Scan barcode
A review by spookyjane
Shadowland by Peter Straub
4.0
I really quite enjoyed this. I'm going to try and put my thoughts together coherently...
Even though about half of it takes place in a high school, and it centers around 14/15-year-old boys (teen stories being ones I typically steer clear of), it was still very much 'adult.' That being said, or perhaps similarly, there were EXTREMELY few female characters, which sucks, and yet the relationship between the two best friends, Del and Tom, didn't feel like the typical youth male crap (for example, the type of relationship the boys have in [b:The Body|11574|The Body|Stephen King|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1328182521s/11574.jpg|2334601], which was nearly unbearable for me). They were very real and full, complex characters, and their dynamic throughout the book was really interesting. That's not to say that metaphorical 'dick-waving' didn't occur in this book, as our main characters are freshmen in school and suffer a good deal of hazing, as it serves to help develop the main characters, it was refreshing that that's not what Del and Tom were interested in, and it's not how they interacted or behaved.
Now, I feel as though I read this rather slowly, but I think that was solely due to not actively picking it up to read as often as I maybe should have. Although, when I did read, in glancing at the page number, I was much farther than I thought I would be. I think, though that the length of time the story spends focusing on the school, and how long it takes us to get to Shadowland was too long for me, and that might have been semi-consciously discouraging me. At the same time, all of the details included in the book were necessary, so I don't know that it could have or should have been condensed...
[side note: I read the first 79 pages in the summer, put it down, and picked it back up again from the beginning sometime in November-ish. So I wasn't reading it off and on since July, like Goodreads says.]
On that note, I absolutely loved Straub's writing. Throughout the book, the language was spectacular, and even though you might not feel like you understood what the hell you just read, that's part of the point. There are a number of times where you read along and almost feel like you're dreaming, or at the very least, if feels like the character must be dreaming. And I think the way Straub uses dreams, dream-like states, suggestions, illusions, and magic and how intertwined and mixed up they are, is a large part of what makes this story so magical to experience. Importantly, the entire story is told second-hand, in that the narrator is a boy that went to school with the two main characters, to which none of the events that take place in the story happen. Tom tells this story to him about 20 years after it happens, then he tells it to us. I think this also helps to add to the ambiguity of the evens - it emphasizes the fact that you're not really always sure what actually happens from what happens only in Del's and Tom's heads, since it is not only not 'from the hours's mouth,' but it is also a 20-year-old memory. How much you believe is entirely up to you.
It was also quite dark, and I really loved all the bird and animal imagery (along with the rest of the twisted and creepy imagery) that he conjures up beautifully and uses really well to terrify you and put you just a little bit on edge.
I really look forward to reading more of his works.
Even though about half of it takes place in a high school, and it centers around 14/15-year-old boys (teen stories being ones I typically steer clear of), it was still very much 'adult.' That being said, or perhaps similarly, there were EXTREMELY few female characters, which sucks, and yet the relationship between the two best friends, Del and Tom, didn't feel like the typical youth male crap (for example, the type of relationship the boys have in [b:The Body|11574|The Body|Stephen King|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1328182521s/11574.jpg|2334601], which was nearly unbearable for me). They were very real and full, complex characters, and their dynamic throughout the book was really interesting. That's not to say that metaphorical 'dick-waving' didn't occur in this book, as our main characters are freshmen in school and suffer a good deal of hazing, as it serves to help develop the main characters, it was refreshing that that's not what Del and Tom were interested in, and it's not how they interacted or behaved.
Now, I feel as though I read this rather slowly, but I think that was solely due to not actively picking it up to read as often as I maybe should have. Although, when I did read, in glancing at the page number, I was much farther than I thought I would be. I think, though that the length of time the story spends focusing on the school, and how long it takes us to get to Shadowland was too long for me, and that might have been semi-consciously discouraging me. At the same time, all of the details included in the book were necessary, so I don't know that it could have or should have been condensed...
[side note: I read the first 79 pages in the summer, put it down, and picked it back up again from the beginning sometime in November-ish. So I wasn't reading it off and on since July, like Goodreads says.]
On that note, I absolutely loved Straub's writing. Throughout the book, the language was spectacular, and even though you might not feel like you understood what the hell you just read, that's part of the point. There are a number of times where you read along and almost feel like you're dreaming, or at the very least, if feels like the character must be dreaming. And I think the way Straub uses dreams, dream-like states, suggestions, illusions, and magic and how intertwined and mixed up they are, is a large part of what makes this story so magical to experience. Importantly, the entire story is told second-hand, in that the narrator is a boy that went to school with the two main characters, to which none of the events that take place in the story happen. Tom tells this story to him about 20 years after it happens, then he tells it to us. I think this also helps to add to the ambiguity of the evens - it emphasizes the fact that you're not really always sure what actually happens from what happens only in Del's and Tom's heads, since it is not only not 'from the hours's mouth,' but it is also a 20-year-old memory. How much you believe is entirely up to you.
It was also quite dark, and I really loved all the bird and animal imagery (along with the rest of the twisted and creepy imagery) that he conjures up beautifully and uses really well to terrify you and put you just a little bit on edge.
I really look forward to reading more of his works.