Collection
Publication
Arthur A. Levine Books, Kindle Edition, 304 pages
Description
Fantasy. Young Adult Fiction. HTML: Paint a mural. Start a battle. Change the world. Sierra Santiago planned an easy summer of making art and hanging out with her friends. But then a corpse crashes the first party of the season. Her stroke-ridden grandfather starts apologizing over and over. And when the murals in her neighborhood begin to weep real tears...Well, something more sinister than the usual Brooklyn ruckus is going on. With the help of a fellow artist named Robbie, Sierra discovers shadowshaping, a thrilling magic that infuses ancestral spirits into paintings, music, and stories. But someone is killing the shadowshapers one by one�and the killer believes Sierra is hiding their greatest secret. Now she must unravel her family's past, take down the killer in the present, and save the future of shadowshaping for generations to come. Full of a joyful, defiant spirit and writing as luscious as a Brooklyn summer night, Shadowshaper introduces a heroine and magic unlike anything else in fantasy fiction, and marks the YA debut of a bold new voice..… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member rgruberhighschool
RGG: Interesting premise, but the plot has holes. Praise for the diversity of teenage character types, including a lesbian couple. Praise for the strong female protagonist and the depiction of family relationships. Read alike: City of Bones. Reading Interest: 14-YA.
LibraryThing member DarkFaerieTales
Review courtesy of Dark Faerie Tales
Quick & Dirty: An excellently diverse book, brimming with culture, history and old magic.
Opening Sentence: “Sierra? What are you staring at?”
The Review:
This is the first book that I’ve read based on shadow shapers. With all the vampires, witches, werewolves
Shadowshaper is told from Sierra’s point of view, a Puerto Rican teenager living in Brooklyn. She’s a gutsy, bold character who has been kept in the dark about her family history and secrets.
Sierra’s policy on cute boys, and really, boys in general, was this: ignore, ignore, ignore. They usually ruined all their cute as soon as they opened their mouths and said something stupid, and she had more fun hanging out with Bennie and the crew anyway.
The only thing that semi threw me off was the volume of slang and Spanish words. I understood a fair amount and guessed the rest but it would have been helpful if there were footnotes to explain. I’ve learnt slang whilst growing up in an almost ghetto area, but I imagine that a lot of people reading this will be quite confused.
The book touches on subjects like cultural myths, racism and even a little on women’s rights. I think it’s really important for books to be more diverse and explore other races and cultural heritage because after reading Shadowshaper I realised that I know very little about Haitian and Puerto Rican cultures.
Rosa turned bright red as her face scrunched into a fist.
“You ever look at those old family albums Mom keeps around?” Sierra went on. “We ain’t white. And you shaming everyone and looking down your nose because you can’t even look in the mirror isn’t gonna change that. And neither is me marrying someone paler than me. And I’m glad! I love my hair. I love my skin. I didn’t ask your opinion about my life and I don’t wanna hear it. Not now, not ever.”
Despite the ominous theme throughout the story, there is a lot of humour and banter between the characters, which I found refreshing. It’s always easier to read darker topics when the characters make me smile, and I found that happened a lot in Shadowshaper. When Sierra and her friends are scared out of her wits, they still manage to crack a joke or do something silly, lightening the mood instantaneously.
Overall, a very interesting read and eye-opening read.
Notable Scene:
“It’s just that people don’t usually see it. Their minds won’t let them, so it just looks a regular painting, not movin’ or nothin’. Papa Acevedo always used to say people don’t see what they’re not looking for. It’s like that.”
FTC Advisory: Arthur A. Levine Books/Scholastic provided me with a copy of Shadowshaper. No goody bags, sponsorships, “material connections,” or bribes were exchanged for my review.
Quick & Dirty: An excellently diverse book, brimming with culture, history and old magic.
Opening Sentence: “Sierra? What are you staring at?”
The Review:
This is the first book that I’ve read based on shadow shapers. With all the vampires, witches, werewolves
Show More
and wizards, we seem to have forgotten that there are plenty of other magical beings around.Shadowshaper is told from Sierra’s point of view, a Puerto Rican teenager living in Brooklyn. She’s a gutsy, bold character who has been kept in the dark about her family history and secrets.
Sierra’s policy on cute boys, and really, boys in general, was this: ignore, ignore, ignore. They usually ruined all their cute as soon as they opened their mouths and said something stupid, and she had more fun hanging out with Bennie and the crew anyway.
The only thing that semi threw me off was the volume of slang and Spanish words. I understood a fair amount and guessed the rest but it would have been helpful if there were footnotes to explain. I’ve learnt slang whilst growing up in an almost ghetto area, but I imagine that a lot of people reading this will be quite confused.
