Book #75 Shadows by Robin McKinley

Hmm where to start? Set in "New World" Shadows is a story that pits science against magic. Maggie is your typical seven-teen year old who has spent the last few years recovering from her father's death. Her world gets even more complicated when she meets her mother's soon-to-be-new husband Oldworlder, Val. Val is short and stocky but is surrounded by creepy, moving shadows that seem to respond to Maggie and even weirder.. only Maggie can see them.

Maggie has grown up being taught to trust only in science. Magic is scary and illegal, in fact the magic-carrying gene was spliced out two generations ago. However it soon becomes apparent not all children have gone through the gene removal process and Maggie finds some interesting new things out about herself and her group of friends. They even might be the key to saving the world as they know it.

In the end I liked Shadows but it was rough going in the beginning. This book is full of made up slang that is a bit hard to get through at times. Not the greatest but I thought the story was interesting, interesting enough that I would pick up the sequel if there was one (I can't even find any info on that, is this a stand alone book?). There definitely is enough material to continue the story but it didn't end on a cliff hanger or anything.

Quote:
“Slowly, painfully, I let go. It was like prying my own fingers off the edge of the cliff. And that hurt too-particularly the falling part, and not being sure what was at the bottom.

But I did know. Now was what was at the bottom. I was already there.”