Scan barcode
scribesprite's review
3.0
I was interested in this book dispite the main characters age being a few years younger than me. She seems like a regular 14 year old, except for the fact that she still played pretend. Usually by 14 your done playing pretend, and that is one thing that bothered me. The other was that I couldn't really like any of the characters, not even the ghost. The main character easily jumps to conclusions, especially about her father.
A positive point is that I really liked the writing in this book. The author has great imagery and tone. I like how the main characters grows in the book. And lastly how the dialect and attitude of the South is portrayed.
A positive point is that I really liked the writing in this book. The author has great imagery and tone. I like how the main characters grows in the book. And lastly how the dialect and attitude of the South is portrayed.
belles_bookshelves's review
4.0
At first I wasn't totally sure about this book. I don't read much mystery or ghost stories so I didn't know what to expect. I wasn't really expecting to like it, but I still felt compelled to read it for some reason. Turns out that was a good thing.
Quick Overview: Iris and her best friend Collete are 14 and live in a tiny and boring Louisianna town. They spend the hot summer days pretending to cast spells in the cemetary, one day though Iris actaully sees the ghost of a boy. He continues to haunt her and cause her problems. He only ever tells her the same thing though, "Where y'at Iris?". The ghost is of a boy named Elijah who dissappeared from the small town years ago. Iris is determined to figure out how he died, with the help of Collete and a local boy named Ben. But Iris has more than just the ghost to worry about, with Collete suddenly being boy crazy and rumors about how or actually who killed Elijah flying around the small town.
The only reason I took off a star was because the story felt slow at times and at the beginning I kept imagining the characters to be younger than 14. Mostly because of the playing pretend thing. I don't think that avid ghost story readers will like it as much though. It's not scary, but more of a supernatural mystery.
Iris is probably the coolest 14 year old ever. What I wish I could've been like at her age(except for the playing pretend part though. By that age I'd already long done finished with that). I don't know what to say about the writing except that it's plain good. It's just plain good writing. 'Nuff said. The setting was done perfectly. I had no problem picturing the small town and it's people. All the characters were drawn out great. The author really captured the relationships and how things start to change around that time in your life. The ending was not shocking, but far from predictable. The book reminded me of To Kill A Mockingbird, with it's phenominal setting and Iris's voice. I would definitely like to read more about Iris, but I think this will be the only one. A great, honestly funny, and spooky coming of age story.
Quick Overview: Iris and her best friend Collete are 14 and live in a tiny and boring Louisianna town. They spend the hot summer days pretending to cast spells in the cemetary, one day though Iris actaully sees the ghost of a boy. He continues to haunt her and cause her problems. He only ever tells her the same thing though, "Where y'at Iris?". The ghost is of a boy named Elijah who dissappeared from the small town years ago. Iris is determined to figure out how he died, with the help of Collete and a local boy named Ben. But Iris has more than just the ghost to worry about, with Collete suddenly being boy crazy and rumors about how or actually who killed Elijah flying around the small town.
The only reason I took off a star was because the story felt slow at times and at the beginning I kept imagining the characters to be younger than 14. Mostly because of the playing pretend thing. I don't think that avid ghost story readers will like it as much though. It's not scary, but more of a supernatural mystery.
Iris is probably the coolest 14 year old ever. What I wish I could've been like at her age(except for the playing pretend part though. By that age I'd already long done finished with that). I don't know what to say about the writing except that it's plain good. It's just plain good writing. 'Nuff said. The setting was done perfectly. I had no problem picturing the small town and it's people. All the characters were drawn out great. The author really captured the relationships and how things start to change around that time in your life. The ending was not shocking, but far from predictable. The book reminded me of To Kill A Mockingbird, with it's phenominal setting and Iris's voice. I would definitely like to read more about Iris, but I think this will be the only one. A great, honestly funny, and spooky coming of age story.
lecrockett's review
3.0
Fourteen-year-old Iris and her friend Collette decide to do something different this summer in their teeny tiny town: speak to the dead. At first, Iris pretends to just go along with Collette hearing things and seeing things. Until one night, Iris really does hear something: a boy's voice. Over the course of the summer, the girls begin to piece together the town's one and only piece of unfinished news about a boy named Elijah who disappeared and whose body was never found.