The book touches on subjects like cultural myths, racism and even a little on women’s rights. I think it’s really important for books to be more diverse and explore other races and cultural heritage because after reading Shadowshaper I realised that I know very little about Haitian and Puerto Rican cultures.
Rosa turned bright red as her face scrunched into a fist.
“You ever look at those old family albums Mom keeps around?” Sierra went on. “We ain’t white. And you shaming everyone and looking down your nose because you can’t even look in the mirror isn’t gonna change that. And neither is me marrying someone paler than me. And I’m glad! I love my hair. I love my skin. I didn’t ask your opinion about my life and I don’t wanna hear it. Not now, not ever.”
Despite the ominous theme throughout the story, there is a lot of humour and banter between the characters, which I found refreshing. It’s always easier to read darker topics when the characters make me smile, and I found that happened a lot in Shadowshaper. When Sierra and her friends are scared out of her wits, they still manage to crack a joke or do something silly, lightening the mood instantaneously.
Overall, a very interesting read and eye-opening read.
Notable Scene:
“It’s just that people don’t usually see it. Their minds won’t let them, so it just looks a regular painting, not movin’ or nothin’. Papa Acevedo always used to say people don’t see what they’re not looking for. It’s like that.”
FTC Advisory: Arthur A. Levine Books/Scholastic provided me with a copy of Shadowshaper. No goody bags, sponsorships, “material connections,” or bribes were exchanged for my review.
Show Less
LibraryThing member Rainkatt
I loved this book; agree that it's short and thin on some details, but I just loved the feel of this book. The place, Sierra, the spirituality. I felt comfortable in this world.
LibraryThing member WarriorLibrary
A girl finds out that she has powers that she never knew about and she needs to use them to save her family and her heritage.
LibraryThing member acargile
This is a novel of magic realism where spirits must be controlled with good or evil will kill.
Something isn’t right. Sierra Santiago has been asked to paint a mural--everyone is insistent that she finish it NOW. It’s summer and Sierra has many plans; besides, it takes a while to paint a mural.
Events quickly turn scary. Sierra researches and discovers that another man has studied the spirits and is causing the problems by creating these evil zombie-like creatures, Dr. Wick. Sierra, her friends, and Robbie will have to find him, in order to save Sierra’s family.
I listened to the novel and found it interesting. It doesn’t move at a quick pace but quick enough. One doesn’t get bored, but the reader must get the mythology of the shadowshapers, which is a Caribbean legend. It’s an interesting premise and a different type of book to read, which makes it unique. It also celebrates diversity by delving into Puerto Rican culture although the novel takes place in the United States.
Something isn’t right. Sierra Santiago has been asked to paint a mural--everyone is insistent that she finish it NOW. It’s summer and Sierra has many plans; besides, it takes a while to paint a mural.
Show More
Then, she notices that the other murals are fading. One has a teardrop. What is going on? Her grandfather, who has been incapacitated for a long time now, wakes briefly to tell her to finish the mural and get help from Robbie, a new kid at school who is also an artist. How her Grandfather would know he exists is a mystery to Sierra. She still doesn’t feel urgency until a zombie-like creature shows up while at a party. Robbie tells her to run and promptly disappears. Finally, she learns what is going on. Sierra is a shadowshaper, someone who communicate with spirits through various forms of art. Robbie, turns out, is also a shadowshaper. He teaches her what to do to connect with the spirits and why it’s important.Events quickly turn scary. Sierra researches and discovers that another man has studied the spirits and is causing the problems by creating these evil zombie-like creatures, Dr. Wick. Sierra, her friends, and Robbie will have to find him, in order to save Sierra’s family.
I listened to the novel and found it interesting. It doesn’t move at a quick pace but quick enough. One doesn’t get bored, but the reader must get the mythology of the shadowshapers, which is a Caribbean legend. It’s an interesting premise and a different type of book to read, which makes it unique. It also celebrates diversity by delving into Puerto Rican culture although the novel takes place in the United States.
Show Less
LibraryThing member Maydacat
Sierra is a high school student and an artist, working on a huge mural on the side of a building. But soon strange things are happening. The murals on other buildings are fading and crying. Her grandpa, having had a stroke the previous year, is talking again and saying things that really don’t
Show More
make sense, and then Sierra starts to see things. Trying to ferret out the truth is nearly impossible but extremely important, especially if she wants to go on living. A fast read with an interesting plot aimed at young adults, the dialogue may have you wishing that the author had written it with less slang. Still, teens who read fantasy will enjoy the original storyline. Show Less
LibraryThing member ewyatt
Sierra is a buddy artist. Little does she know that she can use her art to connect to the spiritworld as a Shadowshaper. Her family is not just Puerto Rican, she comes from a long line of shadowshapers, people who can connect and work with spirits. When someone begins murdering the shadowshapers
A quick, action-packed read.
