A review by pacey1927
The Shadow Society by Marie Rutkoski

4.0

"The Shadow Society" was my first experience with reading a novel by Marie Rutkoski. I really ended up enjoying this novel and I hope there will be more stories in this world. The story is about a girl named Darcy who has no memory of her life before she was five years old. After being passed around several foster families she is now living with a single foster mom and they get along pretty well. She also has a great group of friends at school and she is pretty happy with everything except she wonders about her parents and how she came to be orphaned.

Then a mysterious boy named Conn shows up at school. At first he is distant but then they are paired together and begin work on a special project at school. Things start to heat up between them and Darcy starts to have feelings for him. I will admit at this part of the story I figured it was turning into another generic YA Paranormal boy meets girl love story. I may have even rolled my eyes a little bit. Oh me of little faith! Conn does something to betray Darcy and then reveals another world dimension to her that runs parallel to hers. And Darcy may have originated from it.

I don't want to give away any key plot points but I really enjoyed the book from here on. There are two different warring groups trying to destroy each other and Darcy ends up right in between them. She still has feelings for Conn but there is another boy who shows interest in her. Darcy struggles with unlocking the secrets of her first five years.

The story features new and unique paranormal creatures and a romance that takes a back seat to the mystery and adventure in the novel. The story also features a nice and complete conclusion although there are enough interesting ideas left to easily lead the way for a sequel. And I really hope there will be. I loved the ending of the story and the characters really evolved into some that I would love to see more of.