Shadow
Peter Pan has crash-landed back on Neverland. But this is not the island he remembers.
Desperate to rescue Claire and the fractured Lost Boys, Peter must unravel what truly tore his dreamland apart. But with each step, he is haunted by more of his own broken memories. Not even Pan himself is what he seems.
Claire Kenton is chained to a pirate ship, watching the wreckage of Neverland rocked by tempests. When she finally finds her brother, Connor is every bit as shattered as the island. Claire may have pixie dust flowing in her veins—but the light of Neverland is flickering dangerously close to going out forever.
To rescue Neverland from the inescapable shadow, the boy who never grew up and the girl who grew up too fast will have to sacrifice the only thing they have left: each other.
About the Author:
As the daughter of missionaries, KARA SWANSON spent her childhood running barefoot through the lush jungles of Papua New Guinea. Able to relate with characters dropped into a unique new world, she quickly fell in love with the fantasy genre. Kara is passionate about crafting stories of light shattering darkness, connecting with readers, and becoming best friends with a mermaid—though not necessarily in that order.
The day I received my ARC from Enclave Publishing was the best day of this year. After finishing Dust I could not wait for the next book to come out, but the problem was that I was going to have to wait for months. When I saw the ARC signup on Swanson’s blog, I filled it out before I could even question what I was doing. Thank goodness I did not second guess myself! Otherwise, I would have not received a copy of the book that forever changed my life.
Reading this book was unlike any other fairy tale book I have ever read. Now I know I have said that I ton, but this time I really mean it. This book had a way of drawing you into the story because we all are fighting our own shadows. We might not be able to physically see them like Peter was able to, but we are all fighting them.
There are some things I wished would have happened, but honestly, I do not know if I could change the story even if I wanted to. I wish we would have had more closure between Claire and her brother. She had waited so long to see him and to be reunited with him, but it never truly happened. Even though I did not see this occur, the story was perfect without it. It went to show that there is not always a happy ending.
When I finally finished this book, I was honestly almost left with tears. This is the closest I have ever come to crying over a book. There were just so many heavy topics and things that I connect with. Claire is the only book character that I can ask is almost exactly like me. It is hard to say goodbye to her. I know that I can go and visit her anytime I want, but it is not the same as to not hear about the next chapter of her life. It was really hard to say goodbye, but I knew that much like Claire I have my own shadows that I need to fight. My story might not be written down like hers, or even anything like hers, but I still need to live in my own world for a bit. No matter how hard that might seem or even be.
Shadow in my opinion was way better than Dust. Now I know that shadow dealt with a lot of hard topics, but I think that that is what made this book so easy to connect with. Now there were a lot of parts that I connected with while reading Dust, but those could not even begin to compare with those that I connected with while reading Shadow. This past year and a half have not been easy at all. We have lost friends, family members, and neighbors. We spent our days worrying about an enemy that we could not even see. Much like Peter and Connor, our shadow was COVID. There were of course other shadows, but the one we could connect with most was COVID. Now I know that there may be some of you who believe that you were never afraid, but we all were. There were just some of us who were more fearful than others.
I cannot believe Peter and Claire’s story is over! It cannot be! Maybe *hint hint* Swanson will write some short stories? That would be awesome. I would love to see maybe some other point of view. I do not necessarily need closure, but I guess I am not ready to see this story end. It’s crazy to think how much these two books have become in themselves a story that will forever take place in my heart. People say that often the best writers are the ones who get your world and turn it completely upside down. Swanson for sure turned my world upside down and now returning to reality is harder than I thought.
*Spoilers Only Read if you have read the book*
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When Nibs lost his life I was able to see a side of this book that I have never seen in a book before. Most fairytale books are all about happy endings, Shadow was the opposite. This book had real deaths in it. Deaths that impacted fairy tale in a way I have never seen before. When Nibs died I could feel my heart breaking alongside Peter’s. The way Swanson wrote his death was amazing! I could feel exactly what Peter was feeling! I absolutely love how strong Swanson’s writing voice got over the COVID season. You can see how she used her own hurt and shadows to turn this into such an amazing book! I mean just read this quote about when Nibs died!
Hands that had held Nibs. Hands that had let him go. Let him slide back under that water. He wasn’t breathing, no pulse. He was dead when I let go.
Kara Swanson
I think the part that hit me the most though was when Claire died. I could hear this eerie silence, (of course, I was up reading while all my family was peacefully sleeping) I could hear the blood pumping in my ears. I could not believe what had happened. I had to slam the book shut when I read that she died. Trust me when I say I have a problem with not only connecting with characters that die, but they also turn out to be my favorite character. Claire’s death was not like the other characters who have died before. Claire was my friend. The book character that I connected most with. When Claire died it was an unreal feeling. There was a little voice in the back of my head that said “This is not the end. It cannot be.” As you know (because hopefully, you have read the book) Claire did not die. I jumped for joy when I found out that she did not die. I was almost so upset at Swanson for killing Claire. After all that Peter and Claire had been through there was no way that she could have died.
I received an ARC in exchange for my honest review. My thoughts are my own. I was not paid to give a positive review.
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