Show More
and after an oddly lucid conversation with her grandfather, Sierra stumbles upon the plot and enlists her friends to try to stop it. A quick, action-packed read.
Show Less
LibraryThing member BtB_Library
This is a really amazing book. The fantasy element is original, and captivating, and has the Harry Potter quality of making me willing to do anything to get powers like this. In addition, the characters are totally lovable and the setting is so realistic. Anyone who has spent any time in Brooklyn,
Show More
or any mostly Hispanic neighborhood in New York will identify with the culture and the types of character so much. In addition, though it has a great fantasy element and is a pretty happy book where everything works out in the end, it does deal with serious issues that people in these neighborhoods are actually facing. Though these characters are obviously extraordinary, they also felt really normal. I was rooting for Sierra when it came to saving the Shadowshapers, but also just when she was dealing with cat callers on the street or trying to mend her relationships with her friends. I love everything about this book. Show Less
LibraryThing member krazykiwi
This is one hell of a series starter.
Sierra discovers a family heritage she didn't know she had, and along with a motley crew of friends and relatives, explores a new world of magic and spirits.
Oh how simple that plot can be boiled down to, but this is a really good book, and the plot itself is
If you'd like to read some contemporary Urban Fantasy, I highly recommend this. It's a YA book, but only as much as say, Fool's Assassin is. Or the Paksenarrion books. Or Star Wars for that matter. Any regular YA fantasy reader will be right at home, but as someone who generally doesn't read YA other than things I am reading with my daughter, I can still recommend this.
Sierra's voice, and those of her crew of minions, comes across as utterly authentic. The way second and third generation immigrant kids wander between languages, often in the same sentence. There's a lot of sharp observation of the dynamics of immigrant families in general, easily observed when you are one, under the surface when you're not. The way the first generation clings in so many ways to the old country, while the second rejects it, trying to be as assimilated as possible (and yet, betrayed by their culture in a million ways), and by the third gen, how there's often an uneasy middle ground. Sierra runs up against both the wall of her Puerto Rican grandfather's antiquated ideas of gender politics, and her mother's wholesale rejection of "the old ways" right alongside her aunt's blatant racism, and that's just in her own family.
Also the interaction between the group of teenagers. These are smart, witty, sassy kids, of course they are, it's a YA fantasy novel, but they each have a distinct voice and point of view, without falling into having everyone talk like the writers of the Gilmore Girls or Dawson's Creek wrote their dialogue. They're sloppy, they screw up, they're constantly-but jokingly-insulting each other, only to pull together like a fortified wall when an outsider threatens one of them. And they respect each others opinions, and don't always agree, something you rarely see in a book but I see all the time with my own kids and their friends.
And there's a wee romance, but there is no instalove or declaration of undying devotion. It's an unsure exploration of a possibility by a girl and a boy who aren't in the slightest bit sure what they're doing with each other yet, or what is coming next, and I thought it was pretty charming.
I could write quite an essay about all this, but I'll just point out this is well written and I liked it. That might seem obvious, but I didn't only like it because the main characters are all kinds of shades of brown. The fact it's unusually representative of the #WeNeedDiverseBooks campaign is a bonus - tokenism and poorly written representation is, to be honest, worse than none at all.
Google "Urban Music" and you get... hip hop. The music of the minority, inner city youth. Google "Urban Fiction" and you get... street lit. "Focussed on the dark side of city living", hip hop in fiction form. Google "Urban Fashion" what do you get? Hip hop fashion. Oddly the music and fashion (I don't know so much about the fiction) share an amazingly similar aesthetic in inner-city Stockholm and inner-city New York. The slinky folksy rhythms of Timbuktu from Sweden and the down-tempo electronic trip-hop of Tricky from the UK don't sound much like the Wu-Tang clan at all, but they're all recognisably part of a continuum (ok, my hip-hop references are out of date, deal with it :) Globalisation at work? Sure, it's partly that, but it's also simply that something in the very spirit of these art forms seems to speak to the same kind of kids, no matter which big city you're in. Urban is it's own aesthetic, in almost any art form around.
Why then, is "Urban fantasy" a bunch of primarily middle class white dudes (ok, and some chicks) wielding primarily European based magic and interacting with European archetypes of fantasy. The fae. Vampires. Werewolves. Oh sure there's exceptions, but there's a definite template. Older purposefully set out to represent *his* urban experience, which is quite a different one, and he's done a fantastic job. There's not many books I hand on to my (Kiwi-Swedish immigrant child) daughter these days and practically force her to read, she's 16 and definitely has her own tastes, but this was one. And she promptly handed it off to her (Venezuelan) boyfriend, so that'll be an interesting report when I hear back, but books I recommend to her that she actually loves and recommends on are an even rarer thing!
