The Shadow Society

Title: The Shadow Society

Author: Marie Rutkoski

First Published: October 16th 2012

Series: The Shadow Society #1

Genre: YA, Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Romance

Available As: Hardcover, paperback, ebook

Pages: 416

My Copy: Physical copy

My Rating: 8.5/10

Goodreads Summary

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.

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The book sucked me in from the first page onwards. It was fast paced, with action every couple of pages. There isn't one moment where I was bored at all.

Another book with alternate universes! Yay! After reading A Thousand Pieces of You, I wanted to read more books with these alternate universes, but I haven't found that many yet. In this book, our world (called the Alter) split with the other world after the Great Chicago Fire. Both universes have their similarities and differences. What I really liked was the subtle changes, such as Jane Austen writing extra books, female presidents, the metro and other things. Their world seems more advanced than ours, though I don't think I'd enjoy living there too much. What's missing? Food. They have this weird water that contains all the necessary nutrients, so there's no need to eat physical food. Imagine life with no taste... ;( *crying*

Shades are creatures that exist in the alternate universe. From the beginning, we're told that Shades are evil creatures and that they all deserve to die. What I really hoped was that the Shades were actually harmless and good, and that it was the humans who were prejudiced towards them. Well, there were some hints of it, but most Shades turned out to be exactly who we thought they were. There were some good Shades, but not many. Sadly. The Shades were focused on harming humans, and not enough on trying to work with the humans.

I found Darcy pretty cool, but what I didn't really like was how she was so quick to judge her own species. Sure, she's heard all the stories, but shouldn't she at least wait to hear their side of the story before she judges? Not cool. Then she later goes on and yells at them, saying that they are monsters and deserve to die. NOT COOL. She stands on the side of humans since page one, and doesn't even give the Shades a chance. Okay, the Shades don't really need a chance since they are exactly how they seem, but still.

I shipped Conn and Darcy, beginning halfway through the book. I wasn't quite sure in the beginning, but I later began to. There was a small moment where I thought Orion might be the better choice, but I changed my mind on that quickly. Conn and Darcy's relationship is all over the place! There's unresolved tension, misunderstandings, and a whole lot of other stuff. It is painful to see them mad at each other, when you know it was all just a huge misunderstanding due to lack of communication. But they're still cute together :)

It says that this is the first book of a series, but it's been a long time since it's been written. I know some authors take breaks between books, but it's been 4 years! Plus, there doesn't seem to be any news on the second book, so I don't know. Fingers crossed that there's a next book!

My Chosen Quote

“There can be second chances. But maybe it's also true that things can never be the same, and that you have to decide whether the second chance lives up to the first.”