What would it be like to be part of an entire generation that can suddenly communicate with ghosts? How do you recover from losing your first love if he never truly leaves you? Jeri Smith-Ready’s Shade inhabits a world where those that are left behind are never truly alone, and the question of what to do after those you love are gone gets ever more complicated.

Shade follows Aura, a girl who was born at the exact moment of the Shift, when ghosts became something that everyone born after the Shift could see, and life changed forever. Aura works with her aunt to help ghosts get the justice they require to move on. Ghosts can only speak to those born after the Shift, so the children and teenagers feel the brunt of the demands for justice and peace. Without this sort of help, the ghosts can become shades, powerful spirits with abilities that frighten the living. The tendency of ghosts to turn dark and become shades if they don’t get justice complicates the matter, as those shades become more and more out of control and bent on revenge.

But Shade, for all of it’s focus on the ghosts and the Shift, is really a book about a girl. Aura, for all that she can see ghosts, leads a faintly normal life: boyfriend, school, future plans. All of this normality, all of Aura’s dreams and hopes, come to a crashing halt the night her boyfriend dies. He appears to her soon after, and Aura’s first impulse is to cling to him, and her past life, as tightly as she can, refusing to let go of the dreams she’s carried for so long. But clinging onto Logan doesn’t keep her dreams alive, and the choices that Aura will have to make change her life forever.

The world that Smith-Ready creates is fascinating. Instead of having the ability to see ghosts be something that sets her heroine apart, it is something that most of those around her also experience. The difference here is that Aura is seeking to understand why everything happened instead of just reacting to what is happening. Aura is more than just an investigator, though, and the heart of her story is her life, her school, her friends, and a new boy named Zachary. Because the background feels so solid, the fact that a number of questions are left for the books that will follow just makes the story feel broader and more fascinating.

The writing in Shade is another of the high points of the novel. Whether it’s a quiet moment with Aura and her thoughts, or a louder, wilder, party scene, it always feels fresh and real. And, sometimes, it resonates beyond what is going on on the page itself.

Some of these stars are already dead. In the thousands of years it takes their light to reach us, they could’ve exploded or burned out…
We sat for a few more minutes in silence, and I began to understand why Eowyn was making us do this exercise. Three thousand years ago, people probably couldn’t imagine the birth and death of stars. Those points of light were constant, dependable, eternal. Must have been comforting.
We packed up my car and drove home, under a sky full of ghosts.

Bookmark to