Sierra discovers a family heritage she didn't know she had, and along with a motley crew of friends and relatives, explores a new world of magic and spirits.
Oh how simple that plot can be boiled down to, but this is a really good book, and the plot itself is
Show More
intricate and beautifully done. Every single time I thought "Oh noes, I see what's coming..." something else did. Even when the protagonist was merrily agreeing with me on what was probably going on, nope, we were both wrong. Furthermore ,it's well written, the characters are well rounded, self-consistent and diverse. If you'd like to read some contemporary Urban Fantasy, I highly recommend this. It's a YA book, but only as much as say, Fool's Assassin is. Or the Paksenarrion books. Or Star Wars for that matter. Any regular YA fantasy reader will be right at home, but as someone who generally doesn't read YA other than things I am reading with my daughter, I can still recommend this.
Sierra's voice, and those of her crew of minions, comes across as utterly authentic. The way second and third generation immigrant kids wander between languages, often in the same sentence. There's a lot of sharp observation of the dynamics of immigrant families in general, easily observed when you are one, under the surface when you're not. The way the first generation clings in so many ways to the old country, while the second rejects it, trying to be as assimilated as possible (and yet, betrayed by their culture in a million ways), and by the third gen, how there's often an uneasy middle ground. Sierra runs up against both the wall of her Puerto Rican grandfather's antiquated ideas of gender politics, and her mother's wholesale rejection of "the old ways" right alongside her aunt's blatant racism, and that's just in her own family.
Also the interaction between the group of teenagers. These are smart, witty, sassy kids, of course they are, it's a YA fantasy novel, but they each have a distinct voice and point of view, without falling into having everyone talk like the writers of the Gilmore Girls or Dawson's Creek wrote their dialogue. They're sloppy, they screw up, they're constantly-but jokingly-insulting each other, only to pull together like a fortified wall when an outsider threatens one of them. And they respect each others opinions, and don't always agree, something you rarely see in a book but I see all the time with my own kids and their friends.
And there's a wee romance, but there is no instalove or declaration of undying devotion. It's an unsure exploration of a possibility by a girl and a boy who aren't in the slightest bit sure what they're doing with each other yet, or what is coming next, and I thought it was pretty charming.
I could write quite an essay about all this, but I'll just point out this is well written and I liked it. That might seem obvious, but I didn't only like it because the main characters are all kinds of shades of brown. The fact it's unusually representative of the #WeNeedDiverseBooks campaign is a bonus - tokenism and poorly written representation is, to be honest, worse than none at all.
Google "Urban Music" and you get... hip hop. The music of the minority, inner city youth. Google "Urban Fiction" and you get... street lit. "Focussed on the dark side of city living", hip hop in fiction form. Google "Urban Fashion" what do you get? Hip hop fashion. Oddly the music and fashion (I don't know so much about the fiction) share an amazingly similar aesthetic in inner-city Stockholm and inner-city New York. The slinky folksy rhythms of Timbuktu from Sweden and the down-tempo electronic trip-hop of Tricky from the UK don't sound much like the Wu-Tang clan at all, but they're all recognisably part of a continuum (ok, my hip-hop references are out of date, deal with it :) Globalisation at work? Sure, it's partly that, but it's also simply that something in the very spirit of these art forms seems to speak to the same kind of kids, no matter which big city you're in. Urban is it's own aesthetic, in almost any art form around.
Why then, is "Urban fantasy" a bunch of primarily middle class white dudes (ok, and some chicks) wielding primarily European based magic and interacting with European archetypes of fantasy. The fae. Vampires. Werewolves. Oh sure there's exceptions, but there's a definite template. Older purposefully set out to represent *his* urban experience, which is quite a different one, and he's done a fantastic job. There's not many books I hand on to my (Kiwi-Swedish immigrant child) daughter these days and practically force her to read, she's 16 and definitely has her own tastes, but this was one. And she promptly handed it off to her (Venezuelan) boyfriend, so that'll be an interesting report when I hear back, but books I recommend to her that she actually loves and recommends on are an even rarer thing!
Show Less
LibraryThing member benuathanasia
I'm neither a fan of urban fiction, nor of low-fantasy. So, I am NOT the intended demographic of this novel. That being said, it's nice to find fantasy that says "fuck off" to the great white savior. I can appreciate this book for its beauty and unique perspective on life and art. It was enjoyable,
Show More
though I will not be continuing the series. Show Less
LibraryThing member Kristelh
Shadowshaper, the first in a series by Daniel José Older, published 2015, is an urban fantasy set in Brooklyn, New York and is a young adult novel featuring a diverse group of people. Sierra Santiago, is an Afro Boricura who is starting summer vacation working on a mural on the tower, a half
The book is a bit slow to engage with and has been criticized for inadequate plot but it achieved a lot of recognition never the less. I enjoyed listening to it. There is quite a bit of Spanish and it was fun to recognize some of the words but that and the rapid speech added to some difficulty following the storyline but after awhaile that got easier as it usualaly does. I read this because it is tagged urban fantasy and that was a good fit. I doubt that I will read further in the series but I enjoyed the first book.
