Shadowland was a surreal book right from the offset. It start's when Tom Flanagan now an adult tells a tale of his youth to someone. That tale is woven with magic, and fantasy and adolescent Adventures. I'm not going to lie I found this book a struggle by the time I got to the middle of it, I had totally forgotten what the start was! So this review is going to be a struggle.

A person meets the now adult Tom Flanagan in a bar on the sunset strip. From there Tom gives the guy what as the reader finds out involves a strange surreal tale of Adolescent reminiscence . That starts in a private posh school for boy's were he meet's a boy called Del nightingale. From there we find out that Del has a knack for magic. Both him and del strikes up a friendship. But sadly there school life bliss doesn't last long at all when Steve Ridpath is introduced, his nickname by the boy's is skeleton. And this character set's an uneasy tone to the tale.

This wasn't an easy read I didn't at once feel I was into the tale in all it switches and pull's it wasn't until the very end of the book that I got the gist of it, I didn't even feel an emotional pull towards the Character sadly at the best of times, I try to understand peter Straubs written work's but you can't always find an Author whose every single novel you click with. I wouldn't say it was a horror theme but much more of a thriller.

This reader's personal opinion, ©2016, all rights reserved, not to be quoted, clipped or used in any way by Google Play, Penumbra Publishing, amazon.com or other commercial booksellers* 

Opened with a great premise, a tough-had-it-together-even-though-not-fitting-in heroine. Premise being that she was, unbeknownst to everyone, a "mediator" meaning could see dead people and help them cross over. Now with mom's new marriage moving from New York to California so getting new home, new school, new bunch of stepbrothers, etc. All was as interesting as it sounds with funny bits and lots of highlights.

Then devolved for me. Mediating apparently frequently meant she punched out ghosts, there was typical mean girl stuff (the rich pretty girl of course was the mean girl with a dead clique member being the school ghost), TSTL defying of adults and common sense leading to hospitalized bystanders, her suddenly fitting in and getting voted after a week ... and of course a love triangle rearing up with mean girl's bff's whitebread boyfriend and an in-house ghost Latino hottie with liquid brown eyes (somehow I doubt she's in a hurry to help him cross-over )...

It's a Meg Cabot book so well-written and humorous. But not for me so unlikely to continue series. (Library has it so I won't say "never going to continue" since would be a free read; but not interested at this time).

I would have rated it higher if the first chapters hadn't held such promise.

*©2016. All rights reserved except permission is granted to author or publisher (except Penumbra Publishing) to reprint/quote in whole or in part. I may also have posted on booklikes, goodreads, Leafmarks, and may have cross-posted to other book sites including kobo and Barnes and Noble. Posting on any site does not grant that site permission to share with any third parties.  

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I've mostly liked other books by Meg Cabot.  

Including her humorous cozy mystery series Size 12 Is Not Fat ones.  This YA paranormal one sounds like will have mystery elements so I'll see (not usually into the mysteries).

At any rate, fit the BINGO call and really was a series I've always been meaning to start.

But this mostly talked around Daredevil, and I had hoped to see more of him in either the Moon Knight comics, or the Thunderbolt tie-ins.   Instead, it was about a Moon Knight solo mission that I didn't find terribly exciting, even with the twist ending.  

The Thunderbolts were more fun, in my opinion, but still didn't quite do it for me.   For some reason the whole Crossbones being a 'crazy racist' and Moonstone calling him out made me laugh: 

It wasn't terribly funny, but, yeah.   That was the highlight of the Thunderbolts issues for me.   Maybe one of the other tie-ins will be better?

Yeah, I just didn't buy that ending.   

Boo, boo, boo.  I hope the Moon Knight tie-in is better.   Crossing fingers.