Author: Jeri Smith-Ready
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Pages: 309
Series: Shade #1
Rating: 4.5 stars
Description (from Goodreads):
Best. Birthday. Ever. At least, it was supposed to be. With Logan's band playing at a critical gig and Aura's plans for an intimate after-party, Aura knows it will be the most memorable night of her boyfriend's life. She never thought it would be his last.
Logan's sudden death leaves Aura devastated. He's gone.
Well, sort of.
Like everyone born after the Shift, Aura can see and hear ghosts. This mysterious ability has always been annoying, and Aura has wanted nothing more than to find out why the Shift happened so she can undo it. But not with Logan's violet-hued spirit still hanging around. Because dead Logan is almost as real as ever. Almost.
It doesn't help that Aura's new friend Zachary is so understanding -- and so very alive. His support means more to Aura than she cares to admit.
As Aura's relationships with the dead and the living grow ever complicated, so do her feelings for Logan and Zachary. Each holds a piece of Aura's heart...and clues to the secret of the Shift.
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I found Shade when I went on Simon & Schuster's PulseIT website, saw a book that looked interesting, and opened the e-book to read the inside jacket and see what it was about. I swear I never meant to get sucked into it and just keep reading...but I did.
The book about which I am speaking is shade by Jeri Smith-Ready. It's an absolutely fantastic book and you will not - repeat, will not - want to put it down. The premise is this: Almost seventeen years ago, on the night of Aura Salvatore's birth, a mysterious event called the Shift occurred. Everyone born after the Shift - "post-Shifters" can see ghosts. Ghosts can only interact with the living, and they contact post-Shifters so that they can accomplish whatever they need to do to be at peace. Most of the post-Shifters are more annoyed and/or frightened by their violet visions than interested in helping. Aura included. Until her boyfriend, Logan, dies.
While Aura is mourning Logan's death and attempting to carry on a relationship with ghost-Logan, exchange student Zachary Moore arrives and is assigned to be Aura's partner on her thesis project (another school that requires senior thesis projects! Yay for relating to the characters!), which is about megaliths. Aura wants to find out more about the Shift. Which means finding out more about Zachary as well. Throughout Shade, Aura struggles to balance her relationships with the living and the dead, all while searching for clues to the event that has made her and all the other under-seventeens of the world able to see the dead.
I think what I really loved about this book were the characters. While the premise is, of course, blatantly fictional - people don't see ghosts, definitely not everyone under seventeen - the characters were hauntingly (haha, bad pun) real. Aura's grief, Logan's frustration, Zachary's frustration, Aura and Megan's friendship - all of it is wonderfully, painfully real. I also love that the readers aren't being hit over the head with the fact that "YES. THIS WORLD IS WEIRD. THERE ARE GHOSTS." The ghosts and the supernatural aspects of it figure in significantly to the major plot - there'd be no book without the Shift and the ghosts - but it's all just there. It's part of the world. There are no lengthy explanations of why this world is so different; it just is, and we understand that. Time is not spent on "oh-em-gee why are there ghosts? Look, paranormal!" Plus, okay, Zachary is kind of great. I think I want one. (I'm definitely Team Zachary.)
I'm not sure what about it makes it not quite a five-full-stars book; there was something about it that just kind of annoyed me in a couple of places. I wish I could say more clearly what, but I can't quite place it. Still though - definitely a great book. Read it if you get the chance! It's a wonderful, well-written book that I absolutely recommend. I will caution you that there is some strong language and some sexual content so it's probably not good for younger teens, but I think it only makes sense for the story and I don't think it distracts from the rest of the book too much.
Shade does wrap up a complete storyline in and of itself, but it also leaves a lot of unanswered questions about the Shift and Aura's past that could(/should) lead to a sequel. Plus I really don't want to give up Aura and Zach and Logan just yet. So, I'll definitely be reading the sequel, Shift, when it comes out in early 2011.
Links:
Jeri Smith-Ready's website