Show More
finished high rise. Sierra discovers that her family can interact with the spirit world through art. The family is being threatened by this white man who is taking over the spirits. Sierra is a young women who is comfortable with herself. She loves her hair, her skin and her family. The book is a bit slow to engage with and has been criticized for inadequate plot but it achieved a lot of recognition never the less. I enjoyed listening to it. There is quite a bit of Spanish and it was fun to recognize some of the words but that and the rapid speech added to some difficulty following the storyline but after awhaile that got easier as it usualaly does. I read this because it is tagged urban fantasy and that was a good fit. I doubt that I will read further in the series but I enjoyed the first book.
Show Less
LibraryThing member KWadyko
I was pleasantly surprised by this book! When reading the synopsis, I wasn't sold on the concept behind Shadowshaping and how it all worked. However, WOW WOW WOW! What amazing cultural folklore - I WISH THIS STUFF WERE TRUE! The connections with culture, loving yourself, and knowing who you are is
Highly recommend!
Show More
vital, and Sierra embraces it all so strongly. Highly recommend!
Show Less
LibraryThing member KWadyko
I was pleasantly surprised by this book! When reading the synopsis, I wasn't sold on the concept behind Shadowshaping and how it all worked. However, WOW WOW WOW! What amazing cultural folklore - I WISH THIS STUFF WERE TRUE! The connections with culture, loving yourself, and knowing who you are is
Highly recommend!
Show More
vital, and Sierra embraces it all so strongly. Highly recommend!
Show Less
LibraryThing member amillion
Another YA fantasy book with female lead. Creative.
LibraryThing member ElleGato
I know I'm way late in reading this but OH MY GOD IT'S SO GOOD?????!!
Like everything about this story was amazing and wonderful. Not only is it beautifully diverse, lovingly detailed and skillfully constructed, it's immensely, enjoyably readable. Older describes a Brooklyn as magical and complex as
Sierra and her friends feel unbelievably real to me. I'm not from Brooklyn but I grew up nearby and spent lots of time in New York City. Older has the cadence of the city down pat; his characters speak with grit and musicality and their humor and friendships are all amazingly and respectfully drawn. The complex relationships Sierra has with her family are all gently explored and presented and her romance with Robbie is never overwhelming or forced. Older can write teens SO WELL!!
I'm sad it took me so long to get to this book, but on the plus side....no waiting for the sequel!!
Like everything about this story was amazing and wonderful. Not only is it beautifully diverse, lovingly detailed and skillfully constructed, it's immensely, enjoyably readable. Older describes a Brooklyn as magical and complex as
Show More
any make-believe kingdom and his characters belong so totally to their surroundings. Older writes characters who are intricately, sometimes painfully, connected to their pasts, their home, their cultures, their legacies. And the magic Older creates is a magic so incredibly important and so unfortunately rare in YA fantasy. Older's magic system is one of connections, one of responsibility and love and care and determination to stand against oppression and marginalization. It's a magic the characters gain from their ancestors, from their histories--both personal and cultural. It's a magic born of sadness and determination and, above all, love. Sierra and her friends feel unbelievably real to me. I'm not from Brooklyn but I grew up nearby and spent lots of time in New York City. Older has the cadence of the city down pat; his characters speak with grit and musicality and their humor and friendships are all amazingly and respectfully drawn. The complex relationships Sierra has with her family are all gently explored and presented and her romance with Robbie is never overwhelming or forced. Older can write teens SO WELL!!
I'm sad it took me so long to get to this book, but on the plus side....no waiting for the sequel!!
Show Less
LibraryThing member pwaites
I think my hopes for Shadowshaper might have been high enough that it shouldn’t have come as a surprise when it failed to live up to them. But first let me tell you why I was excited about this new YA fantasy. Sierra Santiago is a young Brooklyn artist who’s planning to spend the summer
I was especially excited about Shadowshaper because the heroine is an artist and the art and spirit based magic system sounded very interesting. In a way this was true – the idea remained interesting, but I think the execution could have used some work. It is hard for me to explain why, but the art in Shadowshaper didn’t work for me. There is never a sense of who Sierra is as an artist – what she normally works in, preferred subject matter, or even favorite color. We never see why she draws something or what her art means to her. There’s not any of the little details like the way your body aches after spending hours standing up working on a painting (seriously Sierra should have been way more sore than she was) or the experience of finding paint splattered on yourself with no idea how it got there.