Although the narrator is naive and has a voice that seems much younger and far more imaginative than a fourteen-year-old, Iris does tell the story well and through plain and simple language. She doesn't like to be bossed around by Collette but is afraid to lose her best friend. She's not interested in boys but really wishes Elijah would come out and just say what he wants from her rather than pelting her bedroom with rocks.
The story was haunting and a perfect ghost story to tell around a camp fire. It also captures the heart of Southern Gothic: God-fearing and superstitious people, children wandering around saying they're afraid of witchcraft but they pretend to do spells anyway, knowing the proper way to bury the dead based on who can go to heaven and who can go to hell. The sweltering heat, playing around by the river, and the ghost lights that float away from the bayou all created such a rich atmosphere for this chilling tale.
Although the narrator is naive and has a voice that seems much younger and far more imaginative than a fourteen-year-old, Iris does tell the story well and through plain and simple language. She doesn't like to be bossed around by Collette but is afraid to lose her best friend. She's not interested in boys but really wishes Elijah would come out and just say what he wants from her rather than pelting her bedroom with rocks.
The story was haunting and a perfect ghost story to tell around a camp fire. It also captures the heart of Southern Gothic: God-fearing and superstitious people, children wandering around saying they're afraid of witchcraft but they pretend to do spells anyway, knowing the proper way to bury the dead based on who can go to heaven and who can go to hell. The sweltering heat, playing around by the river, and the ghost lights that float away from the bayou all created such a rich atmosphere for this chilling tale.
jessalynn_librarian's review
3.0
A very summery, spooky story that's much stronger than the cover suggests. The sense of place and heat is vivid, which makes a nice contrast when things get turned upside down and Iris is shivering from her encounters with the ghost of a boy who disappeared years before. The characters are another strength of the story - both the present day teens and the adults who were around when Elijah disappeared. I'd recommend it to 7th graders and up looking for a ghost story.
quietjenn's review
3.0
i thought this was decent, although i don't have the mad love for it that many people are displaying. i picked it up because it was one of the ya edgar nominees, but it doesn't quite work for me as a mystery. and, it doesn't quite work for me as a ghost story, as i wasn't really creeped out by it (although, i've sort of decided that i'm difficult to scare, as probably the majority of books that are supposed to scare me don't and i usually find their so-called horror elements laughable). (that being said, i'm glad that there wasn't a terriby convenient explanation for the haunting in this book.) as a tight, coming-of-age-in-the-south-one-summer, it fared better and it did mostly work.
terrible, terrible cover though.
terrible, terrible cover though.
bookbrig's review
mysterious
medium-paced
4.0
By turns suspenseful and perfectly sweet, filled with fantastically teenagerish teenagers, this was a quick, engaging read. I loved the way Mitchell painted the sticky heat of a southern summer and how she sketched out family dynamics. Totally perfect summer mystery.
heykellyjensen's review
3.0
A solid ghost/mystery story, in tune with Paula Morris's RUINED. Enough twists to keep me going, with good writing to keep the pace. Appropriate for middle school and up.
ifthebook's review
3.0
A quick read concerning a small town and its secrets. There was also enough room to explore growing up and ghosts, though in a way different from the traditional horror story. Ultimately, this is a book about uncovering the truth behind a mystery and thus it is not overly-interested in character development, but in the events themselves. Nevertheless, an interesting read.
devafagan's review
There are books that I love for the intricate plots and books that I love for the beautiful prose. And then there are the books that have both. Shadowed Summer is one of these. I wanted to race through the book to find out why the ghost of a boy named Elijah is haunting 14-year-old Iris, and to find out the truth about what happened to him. But I also wanted to linger over the little vivid details, beautiful and funny and precise and real.
This is a ghost story that will be haunting me for a while yet.
This is a ghost story that will be haunting me for a while yet.