I weirdly, weirdly enjoyed this. Darcy was such a fun narrative... And the pacing was good!

Annnnd I might have weirdly really liked Connor McCrea. :)

WAIT WAIT WAIT WAIT THIS IS A STANDALONE. WAIIIIT. I thought this was a series!!! Damn. OOOOH now I want an epilogue. A good one. One with much Connor McCrea in it. :P

"Do I dare
Disturb the universe?"

~ J. Alfred"

This was....a surprise. I hadn't expected to love this one as much as I did. The cover is pretty cool but didn't really pull me in. The synopsis isn't really selling me on a book I'd normally pick up either. But I've seen some good reviews so I gave it a whirl.

It's a slow build up kind of book, I like that I don't know the characters too well to start but then really get to know them. I love that the friends are so awesome! Jims, Lily and Raphael are funny and made Daisy feel more real.

I'm so glad there is NO insta-love. I'm also glad that the trauma that is experienced it's brushed away either. The fears aren't just easily overcome - everything is a struggle and nothing works out how it should. There are close calls and there are casualties in the war. All in all, it's a great story. I wish there were more to the series other than a novella.

I thought that The Shadow Society had a different premise and a world with Shades and portals. But the instant relationship between the two main characters was too much. She literally looked at him once and then couldn't stop thinking about him. The romance aspect was a major reason why I only gave the book three stars

Such a unique world—I've never read anything like it. I couldn't turn the pages fast enough and at the same time tried not to, so I could prolong the story.

I love that this is a standalone since so many books seems to be part of a series lately (nothing against series, i love them—just an observation), but this is a case where I wished it was the beginning of a series, so I could continue to explore the world Rutkoski created. Then again, the fact that it isn't could be why I enjoyed it even more—if that makes sense to anyone apart from myself :-)

MOOOORE. GIMME MOOOREEEE.

I’m not going to lie, I picked up The Shadow Society by Marie Rutkoski because I loved The Winner’s Curse so much and I wish I had picked it up sooner.

Darcy has been living in foster home after foster home ever since she was abandoned outside a Chicago Firehouse at the age of five. She’s always wondered where she came from and what happened but now she is staying with Marsha and things are ok. As the prologue states, this book is about how Darcy met Conn, got arrested, and discovered the truth about herself.

As Darcy begins her junior year of high school, a few things happen. First, her memories begin to come back in flashes. For whatever reason, she has been having visions of an alternate world…similar to the Chicago she lives in yet different. Second, Conn McCrea starts at Lakewood and while Darcy is drawn to him, she knows something is off about him and tries to keep her distance. Unfortunately, he doesn’t have the same plans.

Conn was an interesting character. It was clear from the start that he had an ulterior motive to getting to know Darcy but I just couldn’t put my finger on it. As things change between these two, I definitely wanted things to be different between him and Darcy but while he recognized that Darcy was different from everything he knew, he also had to do what he felt was right. I loved getting to know more about him and his background and while there was one piece that I thought may have been a bit predictable (I can’t say what because I don’t want to give anything away), it didn’t hurt the story at all.

As the story progresses, we find out there is, in fact, an alternate world where things are not the same. In this world, people called Shades exist and they are terrorizing the humans in that world. When Darcy is yanked into the alternate world, she is forced to join the Shadow Society to find out what they are plotting. Along the way, she finds out more about herself than she ever thought she would.

There were a number of things I loved in this story. The first thing was the banter between Conn and Darcy. They definitely didn’t trust each other when they first met and both have enough sarcastic wit to make me enjoy the dialogue. They also have a number of moments when you really, really know their relationship is truly changing and I loved them all.

Another piece I loved was Darcy’s friends. There is a section where Conn is telling Darcy what he thinks of her friends that I highlighted because it was a perfect description of their relationship.

“It is. They’re like a fortress with a sign that says TOUCH DARCY JONES AND WE WILL DESTROY YOU. I find it surprisingly…touching, actually. I admire loyalty.”

Raphael, Jims, and Lily were great secondary characters and added a layer to the story that allowed Conn to re-evaluate what he really knew about Darcy.

So there you have it, I can’t say much more without ruining the story….so I won’t. Definitely check this one out. There are some great characters, solid world building, and a fantastic story that drags you in from the moment you learn about Marsh’s smashed fish tank.

3.5 stars. I really loved the premise for this book. Very unique and the backdrop of both a modern day and a interdimensional Chicago added to its intrigue. A good fantasy with a satisfying, if somewhat easy, conclusion.

I was really excited because this had so many good reviews, and it really was good in the beginning, but then as it got to the middle and started delving more into the romance, I started getting bored. And truthfully, a little disgusted too because it was so cheesy and tacky. So much that I couldn't even finish the book.

I also felt like Darcy was... it's weird, I don't know how to explain it. Let me put it this way, in a lot of books, people always complain about bland characters and how they should've acted in certain situations, so I feel like Rutkoski combined all those complains and made the "perfect" YA heroine. Except I still felt like she lacked something...

I did love the writing style, and to some extent, the story itself, but none of the characters were likable. I guess that sort of ruined it for me.