Review: Shade by Jeri Smith-Ready

Shade by Jeri Smith-Ready

320 pages, Young Adult

Simon Pulse (May 4, 2010)

$12.23 (Amazon, Hardcover) (as of 03/10/10)

Procurement

I received an ARC of this from Simon Pulse for review.

My Grade

Plot: 5

Setting: 5

Writing: 5

Originality: 5

Characters: 5

Passion: 5

Overall: 30/30 = 100% = A+!

Cover/Title Bonus: 3

Summary (Jeri’s Website)

Love ties them together.
Death can't tear them apart.

Best. Birthday. Ever. At least, it was supposed to be. With Logan's band playing a critical gig and Aura's plans for an intimate after-party, Aura knows it will be the most memorable night of her boyfriend's life. She never thought it would be his last.

Logan's sudden death leaves Aura devastated. He's gone.

Well, sort of.

Like everyone born after the Shift, Aura can see and hear ghosts. This mysterious ability has always been annoying, and Aura had wanted nothing more than to figure out why the Shift happened so she can undo it. But not with Logan’s violet-hued spirit still hanging around. Because dead Logan is almost as real as ever. Almost.

It doesn't help that Aura’s new friend Zachary is so understanding—and so very alive. His support means more to Aura than she cares to admit.

As Aura's relationships with the dead and the living grow ever complicated, so do her feelings for Logan and Zachary. Each holds a piece of Aura's heart…and clues to the secret of the Shift.

First Line(s)

“You can hear me, can’t you?”

I punched the green print button on the copier to drown out the disembodied voice. Sometimes if I ignored them long enough, they went away—confused, discouraged, and lonelier than ever. Sometimes.

Okay, almost never. Usually they got louder. – page 1, Shade by Jeri Smith-Ready

Plot

The plot to this is actually pretty crazy now that I’m trying to summarized it a bit.

Aura lives among ghosts. She and everyone younger than her can see ghosts but everyone older than her cannot. And ghosts can go bad by turning “shade”.

Her boyfriend dies, which is said in the summary and it’s truly unfortunate the way he goes. I think I might have died in Aura’s shoes. OMG, is it a terrible time to die. And really very sad.

She goes on a quest to figure out what she can do now that Logan has become a ghost. 

Setting

It’s not clear on what year it is but it’s pretty close to our current time. The only difference is there are ghosts walking around.

Most of the story takes place in Aura’s bedroom, house, bars, and school.

There’s nothing really awesome about the setting except maybe a few scenes under the stars, and the battleship, which is in the Inner Harbor in Baltimore, M.D. and that was really cool because it’s probably the first book that I was able to envision because I’ve been to the Inner Harbor.  :)

Writing

The story just flowed like it was an action movie, without the explosions and fight scenes. It was engrossing and I was unable to put the book down until I finally passed out with only like, seriously, 9 pages left. But it was nice to wake up and have that to finish. :)

The encounters Aura goes through during this tragic year for her is full of things to overcome, learn to cope with, and of course move on with acceptance (which all are kinda the same thing but she really does do different things to get to where she ends up). Jeri’s writing gives us a clear picture of what she’s going through.

I like that it was written in first person because Aura is expressive.

Originality

I’ve read a few books recently about ghosts and death. However, this book was truly original because it had the aspect of what was to come.

The whole thing with the pre-shift and post-shift ghost seeing issue is what makes this book unique. The characters make it even better.

Characters

Aura loves her boyfriend and is worried she’ll be put on the back burner for music. Then he suddenly dies. She is devastated. But he comes back, immediately, as a ghost. I really liked Aura. She deals pretty well with having lost her first love. She’s brave.

Logan is a nice guy, a singer, a drinker, and a sweetheart too. His death doesn’t change him but it makes everything so much more complicated, especially a romantic relationship with Aura.

Zachary Moore is a transfer student from Scotland. He befriends Aura because he’s assigned to help her with her school project. He helps her with the death of Logan and so much more. I loved Zachary. He’s a true knight in shining armor without being intrusive at all.

There were a few minor characters which were nice.

I cannot wait to read more about these characters. I loved them all.

Passion

Wow. The passion in is book is bursting, in a totally PG-13 way. A large portion of the beginning is about Aura and Logan wanting to consummate their relationship, because they’ve tried before but stopped because she got scared.

Then she meets Zachary and the sparks fly. I loved the passion with both characters but it was important for Aura to get over Logan because he is dead. Of course that’s much easier said than done.

Overall

A compelling read full of action, passion, loss, gain, and love. Oh, and ghosts. ;) I cannot wait to read more about Aura.

Cover/Title Bonus

The title is great. But the cover is, eh, pretty but not that symbolic. The ribbon means nothing, her dress means nothing. The color red, however, means everything. And the swirls are cool.

Connect with Jeri Smith-Ready

    

Series

Shade by Jeri Smith-Ready

Shift, a follow up will be released in May 2011.

 Disclosure:
Amazon.com Associate. If you click on my links and purchase anything a very small percentage of the purchase price will be awarded to Book Reviews by Jess.