That alone should have made me give it a 5. It reminded me that not only suburban kids get to be heroes in speculative fiction, and this is NOTHING against middle/upper class folks, but poor black/latinx kids from lower socio-economic backgrounds don't get a ton of opportunities like this. First off, as a fantasy fan who also isn't the least bit ashamed to admit I'm a 'hood' geek, it was refreshing to finally see kids that sounded like me, especially when I was a teen, celebrated in such a mainstream book. Okay so I read this last year, and I had trouble coming up with what I wanted to say about this book. If you could sum up Shadowshaper in three words, what would they be? 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.įull 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. But someone is killing the shadowshapers one by one, and the killer believes Sierra is hiding their greatest secret. With the help of a fellow artist named Robbie, Sierra discovers shadowshaping, a thrilling magic that infuses ancestral spirits into paintings, music, and stories. Well, something more sinister than the usual Brooklyn ruckus is going on.

And when the murals in her neighborhood begin to weep real tears. Her strokeridden grandfather starts apologizing over and over. But then a corpse crashes the first party of the season. Sierra Santiago planned an easy summer of making art and hanging out with her friends.

Shadowshaper by Daniel José Older