Review: Shade

Shade by Jeri Smith-Ready

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



I never thought that this book would be one of my all time favorites when I picked it up. But, this book and the entire series for that matter, are the ALL TIME favorites. They are amazingly written, have real, believable characters that are extremely relate-able to today's youth - which may or may not be a good thing.

I say this because in this book some real issues are presented such as drug use and sex. Gasp! teens thinking about having sex. For most people it's a fact of life that we wish to throw under the carpet and forget about. However Jeri Smith-Ready shows us that yes it does happen, yes teens are PEOPLE too. Just because they're young doesn't mean that they're stupid (as we can see from Aura, the main character.)

Aura and her boyfriend of the time Logan, are planning to consummate their relationship when things go bad. Like, really bad. Logan dies when he does what many teens might do - mix drugs and alcohol. He didn't know any better and he died because of it.

Fast forward a tiny bit and Aura meets Zachary the new Scottish exchange student at her school. There are instant sparks between then but Aura feels like crap because, wait for it, she can see/hear/speak to ghosts and Logan is one of them. So because Logan isn't gone, not for Aura at least, she feels super guilty for falling for Zach at the same time that her recently dead boyfriend is hanging around. And, they still have a relationship, kinda.

This book is amazing. While it is sci-fi(y) and has huge elements of paranormal romance in it, it's still got real contemporary issues that many teens will face in their lifetime. It's a real eye opener and will make you laugh, then make you cry.

Perfect book, I highly recommend it to anyone.



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