Review of The Shadow

By Daphne, as found on Goodreads on 9th April, 2018

How poetic is it that a series about time travel made me travel back to my childhood.
I was 8 when The Key was published in 2005, but I only discovered the trilogy when I was 10. I remember I found the first two books at my local bookstore, translated copies of my mother tongue language. I bought the first one, thinking it seemed interesting. I started reading it at night when I was in my bed, and soon after my mom started coming to my room every five minutes telling me to turn off the lights, it’s past my bedtime. When she seemed too mad to argue with anymore, I turned off the light, waited for her footsteps to die down, then went under covers with a flashlight, the way every child should. The next day I demanded my mom to go to the bookstore and get me the second one.

When I was done with the first two, I made my mom take me to every bookstore in our area, searching for the third. When we couldn’t find the translated version, we ordered it off amazon, in English. It was the first English book I read. I remember having a dictionary open next to me, but as it turned out I didn’t need it much. I read it secretly under my desk at school the next day, and I finished it by that night. And in the following eleven years, I’ve read it countless many times, so much so that the covers of the books are torn apart, there are years old chocolate stains on the pages, and ripped corners from where I doggy eared my page. Every time my dad saw the books on my nightstand, he would chuckle and say, “these, again?”.

I ordered The Shadow off amazon on Thursday, and received it six hours ago. I’m 21 now, alone in a college dorm with no mother near me telling me I should be studying instead, but as soon as I laid my hands on it, I ran into bed, went under covers, and started reading. From the very first sentence, I was back in my childhood room, with my stuffed dolphin under my arm, diving into this world in childlike wonder.

When I read the part in the first chapter where Ethan says “it’s been one week since the final battle” I actually teared up. It hasn’t been a week, it’s been 13 years. 13 years since the final book was published, and 11 years since I became a part of the Named. But then, it feels as though it really was only a week ago. I remember so vividly finding the first book in the bookstore; I remember exactly which corner of the store it was in, on which shelf. I even remember what the cashier looked like. I remember it so well, it could not have been more than a week ago. There’s nothing more effective than reading the books you grew up with to be transported to the time when you first found them.

What I’m trying to say is, thank you for the trilogy, and thank you for this additional book, which let me be the one doing the time traveling, and not just the one reading about it. It’s been a pleasure growing up with your books.

My Reply

Dear Daphne

What can I say to your heartfelt and eloquent review, except that you brought me to tears, and made every moment of the two years I spent writing The Shadow, worth it.

Thank you.

Marianne Curley