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A review by hurrikanekathrina
The Shadow Society by Marie Rutkoski
4.0
Actual rating 3.8 stars
I picked this up, because I wanted more Marie Rutkoski after my Winner's Kiss hangover and was really interested in what else she's written. Parallel universes sounded great to me, and so I picked this up on a whim.
The first 70 pages or so, it had a serious High School vibe going, featuring a female MC that was bordering on being a special snowflake (always sarcastic, only wears black, artist, outsider and so different) but then spots a hot guy and instantly obsesses over him before even the first words are spoken between them. But I kept going, because there was the promise of interdimensional action and, well, it's Marie Rutkoski. After about 70 pages, the book took a complete turn-around and left its high school setting completely, and from then on, the characters got a lot more interesting and complex and we could dive into all the parallel universe fun.
The female lead, Darcy Jones, turned out to be a likeable enough character, and I enjoyed reading from her perspective, as I enjoyed her together with Conn. I liked both of them, though I didn't love them like I did some other of Marie's characters ( *cough* Arin *cough* Kestrel* )
I thought that the writing, and the world building of the alternative Chicago was really great and I loved exploring the parallel world along with Darcy. Also, the idea of the Shades was very original, as they are not your typical fantasy creatures but a completely new creation. The sanctuary and the secret society that they were living in was very intriguing, and I wished we could have more time to get a hang of the world.
My biggest complaint is that everything felt a little rushed toward the end. Both main characters have some interesting, tragic backstories and I would've liked to dive into that more, as I would have loved more character development between Darcy and Conn. They really had potential for a great relationship, but so many things were happening towards the end of the book, that everything only got scraped on the surface. What about Orion's character suddenly turning so sinister? There wasn't even a showdown between the main protagonists and the antagonist. What about Darcy's past? We got a little clearance, but there are still many questions left unanswered. As is with Conn. We know the basics of what happened to him, but really diving into that would've helped me getting some grip on his character.
And there were so many great supporting characters (Lily, Raphael, Taylor, Jims) that had so much potential, but weren't explored enough to really develope strong emotional connections to them. And of course, the end itself was very anti-climatic, with about one page of problem solving and Conn just conveniently managing to convince the Shades to help the IBI.
The book was bursting with good, original ideas and lots of potential, and there were so many things woven into the story, that it almost didn't fit into a book of this length. I think this book would've done better as a duology, with more time and detail going into the subplots and characters. This way, it all felt a little crammed in and deprived the reader of the possibility to really become emmersed in the world, despite the world being super interesting.
I picked this up, because I wanted more Marie Rutkoski after my Winner's Kiss hangover and was really interested in what else she's written. Parallel universes sounded great to me, and so I picked this up on a whim.
The first 70 pages or so, it had a serious High School vibe going, featuring a female MC that was bordering on being a special snowflake (always sarcastic, only wears black, artist, outsider and so different) but then spots a hot guy and instantly obsesses over him before even the first words are spoken between them. But I kept going, because there was the promise of interdimensional action and, well, it's Marie Rutkoski. After about 70 pages, the book took a complete turn-around and left its high school setting completely, and from then on, the characters got a lot more interesting and complex and we could dive into all the parallel universe fun.
The female lead, Darcy Jones, turned out to be a likeable enough character, and I enjoyed reading from her perspective, as I enjoyed her together with Conn. I liked both of them, though I didn't love them like I did some other of Marie's characters ( *cough* Arin *cough* Kestrel* )
I thought that the writing, and the world building of the alternative Chicago was really great and I loved exploring the parallel world along with Darcy. Also, the idea of the Shades was very original, as they are not your typical fantasy creatures but a completely new creation. The sanctuary and the secret society that they were living in was very intriguing, and I wished we could have more time to get a hang of the world.
My biggest complaint is that everything felt a little rushed toward the end. Both main characters have some interesting, tragic backstories and I would've liked to dive into that more, as I would have loved more character development between Darcy and Conn. They really had potential for a great relationship, but so many things were happening towards the end of the book, that everything only got scraped on the surface. What about Orion's character suddenly turning so sinister? There wasn't even a showdown between the main protagonists and the antagonist. What about Darcy's past? We got a little clearance, but there are still many questions left unanswered. As is with Conn. We know the basics of what happened to him, but really diving into that would've helped me getting some grip on his character.
And there were so many great supporting characters (Lily, Raphael, Taylor, Jims) that had so much potential, but weren't explored enough to really develope strong emotional connections to them. And of course, the end itself was very anti-climatic, with about one page of problem solving and Conn just conveniently managing to convince the Shades to help the IBI.
The book was bursting with good, original ideas and lots of potential, and there were so many things woven into the story, that it almost didn't fit into a book of this length. I think this book would've done better as a duology, with more time and detail going into the subplots and characters. This way, it all felt a little crammed in and deprived the reader of the possibility to really become emmersed in the world, despite the world being super interesting.