MarcyKate Connolly’s Shadow Weaver is a-maz-ing. A beautifully written spooky middle grade experience.
The shadows that surround us aren’t always as they seem…
Emmeline has grown up with a gift. Since the time she was a baby she has been able to control shadows. And her only friend and companion is her own shadow, Dar.
Disaster strikes when a noble family visits their home and offers to take Emmeline away and cure her of magic. Desperate not to lose her shadows, she turns to Dar who proposes a deal: Dar will change the noble’s mind, if Emmeline will help her become flesh as she once was. Emmeline agrees but the next morning the man in charge is in a coma and all that the witness saw was a long shadow with no one nearby to cast it. Scared to face punishment, Emmeline and Dar run away.
With the noble’s guards on her trail, Emmeline’s only hope of clearing her name is to escape capture and perform the ritual that will set Dar free. But Emmeline’s not sure she can trust Dar anymore, and it’s hard to keep secrets from someone who can never leave your side.
I knew I was going to love this book after the opening scene. Here are just a few lines:
The first time my shadow spoke to me, I was a mere infant in the cradle. They say on the night I was born that even the stars fled the sky and the moon hid under a dark cloak… I held out my tiny arms and smiled at the shadow in the corner of my room.
And it smiled back.
Connolly fully immersed me in this comet blessed world. As I read through Shadow Weaver, I could tell that Connolly had a clear picture of how this world looked. Between houses, woods, cabins, soldiers, and even the magic–I was never at a loss for appearances.
Shadow Weaver is beautifully spooky right from the get go and Emmeline is beyond relatable to any reader of any background and any age.
Emmeline needs friends and caring family members and she lives most of her life without either. Her reliance on Dar, her shadow and only friend, makes so much sense that it hurts. And while we are led to mistrust Dar right from the start, we also grow more into that feeling and question her motives throughout the whole book.
The history of the world and it’s relevance to Emmeline’s story are laid out perfectly, sprinkled in all the right places making Shadow Weaver completely devoid of info dumping.
Seriously, just an amazing read.
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