Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Shadowed Summer ~ Saundra Mitchell review

Shadowed Summer
Delacorte Books for Young Readers
183 Pages
February 10, 2009
(Paperback's out in June, though)
Amazon


Trying to find any way possible to escape (or at least partially ignore) the unbearable heat and humidity of Odine, Louisiana in the summer, Iris and her best friend try summoning a ghost in the local cemetery.

The last thing they expect is for it to actually work; a voice whispers, "Where, y'at, Iris?" in her ear.

It's up to Iris to solve the boy's decades old disappearance and murder...looks like her sleepy old town just got interesting.


To start with, I love that this is a book with ghosts and Ouija boards and old, small town cemeteries because those are the kind of supernatural/paranormal books you can read no matter what the current 'fad' or 'trend' is or how you feel about Twilight because ghost stories are forever (as are Ouija boards) and I also love old creepy cemeteries--I lived by one with people from the War of 1812 that we hung out in when I was little ;)

Given that Shadowed Summer was set in Louisiana and presently, I also appreciated that Hurricane Katrina was mentioned and a part of the story.

I also really loved that it incorporated the teenage girls having fun with spells and contacting ghosts and goofing around in the cemeteries, the supernatural of the ghost, and also the mystery side of things with the research and investigation that was done. This wasn't a full out supernatural story with everything happening with the ghost and Iris or a full out mystery, either.

I suppose you could compare it to Ghost Whisperer in that way because she talks to the ghosts but also gets info from the internet, the hospital, by talking to people, etc.

And the relationships between the different teens and family members in the book were also very realistic and enjoyable.

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