Additionally, the art just isn’t well described. At the beginning of the book, Sierra is working on a mural of a dragon that winds up five feet of an abandoned building. Unfortunately, these are the only two facts given about the dragon, which she works on throughout the book. You never even find out what color it is. When so much of the book depends upon visual art, I want a clearer picture of what these paintings look like. In part I think this was related to Older’s prose style. I honestly don’t get why various blurbs have described the prose as lush or vivid. I found it fairly simplistic, almost more MG than YA.
I don’t think Shadowshaper had great plotting either. It was fairly predictable and just not very interesting. Partly this might have been because of how slow it was starting out. Very little happens for over half the book – random monsters attack Sierra and she runs away. She asks questions about what’s going on and those in the know are evasive. It took almost a hundred pages for someone to finally explain about Shadowshapers to her, and this is a pretty short book. It was a very fast read because of this, and maybe the sheer brevity of it is why I found it thin in places.
What makes my dissatisfaction so frustrating is that this book has the best of intentions. The cast is very diverse – Sierra’s Puerto Rican and of African descent, her love interest is Haitian, there’s a lesbian couple among the secondary characters… It addresses topics such as racism, body image, and sexism. It’s doing a lot of good things, and it has a real heart to it.
Possibly this just wasn’t the book for me. I’ve bounced off art themed fantasy books in the past. Would someone who’s not an artist like Shadowshaper better than me? Quite probably. As I said at the beginning, my expectations were likely too high.
Originally posted on The Illustrated Page.
Show More
vacation relaxing and working on paintings when she notices that one of the nearby murals has started weeping. As other strange events begin to occur, Sierra eventually discovers the Shadowshapers – people who use art to connect with the spirits. Unfortunately, the Shadowshapers have been dying one by one.I was especially excited about Shadowshaper because the heroine is an artist and the art and spirit based magic system sounded very interesting. In a way this was true – the idea remained interesting, but I think the execution could have used some work. It is hard for me to explain why, but the art in Shadowshaper didn’t work for me. There is never a sense of who Sierra is as an artist – what she normally works in, preferred subject matter, or even favorite color. We never see why she draws something or what her art means to her. There’s not any of the little details like the way your body aches after spending hours standing up working on a painting (seriously Sierra should have been way more sore than she was) or the experience of finding paint splattered on yourself with no idea how it got there.
Additionally, the art just isn’t well described. At the beginning of the book, Sierra is working on a mural of a dragon that winds up five feet of an abandoned building. Unfortunately, these are the only two facts given about the dragon, which she works on throughout the book. You never even find out what color it is. When so much of the book depends upon visual art, I want a clearer picture of what these paintings look like. In part I think this was related to Older’s prose style. I honestly don’t get why various blurbs have described the prose as lush or vivid. I found it fairly simplistic, almost more MG than YA.
I don’t think Shadowshaper had great plotting either. It was fairly predictable and just not very interesting. Partly this might have been because of how slow it was starting out. Very little happens for over half the book – random monsters attack Sierra and she runs away. She asks questions about what’s going on and those in the know are evasive. It took almost a hundred pages for someone to finally explain about Shadowshapers to her, and this is a pretty short book. It was a very fast read because of this, and maybe the sheer brevity of it is why I found it thin in places.
What makes my dissatisfaction so frustrating is that this book has the best of intentions. The cast is very diverse – Sierra’s Puerto Rican and of African descent, her love interest is Haitian, there’s a lesbian couple among the secondary characters… It addresses topics such as racism, body image, and sexism. It’s doing a lot of good things, and it has a real heart to it.
Possibly this just wasn’t the book for me. I’ve bounced off art themed fantasy books in the past. Would someone who’s not an artist like Shadowshaper better than me? Quite probably. As I said at the beginning, my expectations were likely too high.
Originally posted on The Illustrated Page.
Show Less
LibraryThing member tldegray
I keep starting this review, erasing it, and typing again. It's because I want to squee and tell you it was awesome, with a lot of caps and repeated vowels, but I also want to tell you seriously why I think you need to read this book.
I guess I'll start with the simple parts: that it's YA and urban
Now, Sierra. I want to go all caps on you here. Daniel José Older writes these amazing teenaged girls (Sierra and Kia from his short stories and books and wow would it be cool if they met) who are the kind of girls I'd hope to raise and who I once wanted to be. Sierra comes up against a lot of shit in her life, and it isn't that the shit doesn't get her down, it's that she doesn't allow it to get into her brain and keep her down. I love that she does that, that she is so aware of her own value that she can do that. And I always love a character who is loyal to her friends and family and who demands loyalty in return.
Something else about DJO's books is that the city or neighborhood is almost always a character of its own, and I felt the same way about this book. Especially since the murals had such importance to the story and to the characters.
