Book Review: Shadow Hills by Anastasia Hopcus

Summary: 

Since her sister’s mysterious death, Persephone “Phe” Archer has been plagued by a series of disturbing dreams. Determined to find out what happened to her sister, Phe enrolls at Devenish Prep in Shadow Hills, Massachusetts—the subject of her sister’s final diary entry.

After stepping on campus, Phe immediately realizes that there’s something different about this place—an unexplained epidemic that decimated the town in the 1700s, an ancient and creepy cemetery, and gorgeous boy Zach—and somehow she’s connected to it all.

But the more questions she asks and the deeper she digs, the more entangled Phe becomes in the haunting past of Shadow Hills. Finding what links her to this town…might cost her her life.

Review: 

I waited for months to read it.

I read glowing review after glowing review about it.

I was worried it wouldn't live up to the hype.

IT DID.

Anastasia Hopcus has created a whole new kind of paranormal creature, which takes creativity, effort, and most of all, major chutzpah.  Shadow Hills is about a town full of people who have special powers due to, well, you need to read it to find out more!  I'm not going to go into specifics because I hate spoiler-y reviews, but I will say that I was surprised at how much I enjoyed the book.

I liked Phe.  She is a strong young woman who is honest with herself and knows herself.  It's very rare for me to like a 15-year old main character, but I really liked Phe.

The premise is unique and creative, the writing is intelligent, the love story is passionate, the mystery is thrilling, I was pretty freaked out by the suspense and the bad guys, and the ending left me wanting more.  I can't believe this was a debut novel---Anastasia Hopcus is going places and I'll be happy to say I read Shadow Hills "back when."

Just One Gripe: 

I didn't like the two letter abbreviation for the bad guys.  Every time I read it, I thought of a common medical condition instead of the what the author intended.

The Best Thing About This Book:

The premise and the history supporting it.

Appropriate for a younger audience: 

Yes

Score: 

Characters:  4/5

Plot: 5/5

Setting/Imagery: 5/5

Originality: 5/5

Ending: 4/5

Total Score:  23/25