Kate annoying and too swept up by the forces around her (the wardens, Silas, Edgar, whoever is within five feet of her and the author takes time to name).

Did I mention that everyone's obsessed with a book to the point where it seems to matter sometimes and not others? It's called Wintercraft (Kate's last name is Winters by the way; LOLOLOLOLOLOL) and there seems to be a mad search and desperation to find the book or keep it hidden, but also Kate's wanted because she's 'Skilled'. It turns out Silas knew there were a bunch of 'Skilled' hiding below the city the entire time and he says it and then is like "Yeah, whatever, SO KATE, I ONLY HAVE INTEREST IN YOU BECAUSE YOU'RE 'SKILLED'". It made me set the book down and say, "Wait, HOLD UP," and reread that chapter twice to make sure I didn't miss his weird derp.

I wouldn't recommend this book. I finished it. I wasn't happy with it. I thought a lot of the concepts were unoriginal and the entire book lacked cohesiveness. Hopefully tomorrow's book will be better.

Happy reading!




ALSO, holy crap I do not own any of the images used in this blog, I just google searched them and put them in here willy nilly. I should probably figure out a proper disclaimer at some point... uh..