Winters, C: In the Shadow of Blackbirds

Winters, C: In the Shadow of Blackbirds

Hardcover
4.01

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Beschreibung

In 1918, the world seems on the verge of apocalypse. Americans roam the streets in gauze masks to ward off the deadly Spanish influenza, and the government ships young men to the front lines of a brutal war, creating an atmosphere of fear and confusion. Sixteen-year-old Mary Shelley Black watches as desperate mourners flock to séances and spirit photographers for comfort, but she herself has never believed in ghosts. During her bleakest moment, however, she’s forced to rethink her entire way of looking at life and death, for her first love―a boy who died in battle―returns in spirit form. But what does he want from her?
Featuring haunting archival early-twentieth-century photographs, this is a tense, romantic story set in a past that is eerily like our own time.

Praise for In The Shadow of Blackbirds
STARRED REVIEW "Winters’s masterful debut novel is an impressively researched marriage of the tragedies of wartime, the 1918 flu epidemic, the contemporaneous Spiritualism craze, and a chilling love story and mystery."
―Publishers Weekly, starred review

STARRED REVIEW "More than anything, this is a story of the breaking point between sanity and madness, delivered in a straightforward and welcoming teen voice."
―Booklist, starred review

STARRED REVIEW "Winters deftly combines mystery, ghost story, historical fiction, and romance. Excellent pacing and deliciously creepy descriptions…”
―School Library Journal, starred review

"This engrossing combination of historical fiction, ghost story, psychological thriller, and straight-up whodunit moves between genres with stunning ease, maximizing the tropes of each to satisfying effect."
―The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

"Winters strikes just the right balance between history and ghost story, neatly capturing the tenor of the times, as growing scientific inquiry collided with heightened spiritualist curiosity."
―Kirkus Reviews

"Mary Shelley is a likable, sympathetic heroine, and through her story, teen readers will get a glimpse of a fascinating time period, made all the more real by the haunting historic photographs that pepper the novel, from soldiers in trenches to policemen in gauze masks. Part romance, part mystery and part ghost story, In the Shadow of Blackbirds makes palpable a terrifying time that brought the horror of death into the homes of millions."
―Bookpage

"One of the creepiest (in a good way) covers of the season! What's inside, historical Y.A. set at the time of the Spanish influenza, is equally haunting."
―The Atlantic Wire

“Cat Winter’s debut novel is creepy good.”
―The Boston Globe

"Romance fans will love Stephen’s ghostly visits to Mary Shelley, confirming that their romance is as steamy as ever. Mystery lovers will enjoy the satisfactory resolution of the puzzle. Recommend this title to fans of Libba Bray’s The Diviners."
―VOYA

"In this book, the passion of first love and the paranoia of the times are realistically and movingly rendered."
―The Oregonian

"Beautifully written and absolutely riveting. I enjoyed everything about this book."
―The Statesman Journal

Award
William C. Morris YA Debut Award Finalist 2014
School Library Journal Best Book of 2013
2014 Best Fiction for Young Adults
Haupt-Genre
N/A
Sub-Genre
N/A
Format
Hardcover
Seitenzahl
387
Preis
10.96 €

Beiträge

1
Alle
4

"What type of world are we living in, if we're destroying books?" "In the Shadow of Blackbirds" is a book with a slow start, but I promise you, I'd even bet, that once you get to page 90, exactly page 90 and 91, you don't want to put it down again. Just keep going until then, and make me pay for it if I'm not right. After finishing the book, I learned that this is Cat Winters' debut novel, and I still can't quite believe it. Especially the horror genre is always tricky, and when you add historical fiction and YA into the mix it's almost always going to be a bit of a disaster. But not "In the Shadow of Blackbirds". The setting and the characters seem so real, and almost scarily relatable. Scary, because the novel is set almost 100 years ago, during World War I and the Spanish Influenza epidemic. It's as far away as it gets, but maybe just the right novel at just the right moment in time (by that I mean with everything that is happening in 2014 and 2015, epidemics, warfare and all…). "We wouldn't even have wars, if adults followed the rules they learned as children. A four-year old would be able to see how foolish grown men are behaving if you explained the war in child's terms. A boy named Germany started causing problems all over the playground that included beating up a girl named Belgium on his way to hurt a kid named France. Then England tried to beat up Germany to help France and Belgium, and when that didn't work, they called over a kid named America, and people started pounding on him, too." With everything that is happening to the main character, Mary Shelley Black (yes, named after that Mary Shelley) is as strong as they come. You'd think that during that time, the girls were all just pretty to look at and mourning after their loved ones lost in the war or because of the war… well, let me tell you one thing. Mary Shelley isn't mourning she is fighting for them. I don't think I was this proud of a female main character in a book in a long time. If I'd had lived in her time, I hope I would have been like her. Strong, nerdy and smart, with no intentions of hiding any of it. As it is a book in the horror genre, it will confront you with ghosts and spirits in a way you might have never imagined them. It is dark and chilling and might give you nightmares. And I can't even say that's okay, because I still turn around a little paranoid when I hear an unexpected knock in our house. I gave it 4, maybe 4.5 stars, because it was great, but it left me with a sense of "it could have been even better". Some stories just work out that way. P.S.: For a special kick, put the book in your bookshelf with the cover looking out, and see everyone who walks past it stop and jump. I highly recommend that to bookshops as well.

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