READ: Shadowland (The Mediator, #1) by Meg Cabot. PDF, EPUB online free reviews.

Warning: This post contains spoilers – proceed at your own risk.

Title: Shadowland (The Mediator Series, Book 01)
Author: Meg Cabot
Genre: Fiction, Fantasy, Young Adult, Paranormal, Ghost, Romance

Synopsis(From Goodreads):

There’s a hot guy in Susannah Simon’s bedroom. Too bad he’s a ghost.

Suze is a mediator – a liaison between the living and the dead. In other words, she sees dead people. And they won’t leave her alone until she helps them resolve their unfinished business with the living. But Jesse, the hot ghost haunting her bedroom, doesn’t seem to need her help. Which is a relief, because Suze has just moved to sunny California and plans to start fresh, with trips to the mall instead of the cemetery, and surfing instead of spectral visitations.

But the very first day at her new school, Suze realizes it’s not that easy. There’s a ghost with revenge on her mind… and Suze happens to be in the way.

Characters of Note:

Susannah – Main character, 16 years old
Gina – Bestfriend from New York
Andy – Step-dad
Jake aka Sleepy – Step-brother, a senior in high school, does a part-time job to buy a Camaro
Brad aka Dopey – Step-brother, 16 years old
David aka Doc – Step-brother, 12 years old
Jesse – A ghost who haunts her room
Adam McTavish – A new friend, whom she met outside the office
Father Dominic – The Principal, a mediator
Heather – The main antagonist, a recently dead ghost, Bryce’s ex-girlfriend
Debbie Mancuso – A mean girl who made rude remark to Susannah about the albino girl
Cee Cee – The albino girl, her new friend
Carl Walden – Homeroom teacher
Bryce Martinson – A senior, Heather’s ex-boyfriend, unintentional cause of Heather’s suicide
Kelly Prescott – Class President, describes as “the richest, most beautiful girl in the entire sophomore class“.

Book Walk-through:

Susannah moves to Southern California from New York.
Her mother and her new step-dad, together with his children, fetch her at the airport.
They arrives at their new beautiful three-stories house, a converted boarding house from the nineteenth century located at the hills, overlooking almost everything – the village, the valley, the beach, and the sea.
She sees a ghost sitting by the window in her new room.
She recalls about her deceased dad, being a ghost, visits her frequently in New York.
She also recalls about Madam Zara, a psychic medium, who reads her tarot card, telling her about being a mediator.
She then confronts the ghost, asking who he is.
The ghost was astonished that she can see and actually physically touch him.
They learnt each others’ name – the ghost, Jesse and hers, Susannah.
The name Susannah originates from a song they both knew about, ‘Don’t you cry for me‘.
Before sleeping, she heard someone singing the song to her, but she couldn’t be sure as she was drifting off to sleep.
Registers at her new school, The Junipero Serra Catholic Academy, and meets Adam and Father Dominic outside the principal’s office.
She meets a ghost, Heather, and finds out about Father Dominic being a mediator too.
In the classroom, she stood up for an albino girl, Cee Cee (which later on becomes her closest friend) from a mean girl, Debbie.
During recess, she saw Bryce and learnt about his affair from Cee Cee and Adam.
It turns out, Heather shoots herself in front of Bryce’s doorstep long after he broke up with her, after countless fruitless attempt at reconciliation.
She saves Bryce by tackling him from a falling piece of heavy timber from the breezeway right above his head, which is apparently Heather’s doing.
Bryce asks her for a date to which she agrees.
She becomes a popular girl at school for saving Bryce Martinson’s life.
She asks Doc to research about Jesse’s past.
At home, she got phonecalls from Father Dominic, Bryce Martinson, Kelly Prescott, and Cee Cee at almost the same time.
Later at midnight, while she was preparing in her room to confront Heather, Jesse tries to stop her but failed.
She sneaks into the school and tries to smooth talk Heather but failed miserably and ended up almost killed.
Jesse comes and saves her. Then, gives a handkerchief to wrap around her wounded wrist, and brought her home.
Next morning, she and the step-brothers were late for school.
Later at school, they found police has come to investigate about the whole mess, caused by last night’s incident with Heather.
She tries to meet with Father Dominic but was stopped by a nun.
In the classroom, she stood up to Kelly and earned the approval of everyone.
Cee Cee ran into the classroom, informing everyone that Father Dominic and Bryce were dead.
Fortunately, they are alive but suffers serious injuries caused by a falling statue (Heather’s doing) and were taken to the hospital by an ambulance.
She researches about exorcism at the library.
She asks Adam to drive her and Cee Cee to the hospital.
She visits Bryce and asked for Heather’s photo.
She also visits Father Dominic and tells him that she wants to perform an exorcism to Heather, to which he finally agrees reluctantly.
Father Dominic made her promise to wait until he recovers so that they could act together.
Returning from the hospital, they stop at the beach and watch the sunset together, singing happily and that is when she suddenly realizes that she finally feels belonged, fitting in.
Late at midnight, she prepares to confront Heather and explains to Jesse that she will be performing an exorcism, so he must not come along.
The exorcism succeeded but the breezeway collapsed on top of her and she fainted.
Doc and Sleepy come to the rescue.
Later in her room, she and Doc had a talk.
It turns out Doc can faintly see Jesse as a “cold, glowing thing”, and that he hears the ghost’s voice in his head, telling him to save her.
Doc brought books, archives of old news that he retrieved from the library, and they found out about Jesse’s past.
Cee Cee gives her a call and informs her that she has been voted as the vice-president with two-thirds of the sophomore class’ vote.
She informs Kelly that they are going to do a beach cookout and a memorial service for Heather.
Father Dominic calls and scolds her for acting recklessly.
Jesse visits her in her room and she almost confronts him about his past but thought better of it.
They had a quiet moment together, when suddenly her mom suddenly calls and Jesse quickly disappears.
She talks a bit with her mom and they watch the sunset together.