Scan barcode
A review by marion_cleborne
The Last Shadow Warrior by Sam Subity
5.0
I was looking to read more middle grade fiction, so when I saw The Last Shadow Warrior described as “Percy Jackson meets Beowulf,” I knew I had to read it.
Abby Becket is a twelve-year-old girl whose life is turned upside-down when she moves to a prestigious and mysterious school in Minnesota tied to her Viking roots. However, on the way there, an eyeless man attacks her, putting her father in a coma. Abby has only days to figure out how to wake him up and convince the school council the ancient enemies of the Vikings, the Grendels, are still alive.
This pace of this action-packed book is snappy, keeping the attention of even reluctant readers. The writing, too, is engrossing. It uses a lot of sentence fragments, which may annoy some readers, but I found it fitting. There are beautiful descriptions in the writing as well, so pretty they feel a little odd for the twelve-year-old first-person narrator. But she is the daughter of an English teacher, so maybe that’s normal! The dialogue is natural and fun, and the characters have a lot of chemistry. There are also quite a few twists and turns. Even as an adult reader, there were some things I did not see coming, which is always fun!
I definitely saw the Percy Jackson comparison as I read it, both in story-telling (especially the bingo scene) and in writing style. If you are a fan of those books, you’ll probably like this one as well! The school setting gave me slight echoes of Harry Potter as well.
I’d recommend this book to most people who enjoy middle grade lit, especially those who aren’t yet in love with reading. The ending has a lot of series potential, so I am looking forward to see where the story (and author) goes next! Finally, as a Minnesotan, I loved the setting, but… Lutefisk is disgusting. Sorry, Abby!
Abby Becket is a twelve-year-old girl whose life is turned upside-down when she moves to a prestigious and mysterious school in Minnesota tied to her Viking roots. However, on the way there, an eyeless man attacks her, putting her father in a coma. Abby has only days to figure out how to wake him up and convince the school council the ancient enemies of the Vikings, the Grendels, are still alive.
This pace of this action-packed book is snappy, keeping the attention of even reluctant readers. The writing, too, is engrossing. It uses a lot of sentence fragments, which may annoy some readers, but I found it fitting. There are beautiful descriptions in the writing as well, so pretty they feel a little odd for the twelve-year-old first-person narrator. But she is the daughter of an English teacher, so maybe that’s normal! The dialogue is natural and fun, and the characters have a lot of chemistry. There are also quite a few twists and turns. Even as an adult reader, there were some things I did not see coming, which is always fun!
I definitely saw the Percy Jackson comparison as I read it, both in story-telling (especially the bingo scene) and in writing style. If you are a fan of those books, you’ll probably like this one as well! The school setting gave me slight echoes of Harry Potter as well.
I’d recommend this book to most people who enjoy middle grade lit, especially those who aren’t yet in love with reading. The ending has a lot of series potential, so I am looking forward to see where the story (and author) goes next! Finally, as a Minnesotan, I loved the setting, but… Lutefisk is disgusting. Sorry, Abby!