Tied to both the characters and the setting are inescapable real-world problems. Sierra deals with racism, both from within and without her community. And when I say deals with, I mean this is her life, this is her experience and the experience of so many like her, and it's as much a part of this story's New York as is the subway (as it is a part of our society).
This book was so great. I loved it from beginning to end.
I guess I'll start with the simple parts: that it's YA and urban
Show More
fantasy and that it does both very well. It blends modern graffiti art with Caribbean magic and delivers both to us via teenaged Sierra Santiago. Sierra is Afro-Latina with natural hair and a huge amount of talent--both painting and magic. She knows about the first but wasn't aware of the second until graffiti paintings started crying and her near-comatose grandfather started giving her eerie and mysterious warnings.Now, Sierra. I want to go all caps on you here. Daniel José Older writes these amazing teenaged girls (Sierra and Kia from his short stories and books and wow would it be cool if they met) who are the kind of girls I'd hope to raise and who I once wanted to be. Sierra comes up against a lot of shit in her life, and it isn't that the shit doesn't get her down, it's that she doesn't allow it to get into her brain and keep her down. I love that she does that, that she is so aware of her own value that she can do that. And I always love a character who is loyal to her friends and family and who demands loyalty in return.
Something else about DJO's books is that the city or neighborhood is almost always a character of its own, and I felt the same way about this book. Especially since the murals had such importance to the story and to the characters.
Tied to both the characters and the setting are inescapable real-world problems. Sierra deals with racism, both from within and without her community. And when I say deals with, I mean this is her life, this is her experience and the experience of so many like her, and it's as much a part of this story's New York as is the subway (as it is a part of our society).
This book was so great. I loved it from beginning to end.
Show Less
LibraryThing member Nialle
What really sets this book apart from all the YA fiction currently popular is its extraordinary work with sociolect. Every single popular, but potentially unfamiliar, turn of phrase and neologism is framed in a way that makes the meaning and usage clear even to those of us who don't Twitter because
The folklore around which the story builds is wonderfully original; the antagonist is not yet fully dimensional, but this is conspicuously written as the beginning of a series, so the richness of the protagonists is enough for this volume. Sierra, the main character, is full of entirely believable conflicting impulses, admirable curiosity and tenacity, and a strength that makes her far more lovable than the mere 'grrl power' types: she is fully invested in each of the circles she intersects, loving and protective, uncertain of her own direction but certain of what matters to her: family, friends, art, and hope. Such is the quality of her character, the richness and relatability of her companions' interests and choices, and the excellence and cohesion of the language that its technological moment will not tie it to this time alone.
10/10 will read sequels and recommend. It's been a while since I read a book too good to keep: I'll get the fifteenth anniversary edition or something, but my copy needs to be in another reader's hands right now.
Show More
reasons. The writing quality is overall high - minimal exposition, maximal dialogue, intriguing descriptions - but this freshness and clarity in the use of multiple layers of culturally specific verbal exchanges is exceptional.The folklore around which the story builds is wonderfully original; the antagonist is not yet fully dimensional, but this is conspicuously written as the beginning of a series, so the richness of the protagonists is enough for this volume. Sierra, the main character, is full of entirely believable conflicting impulses, admirable curiosity and tenacity, and a strength that makes her far more lovable than the mere 'grrl power' types: she is fully invested in each of the circles she intersects, loving and protective, uncertain of her own direction but certain of what matters to her: family, friends, art, and hope. Such is the quality of her character, the richness and relatability of her companions' interests and choices, and the excellence and cohesion of the language that its technological moment will not tie it to this time alone.
10/10 will read sequels and recommend. It's been a while since I read a book too good to keep: I'll get the fifteenth anniversary edition or something, but my copy needs to be in another reader's hands right now.
Show Less
LibraryThing member Othemts
This young adult fantasy novel is set in Brooklyn and features a teenager named Sierra who discovers that her family is able to communicate with the spirit world through art. And it is up to her to save her family and community from an anthropologist who has learned their secrets and is now turning
It’s good in weaving traditional YA fantasy tropes in with Caribbean folklore and a young woman of color as the protagonist. It also works as a metaphor for contemporary issues such as gentrification and cultural appropriation
Show More
the spirits against them. The book is full of humor, truly sinister monsters, and believable world building.It’s good in weaving traditional YA fantasy tropes in with Caribbean folklore and a young woman of color as the protagonist. It also works as a metaphor for contemporary issues such as gentrification and cultural appropriation
Show Less
LibraryThing member bell7
Sierra Santiago is commissioned to paint a mural, and has no idea that it will literally change her life. Because right about the time she starts, her abuelo who hasn't been coherent since his stroke, tells her she has to finish it and get help from a boy named Robbie - and something about
Inventive fantasy with diverse characters and a heroine that's easy to route for make this an excellent pick for teen fantasy fans. I enjoyed the world-building, the pacing was perfect and I stayed up late finishing it because I just had to know what happened next. Looking forward to seeing where the rest of the trilogy takes me.
