#shadowcry

Here's the synopsis from the back of the book:

Those who wish to see the dark, be ready to pay your price.

The Night of Souls—when the veil between the living and the dead is thinnest—is only days away. Albion is at war . . . and losing. And fifteen-year-old Kate Winters has just raised a blackbird from the dead.

As her home is torn apart by the wardens, Kate's discovery that she is one of the the rare people who can cross the veil between life and death makes her the most hunted person in all of Albion. Captured and taken to the graveyard city of Fume—where her own parents met their deaths ten years ago—Kate must harness her extraordinary powers to save herself, her country, and the two men she cares for most. And she'll make a pact with a murderer to do it.

My review:

The moment I started reading this book, I was sucked into it. It starts off with a gripping prologue, featuring a mysterious cloaked woman disturbing old graves to find a book of power, and continues into a book filled with action, tension, and excitement. My friend was wrong about the slow beginning, though the beginning was perhaps less interesting on a scale of amazing to AWESOMELY EPIC than the latter parts of the book.

Almost immediately, the readers are introduced to several interesting, unique, and important characters.

First of all, there's Kate, the main protagonist who just learned that she can raise things from the dead and cross into the veil (where souls go to pass into death and peace). While she's hesitant, young, and somewhat innocent -- unable to protect herself or others around her -- she holds her family in high regard and would do anything to save them from danger. Even if that meant putting herself at risk. She's also compassionate, brave, and pretty rational for being 15 years old. Burtenshaw does well in creating a protagonist readers can believe in.

Then there's Edgar and Artemis. Edgar is Kate's best friend: a fearless, sacrificing, clever 17 (?) year old who saves Kate's skin more than once. He goes to great lengths to protect and help Kate, and he also has a fairly interesting back story that keeps the readers wondering what his place in the ruckus of the novel is. Artemis, on the other hand, is Kate's overprotective and somewhat close-minded uncle who gets himself into a lot of trouble (for Kate's safety, mind you). He has a limited role in the story, but he's well-written nonetheless.

Finally, after a slew of other, minor characters who are all almost flawlessly written and add great amounts of intrigue and magic to the story (look out for Kalen and Da'ru. You won't be disappointed!), there's Silas Dane. Silas. I really shouldn't spoil anything about his character, but if you had to have one reason for reading Shadowcry, it should be him. Silas Dane makes the whole story just THAT much better. He's dangerous, he's rough, and he's demanding, which is enough to make you find him evil and dislikable (and at first, I thought he was the main villain), but after a while, you find he's misguided, misunderstood, and after Kate for one reason: he wants her to help him die. If that's not enough for you, he's also tall, dark, and handsome, but I digress. Really, overall, his characterization is outstanding and exceeded my expectations. Burtenshaw did an amazingly epic job crafting his character and backstory.

I found Shadowcry to be character driven more than plot driven, but that was okay. The plot itself was interesting, the villain Da'ru had motives, and some chapters were definitely beyond what I expected (like finding rubies in a handful of emeralds). A lot of Shadowcry dealt with magic and death, and I liked those aspects because they were handled differently than other books such as the Harry Potter series and, say, Narnia. There were no magic spells, no incantations, no wands or blood sacrifices (per say). Most of the magic came from Kate's abilities that were guided by the knowledge of others. It's really worth reading to see how differently magic is treated in this book. It was refreshing, and I loved it.