[Review] The Shadow Society by Marie Rutkoski

The Shadow Society

Marie Rutkoski

Pages: 416

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Format: Hardcover

Source: Barnes & Noble

Age Group: Young Adult

Date Published: October 16, 2012

Darcy Jones doesn’t remember anything before the day she was abandoned as a child outside a Chicago firehouse. She has never really belonged anywhere—but she couldn’t have guessed that she comes from an alternate world where the Great Chicago Fire didn’t happen and deadly creatures called Shades terrorize the human population.
Memories begin to haunt Darcy when a new boy arrives at her high school, and he makes her feel both desire and desired in a way she hadn’t thought possible. But Conn’s interest in her is confusing. It doesn’t line up with the way he first looked at her.
As if she were his enemy.
When Conn betrays Darcy, she realizes that she can’t rely on anything—not herself, not the laws of nature, and certainly not him. Darcy decides to infiltrate the Shadow Society and uncover the Shades’ latest terrorist plot. What she finds out will change her world forever . . .
In this smart, compulsively readable novel, master storyteller Marie Rutkoski has crafted an utterly original world, characters you won’t soon forget, and a tale full of intrigue and suspense.

My lovely grandma got me two hardcover books and a $25 B&N gift card for Christmas (she's the best), and I went to B&N a couple days ago to spend said gift card. I saw this book on their little YA display table, and recalled reading Bewitched Bookworm's review a while back of it (which had made me oddly intrigued in the book, even though they hadn't given it 5 stars), and picked it up. I read the first few pages and loved the way it was written and bought it. (At that point I was still reading The Darkest Minds and couldn't start it right away)

I had every intention of cleaning my room this morning, but I hate cleaning my room and The Shadow Society was just sitting there, begging to be read. Who can say no to such a pretty book? So, I picked it up and was completely entranced. You could certainly say it was my need for distraction, but I firmly think it was the awesomeness of this book itself. I adored the way it was written (diction and syntax are important to me), and fell in love with Darcy and her adorable friends and freaking Conn McShea needs to marry me. I've read a bunch of reviews by people who just thought this book was meh, but I thoroughly enjoyed it (I have a thing for orphan books- blame Lemony Snicket). And by thoroughly, I mean that I was full of disappointment to see that this is a standalone. The ending didn't leave anything to write about, I guess, but I still want more. Anways, I really loved this book.

Darcy Jones is an orphan. She doesn't remember her parents, or how she ended up at that fire station when she was 5, but the poor thing has been tossed around 9 foster homes and a group home since. At age 16, Darcy is with foster mom number 9 (who is adorable). This is the first time she's been able to stay in one place for more than one school year. She has three awesome best friends and her life is pretty good. She isn't bitter about being tossed around. She just accepts the fact that she can't remember her childhood and that she constantly gets kicked between families. But then Conn shows up and makes her think about things. Really think, and that's when the plot thickens, and she learns that they are both from this alternate world mentioned in the blurb above. I love how her and Conn's relationship blooms, despite issues of trust and the whole alternate-dimension thing. They're cute together.

A lot of the book is spent with Conn and Darcy working on a AP English project together on 'The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock' by T.S. Elliot. Secretly, I am kind of in love with poetry. Especially when someone else explains it to me. And that's what they did here. Darcy really tears this thing apart to they can make a symbolic sculpture of it for their project and it's really cool. And it's a really interesting poem, if I do say so myself. I really liked that aspect of the book. It made the reader see how smart Darcy really was, and I do so enjoy a smart heroine.

I liked Darcy a lot, you know, in general. She's sweet and smart and funny, but she has kind of low-self esteem. In that way where all she wants to do is hide from people. She was sweet, and got a little head over heels when the cute new guy started paying attention to her (like most of us would... at least I would anyways). She was normal, and I liked it. Conn was awkward at first, which is explained later on in the book, and then he started to warm up. But that was when he royally pissed Darcy off, and he had to try and fix the mess he'd created. Their relationship was cute.

I loved Darcy's friends. Especially Jims, who was just super funny. He had this dry, dark sense of humor. And made Star Trek references. I like Star Trek. Lily and Raphael were awesome too, but we didn't get to know Raphael as well as the other two.

I'm giving this one 5 'staches. I've been doing that a lot lately, but it seems like I've only been picking up books that I know I'll love, since I have so little reading time. Anyways, I loved the whole alternate dimension thing, and the ending is just to dang sweet not to love.

Happy New Years Eve! I hope your 2013 is fantastic :D