Show More
shadowshapers, which her mom balks at as soon as Sierra asks. Meanwhile, people are coming after her and asking about Lucera. Sierra's in a race against time to learn about the shadowshapers and the mysterious anthropologist Dr. Wick before they're all killed.Inventive fantasy with diverse characters and a heroine that's easy to route for make this an excellent pick for teen fantasy fans. I enjoyed the world-building, the pacing was perfect and I stayed up late finishing it because I just had to know what happened next. Looking forward to seeing where the rest of the trilogy takes me.
Show Less
LibraryThing member leslie.98
I liked the Hispanic background to this YA story & the feisty main character Sierra.
LibraryThing member elenaj
This book is both a fun, moving, and engaging story and a biting and creative indictment of cultural appropriation - an impressivly well-executed combination.
LibraryThing member readingbeader
It had been quite a while since I'd read any urban fantasy, and never in a YA novel, and I really enjoyed it. I like the whole being able to use shadows/spirits in drawings, or paintings, or music to protect people. I liked how Sierra was able to overcome her grandfather's gender prejudice and
Show More
become powerful herself. Go girl power! It's a series starter, but one could be left happy with the ending in this novel, and not stress about the next one. I can see where the story arc might go, and I've put it on my list to come back to once the series is complete. I'm not feeling it for a Gateway, though. I think maybe because of the genre. Show Less
LibraryThing member ToniFGMAMTC
The lead has to solve a mystery that has something to do with her culture and family. It's not too heavy on the teen drama and has a strong female lead. YA Fantasy/PNR lovers should definitely check this out.
LibraryThing member Charliwriter
Shadowshaper was a fun read. Even though It didn’t dip much into the Latino culture, there was enough to keep my interest. The pacing was perfect for this small book.
The characters were fun, and I can see it as relatable to the targeted audience. The one issue I can see, is maybe a little more
The concept of the shadowshaping was interesting. I loved how the author made it feel natural and part of the world. The way there was more than one way to shadowshape was great because there is more than one way to express yourself. The idea of this being passed down through the family is culturally related as many folklores and myths do come orally from family. Seeing the good side of the shadowshaping before seeing the bad, I enjoyed that. It seems like a lot of times in fantasy or supernatural, you always see or read about the bad side before seeing the good.
Even though you want more, this book is not long. The chapters are small and yes, there would be more world-building or character development, there is enough for this type of book. It was an enjoyable read and I am ready to read the sequels and novellas. I do recommend this book.
The characters were fun, and I can see it as relatable to the targeted audience. The one issue I can see, is maybe a little more
Show More
character building, but it didn’t bother me do to the shortness of the novel. There was a little bit of a love interest, but not enough to distract you from the main plot. It was nice to see that development with an idea the Sierra wasn’t looking for a boy to get close to because she believed they mess things up once they opened their mouths. I find it interesting, how the author doesn’t follow the pristine happy family. It was refreshing to see a family that is not necessarily broken, but not being close. Sierra considers her friends to be her family. The concept of the shadowshaping was interesting. I loved how the author made it feel natural and part of the world. The way there was more than one way to shadowshape was great because there is more than one way to express yourself. The idea of this being passed down through the family is culturally related as many folklores and myths do come orally from family. Seeing the good side of the shadowshaping before seeing the bad, I enjoyed that. It seems like a lot of times in fantasy or supernatural, you always see or read about the bad side before seeing the good.
Even though you want more, this book is not long. The chapters are small and yes, there would be more world-building or character development, there is enough for this type of book. It was an enjoyable read and I am ready to read the sequels and novellas. I do recommend this book.
Show Less
Awards
Andre Norton Nebula Award for Middle Grade and Young Adult Fiction (Finalist — 2015)
Kirkus Prize (Finalist — Young Readers' Literature — 2015)
Locus Award (Finalist — Young Adult Novel — 2016)
Mythopoeic Awards (Finalist — Adult Literature — 2016)
Lincoln Award: Illinois Teen Readers' Choice Award (Nominee — 2018)
Otherwise Award (Long list — 2015)
NPR: Books We Love (2015)
Best Fiction for Young Adults (Top Ten — 2016)
CCBC Choices (2016)
Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers (Top Ten — Fiction — 2016)
Nerdy Book Award (Young Adult Literature — 2015)
Chicago Public Library Best of the Best: Teens (Fiction — 2015)
Penn GSE's Best Books for Young Readers (Selection — Young Adult — 2015)
OYAN Book Rave (2016)
Original publication date
2015-06-30
Similar in this library
Pages
304